Earlier this month, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents detained Jose Luis Cordova Herrera, an undocumented daily worker from Vermont, after he left the dentist’s office. Immigrant rights group Migrant Justice says that agents were waiting in the parking lot and followed the car—being driven by a documented immigrant—for eight miles before pulling them over. The groups says the documented immigrant was detained for “four hours, searched, interrogated, threatened, and released,” while Cordova Herrera remains detained and at risk of deportation:
Cordova Herrera is now being held at the Strafford County detention center on a $14,000 bail … the advocacy group also criticized the agency for waiting in the parking lot of a health care facility, reneging on the Department of Homeland Security’s guidance to avoid “sensitive locations” like hospitals, schools, and places of worship so as not to disrupt the daily activities of those areas.
Countering Migrant Justice’s claim, the CBP agency told ThinkProgress that border agents had been conducting routine patrol operations in East Bershire, about four miles south from Richford, and did not go after Cordova Herrera “in the vicinity of any businesses or health care facilities.”
“A vehicle drove by the marked Border Patrol unit and the activities of the occupants were very suspicious,” a CBP spokesperson said. “This behavior, as well as other contributing factors, resulted in the agent conducting a vehicle stop in order to determine the immigration status of the occupants.”
“Very suspicious”? What the fuck, like getting a teeth cleaning while brown? These mass deportation agents have long been targeting the area’s dairy workers and members of Migrant Justice. In June, they detained two activists who were leaving a Migrant Justice march demanding better working conditions for dairy workers. Agents claimed they had reason to detain the two because "the behavior, the way the car was being driven.” Sound familiar?
A judge initially set bail for the two activists, Yesenia Hernandez and Esau Peche, at nearly $15,000 each, but then reduced it to $6,000 because neither have a criminal record. The pair were finally released weeks later, but in the end still “face deportation proceedings in federal immigration court.” Cordova Herrera himself is “the cousin of two Vermont farm workers who were deported last year after being pulled over in a routine traffic stop.” Are you feeling safer yet, America?
As a northern border state within the godforsaken “the 100-mile zone,” Border Patrol has the ability to wreak havoc on the lives of undocumented immigrants they cross paths with. And Migrant Justice says that agents commonly use the same tired excuse when arresting immigrants. “They made claims about … people acting suspicious in past arrests,” once arresting someone because they were wearing a backpack. It “’gave them reasonable suspicion’ that the person had just crossed the border”:
As a husband and father of three children, Cordova Herrera came to Vermont to send money back to Mexico to pay for his kids’ school fees, advocates said in a press release. He has been in the country for two years, Lambek said. Cordova Herrera worked on three dairy farms around the state and worked to milk cows and shovel manure to support his family’s medical and daily needs.
The dairy industry runs on the backs of immigrants: “An estimated 51 percent of the country’s dairy industry is reliant on immigrant labor, according to a 2015 Texas A&M University study. That same report commissioned by the National Milk Producers Federation found that losing these workers would cost the U.S. economy more than $32 billion.” In Vermont, up to 1,500 immigrants like Cordova Herrera “shovel manure and milk cows for 60- to 70-hour a week shifts.” Or, at least he used to, before he was detained:
Pamela Parsons, executive director of the Richford health center, said her office had not been aware of the arrest until being called by Migrant Justice, but she said she was concerned about the possibility an immigrant was arrested after seeking health care.
"We had the understanding that that does not happen," she said. "We're here to serve everyone who needs care."
Last year, Border Patrol arrested a 10-year-old Texas child, Rosamaria Hernandez, following emergency gallbladder surgery. And just weeks before that, also in Texas, Border Patrol targeted the undocumented parents of a baby who was being rushed to surgery. Let Border Patrol claim what they want, but their record is not exactly lining up with their words. "Border Patrol's staking out of a dentist's office and surveillance of a patient is a blatant attack on the human right to access health care," said Migrant Justice. Click here to take action and #FreeJoseLuis.