South Burlington after the raid

What started as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement stop on Dorset Street on March 11 turned into an all-day standoff outside a house in South Burlington, Vermont, with hundreds of neighbors and activists surrounding the building before federal agents finally took three people away. Federal agents said they were trying to arrest 24-year-old Deyvi Daniel Corona-Sanchez after spotting a man they believed was him leaving the house in a car that later crashed near South Burlington High School. The chase ended, the driver ran, and agents said he went back into the Dorset Street home. Migrant Justice, a Vermont farmworker advocacy group, got a call on its emergency line that morning and sent out an alert, and people began arriving by about 8:30 a.m. The crowd grew through the day and blocked the front and rear doors to stop agents from entering. South Burlington police came first after federal agents asked for help with the crowd, and city officers later called in Vermont State Police and Burlington Police for backup. Local officials said they were trying to prevent a direct clash between protesters and armed federal agents while still allowing a court-approved warrant to be served. By nightfall, Vermont State Police pushed people away from the door, federal agents entered the house, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement removed three people who were inside. Protesters then tried to block the vehicles from leaving, and federal agents used flashbangs and chemical irritants to clear the road. The part that changed the story came nearly two weeks later: Immigration and Customs Enforcement admitted in court that agents had chased the wrong man that morning. The agency said it no longer believed Corona-Sanchez had been in the car at all. That left three other people detained even though none of them were named in the warrant used to enter the house. Vermont Public reported that the detainees were two Ecuadorian sisters, Johana Patin Patin and Camila Patin Patin, and a Honduran man, Cristian Jerez Andrade. Federal judges quickly blocked Immigration and Customs Enforcement from moving the three out of Vermont, and later release orders followed. By April 8, local television in Burlington reported that all three people detained in the South Burlington operation had been released. Since then, the fight has shifted from the street to hearing rooms and city halls. Protesters told Vermont lawmakers on April 1 that local and state police used excessive force and helped federal agents carry out the detentions, while police leaders said their presence reduced the risk of a deadlier confrontation. South Burlington officials are now debating a task force to review what happened in March, which is the kind of step cities take when one day on one block turns into a test of how much local government will do when federal immigration agents arrive. In South Burlington, the answer is still being argued in public, weeks after the vans left Dorset Street.