Vermont
Vermont woman arrested by ICE to be released on bond – VTDigger
Esther Ngoy Tekele — a 23-year-old Congolese woman who has been held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody for over a week — was ordered to be released on bond on Thursday.
Tekele is a lawful permanent resident and has been living in Vermont for four years, according to her brother and her attorney.
At the time of her arrest on July 6, Tekele was crossing the Canadian border with her family to re-enter Vermont after attending a wedding in Canada. Coco Ngoy, Tekele’s brother, said they were stopped by Customs and Border Protection agents at the Highgate Springs border crossing and waited for about three hours. When he asked for an explanation, an officer told him they were free to go except for Tekele.
Ngoy said he left briefly to get food after hours of waiting, and when he came back, he was told his sister was no longer there, so he reached out to the Association of Africans Living in Vermont, or AALV, for help.
Nathan Virag, the attorney representing Tekele, said he wasn’t able to get in touch with his client for about two days. He said Tekele was questioned by Customs and Border Protection agents for hours before being transferred to ICE custody. “They were not giving us information, they were not letting her call us, none of that,” he said.
The first time Virag was able to speak with his client was July 8 when he visited her at Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility.
“We were successful in getting a temporary restraining order to prevent ICE from being able to transfer out of state because that’s what ICE has been doing,” Virag said.
Tekele is a green card holder with no criminal record, according to Virag and Ngoy. She has a 2-year-old child and also takes care of her mother. Ngoy said they had crossed the Canadian border many times and never had any problems before.
Federal immigration officers had alleged that Tekele lied about her marital status and entered the country declaring to be unmarried, but instead she got married a few days earlier.
At a bond and master hearing in Chelmsford Immigration Court on Thursday, Virag denied the allegations and asked for his client to be released on bond, claiming she doesn’t have any criminal charges, has stable employment, and she plans to stay in the U.S. and apply for citizenship.
Judge Natalie Smith ordered Tekele be released on a $7,500 bond. An attorney for the federal government waived the right to appeal the judge’s decision.
“It’s a relief for us,” said Ngoy. “At least Esther will be able to see her son and take care of my mom.”
“Wrongly detaining lawful permanent residents at a standard crossing speaks to the lawless and inhumane immigration agenda coming from the White House,” U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., who helped locate Tekele after her arrest, wrote in a statement to VTDigger. “I’m so happy to hear Ms. Tekele is headed back with her family at home in Vermont but nobody with legal status in this country should have to live in fear of being held in a jail cell at any moment.”
The government must submit evidence for Tekele’s removal by July 31, when the next hearing is scheduled.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to a request for comment. Customs and Border Protection did not respond to VTDigger’s emailed questions by the time of publication.
“She’s a great mother. She loves her child. She’s helpful in the Congolese community here in Vermont,” Virag said, “This is just a hardworking mother that’s fallen victim to a messed-up immigration system.”
BARRE, Vt. (WCAX) – Voters hit the polls across the country on Tuesday, weighing in on everything from high-stakes political races to municipal funding.
In Vermont, towns looked to their residents to approve a myriad of projects.
Across the state, Vermont voters considered ballot items pertaining to flood mitigation, infrastructure projects, and a new career center.
After a full workday and an evening of volunteering at the Barre Community Justice Center, Becky Wigg took to the polls.
“I moved here five years ago during the pandemic and really found my community,” said Wigg.
She voted yes to Barre’s $2.4 million flood-resilient housing project and the $3.3 million new public works building, which will be built out of the flood plain.
“I voted yes for the bonds because I believe in Barre. I want to live in a thriving community where everyone has a safe place to live, an affordable place to live, and we have the public services and resources that we need,” said Wigg.
Barre’s unofficial election results show both ballot items were approved.
“Really transformational projects, these are generational things that we’ve been trying to solve, and I’m very, very pleased that the voters showed their confidence in these projects and approved them,” said Barre City Manager Nicolas Storellicastro.
The Hinesburg Record reports that bond issues of repairing two flood-damaged bridges and installing a new well were approved.
Brighton approved their $9.6 million bond to upgrade the town’s wastewater system. Cabot approved spending a quarter million dollars on flood mitigation.
Plainfield’s request to borrow $600,000 as part of a $9 million project to build 40 new homes failed.
And so did Berlin’s bond to form a four-season rec center, as reported by the Times Argus.
Also on central Vermonters’ ballots was the option to build a $149 million new technical education center.
