Governor Scott Calls South Burlington ICE Operation “Totally Unnecessary” as It Emerges the Target Was Never in the House
"It’s examples like this that further divide communities and law enforcement and result in more harm being done than good.” - Governor Phil Scott
The federal immigration enforcement action that convulsed a South Burlington neighborhood for nine hours Wednesday — triggering a car chase near two schools, a standoff with hundreds of protesters, and a violent dispersal involving flash-bang grenades and pepper spray — was built on faulty surveillance. The man ICE was looking for was never in the home agents ultimately broke down the door to enter.
Three people unconnected to the warrant are now sitting in Vermont correctional facilities, with no criminal charges filed against any of them.
On Thursday morning, Governor Phil Scott issued a statement calling the operation “totally unnecessary” and citing what he described as a “lack of training, coordination, leadership, and outdated tactics” by federal officials.
“The actions of federal law enforcement, from outside the state yesterday, further demonstrates a lack of training, coordination, leadership, and outdated tactics which put both peaceful protesters and Vermont law enforcement in a difficult situation,” Scott said.
The statement, notable coming from a Republican governor during the second Trump administration, offered pointed praise for the Vermont officers who were drawn into a federal operation they had not been told was coming — and an equally pointed rebuke of the federal agents who ran it.
“I want to be clear,” Scott said. “How the events concluded, and the tactics deployed by federal officials, as well as actions of those there to agitate, further escalated a situation that was avoidable from the start. It’s examples like this that further divide communities and law enforcement and result in more harm being done than good.”
Scott said he had already met with legislative leadership Thursday morning and planned to meet with members of Vermont’s federal delegation and their staff in the afternoon.
What went wrong
Wednesday’s events began when ICE deportation officer Colton Riley, based out of the agency’s St. Albans field office, was conducting surveillance on a Dorset Street address around 7:30 a.m. He observed two men get into a Toyota Camry. He ran the plates and found the vehicle registered to Deyvi Daniel Corona-Sanchez — a Mexican national who had been deported in 2022 after being found crossing the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, Texas in 2021, and who federal prosecutors allege subsequently reentered the United States illegally. The driver, Riley wrote in his affidavit, resembled a photograph he had reviewed from a prior immigration interaction.
That identification was wrong. According to a U.S. Department of Justice statement, Corona-Sanchez was the previous owner of the vehicle. He was not the driver. He was not in the car. He was not in the home. Federal authorities say he remains at large and is still being sought on the illegal reentry charge.
When Riley and other ICE agents attempted to box in the Camry in a nearby parking lot, the driver rammed an agent’s vehicle and fled — driving through a wooded area near South Burlington High School and Tuttle Middle School during the morning commute, entering oncoming traffic, and crashing into a civilian’s car before abandoning the vehicle on foot and entering a home at 337 Dorset Street. The passenger in the car was a teenage boy who is an American citizen. He was inside the home when agents eventually entered but was not detained.
The South Burlington Police Department was not notified of the federal operation and learned of it only when 911 calls came in reporting the crash.
Three detained, none charged
After a nearly nine-hour standoff — during which a crowd of roughly 150 to 200 protesters surrounded the home, federal agents waited for a criminal warrant signed by a judge, and a 3-year-old child was helped from the building through a human corridor formed by demonstrators — Vermont State Police tactical officers cleared protesters from the entrance and federal agents broke down the front door.
When they came out approximately 20 minutes later, they had three people in custody: Camila Patin-Patin, 20, and Jissela Patin-Patin, 31, both Ecuadoran nationals who have applied for asylum in the United States, and Christian Humberto Jerez-Andrade, 31, from Honduras. All three are currently being held in Vermont correctional facilities. None have been charged with a crime.
Rachel Elliott, an organizer with Migrant Justice, said of Corona-Sanchez: “He was never present on the scene or the driver of the vehicle at the time of the accident. He was not there for any of this. He was not in that house.”
A neighbor had previously told Vermont Public that an Ecuadoran family with two children had lived at the address for roughly a year. The relationship between the home’s occupants and the Mexican national named in the federal warrant has not been publicly established.
“Not how we would do things”
South Burlington Police Chief William Breault held a press conference Wednesday night at City Hall alongside Burlington Police Chief Shawn Burke and Vermont State Police Tactical Services Unit Commander Capt. Michael Filipek. In his Thursday statement, Governor Scott also noted that the Williston Police Department had assisted at the scene — an additional detail beyond what had been previously reported by local outlets. None of the three agencies represented at the press conference had been told the operation was coming.
Breault was unsparing. He criticized what he called the federal agents’ “poor decision making and planning,” questioned whether the vehicle pursuit down a busy commuter corridor near two schools during morning drop-off was “fully necessary,” and said he raised those concerns directly with federal officials during the standoff. They were ignored.
“When we got involved, this ball was already put in motion by some of their poor decision-making and planning,” Breault said. “Given the size of the crowd and given the potential for additional safety concerns, there should have been potentially more thought given to, was taking this person into custody at this moment fully necessary? Or could that have been done through other investigative means?”
Despite his objections, Breault said he felt state and local officers needed to remain on scene to protect protesters and ensure that agents could execute what was, by that point, a valid criminal warrant signed by a federal judge.
“Our local partners and the South Burlington Police Department simply ensured that people had the right to peacefully protest and that those federal agents could do their job safely,” he said.
Breault invited federal agencies to attend the press conference. They declined.
Vermont State Police confirmed that no chemical agents, less-lethal munitions, or flash-bang devices were deployed by state or local officers — all such force came from federal agents.
The legal and policy context
South Burlington’s Fair and Impartial Policing Policy — a ten-page department policy in place since 2024 — prohibits officers from assisting ICE unless federal agents present a criminal warrant signed by a judge. The South Burlington City Council passed a resolution on February 2, 2026 formally condemning ICE and Border Patrol enforcement and practices. Both policy positions held Wednesday: local officers did not participate in the immigration enforcement action itself.
The warrant at the center of the operation was a criminal warrant — for illegal reentry under federal law, signed by Magistrate Judge Kevin Doyle — rather than an administrative warrant, which carries no judicial authority to compel entry into a home. ICE frequently relies on administrative warrants signed only by agency officials. In May 2025, acting ICE Director Todd Lyons signed an internal memo asserting that administrative warrants are sufficient to force home entry, a position a federal judge in Minnesota rejected in January 2026. In the South Burlington case, agents waited nine hours for judicial authorization before proceeding — a delay that, given Thursday’s revelations, may have rested on an affidavit describing a person who was not who agents believed him to be.
ICE has not responded to requests for comment. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Vermont has not issued a statement. No federal official has publicly addressed how the misidentification occurred or what review, if any, is underway.
Sources: Office of Governor Phil Scott; U.S. Department of Justice; federal court filings, U.S. District Court of Vermont; South Burlington Police Department; Vermont Public; WCAX; MyChamplainValley; The Other Paper; The Boston Globe; Migrant Justice; South Burlington city website.