BURLINGTON — A year ago, the thousands of residents in Vermont seeking U.S. citizenship had just two lawyers in the state who specialized in deportation defense, leaving many to face court alone. 

Today there are eight.

That’s according to the organizers of the Vermont Immigration Legal Defense Fund, who announced Monday they had topped its goal of raising $1 million in donations.

The fund has helped state legal organizations grow significantly since May 2025, State Treasurer Mike Pieciak said.

The fund was created by state officials and nonprofit leaders responding to intensified U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in the state. Federal law does not require the government to provide lawyers in immigration cases because they are civil, not criminal, leaving many of the roughly two dozen people held in Vermont prisons on immigration matters without representation. The fund was designed to close that gap.

The money was raised from thousands of Vermonters and donors across more than 30 states, according to Pieciak. 

“The Vermont (Immigration) Legal Defense Fund grant arrived at a critical moment for the refugee and immigrant community we serve,” said Yacouba Jacob Bogre, executive director of the Association of Africans Living in Vermont, an organization that works with new Americans, at a Monday press conference. “As many families navigate uncertainty and changing policies, your support provided more than funding — it provided hope, stability and reaffirmation that they are valued members of our government community.” 

Just three months into its launch, the fund reported raising $250,000, which was crucial after federal funding cuts impacted the budgets of organizations supporting immigrants with their legal cases.

Pieciak, alongside Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, D-Chittenden Southeast, helped launch the fund. 

“Reaching this goal is a testament to what Vermonters can do when they refuse to look away,” Ram Hinsdale said in a Monday press release. “Just as important as the dollars raised is the plan we leave behind — one that ensures people facing detention or separation will not navigate it alone.”

The impact has been especially pronounced at the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project, a legal services organization that has served more than 300 asylum seekers since its founding in 2021. The number of clients it serves on asylum matters has doubled, from 50 to 100 since 2025, according to executive director Jill Martin Diaz, and the project has screened 130 people detained in Vermont prisons by ICE and secured nine temporary restraining orders.

“We are making incredible progress. We’re doubling our capacity to make sure that our dream is realized,” Diaz said.

Nathan Virag, a staff attorney for the Association of Africans Living in Vermont, said the fund allowed his organization to hire a legal intake coordinator and a legal intern, with hopes of adding another attorney to handle a growing caseload.

“The fund was necessary. Unfortunately, if we didn’t have those funds, we wouldn’t be able to do what we’re doing now,” Virag said.

In Vermont, 1,017 immigration cases remain pending, 45.7% of which have legal representation, up from the 42.8% recorded last summer, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, based on data collected through April.   

Because the fund hit its $1 million target, its fundraising work is officially complete, Pieciak said. But the five recipient organizations plan to keep working together. Those organizations include the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project, the Association of Africans Living in Vermont, Vermont Legal Aid, Vermont Afghan Alliance, The Janet S. Munt Family Room, and the Center for Justice Reform Clinic at the Vermont Law and Graduate School. 

“We’ll continue to work with these organizations as we reimagine the structure and the way in which we work together into the future,” said Jesse Bridges, CEO of United Way of Northwest Vermont, the organization that helped administer the funding. “As you say, the court room is the first step in the journey.”

After years of complaints from prison staff and incarcerated people about sweltering summer conditions, Vermont has approved its largest investment in cooling state correctional facilities in recent years. 

Lawmakers agreed to spend nearly $10.5 million to install prison cooling systems, which appears to be more money than the state put toward the project in the last four years combined, according to state data. 

The jump in state investment comes two years after prison staff members filed a workplace safety complaint, alleging they experienced heat stroke-like symptoms. 

Most prisons in Vermont have no permanent air conditioning systems throughout, which officials agree leads both staff and incarcerated people to suffer. 

“During the summer when we get a heat wave, we get dozens of grievances,” according to Defender General Matt Valerio, whose office is tasked with investigating unresolved complaints from incarcerated people. 

Grievances are formal complaints that incarcerated people can file with the Vermont Department of Corrections. 

The department has tried to mitigate the heat by providing fans and ice to staff and incarcerated people, according to Haley Sommer, a spokesperson for the department. And while Valerio commends the makeshift efforts, he agrees the state needs a permanent fix to get prison temperatures under control.  

The money lawmakers designated for heating, ventilation and air conditioning, or HVAC, will go toward permanent cooling systems as well as short-term remedies. The money is approved for the state’s upcoming fiscal year, which starts next month. 

The state plans to use the newly available funds to complete HVAC systems at Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield and Northern State Correctional Facility in Newport, according to Cole Barney, a spokesperson for the Vermont Department of Buildings and General Services, which handles construction projects on state property. 

The state only has building-wide HVAC systems in its prisons in Rutland and South Burlington, according to Sommer. After projects in Newport and Springfield are completed, two Vermont prisons — those in St. Johnsbury and St. Albans — will still lack permanent air conditioning. 

Over the years, the state has spent nearly $8.5 million in state bonds, which typically fund the lion’s share of its construction projects, on prison HVAC upgrades across the last four fiscal years, according to data presented to lawmakers this year. 

So far the state has installed air conditioning in the infirmary of the Springfield prison, along with creating cooling rooms for staff, according to Sommer. The state has also propped up temporary air conditioning in a number of rooms including the dining area and the gym in the St. Johnsbury prison, she added. 

With the new state money, the buildings department expects to have permanent air conditioning completed by fall 2026 at the Springfield prison and by fall 2027 at the Newport prison. 

“When correctional facilities were built, there was less of a need for air conditioning because the summers were not as hot,” Sommer said. 

And the summer heat is exacerbated by the constraints inherent in a prison, where the windows don’t open and people may spend long hours in a single room, according to Sommer. 

Large construction projects can also be particularly challenging to accomplish in prisons, Sommer said, because if construction is going on in a living unit, the department has to relocate the people it usually holds there. 

“The impact of not having air conditioning in correctional facilities is felt acutely, both by correctional staff that work there and by incarcerated people that live there,” Sommer said. 

The mutual suffering due to heat can create tension between staff and incarcerated people, Valerio said. 

“If it’s hot, it’s crowded, people get short-tempered,” he said. It becomes a health and safety problem, Valerio added. 

Valerio said he thinks the Corrections Department has done its best trying to manage the heat in prisons. He knows staff provide fans and extra water — and anything helps, he said. 

The investment in permanent air conditioning could reduce tensions, he said. 

“It’s a good idea.”

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