The arrest of eight Vermont dairy farmers in April sent shock waves throughout New England’s agriculture industry, and fears haven’t abated since then.<\/b>
\nAfter six 12-hour shifts milking cows, Jos\u00e9 Molina-Aguilar\u2019s lone day off was hardly relaxing.
On April 21, he and seven co-workers were arrested on a Vermont dairy farm in what advocates say was one of the state\u2019s largest-ever immigration raids.
\u201cI saw through the window of the house that immigration were already there, inside the farm, and that\u2019s when they detained us,\u201d he said in a recent interview. \u201cI was in the process of asylum, and even with that, they didn\u2019t respect the document that I was still holding in my hands.\u201d
Four of the workers were swiftly deported to Mexico. Molina-Aguilar, released after a month in a Texas detention center with his asylum case still pending, is now working at a different farm and speaking out.
\u201cWe must fight as a community so that we can all have, and keep fighting for, the rights that we have in this country,\u201d he said.Members of Migrant Justice, a community group advocating for migrant farmworkers\u2019 rights, hold a rally outside the Vermont Statehouse in Montpelier, Vt., on Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo\/Amanda Swinhart)
The owner of the targeted farm declined to comment. But Brett Stokes, a lawyer representing the detained workers, said the raid sent shock waves through the entire Northeast agriculture industry.
\u201cThese strong-arm tactics that we\u2019re seeing and these increases in enforcement, whether legal or not, all play a role in stoking fear in the community,\u201d said Stokes, director of the Center for Justice Reform Clinic at Vermont Law and Graduate School.
That fear remains given the mixed messages coming from the White House. President Donald Trump, who campaigned on a promise to deport millions of immigrants working in the U.S. illegally, last month paused arrests at farms, restaurants and hotels. But less than a week later, the assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security said worksite enforcement would continue.
Such uncertainty is causing problems in big states like California, where farms produce more than three-quarters of the country\u2019s fruit and more than a third of its vegetables. But it\u2019s also affecting small states like Vermont, where dairy is as much a part of the state\u2019s identity as its famous maple syrup.
Nearly two-thirds of all milk production in New England comes from Vermont, where more than half the state\u2019s farmland is dedicated to dairy and dairy crops. There are roughly 113,000 cows and 7,500 goats spread across 480 farms, according to the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets, which pegs the industry\u2019s annual economic impact at $5.4 billion.
That impact has more than doubled in the last decade, with widespread help from immigrant labor. More than 90% of the farms surveyed for the agency\u2019s recent report employed migrant workers.
Among them is Wuendy Bernardo, who has lived on a Vermont dairy farm for more than a decade and has an active application to stop her deportation on humanitarian grounds: Bernardo is the primary caregiver for her five children and her two orphaned younger sisters, according to a 2023 letter signed by dozens of state lawmakers.Wuendy Bernardo, foreground center, a migrant dairy farmworker at risk of deportation, is greeted by Migrant Justice staff member Will Lambek, left, outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in St. Albans, Vt., on Friday, June 20, 2025. Lambek led a rally in support of Bernardo as she reported to the office for an appointment. (AP Photo\/Amanda Swinhart)
Hundreds of Bernardo\u2019s supporters showed up for her most recent check-in with immigration officials.
\u201cIt\u2019s really difficult because every time I come here, I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll be going back to my family or not,\u201d she said after being told to return in a month.
Like Molina-Aguilar, Rossy Alfaro also worked 12-hour days with one day off per week on a Vermont farm. Now an advocate with Migrant Justice, she said the dairy industry would collapse without immigrant workers.
\u201cIt would all go down,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are many people working long hours, without complaining, without being able to say, \u2018I don\u2019t want to work.\u2019 They just do the job.\u201d<\/p>\n