October 30, 2025

Plus a UVM Panel Nov. 8, Weekly Case Rounds, and More!

View this email in your browser Vermont Asylum Assistance Project is a legal services and technical assistance organization that exists to mentor no-cost and low-cost immigration lawyers and legal workers; educate and serve immigrants and community members; maximize impact across sectors; and advocate to protect immigrants’ rights. Join us: www.vaapvt.org. FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Friends, I hope you’re hanging in there! On November 15, VAAP will present at the Vermont Human Rights Commission’s inaugural Civil Rights Summit, our vehicle to align a cross-sector agenda for the 2026 legislative session and election cycle. Join VAAP for “Immigration Justice: Building a Future in Vermont" from 4:30–5:50 pm at VSU Randolph’s Judd Hall. Panelists include Tracy Dolan (VT Act 29 Office of New Americans Study Committee), Amanda Janoo (Wellbeing Economy Alliance / VT Futures Project), Mike Pieciak (VT Immigration Legal Defense Fund), Hillary Rich (ACLU VT), and me.  VAAP's contributions will focus on concrete, actionable steps toward reducing harm and advancing enjoyment of rights, including: Building universal access to counsel for ICE detainees held in Vermont. Extending pre-conviction advisements and post-conviction relief for noncitizens across the courts. Protecting sensitive locations from ICE threats including schools, hospitals, and places of worship. Enshrining universal K–12 education access regardless of status. Strengthening VT-DHS contract oversight so ICE detainees can attend court hearings, access interpreters, and access legal counsel in addition to meeting basic food, water, health, religious, and shelter needs. Regarding VT-DHS contract oversight, for transparency: the policies and practices of the Scott administration have unfortunately slowed the operational steps needed for immigration detention defense, even with cooperative efforts by some agency staff. We understand the goal has been “preemptive compliance” to avoid federal attacks, but the administration's approach has not worked; we regret that 140,000 Vermonters' SNAP data was needlessly handed over to the Department of Agriculture, for example, and that Vermont's application for FEMA disaster relief was denied anyway.  Public support for a proactive strategy, rather than a reactive or inactive one, is strong. Hundreds of attorneys stepped up at the Vermont Lawyers March and hundreds of donors backed the Vermont Immigration Legal Defense Fund. Yet administrative barriers continue to delay timely, meaningful service. Vermont can fix this—safely, lawfully, now. Vermont needs clear, courageous leadership across agencies and all branches of government if we are to remain true to our values and hold tight to our fundamental rights and freedoms under attack. The Civil Rights Summit will turn lived experience into a practical roadmap for leaders representing Vermont in 2026. We are focused on issues, not candidates. In-person registration closes tomorrow, October 31.  Read on for referral-making; ACLU-VT, UVM, and other training opportunities; key changes to status-sensitive benefits and licensing; a preview of our expanded team's impact; and more. With gratitude, Jill Martin Diaz, Esq. (they/them, elle/ellx) Executive Director Donate to VAAP Want to read this newsletter in Spanish, French, Haitian Creole, Dari, or Portuguese? Visit www.vaapvt.org/newsletters and select your language in the top right corner. ¿Desea leer este boletín en español, francés, criollo haitiano, dari o portugués? Visite www.vaapvt.org/newsletters y seleccione su idioma en la esquina superior derecha. Quer ler este boletim em espanhol, francês, crioulo haitiano, dari ou português? Visite www.vaapvt.org/newsletters e selecione seu idioma no canto superior direito. Voulez-vous lire ce bulletin en espagnol, français, créole haïtien, dari ou portugais? Visitez www.vaapvt.org/newsletters et choisissez votre langue en haut à droite. Vle li bilten sa a an panyòl, fransè, kreyòl ayisyen, dari oswa pòtigè? Ale sou www.vaapvt.org/newsletters epi chwazi lang ou anlè adwat. آیا می‌خواهید این خبرنامه را به اسپانیایی، فرانسوی، کریول هایتی، دری یا پرتغالی بخوانید؟ به www.vaapvt.org/newsletters بروید و زبان خود را در گوشهٔ بالا سمت راست انتخاب کنید. POLICY AND PRACTICE NEWS Check out our new referal protocol to request immigration legal help for inidividuals detained in ICE custody from VAAP and the Center for Justice Reform Clinic at https://www.vaapvt.org/legal-support. Our case capacity changes week to week, so please sending us your requests for new legal help even if we were unable to assist last time! Our College for Social Innovation Semester for Impact interns are almost ready to re-launch some redesigned ICE activity tracking and reporting workflows this fall, so we can get people access to as much reliable information as possible to plan for moving through our communities safely. Meanwhile, please continue to