A couple hundred people march from Plaza Park to the Wells Fountain in Brattleboro during a locally organized No Kings march on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026. Photo by Kristopher Radder/Brattleboro Reformer This story by Chris Mays was first published in the Brattleboro Reformer on Sept. 15, 2026. BRATTLEBORO — Local police aren’t planning to work with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers if they come to town.  At a special selectboard meeting Monday, Brattleboro Police Chief Jeremy Evans said he would like community members to give his department a call if they hear ICE is in town.  “Because you’ll probably be the first call we get,” he said. “They don’t call us. There’s no collaboration there. They saw that in South Burlington. They’ve seen it elsewhere. That is a common thread where ICE doesn’t tell law enforcement that they’re showing up.” Evans said his department collaborates “with federal partners on a lot of investigations on a regular basis, not related to immigration, and that continues to this day.” If ICE asked to stage at the police station, he said, “the answer would be no.” “And if they showed up at our facility, we would go out and find out who was there because I’m assuming we’d see a group of people that looked like cops but weren’t dressed like cops in our parking lot,” Evans said. “We’d say, ‘What are you doing?’ And they would say who they were, and we would ask them to leave because we’re not going to be a part of that. If they were elsewhere in town, I’m sure the town would ask us to do the same thing in that format.” Janice Stockman, of Brattleboro, read a statement signed by 175 Brattleboro residents, 81 people from other towns, and 16 organizations, institutions and businesses, calling for the town to ensure that its police force abides by the Fair and Impartial Policing Policy and consider adding new language supported by Migrant Justice to the local policy. They also urged the police not to enter into any partnership agreements with federal ICE or border protection agents; honor and enforce state law prohibiting detentions in protected spaces; create policies or consider creating an ordinance that prohibits federal immigration enforcement agents from using town property in any manner; decline any material support to federal agents; and intervene if an officer is seen using excessive force. Stockman thanked the town for hosting a meeting to “express our concerns and expectations proactively before we are thrust into the kinds of situations that happened in South Burlington, Londonderry and Keene.”  Select Board Chair Oscar Heller described the town’s existing Fair and Impartial Policing Policy as “a fairly sturdy, strongly worded document.” The revision suggested by Migrant Justice “might be something the board takes a look at in the future,” he said.  Robin Morgan, of Brattleboro, said the goal of the proposed revision is to try to “close loopholes and strengthen the language that’s in there, so that it doesn’t leave folks in a situation where there’s ambiguity about how police are supposed to conduct themselves with regard to this, and that’s really the position that we don’t want to put our police force in.” “We want to make sure that there’s clear boundaries around how they should be participating and what their responsibilities are when there is any immigration enforcement that’s happening in our town,” she said.  A subgroup of Brattleboro Indivisible is asking the selectboard to approve a resolution “dedicated to committing to protect and support Brattleboro’s immigrant community,” said Nick Biddle, of Brattleboro.  Regarding the high-tension South Burlington raid and standoff that included confrontations between citizens and ICE,  Evans said the footage he has seen in Vermont Public’s “No Exit” documentary and the news made him uncomfortable.   “We’re more focused on what might happen here,” he said when asked to weigh in on the incident. “I did take some time to meet with administrators from up in that area and say, ‘Talk to me about what happened. Talk to me about what went down at your department. Talk to me about mistakes, problems, issues, concerns that you had,’ so that I could bring that information back to us and hopefully mitigate those things happening here.”  The Brattleboro Police Department “won’t be entering into any agreements with federal government with regards” to ICE, Evans said. “We’re not planning it,” he said. “We’re not interested in it. We have plenty of work to do of our own and don’t want to do anyone else’s.” Officers are trained on how to handle incidents involving excessive force by law enforcement at the Vermont Police Academy, Evans said.  Ivan Hennessy, of Brattleboro, called the chief’s comments “very encouraging, especially in light of the habitual violence that ICE brings.”  Evans said he serves on a committee that maintains the Fair and Impartial Policing Policy and helps with the training of officers annually throughout the state. A meeting is held virtually every month.  Currently, the committee is in the process of creating the module for next year’s training on the policy. Any input “would be extraordinary,” Evans said. Hank Poitras, creator of the “Planet Hank” YouTube channel, who shoots and posts video of law enforcement making arrests, said the proposed policy revisions would “help activists interfere with law enforcement.” “I don’t really think that’s a good idea,” he said. “If they provoke a confrontation and somebody gets hurt, these activists will evaporate and disappear and move on, and Brattleboro will be left with tragedy, lawsuits and the bill.” Anne Beekman, of Putney, chair of the Windham Southeast Supervisory Union Board, said she wants “ICE to be kept away from our children, all of our children, our immigrant children, our citizen children.” Heller said a bill passed by Vermont lawmakers in the last legislative session “greatly expanded the role of protected spaces, which used to just be courthouses.” “But this is a protected space,” he said of the library, where the meeting was held. “You cannot be arrested on a civil immigration warrant. That list was expanded from courthouses to places of worship, libraries, social service agencies like food shelves or domestic violence shelters, hospitals.” Another new law “essentially created a right for Vermont residents to sue federal agents for violations of their constitutional rights,” Heller said.  After the meeting, Heller told the Reformer he’s “proud of how the community tackled such a difficult subject.” “The meeting was emotional, informative and at times challenging, but in the ways that make us all stronger and closer-knit,” he said. “This was community engagement at its best.” Heller described being “appreciative for everyone who attended and spoke, and for those who spoke for others who couldn’t attend in safety in person.” “The police department, represented by Chief Jeremy Evans and Assistant Chief Adam Petlock, continued to demonstrate their dedication to the principles of justice and community safety for everyone in town,” Heller said. “There’s always more to be done, but we all showed up very well for each other, and I’m grateful.” Read the story on VTDigger here: Cold shoulder: Brattleboro won’t be welcoming ICE. ...read more read less