Updated at 4:16 p.m.
Winooski schools superintendent Wilmer Chavarria was detained by immigration agents and questioned over the course of five hours on his way home Monday from a routine visit to Nicaragua with his husband.
Chavarria, who grew up in Nicaragua and has been a United States citizen since 2018, told Seven Days that immigration officials seized his phone and computer, separated him from his husband and prevented him from speaking to anyone he requested to contact.
“They falsely stated that I, a U.S. citizen, have no Constitutional rights at a point of entry, and officers became increasingly agitated as I continued to assert my rights regardless,” Chavarria wrote in an email informing school district leaders about the incident.
It happened at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston as Chavarria tried to get through security using Global Entry — a program that allows pre-approved, “low-risk” travelers to get expedited clearance when entering the U.S. He said he had used the program many times without issue.
This time, he was pulled aside and taken by Customs and Border Protection agents to an interrogation room.
During their questioning, immigration agents cast doubt on Chavarria’s relationship to Cyrus Dudgeon, his partner of 15 years and a teacher at Essex High School, and suggested that he was making up his role as a superintendent, Chavarria said. They never gave him a reason for why he was being detained; Dudgeon was not.
Authorities told Chavarria that he had no right to legal counsel, and interrogated him in four different rooms. At one point, four officers were questioning him at once, he said.
The experience, he wrote, was “nothing short of surreal and the definition of psychological terror.”
Chavarria was released and reunited with his husband. Seven Days talked to the two as they were preparing for a flight back to Vermont.
Chavarria was born in a Honduran refugee camp, grew up in Nicaragua, and began learning English in high school. Eventually, he attended college in Indiana and went on to earn two master’s degrees, including one from Harvard University. He has led Vermont’s most diverse school district since July 2023.
The Winooski school board condemned the incident.
“While we are aware that such detentions are increasingly becoming more common across the country, we must be clear: this is not normal. It is wrong. It is inhumane. It is unjust,” the board said in a statement.
“The Winooski School Board calls upon all Vermonters—and all Americans—to stand in solidarity with Superintendent Chavarria and his family. We urge our elected leaders and federal agencies to investigate this incident and take meaningful steps to prevent such abuses from continuing.”
Chavarria said he’s an experienced traveler.
“Nothing like that ever happened to me when I was on a student visa, or on all sorts of different statuses,” Chavarria said. “You think it’s less likely to happen when you’re a full U.S. citizen. That’s why I was so shaken by the whole thing.”
On Tuesday morning, while boarding his flight to Vermont, Chavarria said he received an email from U.S. Customs and Border Protection: his Global Entry permission had been revoked. No reason was given.