The Fight for Migrant Justice in the Age of Trump

On April 22nd, 2025 Donald Trump will have been in the White House for three months. In that time, his government has kidnapped untold numbers of immigrants and visa holders from college housing, city streets, workplaces and homes. The kidnapped include students and workers, the old and the young, documented and undocumented. An uptick in Border Patrol and ICE activity has been reported across the state of Vermont. Vermont-based Migrant Justice organization continues to provide crucial support and advocacy to immigrant farmworkers, even in this ever more repressive climate.

Migrant Justice has been working with the migrant farmworker community in Vermont since its founding in 2009 after the death of 18-year-old farmworker José Obeth Santiz Cruz due to unsafe working conditions. Its reach now includes farmworkers in Maine, New York and New Hampshire. Among its accomplishments are including undocumented farmworkers under Vermont’s healthcare legislation, helping pass legislation providing drivers licenses to undocumented workers, proposing and passing the Education Equity law, making Vermont higher education and financial aid more accessible for immigrant students, and creating and implementing Milk With Dignity, the first and only worker-driven social responsibility program in the dairy industry. This ongoing campaign has helped protect the rights and improve conditions for hundreds of farmworkers, resulting in millions of dollars in economic redistribution from corporations to farmers and farmworkers.

In the month marking twenty years since Will Miller’s untimely passing, the Will Miller Social Justice Lecture Series is pleased to host speakers from Migrant Justice at its next event. For those of you who knew Will, his passion for justice has been the inspiration behind the voices we have brought to the Burlington community.