ICE Tracking: July legal visit to CRCF
Visit Overview
Duration: 4 hours
Unexpected Detainee Count: 9 detainees present (vs. 4 expected)
Team: 5 VAAP workers
Languages Used: Spanish, Mandarin, Turkish (via BYO telephonic interpretation)
Key Issues Identified
Misinformation & Lack of Info: Detainees received incorrect or no information from ICE and Vermont DOC.
Language Access: Documents were untranslated from English and detainees were misinformed by ICE of their content.
Legal Status & Eligibility: Identified asylum seekers with prima facie eligibility misinformed about process due. Confirmed one approved Special Immigrant Juvenile Status holder, no longer protection from detention and removal since the Trump Administration suspended Deferred Action for SIJS.
Actions Taken
Congressional Inquiries: Prepared inquiries on: prolonged detention after bond approval; prisoners’ rights concerns.
Bond Support: Drafted new bond requests; tracked transfers to support bond submissions.
Labor Rights: Submitted a wage theft complaint to Vermont Department of Labor.
Family and Counsel Connections: Made calls to attorneys, family on behalf of detainees unable to make calls as yet.
Client-Specific Actions (De-identified)
Voluntary Departure: One client was screened for asylum and found eligible to proceed with her pending defensive application, contrary to misinformation received by ICE. Reconnected her with her family.
Legal Representation: Reconnected two clients with their lawyers out of state, one of whom has her asylum merits hearing soon and another whose application for release on bond is pending, and offered local knowledge/resources to facilitate their legal access.
Bond & Release: One client was being unlawfully detained having paid immigration court ordered bond four days previously. We submitted a Congressional Inquiry for this person.
Wage Theft: One client with a reinstated order and conviction is expected to receive owed wages before deportation.
Transfers: Multiple clients were transferred out of CRCF by ICE the next morning on 7/25/25; two were rebooked early morning.
