Our community members lose many days of their life sitting in both Vermont and immigration jails simply because they cannot pay bail. Help us free them.

The Vermont Freedom Fund works with those detained and their legal counsel to provide the bail funds they need in order to be released.

“There are days of winds, days of fury and days of tears. But there are also days of love that give us the courage to carry on." Victor Diaz, while incarcerated by ICE, April 2016

 

We are a volunteer run, 501(c)(3) tax-deductible fund that bails out our incarcerated community members in Vermont. Cash bail is an abuse of the criminal justice system, criminalizes poverty and has a disproportionate effect on Black people, Indigenous people, people of color, and immigrants. We believe that wealth should not determine who is kept in jail.

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What’s happening in Vermont?

Despite the passage of Vermont state law to stop racial profiling by police, state agencies have provided information enabling Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) to continue to arrest a disproportionate number of people of color and immigrants in northern Vermont. Furthermore, Black and Brown drivers in VT are twice as likely to be stopped, searched, ticketed, and arrested – though less likely to be found with contraband.

 
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Who is especially at risk of detention and imprisonment?

Approximately 1000­-2000 immigrants from Mexico and Central America have been in Vermont since the mid­ 1990s, working at dairy farms and sustaining Vermont’s agricultural industries, all while risking deportation. In 2020, Migrant Justice was awarded a $100,000 settlement after it was revealed that ICE was surveilling, harassing and detaining Migrant Justice activists in a targeted way.

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Why is this happening?

ICE and CPB agents arrest people without judicial warrants (outside doctors’ offices, at supermarkets, at home, walking on farm roads), act abusively and terrorize them on farms, and separate families. These rogue agencies have been allowed to act with impunity for too long.

When a case is closed, the bail funds may be returned to the Vermont Freedom Fund through a complex process, enabling funds to be reused. However, we cannot count on the funds being returned for a variety of reasons. Those who benefit from the fund and stay in Vermont will be encouraged to promote the fund within their communities. 

What happens to the money?

 

People do not belong in cages!

Let’s build solidarity and compassion!

Or send a check or money order to:

Vermont Freedom Fund
1350 Sherman Hollow Rd
Huntington, VT 05462

¡Muchas Gracias! Thank You Very Much!

Do you or somebody you know need help paying bail/bond?

Contact us.