It's following threats of financial consequence from the Trump administration.

Governor Scot disputed allegations this week that Vermont is a sanctuary state.

Plus, BTV officials consider their options amid public outcry over ICEs use of the airport.

And an American ultramarathon runner sets a new long trail record.

All that and more ahead on Vermont this week.

From the Vermont public studio in Winooski.

This is Vermont this week, made possible in part by the Lintilhac Foundation and Milne Travel.

Here's moderator Mitch Wertlieb.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm Mitch Wortley.

It's Friday, August 22n and with us on the panel today we have Elodie Reed from Vermont Public Audi Guh from Vtdigger and Aaron Calvin from The Stowe Reporter, News and Citizen.

Thank you all so much for being here today.

Or do you want to start with you?

We're going to start with the story.

Consider, talking about Governor Phil Scott.

He's been having to deal a lot lately with the Trump administration, probably more than he would like to.

He recently refused to send a Vermont National Guard soldiers down to Washington, D.C., as part of that federal takeove of the police department there.

But this issue with, Vermon being called a sanctuary state, the attorney general, Pam Bondi, said that Vermont is legally, harboring people, etc.. And he said, no, that is not the case.

But give us some background here, because at first there were list of municipalities in Vermont.

Now it's the whole state.

What's going on?

Yeah.

So it goes back to this first list that was published in May, actually by the Department of Justice at that time, which had 100 differen communities across the country named as sanctuary jurisdictions, which basically means that they are they have policies in place that are not cooperating with federal immigration authorities.

And that first list got a lot of pushback because many communities said they were mistakenly there.

There were misspellings.

And that list actually comprised of both blue and red states.

So, after the after black list, they suddenly came up with a new list last week of 35 jurisdictions across the US.

And once again, Vermont is on that list.

The first time they named volume Vermont on the list.

The.

So Scott and others pushed back, saying that this is not true.

We do not have any rules on our books that prohibit, you know, dealing with federal immigration authorities at any level.

And, this new list that came out, I believe the governor received it on Monday.

He had to receive responded immediately on Tuesday, strongly saying that he feels Vermont is on that list as an error because once again, Vermont has never been a sanctuary state and doesn't call itself one.

And there are potential consequences here, because the attorney general is saying that there could be financial penalties against Vermont.

What is she talking about?

Absolutely.

I mean, Trump has already sued New York City for being a century state.

So the U.S. attorney general said clearly that for communities that have been named and that do not reverse thes policies that they believe are in effect, they will face civil or criminal action and, it may affect th federal dollars that they get.

You know, it's just so interesting because I know that Governor Phil Scot would prefer not to be dealing with these issues over and over again.

He has actually said publicly that we can't react to every single thing that comes out of the Trump administration, but something like this just can't be ignored.

Exactly.

And it's seen as a part of the Trump administration's greater effort to sort of crack down on immigration.

Okay.

Speaking of immigration, Elodie Reed, you had a really fascinating article on Vermont public about what's happening at the Burlington International Airport.

Apparently, at least 100, folks, protesters went to the airport, wanted to talk to airport officials to say, please stop cooperating with Ice.

What was happening there?

Yeah.

So this was at this month's, monthly commission meeting at the airport.

And those are the officials, who oversee policy at the airport.

And, folks were there after, has done a lot of really goo reporting about these activists who have been at the airport very early in the morning making videos of people they say are Ice officials, moving people who are detained through the airport, out of the state.

And, some of those videos show, white van with folks, that the activists, say are ICE officials moving people through and on public side door, you know, at 330 in the morning, another, story that Digger did, where activists said they walked up to, the ticket counter with people they said were ice, officers and three women there detained and that, and during that conversation at the ticket counter, the women who were detained were crying, obviously didn't want to go on a plane and, were turned around.

The airline has, according to Digger's reporting, has a different version of that story about why they got turned around.

Activists say that the, person at the counter didn't want to let people on the plane who didn't want to fly airlines, says that's not what happened.

