At his Wednesday press conference, Gov. Phil Scott was studiously noncommittal on the use of state prisons to house federal detainees. He unironically expressed the belief that it might be better for detainees like Mohsen Mahdavi to be kept in Vermont instead of being dragged off to Mississippi (where Vermont routinely sends its own inmates) or some other hellhole. But he left the door open to working with lawmakers on that issue and others, as the Legislature considers ways to manage state cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

Behind the scenes, something very different is happening. The Scott administration appears to be stonewalling a legislative panel with jurisdiction over the prison contract.

This comes from Independent Rep. Troy Headrick, a member of the House Corrections & Institutions Committee, with additional input from fellow committee member, Democratic Rep. Conor Casey.

Headrick wrote a blogpost on April 16 detailing “executive obstruction” frustrating the committee’s work on the issue. “In committee, we have developed a tri-partisan consensus,” Headrick writes, “that Vermont has no business being complicit with [Immigration and Customs Enforcement]’s repeated violations of due process, the First Amendment, and basic human rights.”

Unfortunately, he continues, this effort to end the feds’ use of state prisons to hold detainees has been “stalled… by direct interference from the Governor’s office.”

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