direct any requests for "rapid response" community interventions to personally witnessed ICE or CBP activity to Migrant Justice at 802-881-7229. Continue to direct any non-emergent ICE or CBP activity to VAAP at bit.ly/report-migra-vt. Thank you! Catch up on recent SNAP eligibility rollbacks for noncitizens, now compounded by the federal shutdown. The Vermont Language Justice Project and Hunger Free Vermont have released multilingual outreach videos about the food programs and resources available to Vermont residents. Watch and share the SNAP outreach videos here, as well as videos on migrant worker housing rights; finding childcare in VT; and accessing Job Centers. Recent federal rulemaking from the Department of Transportation has created major barriers for many immigrant workers seeking to obtain or renew commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs), including asylum seekers, asylees, refugees, and DACA recipients. Read more in our resources library. Thanks to Regina Cocco of USCRI VT for flagging. LEARNING WITH VAAP Are you an undergraduate interested in working with VAAP as a full time extern? The College for Social Innovation's Semester for Impact collaborates with UVM's Office of Community Engaged Learning to pair students with hosts like VAAP for credit-bearing, 30 hour workweek externships with financial support from AmeriCorps. SFI is VAAP's primary undergraduate internship partner. Apply now! ...or, if you're interested in working with VAAP for fewer hours per week: VAAP's Working With Refugees course at UVM's Dept. of Social Work is a wonderful 3-credit service-learning experience in which UVM students apply classroom learning to real world VAAP service delivery. Offered fall and spring semesters on campus, typically on Tuesday evenings, with enrollment prioritized for students completing a BSW - others welcomel with instructor approval. Learn more and register here. Starting TONIGHT, join ACLU VT's Advocacy Academy, a four-part virtual training series designed to equip you with the tools to protect our freedoms right here in Vermont. Running Thursdays from Oct. 30 through Nov. 20. If you are an ACLU supporter interested in advancing policy initiatives that will help to defend Vermonters, register here! ...and speaking of ACLU VT, huge thanks for honoring our executive director Jill Martin Diaz with the annual Andrea Warnke Civil Liberties Award at your 2025 Annual Meeting. Jill accepted the award on behalf of VAAP's vast network of staff, volunteers, and supporters. The award recognizes VAAP's groundbreaking work to universalize access to immigration counsel in Vermont—a crucial effort in upholding the rule of law and ensuring justice for all.  VAAP will also be featured at a roundtable event on Latin American Migration Studies and Service Learning at UVM! Hosted by the New England Council of Latin American Studies, the conference runs November 7 and 8 and includes a keynote by Harvard’s Professor June Erlick and a welcome by UVM Professor Pablo Bose. VAAP and the Center for Justice Reform Clinic and partners will present November 8 from 10:45 AM-12:15 PM. Click here for the full program. Next week, join attorneys Jill Martin Diaz and Meg York at the VBA for CLE entitled Understanding H.98/Act 31. The November 13 CLE runs from 10-11AM and is aimed at Vermont attorneys. We will explore key components of Act 31 (2025): confirmatory adoptions (protecting LGBTQIA+ families) and standby guardianships (protecting under-documented and mixed-status family unity). Register here, and read about VLA's implementation work here. Also join VAAP throughout November at Common Good VT's upcoming trainings including sessions on nonprofit advocacy in action ahead of the 2026 State House session, operational security for nonprofits in adversarial times, drop-in office hours, shared operational back-office services, and more. Register here. Save the date! The VBA has also launched a quarterly “Collective Care” group for solo and small-office with Cassie Gillespie, LICSW—UVM partner and collaborator on trauma-responsive practice. The group offers confidential space to problem-solve occupational stressors for attorneys working alone. VBA members can RSVP to Lwelcome@vtbar.org. TAKE ACTION WITH VAAP In addition to excluding asylees, refugees, and other humanitarian entrants from SNAP eligibility as of Oct. 1st, Vermont is going beyond federal directives by also subjecting Afghan Special Immigrant Visa holders to the "5 year bar" (cut off from accessing SNAP until 5 years after arrival). Click here to join the call to ensure Afghan allies receive basic food assistance without further delay! Only one more week until the November 6th Justice Gala celebrating the work of service partners Legal Services Vermont and Vermont Legal Aid and beneftting the Vermont Bar Foundation. Don't miss out on what is sure to be the social event of the season, featuring a keynote from Senator Welch at the lovely ECHO Center. Purchase your tickets here! Speaking of