I didn't comment but all of that sort of context is what led up to this big, big, public presence at this public meeting.

And, what the concern that people are expressing is that it seems like people detained by Ice are being moved in, you know, the dead of night without access to legal representation through nonpublic areas.

And they're asking airport officials to not let that happen.

What did the airport officials say about what their role is, what they feel they can or cannot do?

Yeah.

So, the airport director, Nick Longo, you know, thanked all of the people.

They're like, there's almost three hours of testimony or public comment from members of the public, that night.

And he thanked everyone for sharing their thoughts that it was important fo airport officials to hear that.

He said that he' working with Burlington mayor.

I'm Emily Mulvaney Stanek.

On the idea that's been pitched by activist, to have some sort of like screening where if someone's being moved to the airport in the custody of federal immigration authorities, they at least have the chance to access some sort of legal counsel.

The Nick Longo, the airport director, did point out that they do have legal obligations to federal authorities.

They can't block anyone from moving from the public to the public space in the airport.

That being said, he also did reach out to a law firm, to ask what are their legal obligations?

And they do have some latitude.

If they make a policy that says no one can use nonpublic doors, no one can park in certain areas, they can enforce that.

So those are some of the things that he, you know, suggested the airport is looking into.

You noted in your article two there were signs that the activists had put up, which I thought was pretty clever, saying, we see something, we say something.

Yeah, you know, play on those signs that say, if you see something, say something.

And they're saying, well, we are we're seeing something that's not right here.

And we're, we're talking about things like due process here.

Right.

Because if they're if they're taking people using a side door, it seems like they're trying to do something surreptitiously here.

Yeah.

I mean and there is data showing that, there's a there's a data source called those transactional records Access Clearinghouse that's known as track.

It's out of Syracuse University.

They've measured how many people who, have had legal representation who have been in the custody of immigration authorities or have had, excuse me, have had immigration cases through court.

And in Vermont, people who have Vermont addresses between January and June of this year, only 43% of those peopl have had legal representation.

And so there is data backing up this this concern that people are being pushed through this system without any recourse, which they have a right to really appreciate the update on that one.

And Aaron Kelvin, we're seeing that Vermonters are getting involved in all sorts of ways here.

You were writing about, municipalities, including Cambridge, where the Selectboard recently passed a resolution, that was basically backing up free speech rights, due process.

What can you tell us abou what happened at that meeting?

Sure.

Well, Cambridge and Johnson are just two towns in Vermont that are the latest in a, you know, many towns, as I understan it, across the state that have been asked by residents to look at making these types of resolutions, which I believe started, with Rutland City.

And, you know, think people are looking around and they're seeing these sort of actual extrajudicial arrests and seeing people, you know, members of their community, you know, taken away by masked figures put on flights dow to Louisiana and other places.

And they're thinking, well, you know, if the federal government is, you know, behind these sorts of things, and the state government doesn't seem to be, you know, taking the kind o steps that I would like them to maybe I can get my local community leaders to, you know, stand up and say, this isn't right.

We believe in this town and free speech, the right to free speech and the right to due process and, you know, it's interesting the results that's had in Johnson, they just had a brief discussion about it.

And even members of the Selectboard that said, hey, I believe in this, but I don't think it's our, our role here to to do it, t say or do anything about this.

And in Cambridge, they had a much more drawn out several meetings worth of conversations before they finally, on a 3 to 2 vote approved it.

And the conversation there was more about, do we want to say that we want to uphold the entire Constitution?

What's wrong with that?

And, others who said, no we need to specifically affirm these, these portions of the Bill of rights, because these are the parts that are being violated and even though it hasn' happened in our community yet, we want people who are at ris to to be taken off the streets by ice, to know that we support them, even if they're you know, these resolutions have no real legal meaning.

That's what I was going to get to.

Also, I mean, they are largely symbolic, but important to the people that that wanted the Selectboard to take this up right.

To say that this is on our books now, right?

