{"id":631037,"date":"2025-09-10T16:37:46","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T20:37:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vtdigger.org\/?p=631037"},"modified":"2025-09-10T16:54:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T20:54:05","slug":"vermont-conversation-vermont-asylum-assistance-project-confronts-trumps-assault-on-immigrant-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vtdigger.org\/2025\/09\/10\/vermont-conversation-vermont-asylum-assistance-project-confronts-trumps-assault-on-immigrant-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Vermont Conversation: Vermont Asylum Assistance Project confronts Trump’s assault on immigrant rights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A
Jill Martin Diaz, executive director of the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project in Burlington on Wednesday, Aug. 27. Photo by Glenn Russell\/VTDigger<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Vermont Conversation with David Goodman<\/a>\u00a0is a VTDigger podcast that features in-depth interviews on local and national issues. Listen below and subscribe for free on\u00a0Apple Podcasts<\/a>,\u00a0Spotify<\/a>\u00a0or wherever you get podcasts.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"vermont<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

As President Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown intensifies, many immigrants who have lived, worked and paid taxes in the United States for years are getting snatched by masked agents and disappeared into a vast network of jails across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Vermont, a small but growing group of young attorneys have thrown themselves into the fight to defend the immigrants\u2019 rights. Newly minted lawyers, including recent graduates of\u00a0Vermont Law and Graduate School<\/a>, are now going head to head with lawyers from Trump\u2019s Justice Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The attorneys have been going into Vermont\u2019s jails and\u00a0encountering terrified immigrants, many of whom are being repeatedly shuffled between states in what appears to be a deliberate effort to frustrate their attempts to obtain effective legal representation<\/a>. Some detainees do not even know where they are.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vermont Asylum Assistance Project <\/a> (VAAP), headed by immigration attorney Jill Martin Diaz, has been a driving force behind the effort to mobilize lawyers and defend immigrants. VAAP has grown from one staff member in 2024 to what will be a staff of eight by November, including four new attorneys who are part of the national Immigrant Justice Corps<\/a>. VAAP recently received a $100,000 grant from the recently established<\/a> Vermont Immigration Legal Defense Fund<\/a> to hire staff, bring in attorneys and train Vermont lawyers to handle immigration cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin Diaz formerly taught immigration law at Vermont Law and Graduate School, directed its Center for Justice Reform Clinic and practiced at Vermont Legal Aid. They currently are a lecturer in the department of social work at the University of Vermont. In 2023, Martin Diaz was named by the LGBTQ+ Bar Association as one of the 40 best LGBTQ+ lawyers under 40.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I visited VAAP\u2019s headquarters in Burlington, where I interviewed Martin Diaz, staff attorney Leah Brenner and volunteer staff attorney Andy Pelcher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI’m looking around at our office that’s not even unpacked and we barely have lights and WiFi. How are we holding our own against Trump’s Department of Justice that just got a big, beautiful raise?\u201d marveled Martin Diaz, who described fighting the Trump administration as akin to David vs. Goliath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
From left: Attorneys Andy Pelcher, Jill Martin Diaz and Leah Brenner with the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project. Photo by David Goodman\/VTDigger<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Martin Diaz said that immigrants are \u201ccanaries in the coal mine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople are really starting to look at what’s going on in the immigration system as a microcosm for what could happen to our democracy if left unchecked, not just for noncitizens, but for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pelcher, who graduated Vermont Law and Graduate School in 2018 and went on to get an LLM, or master of laws, described a recent visit to Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans, where he encountered a Palestinian man who was a survivor of torture who \u201chad been bounced around to a number of facilities during the 14 months that he had been detained.\u201d Somehow he landed in a Vermont jail. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople are being frequently transferred from facility to facility, seemingly as a means to deny access to counsel, family, local networks of support, and any other means by which these individuals can meaningfully prepare for their defense against removal,\u201d said Pelcher. VAAP, together with the Association of Africans Living in Vermont, took on the man\u2019s case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VAAP\u2019s experience finding and aiding immigrants in Vermont\u2019s jails has led Martin Diaz to oppose the idea of closing Vermont\u2019s jails to ICE. \u201cI would not advocate for more beds, but I would also strongly caution against a wholesale end to ICE’s ability to detain people in our state,\u201d they said. \u201cThe truth is that there is no substitute for lawyers getting in their cars, going to a facility with our bodies and meeting one on one in private with our clients directly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s really, really difficult to provide people with legal help telephonically, when the people who have your clients in custody have no respect for the rule of law and for individuals rights.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is America\u2019s legal system up to the task of defending rights and institutions in the Trump era?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI do have hope that the rule of law will prevail and that this horrible, horrible, tragic moment in our history, this painful moment for our community members who are being directly impacted, can also be a galvanizing opportunity for us to rethink what do we want our laws to say? What do we want due process to look like? What checks and balances do we want?\u201d said Martin Diaz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cPeople are really starting to look at what’s going on in the immigration system as a microcosm for what could happen to our democracy if left unchecked, not just for noncitizens, but for everyone,” said attorney Jill Martin Diaz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":630264,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-feature.php","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-09-10T20:37:50Z","apple_news_api_id":"3a7109e9-c1f2-42db-a159-80a69f0d6a01","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-09-10T20:54:09Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAg==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AOnEJ6cHyQtuhWYCmnw1qAQ","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"everlit_article_id":"","everlit_hide_embed":false,"everlit_embed_size":"","everlit_generation_settings":[],"_everlit_article_id":"","_everlit_hide_embed":false,"_everlit_embed_size":"","_everlit_generation_settings":[],"_everlit_content_hash":"","_everlit_metadata_hash":"","_newspack_byline_active":false,"_newspack_byline":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"\u201cPeople are really starting to look at what's going on in the immigration system as a microcosm for what could happen to our democracy if left unchecked, not just for noncitizens, but for everyone,\" said attorney Jill Martin Diaz.","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[162359],"tags":[171874,7213,2931,170893,133817],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"govpack_profile_tax":[],"coauthors":[18774],"class_list":["post-631037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government-politics","tag-jill-martin-diaz","tag-podcast","tag-u-s-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","tag-vermont-asylum-assistance-project","tag-vermont-conversation","entry"],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nVermont Conversation: Vermont Asylum Assistance Project confronts Trump's assault on immigrant rights - 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