Migrant Mother to Seven Avoids ICE Detention — for Now

A large crowd gathered outside a nondescript St. Albans office building on Friday morning, braving the rain to show support for an undocumented farmworker who had been called in to meet with federal immigration officials.

Wuendy Bernardo Agustin has had similar check-ins in recent years. But President Donald Trump’s fixation on deporting thousands of immigrants a day made this a particularly anxious moment. Would Bernardo Agustin be detained and deported — or allowed to return to the Orleans County dairy farm where she works and cares for seven children?

“We love you, Wuendy!” one supporter yelled as Bernardo Agustin emerged from a car and headed into the building.

Anxiety permeated the crowd as the waiting began. Many of those assembled were allies or members of Migrant Justice, a farmworker advocacy group.

“Wuendy walked in there a free woman, and we expect her to walk out a free woman today,” said Will Lambek, a spokesperson for the organization, before leading the crowd in a chant of “Vermont will fight for immigrant rights!”

After about 25 minutes, Bernardo Agustin and her children exited the building alongside their lawyer. The crowd cheered, and a smiling Bernardo Agustin stood by Lambek, who translated for her.

“It’s not easy to keep coming back here, with the uncertainty that it brings,” she said. “They told me I have to report back in a month’s time, but I know that I’ll be here with you all.”

Bernardo Agustin settled in Vermont in 2014, and her first brush with immigration officials came in 2019, when she and her children were passengers in a car that was pulled over. Since then, she has attended regular appointments with immigration officials. But at one meeting in 2022, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials told her that she had to leave the country or face deportation.

Migrant Justice rallied to her side, sending more than 3,000 messages to ICE advocating against her deportation. Meanwhile, in January 2023, some 67 state lawmakers signed a letter supporting her application for a stay of removal on humanitarian grounds, citing the “extreme hardship” her family would face if deported.

“Ms. Bernardo Agustin is a valued member of our community here in Vermont. She is the primary caregiver to her five children and her two orphaned younger sisters,” the letter read. They also cited her activism with Migrant Justice and her testimony in the Statehouse supporting the Immigrant Health Insurance Plan.

“She had been told to arrive here with a plane ticket and a plan to leave the country,” Lambek told the crowd on Friday. “But because of the community’s support that was demonstrated, that was put on hold.”

For now, Bernardo Agustin has been granted another reprieve. But it’s unclear if it will last. Two other leaders in Migrant Justice, Jose Ignacio “Nacho” De La Cruz and Heidi Perez, were detained last Saturday and are in jail as they face deportation proceedings. And Mohsen Mahdawi, a vocal Palestinian activist living legally in Vermont’s Upper Valley, was arrested by immigration officials in Colchester in April for speaking out against Israel’s war in Gaza. He was told to come for a citizenship interview before he was detained.

“It’s really difficult because every time I come here, I don’t know if I’ll be going back to my family or not,” Bernardo Agustin said as she held back tears on Friday.

Eventually, the crowd dispersed as people returned to their cars; supporters had filled a neighboring parking lot and had begun parking on the side of the road.

“[I’m] just happy to be here today and see some results of local action, because it feels like something we can actually touch and be involved in,” David Runge of Burlington said. “It gives some hope and empowerment for people to actually be involved.”