Protesters lie in front of ICE vehicle after South Burlington raid, Vermont, United States.
NEWS:
Protesters lay down in front of an ICE vehicle during a chaotic immigration standoff in South Burlington, Vermont, on March 11, after federal agents removed detainees from a house on Dorset Street and tried to leave the area. The scene, which unfolded over several hours and ended with chemical irritants, flash-bang devices and arrests, quickly became one of the most closely watched immigration confrontations in the state in recent years.
The video that circulated from the scene shows demonstrators deliberately dropping into the roadway in front of a departing ICE vehicle. As the transport vehicle tries to move through the street, several protesters remain on the pavement directly in its path while officers and other demonstrators cluster around it. The footage captures a moment of physical obstruction, not a brief stand on the roadside. It shows people using their bodies to delay the vehicle’s exit as the standoff spills into the street.
That confrontation came at the end of a day that began shortly before 00:7:40 a.m., when federal authorities tried to take a man into custody in South Burlington. Vermont State Police later said the man fled in a vehicle, struck several other vehicles and then ran into a building at 337 Dorset Street. As word of the federal action spread, protesters gathered outside the property, and the crowd grew throughout the day.
Authorities later said a federal criminal arrest warrant and a federal search warrant were obtained for the house. State police said federal agents ordered the crowd to disperse and then asked for assistance after people refused to move. Vermont’s Critical Action Team helped clear a path so federal officers could reach the residence. Federal agents then forced entry into the home and took people inside into custody.
But the operation did not unfold the way authorities had initially believed it would. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont said the man federal agents were seeking, Deyvi Daniel Corona-Sanchez, was not found inside the house. Prosecutors said he is a Mexican citizen who was previously removed from the United States in 2022 and is now charged by criminal complaint with illegal reentry. Court records cited by federal officials say immigration authorities learned he had returned to the country after a January 2026 DUI arrest in Middlebury. Officials also said the arrest warrant for him remains active.
That detail matters because it separates the verified outcome of the raid from the claim that the departing vehicle was carrying the original target. What is confirmed is that ICE removed three people from the home, and that protesters then rushed into Dorset Street to stop law enforcement vehicles from leaving. Multiple official and local accounts describe the same end stage of the confrontation: a street blockade, physical clashes, and escalating force as officers tried to drive out.
The video evidence aligns with those accounts. It shows demonstrators turning the roadway itself into the final point of resistance. Rather than simply chanting or standing near the curb, some of them place themselves flat on the pavement in front of the transport vehicle. Others crowd around the SUV, narrowing the space around it and forcing a stop-and-go departure. The conduct visible in the footage is deliberate and coordinated enough to leave little doubt about what the protesters were trying to do, prevent the vehicle from moving freely away from the scene.
By evening, the confrontation had broadened beyond the doorway of the house. After ICE took three people into custody, demonstrators surged into the street to block the vehicles, while tactical officers stood face to face with the crowd. State police later said protesters pushed and spat on officers, hurled debris that included bottles, umbrellas and rocks, and rocked police vehicles. The agency also said one trooper used irritant spray after a person smashed a window and tried to get into a departing state police van.
State police cited three people on disorderly conduct charges. Additional video and scene reporting documented officers dragging or throwing some demonstrators to the ground as the street confrontations intensified. Federal agents, not local or state police, were identified by authorities as the officers who deployed flash-bang devices and chemical agents to disperse the crowd and clear the last remaining vehicle from Dorset Street.
The aftermath has triggered sharp scrutiny in Vermont, not only over the immigration operation itself but also over the tactics used in a busy neighborhood near schools and homes. Gov. Phil Scott described the federal action as totally unnecessary, while South Burlington Police Chief William Breault publicly criticized how the operation had been carried out. Those responses added another layer to a case that had already drawn statewide attention because of the images from the street.
For readers watching the video alongside this story, the core fact is straightforward. The footage captures protesters intentionally lying in front of an ICE vehicle during the South Burlington operation. The broader verified record shows that this happened after federal agents entered the Dorset Street home, detained people inside and attempted to leave through a crowd that had already spent hours resisting the operation. What remains under review are the legal consequences for individual protesters, the conduct of different law enforcement agencies at the scene, and the continuing federal effort to locate the man named in the criminal complaint.
In search terms likely to matter most to American readers, this was a South Burlington ICE protest that turned into a street-level blockade during a Vermont immigration raid. The video does not support vague descriptions of chaos alone. It shows a specific act, protesters using their bodies to obstruct a law enforcement vehicle, and that is the central event that pushed this local operation into a national political conversation.
News story written by Tifa Winters.
