Yesterday’s installment of “Doing Something,” my daily report on Doing Something Every Day in response to Trump’s assault on the government, democratic norms, and the rule of law, was about emails I had written to the chairs of the Vermont House and Senate Judiciary Committees. I suggested that one or both of the panels should hold hearings on how various state agencies and departments cooperate with (or are complicit in, your choice) Trump’s crackdown on people of color who are in the United States legally. I provided a starter list of questions and state agencies that should be included in such hearings.

Credit to both chairs, Sen. Nader Hashim and Rep. Martin LaLonde, for getting back to me within hours. More is likely to come, but I wanted to report back on what I’ve learned so far. Which is that neither of them needed my encouragement to become actively engaged on these issues.

Hashim’s response was brief, but he promised a fuller communication later on. “These are all questions I have been asking,” he wrote. “As the son of two immigrants, one of whom fled a violent revolution to get here, I am adamant about exploring every nuance of this topic.”

He also pointed me to a Friday committee hearing which concerned S.148, a bill that would “prohibit Vermont law enforcement agencies, officers, and persons acting on the behalf of a Vermont law enforcement agency to expend any resources to assist federal
immigration authorities with civil or criminal immigration investigations or proceedings.”

I caught part of the committee’s discussion, which prominently featured Republican Sen. Chris Mattos spending lots of time thumbing his phone. (These people do know they’re on camera, right?)

While I was watching, the committee was talking about putting new limits on the state prison contract. Specifically, only allowing detainees to be housed in state prisons if they were living in or traveling through Vermont when taken into custody. The Democratic majority seemed to be moving in that direction; the Republican minority was mostly disengaged. Senate President Pro Tem and Judiciary Committee member) Phil Baruth mused about the prospect of a gubernatorial veto on Phil Scott’s favorite veto excuse, that it would constitute legislative encroachment on executive powers. I have to say, I agree with Baruth on that. Especially in view of indications that the Scott administration is stonewalling the Legislature on this subject. More forthcoming.

LaLonde emailed me that his committee will be holding related hearings in the near future. That’s about all I can tell you so far, but it does show that both Judiciary chairs are pursuing these issues.

I still think there would be value in having a prominent hearing, preferably a joint hearing, exploring all the ways that the state is engaged in slash complicit in the immigration crackdown. (Which has now swept an unnamed Middlebury College student into its ever-expanding net.) This kind of hearing is done in Congress all the time, but rarely at the Vermont Statehouse. They’re aimed more at publicity than lawmaking, but this situation calls for as much publicity as we can get.

Like I said, more is likely to come. And as ever, I invite you to join me in Doing Something. Let’s keep this ball rolling.