Still frames from a video local activists recorded when they confronted ICE agents using side door at Burlington airport in Vermont. Images courtesy of Julie Macuga and Leif Taranta
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have begun quietly moving detainees through a nonpublic side entrance at the Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport, according to activists. The new tactic, activists say, bypasses public scrutiny and calls into question previous statements airport officials have made regarding their involvement in transfers.
Activists, who have been monitoring the airport for months and argue that ICE is carrying out illegal transfers of immigrant detainees, told VTDigger they observed ICE officials escorting a group of people through a side door early Thursday morning.
A video taken by activists and shared with VTDigger shows a white 15-passenger van parked around 3:30 a.m. Thursday at a side entrance of the airport that appeared to lead to the security screening area. An unidentified man in a gray shirt at the back of the van is seen holding out both his hands and telling two activists, “Y’all need to stay right there.”
Unidentified people can also be seen walking through a heavy metal doorway.
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Julie Macuga, a Burlington resident and activist who has helped surveil the airport, and Leif Taranta, a second activist, attempted to get information from the people moving inside the airport before they disappeared into the building, along with the man in the gray shirt.
The video then shows the activists walking inside the airport to find that a metal gate closed off the Transportation Security Administration security screening area.
The activists said ICE’s 3:30 a.m. arrival was earlier than usual and before TSA opened for the day. It’s the second time in less than a week they’ve witnessed ICE officials move detainees through a side entrance, according to videos and emails the activists shared with VTDigger.
Airport security later told the activists that they were aware of the activity, and that the people they had seen go through the door included ICE agents, one video showed.
Activists confront ICE agents using side door at Burlington airport in Vermont
An additional video reviewed by VTDigger, taken on July 25, shows unidentified men in masks moving people from a white van parked behind a BTV airport truck through a different side door and directly into the airport’s TSA security checkpoint line.
In response to criticism about the large number of detainees passing through the Burlington airport, airport officials have suggested in previous meetings and interviews that they don’t know when ICE transfers happen and that they have little interaction with the agency.
“We don’t get advised. We don’t get any communication,” said Nic Longo, the airport’s director of aviation, at a recent airport commission meeting.
In an email response to VTDigger’s questions, David Carman, deputy director of aviation at the airport, said the use of the side door does not represent a change in airport policies.
“Airport staff do not get involved with assisting with ICE/DHS detainee movements, nor does the airport have any communication with ICE on when or how the movements are taking place,” Carman said in the email.
For years, federal law enforcement agencies “have had access to the secure areas of the airport for the purpose of law enforcement and supporting other federal law enforcement agencies,” he said.
“Any actions pertaining to ICE detainee movements and how they bring detainees to the post-TSA checkpoint public spaces of the airport (where passengers board aircraft) are federal law enforcement and DHS decisions, and completely outside the purview of the airport,” he added.
But activists say the apparent use of a nonpublic side door represents a change in the way ICE agents are using the airport.
When pressed by activists at a recent airport commission meeting, Longo said airport staff have pushed back against ICE when agents parked in areas where parking wasn’t allowed — nearly towing the vehicles in some cases. At the time, Longo said the airport’s goal was to treat the agents like other law enforcement officials or members of the public.
Almost two weeks later, Longo said it’s extremely rare for airport staff to interact with ICE, but because the airport receives federal grant funding through the Federal Aviation Administration, it was obligated to cooperate with the federal government.
Longo told VTDigger that airport officials allow ICE to transport detainees through the airport because it’s a public use facility, and he can’t pick or choose federal agencies or members of the public who can use the facility.
A police officer in Burlington tells activists he won’t ask ICE officials questions
“Our obligation is to cooperate and not impede U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” Longo told VTDigger on July 15.
When asked about federal agents using the side door at the Burlington airport, James Covington, a spokesperson for ICE’s Boston field office, told VTDigger that “ICE Boston does not wish to comment on security protocols.”
‘They’re in the custody of government agents’
One of the videos taken Thursday shows advocates going to the closed airport police office, which the Burlington Police Department operates, according to Carman. They called the airport police number and told the responder they had witnessed people being in through a side door.
“I’m aware of what you’re referring to and those people have been identified as ICE agents,” the police officer responded.
Taranta asked if police had reviewed legal documents.
“I know that as police you’re allowed to ask them for documentation that the transport itself is legal,” Taranta said.
“Yeah I have no reason to ask them for that,” the officer said.
“So the fact that there have been past illegal transfers doesn’t make you as an airport security make you think you should ask that this one is legal?” Taranta asked.
“Nope, I’m not doing that,” the officer said. “I’m aware of what’s going on here. I’m confident that they are who they say they are.”
“Are you sure the detainees are legally being taken from this country?” Macuga asked.
“They’re in the custody of government agents,” the officer said.
Macuga told him that wasn’t an answer.
“Well it is,” the officer said. “I’m not going to debate this any further with you. I’ve got other stuff going on.”
The Burlington Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.
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‘I have to do my job right now’
ICE detentions and deportations have skyrocketed under the second Trump administration, with more than 36,700 people booked into ICE detention in June, and more than 56,800 held in ICE custody as of July 13, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a data research organization housed at New York’s Syracuse University.
A study by the loose group of activists, which includes Macuga and Taranta, showed roughly 450 people detained by federal law enforcement in immigration cases have been transferred through Vermont’s largest airport since January.
The videos shared with VTDigger show the potential escalation by ICE officials in moving detainees beyond traditional public access routes into the airport to avoid detection as activists continue airport surveillance, according to Macuga.
The group of activists sent an email to the mayor’s office and Longo, Burlington airport aviation director, following the event.
In the email, the group told officials that activists were in the public portion of the airport over the past week “as a stop gap measure while the airport and city improve their policies.”
The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
“We thought it was heading in a good direction,” Macuga said of prior conversations with city officials. “But then things really started to escalate in the past week to a point we haven’t seen the whole time we’ve been doing this work.”
Macuga said the activists’ work has led people across New England to reach out to them and that a network is forming of people who want to take on similar work at their own airports.
They’ve also been training people to be bystander activists, including learning basic Spanish phrases. Over the last two weeks, someone in their advocacy network has stayed at the airport multiple days a week, Taranta said.
“We want people to be safe, and to be told by TSA agents that investigating human trafficking in an airport is not their job is very chilling,” Taranta said.