The resident who brought i forward in Cambridge, you know, when the discussion turned to why are we doing this?

He basically said, you know, it's an opportunity for community leadership.

So yes, in Cambridge, yes.

In Rutland City, you had mentioned, but Johnson did not pass such a resolution.

Did it?

Did not, consider it very, considering very much now.

Okay.

Ori Guha, I want to turn to you an incredible article I thought that you wrote about in, vtdigger.

And it's because it's been four years now since the United States pulled out of Afghanistan America's longest running war.

You were writing about a lot of the Afghan refugees who were able to get here to Vermont, who have been resettled, but a lot of these folks were interpreters.

They were colleagues with the U.S. soldiers who were fighting in Afghanistan.

They put their lives on the line.

They were made some promises right, about family members that they said we will get safe haven for you.

What's happening now?

So Vermont has, rehomed about 650 of guns across the state, and many of them for years after this war ended.

Are still waiting to be reunited with their families and they don't kno if they'll ever see them again.

That in some cases, they don't even know if their families are okay.

Because in a country that was taken over by the Taliban, the Afghans who helped the US troops on the ground were considered traitors.

So any of the who are being sent back or face deportation, will probably not survive there.

And the Trump administration is not making it easy for these family members to come over.

Right?

They really haven't.

And there's been multiple attacks on the refugee resettlement program over the last few months from, funding being cut off.

The Afghan alliance has lost almost all its funding and doesn't know if it will be able to stay, alive, basically.

And meanwhile if when organizations like this go away, these new, new, new residents of Vermon will not have resources to turn to on top of their funding being taken away.

And, Phil Scott actually, made a comment on, recently he sent out a press release basically saying that Vermonters need to celebrate the contributions of these new residents we have in our state.

And he and I'm quoting him and he said, we need to ensure those who speak seek peace, freedom and the rule of law, that our state can provid are always welcome in America.

Now, it's interesting too, because a lot of these folks we're talking about, some of them were tol they have to leave Afghanistan, go somewhere else.

It's not an immigration story like a lot of you've reported on, a lot where folks are willingly coming here.

They were told, you got to get out because your lives are in danger, but now they're stranded.

Yeah.

So this is a very different sort of immigration than the one we are used to, where people come to Americ looking for the American dream.

In this case, they didn't have a choice.

Their country was destroyed practically.

If they stayed, they would lose their lives because the Taliban doesn't consider them friends.

And and they came on a pathway that was promised to them.

You know, America said tha we will take care of the people who helped us.

And you're welcome here.

And this year, there seems to have been a complete reversal of that promise, because it's making it's slowed the process down.

The process for people to come here from Afghanistan has been greatly slowed down and is really impacting people on the ground here and back.

You know, back in Afghanistan, one of the most striking things I found in your article was you quoted, one vetera who fought in Afghanistan, U.S. soldier who said, if not for the interpreters and the colleagues that we had over there, I would not be here today.

Exactly right.

Yes.

Nathan Frei, he's a Vermont resident.

He served in Afghanistan, and he said he met dozens of people on the ground who became friends.

And he basically said that, you know, these are people who believe in and still want to live in a free and democratic society, and that dream is also being taken away from them.

I urge everyone to read that story and Vtdigger, and thank you for writing it.

I want to move on to because it is summer.

We always have to talk about flooding.

And, a lot of you had a recently a really fascinating story about an historic, property in Montpelier, Vermont's capital city, which is being turned into a floodplain.

But what's the historic part of this?

So interesting.

Yeah.

So it's the property that was, that belonged well, a the property that was settled, by Jacob Davis, who's considered the founding settler of Montpelier.

And, he it it doesn't.

So it has a house on it.

It's not his house.

According to the history I was reading, it's the house that was built after his family sold the property.

But essentially, it's it's kind of where agricultural Montpelier started.

And this, this house that was built in the 1830s has seen the city build up around it.

There's histories of, you know, a cement plant going up.

The railroad goes through it.

Route two goes by it with all its traffic and business.

