MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) – The ACLU of Vermont is suing the Essex County Sheriff’s Office alleging that officials there could be hiding communications with federal immigration officials, a possible violation of the state’s Fair and Impartial Policing policy.
It all started this past December when an article was published by UVM’s Community News Service. Essex County Sheriff Trevor Colby told the news service he would likely call immigration officials during a traffic stop if he believed the suspect was undocumented because of the dynamic of enforcing the law in a rural setting.
The ACLU is concerned that Colby may have already violated the state’s Fair and Impartial Policing policies, which put restrictions on how much information local police agencies can share with immigration officials.
“Vermont law enforcement has no business doing civil immigration enforcement and no business being part of the vast deportation machinery that’s been fired up here and there’s good reasons for that,” said the ACLU’s Lia Ernst.
The ACLU filed a public records request seeking copies of any communications between the sheriff’s office and immigration officials. But the sheriff’s office told the group they had to come to inspect the records in person at their Guildhall office. The ACLU also alleges the office violated the Vermont Public Records Act.
“This is actually a critical principle at stake. The mandate of the Public Records Act to allow for free and open access to allow people to see what the government is doing in their name can only be fulfilled if a records requestor has the ability to decide how they want to review or receive records,” Ernst said.
Sheriff Colby says he was planning on releasing the documents until he was told by federal officials that he isn’t allowed to release information from other agencies. He says he’s between a rock and a hard place between state and federal rules … and he says he isn’t commenting further until he consults legal counsel.
The Vermont Criminal Justice Council, which sets standards for law enforcement statewide and developed the policing policy, says they are not aware of any complaints against the sheriff’s office.
The public records spat comes as immigration officials in the Swanton Sector are seeing record numbers of illegal crossings, more than 7,000 last year.
The lawsuit comes four years after the Vermont DMV settled with advocacy group Migrant Justice after they shared personal information on undocumented migrants to federal law enforcement.