On a warm July day, Greisy Mejia and her two young children entered the Department of Homeland Security’s St. Albans field office. She was told to expect a meeting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for a routine check-in to confirm custody of her children and possibly get her ankle monitor removed. Instead, she and her children were immediately detained and, the next day, deported to Honduras.
Author: Patrick St. John
![](https://www.rakevt.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/vermont-health-care-workers-solidarity-palestine-gaza.jpg)
More than one hundred people gathered around Burlington City Hall Sunday to highlight the humanitarian crisis unfolding as Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza nears its eighth month.
![](https://www.rakevt.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/burlington-uvm-five-union-march.jpg)
Today, five unions representing many of the workers at the University of Vermont and the UVM Medical Center met to rally and support each other’s common struggles.
![Montpelier high school students gather outside the capitol building to protest the genocide in Gaza.](https://www.rakevt.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/montpelier-vermont-high-school-protest-gaza-ceasefire.jpg)
Almost one hundred students from Montpelier High School walked out of their classes and marched to the capitol building at 11:00 am today, waving Palestinian flags and holding signs protesting genocide and calling for a ceasefire. Students in Bennington, Bristol, White River Junction, Winooski, and other Vermont towns took similar actions.
![Protest sign reading Make Higher Ground Apartheid Free](https://www.rakevt.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/higher-ground-burlington-protest.jpg)
Tonight, roughly fifty people gathered outside Higher Ground’s venue in South Burlington to protest the performance of Matisyahu there.
![](https://www.rakevt.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/ben-jerrys-burlington-union-scoopers-united.jpg)
Union workers at Ben & Jerry’s flagship ice cream shop in downtown Burlington, Vermont have unanimously ratified a contract with management. What was last year the first unionized Ben & Jerry’s location is now the first Ben & Jerry’s location operating under a union contract.
![](https://www.rakevt.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/collins-aerospace-vergennes-vermont-israel-gaza.jpg)
As anyone who lives within earshot of Burlington Airport can attest, the instruments of wars thousands of miles away can be found even here in
![](https://www.rakevt.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/freeher-vt-womens-prison-crcf-south-burlington.jpg)
Starting Monday, FreeHer Vermont is holding a week of action to pressure Vermont officials to abandon plans for constructing new prisons in the state while reinstating funding for constructing new schools.
![](https://www.rakevt.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/bernie-sanders-house-gaza-protest-burlington.jpg)
On Friday, roughly thirty people gathered outside Senator Bernie Sanders’ house in Burlington’s New North End, demanding that he call for an immediate and lasting ceasefire of Israel’s military bombardment and invasion of Gaza.
![](https://www.rakevt.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/burlington-tree-lighting-ceremony-gaza-0.jpg)
Almost a hundred gathered at a vigil in front of Burlington City Hall late afternoon on Friday, November 25th to commemorate the lives lost in Israel’s wave of military and settler violence brought on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Speakers and attendees called for a true ceasefire, not a humanitarian pause, as the first step to ending decades of bloodshed and apartheid.
![](https://www.rakevt.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/becca-balint-fundraiser-protest.jpg)
A dozen protesters have disrupted a fundraising event for Vermont U.S. Representative Becca Balint in Burlington. The action, organized by Jewish Voice for Peace of Vermont and New Hampshire, is part of an international day of action calling for a ceasefire to end the bombing, siege, and invasion of Gaza by Israeli forces.
![](https://www.rakevt.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/mohammed-el-kurd-burlington-uvm.jpg)
UVM administrators have abruptly canceled the appearance of Mohammed el-Kurd, a Palestinian journalist and poet, mere days before his scheduled event, citing safety and security concerns, but campus community members aren’t satisfied with that rationale.
![Rally for Palestine in Burlington, Vermont](https://www.rakevt.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/palestine-gaza-israel-burlington-rally-october-2023-a.jpg)
“Free, free Palestine!” echoed across downtown Burlington Saturday afternoon as more than 200 gathered at a rally on the steps of City Hall to oppose Israeli apartheid and support justice and human rights for Palestinians.
![Jamie Peck presents on Block Cop City in Burlington](https://www.rakevt.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/block-cop-city-vermont-atlanta-jamie-peck.jpg)
Organizers in the movement against Cop City — the proposed police training center in Atlanta that is estimated to cost $100 million, clear cut large swaths of forest, and disrupt Black communities surrounding it — are in the midst of a nationwide tour, speaking in more than seventy cities to educate the public and encourage participation in a demonstration planned for November 10-13 in Atlanta.
![](https://www.rakevt.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/milk-with-dignity-hannaford-8174.jpeg)
Amid chants of “Milk with dignity!” roughly one hundred farmworkers and supporters assembled on Thursday for an informational picket and rally near the Hannaford supermarket
![Protesters outside Chase Bank in Burlington, Vermont, September 24, 2021.](https://www.rakevt.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/line-3-pipeline-protest-burlington-vermont-chase-bank.jpg)
“Stop Line 3!” echoed down Church Street in Burlington yesterday as more than a hundred people marched through town. Sponsored by a large coalition of
![](https://www.rakevt.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/burlington-city-council-bds-resolution-march-rally.jpg)
The Burlington City Council on Monday night was set to vote on the “Resolution Calling for Justice and a Peaceful end to Palestine and Israel