And, that house now is all that's left is a chimney.

Chimney and a floor and some some of the barn, it's, it's being deconstructed in order to restore the floodplain that it sits on, because it's right in this area.

It's kind of like an island, between route to the railroad and the new ski river.

And, the idea is, without the house, you then lower the ground, and that makes way for more water and, hopefully keeps it from rushing down stream quite as much.

It's such a full circle kind of story, you know, it's reverting to its natural state, and yet it's also tied up with this old settling of Montpelier.

Yeah, it's really fascinating.

It has and it's and it's in this area.

So, I called up someone from UVM.

Her name is Rebecca Diehl.

She studies river systems.

There is a faculty member.

And she was explaining that in the Winooski watershed in particular, which is so steep and so developed, it is kind of like one of the only opportunities to restore a floodplain in that area.

And so she was just saying what amazing opportunity it is.

It was funded, through the sort of Arpa funds that the state got during Covid, and it was put into this, Flood Resilient Communities fund.

And so that's what's helping pay for the deconstruction of the house.

It was vacant for a while, s they had to pay off a mortgage.

And, there's also a second part of the project, the removing the soil to lower the ground.

And that's being reviewed by FEMA.

So there's a little bit of the project to go, but, yeah, folks, folks, it's by the agua en route to about two miles east of Montpelier.

If if you wander back there, you'll see people carefully taking apart the house, and those materials will be reused and resold.

So I got into something else.

Great coalition of people that got together and helped make all this happened.

When do you think it'll all be done?

Or have they said or, I, I mean, I was there the first week in August.

And the house was still up.

It didn't have a roof.

It's now pretty much gone.

So I imagine they'll be done pretty soon.

And, no word on when the FEMA review will be done.

So that's kind of a way to say, well, we're all waiting on a lot of things from FEMA, that's for sure.

Hold your breath.

Exactly.

Aaron, let's talk some more about, you know, another town that is experience a tremendous amount of flooding last couple of years is Johnson.

We've talked about this on on the show, two years after the flooding there.

What's sort of the update on how the town is doing?

Well, so we've had some really positive stories.

And basically Johnson is in the process of sort of I mean, there was a whole, initiative last year called Reimagine Johnson.

They're in the process of literally trying to reimagine themselves in a post-flood future, and many are trying to hold on to the vision of a positive post-flood future, despite the many challenges.

So you've you've had the the high profile, moving of the historic library to higher ground.

That was a great positive story.

Incredible story, by the way.

We had some video of that on the show one time, actually seeing this huge library being moved inch by inch down the street is fascinating.

But, you know, on the personal level, there are still 17 properties, including the, former grocery store that are awaiting on a FEMA buyout, Sterling Market in Sterling Market.

And they're going through a sort of different, FEMA channel than the residential properties.

So it's really unclea how long that's going to take.

You know, from the outset, everyone was told and everyone that has been through the buyout process could tell you it's going to take a long time and you're still, you know, paying basically for the house and paying expenses on the house while you're waiting for it.

And, there's been very little movement, on, on those sorts of projects.

From what I've been told.

And, you know, these these aren't just buildings.

These are, you know, in many cases, you know, some people were lucky enough to find housing elsewhere to get support elsewhere.

You know, but the fact is that many of these structures were damaged in the flooding because they were built in the floodplain and because they were housing accessible to, you know, low income people, to people who don't have a lot of other housing alternatives.

There's, one woman whose house was absolutely destroyed in the flood.

She bounced around for, two years, basically since the flood.

To different kinds of emergency housing.

Now she's back in that house because she has nowhere else to go.

And that house is not a safe place to live fires.

And she's essentially out of alternatives.

And briefly, Erin, what about the, wastewater treatment plant in Johnson?

Because, you know, that was a serious issue.

That's interesting too because there has been a little movement on that.

The, Johnson Village manager has expressed a great deal of frustration to m in some very colorful language, that, you know, there every time they try to meet the FEMA benchmark, it changes, you know, it's, you know, even before the Trump administration's cuts and and changes of leadership to FEMA, the the process was well known for its, Kafkaesque bureaucracy.

