On January 1st, 25-year-old dairy worker Francisco Rosendo Casarrubias was walking down a Vermont county road towards his farm to start his first milking shift of the year.  A Border Patrol truck happened to be driving past, and agents trailed Francisco to his barn, where they arrested him without even asking his name. Their justification? Because Francisco was "wearing a backpack," they suspected that he had just crossed the border from Canada.

Francisco immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico with a visa earlier this year. He was unable to renew his visa when it expired, but he stayed in Vermont milking cows because it was the only way to continue to provide for his family in Mexico. Now instead of supporting his family and the state's dairy industry -- which is overwhelmingly reliant on immigrant workers like himself -- Francisco is being detained on $14,000 bail and is at risk of being deported.

Border Patrol's detention of Francisco is part of a disturbing trend of increased arrests of farmworkers and other immigrant workers living in the country. In the Border Patrol sector encompassing Vermont, arrests increased by over 50% between 2016 and 2017, despite the fact that the number of people arrested actually crossing the border significantly declined. In real numbers, that means hundreds of our immigrant neighbors being swept up and deported over the last year.  Border Patrol calls this "a more proactive enforcement posture."  We call it the harassment and persecution of immigrant workers.

Tell Immigration and Customs Enforcement that you oppose this unjust arrest and demand freedom for Francisco!