Central Vermont will need to pool results from different towns to find out if the career center will happen. They expect the results on that to come out on Thursday.
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Angela Myers doesn’t know what she’s going to do.
The 54-year-old from Chittenden County lives with a disability. When she needed better health insurance, she said her doctors recommended Vermont Blue Advantage, a type of Medicare provided by Blue Cross Blue Shield that could offer her extra benefits and reduced costs.
She’s been on the plan for five years, she said, and it covers all her frequent doctor visits and monthly prescriptions.
But she’s going to lose that insurance soon.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont announced Oct. 1 that it would drop Medicare Advantage coverage in 2026, leaving the thousands of Vermonters like Meyers scrambling to secure new plans before the turn of the year. Vermont Blue Advantage covers over 26,000 people in Vermont, the company told the Burlington Free Press, and has more complete coverage than traditional Medicare, including dental work and prescriptions.
The company, which is paid by the government to run the program, says it costs too much. The “Vermont Medicare Advantage market is unsustainable for Vermont Blue Advantage to be able to offer reasonably priced and affordable products to serve as an alternative to traditional Medicare coverage,” Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont said when announcing the plan.
That’s been the national trend, with Medicare Advantage plans whittled down across many states. But for a low-population place like Vermont, the disruption for people is magnified.
A big problem with choosing a new Medicare Advantage plan is that there just aren’t many offered in Vermont. The same day Vermont Blue Advantage announced its cut, UnitedHealthcare did the same. United, itself one of the largest purveyors of Medicare Advantage plans across the country, serves almost 8,000 Vermonters, the company told the Free Press.
Medicare Advantage plans in Vermont
As of September, over 51,600 Vermonters were insured by a Medicare Advantage plan, and over 168,000 people were eligible, government data shows.
Advantage plans are run by private companies but funded by the federal government. They are for people 65 and older or who have a disability. More than half of U.S. residents eligible for Medicare Advantage are insured under it, according to KFF, a national health care reporting and research outfit.
Vermonters skew under that trend at 34% for 2024, KFF reported. But the number has been rising. A decade prior, only 7% of eligible Vermonters used an Advantage plan.
Even so, the options are slimming. Insurance plans shuttering has become almost an annual tradition in Vermont. Two Advantage plans — operated by MVP and WellCare — folded this past January.
Come next year, the only option for those seeking an individual Medicare Advantage plan is Humana, which serves Bennington, Caledonia, Essex, Orange, Windam and Windsor counties, or less than half the counties in Vermont.
People losing health insurance feel ‘abandoned’
Larry Mindell of Williston said he and his wife signed up with Vermont Blue Advantage after MVP cancelled its coverage. He said they feel “abandoned” by the companies and worry this may only be the beginning of a sharper downturn.
“I say ‘abandon’ because that’s what it feels like, and it’s happening to us for the second year in a row,” Mindell said.
Mindell has been working with an insurance broker to find a new plan, but that’s not an option everyone has.
Some were able to be proactive in changing their plans. The Vermont Treasurer’s Office announced Sept. 11 that starting next year, retired teachers receiving health insurance from Vermont Blue Advantage will be covered by equivalent plans from HealthSpring.
The change will impact over 7,000 retirees and beneficiaries in Vermont, says the Treasurer’s Office. The decision came after Vermont Blue Advantage proposed a 50% premium increase in July, and it proved to be a good one as Blue Cross Blue Shield pulled the plan altogether just a few months later.
Other people were not prepared to lose their insurance.
Frankin County resident Barb Fichter has been living in Vermont since 2022 and said it took her a few years to find an Advantage plan she was happy with before choosing Blue Cross Blue Shield’s offering in January 2024.
Now, she’s back to where she started.
“It’s so disconcerting to wade through alternatives, and I fear I may just be on regular Medicare with no prescription drug coverage or dental coverage,” Fichter said. “I’m going to have to weigh out which things I’m going to have to give up because I can’t afford the costs or co-pays.”
When is Medicare open enrollment? Special enrollment if you’re losing coverage?
The annual open enrollment period for choosing new Medicare plans runs from Oct. 15 through Dec. 7. There is a special enrollment period for those who will be losing coverage, allowing them until March 4 to find a new plan.
But as the current plans end by Jan. 1, 2026, people will have a gap in coverage if they wait to sign up for a new one.
Sydney P. Hakes is the Burlington city reporter. Contact her at SHakes@gannett.com.
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