So we that's the worst kind of bureaucracy.

It's the worst.

Well, no.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah.

Well, all right, thank you very much for that update.

I want to get back to, some issues around things that that people are doing in an activist way, or you've been writing about people's kitchen.

This is a free food service.

Now that is sort of popped u in downtown Burlington, kind of not replacing, but, augmenting what food Nabobs is doing.

What are these folks with People's Kitchen doing?

So People's Kitchen has been around for, I think, since 2012.

They were the people who cooked and put out free food during the occupy movement, and then also in downtown Burlington, during Covid and and so they ar well known they've been around they often provide for free food.

But I stumbled up onto their table on Tuesday night when I was walking downtown, and I saw the person who's in charge for it, had been making egg roll and frying them on the sidewalk and line of people lining up, because People's Kitchen is really known for their really good, tasty food.

So it wasn't just unhoused people.

A lot of people who know People's Kitchen from the long line and they're like, yeah we are going to eat this food.

And, so I asked him why and he said, it's he's heard about all the, pushback and negative attention that the Food Not Bombs folks in Burlington recently faced, because for year they used to serve a free lunch out of the marketplace garage downtown and then 150 businesses this summer, kind of took offense to it.

And they said, you know, it's unwelcome.

It gets on.

What?

Welcome attention.

It's not good for business.

And so they moved the Food Not Bombs, which is a much smaller ad hoc group that also provides free food.

They kind of move to City Hall Park and started doing it there.

And, and then another group of restaurants came together in opposition of the original group to say, no, this is free food.

We support them.

They're doing a good thing.

And, the mayor.

But this has been hotly debated in Burlington, in the city council, and the mayor has basically set aside some money from them.

But they're like such a, you know, like an as an antiwar organization and probably anti-government to they haven't accepted the money because they said that they are not comfortable taking money from the city.

And they didn't explain why.

I'm assuming they think it might come with strings.

But briefly, this is all volunteer effort.

I mean, they're supplying the food themselves.

They're paying for it themselves, right?

Yeah they are.

It's all volunteer donated and often fresh cooked like people' kitchens or people's kitchens.

Said they heard about this conflict and they are basically out now in City Hall Park three nights a week to augment that effort and to support the food, not cops folks.

So you'll see them around and you might want to taste the food, too.

It's pretty.

And food sounds pretty good.

Elodie, very briefly, there's local of local food efforts in Jericho and Underhill hooking up neighbors with local farmers.

Yeah, there's a, relatively new, it's called the Jericho Underhill Food Hub, and it's all volunteers as well.

And, started out of a town meeting vote in 2023 and Jericho Underhill hopped on in 2024.

I opened my mailbox because I live in that community to this beautiful pamphlet listing like 50 agricultural businesses.

I can get local food from.

And farmers are essentially just saying it's really great to have a group doin the sort of marketing education outreach part of what they, which is what they need in order to actually connect what they grow with, with people who live nearby.

It's a reminder that food insecurity isn't limited to, you know, strictly urban areas of Vermont.

No.

Definitely not.

And, I want to finish up by, mentioning the America ultramarathon runner Tara Dower set a new overall record supporting the fastest know time on the long trail Tuesday.

She completed that route three days, 18 hours, 29 minutes.

While it was built between 1910 and 1930.

Considered the oldest long trail in the U.S in addition to breaking that record, and she also helped raise over $16,000 for the Green Mountain Club.

That's a nonprofit that works to protect and maintain the Long Trail system.

We're going to have to leave it there.

I want to thank our panel so much today.

You've all been wonderful.

Elodie Reed from Vermont Public Audi Guha from Vtdigger and Aaron Calvin from Stowe Citizen and reporter.

I'm Mitch Wertlieb but I hope you'll join us again next week for Vermont this week.

Thank you all very much for dealing with that.

We were just finishing up there and.