Vermont Prosecutor Refuses to Charge ICE Protesters — Chittenden County State's Attorney Escalates Feud with State Police, Governor Over Dropped Charges at South Burlington ICE Surveillance Center

A Boston Globe investigation published May 22, 2026 reported that Chittenden County State's Attorney Sarah George has repeatedly declined to prosecute protesters arrested at ICE facilities in South Burlington, Vermont, generating an escalating public confrontation with state law enforcement and the governor. A May 14, 2026 incident at the South Burlington surveillance center involved approximately 20 protesters blocking ICE employees from entering the building; George subsequently declined to charge them — continuing a pattern she established in April when she dropped charges against six individuals arrested in a prior protest at the same site. George publicly stated that some officers also 'agitated and escalated' the confrontations in ways she found 'unacceptable,' creating a two-sided accountability issue rather than a simple enforcement decision. Vermont Governor Phil Scott and Public Safety Commissioner Jennifer Morrison publicly criticized George's decisions, arguing that her approach undermines law enforcement authority and the rule of law. State police threatened to bypass the Chittenden County State's Attorney entirely and route future cases directly to the Vermont Attorney General. The South Burlington ICE facility is a surveillance and data operations center supporting immigration enforcement across Vermont and New England. The confrontation highlights the tension between local prosecutorial discretion and federal immigration enforcement priorities playing out across the country, including in jurisdictions where locally elected prosecutors have declined to cooperate with ICE enforcement operations on principle.