the Vermont Bar Foundation (VBF), please complete their Nonprofit Legal Hub Attorney Survey! VBF is surveying legal professionals to map both existing expertise and training interests related to legal needs for nonprofits to inform the new Nonprofit Legal Hub—an emerging statewide initiative to connect nonprofits with the legal tools, guidance, and networks needed to stay compliant but also courageous while defending your organizations and serving our communities. Survey closes Nov. 7. Additionally, the VBF is seeking two new members to join their volunteer Board of Directors and join in strengthening Vermont's justice ecosystem. The VBF is especially interested in hearing from attorneys living or practicing in Southern Vermont. The VBF is a key funding and programming partner of VAAP and we are eager to support recruitment. Contact Hannah King, Executive Director at hannah@vtbarfoundation.org. Meanwhile, the Vermont Bar Association (VBA) is looking to expand their Lawyer Referral Service (LRS) membership. The LRS connects clients with attorneys who can provide a 30-minute consultation for $25, provided the attorney has availability and can assist with the client's legal issue. The VBA is currently waving any fee to join LRS now through March 31, 2026. Click here for more information. PRO BONO PARTNERSHIPS Speaking of the VBA Lawyer Referral Service, attorney Kristen Connors has leveraged her pro bono volunteering and LRS referrals to build a thriving private immigration practice at Montroll, Oettinger & Barquist, P.C. With VAAP support, Kristen has worked on a range of affirmative, defensive, and litigated immigration matters at sliding-scale rates while maintaining a private practice in immigration law, family law, and in/voluntary guardianships. Thank you for growing VT's immigration legal access, Kristen! ON THE RECORD Thanks and congratulations are in order to attorney Anna Tadio, as well, for her 2025 Leahy Award! Anna serves on the Rutland City Board of Aldermen and helped form the first official chartered chapter of the VT Young Democrats, to whom she provides general counsel. By day, she works as an environmental litigation attorney for Conservation Law Foundation and on her breaks (ha!) she offers volunteer legal services with VAAP. Congrats, Anna! Regarding Williston's new ICE surveillance hub:   "The proposed surveillance is likely to target people already impacted by that enforcement the most, said Kate Paarlberg-Kvam, of the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project, a legal advocacy network for immigrants. 'Make no mistake, that the primary targets for this enforcement would be our Black and brown neighbors, who are advocates for their own dignity,' Paarlberg-Kvam told her fellow demonstrators." Congrats to Migrant Justice for signing Vermont Way Foods onto Milk With Dignity! "A survey conducted by Migrant Justice in 2024 asked Spanish-speaking immigrant dairy workers about labor and housing conditions on Vermont farms. The survey illuminated the experiences of workers on farms outside Milk with Dignity, finding that 87% of respondents made less than minimum wage and 77% had experienced an accident or injury. Ninety-five percent of workers surveyed said they work six to seven days per week. The survey also found that the conditions of employer-provided housing were inadequate and unsafe for the vast majority of workers, and that about half of workers reported experiencing some kind of discrimination." Congrats also to Ariel Goodman, child of VILDF leader Sue Minter: "This summer, Ariel Goodman...reported for the Peabody award-winning national radio show Latino USA on the stories of some of the over 4 million American kids who live with undocumented parents. The half-hour podcast episode told the stories of how young people navigated summer vacation amid a profound fear that a parent could be taken by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)." THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT! Thanks to you, VAAP is expanding services even as we advocate for system fixes. Our team now includes 7 full-time staff (4 newly hired), 3 part-time staff, 4 full-time volunteer attorneys, and 2 full-time service learners, supported by an 11-member board, 25 Working With Refugees students, and dozens of attorney and language-access volunteers. We're serving dozens of detainees each month, now through weekly ICE facility visits, and entering getting more Vermont noncitizens access to representation in federal and immigration courts than ever before. We are deeply grateful for every supporter, donor, and full-time volunteer -- our staff and service capcaity are growing because of YOU. Thank you for joining our fight for what's right. Donate to VAAP Vermont Asylum Assistance Project  P.O. Box 814, Elmwood Ave, Burlington, VT 05402 802-999-5654 ‖ info@vaapvt.org ‖ www.vaapvt.org Copyright © 2025, Vermont Asylum Assistance Project, All rights reserved. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.