13 Vermonters Arrested at ICE Surveillance Hub

They sat in at ICE's intelligence nerve center. The youngest was 21. The oldest was 85. Vermont State Police hauled them out.

TL;DR: On February 10, 2026, Vermont State Police arrested 11 people and cited 2 more on trespassing charges after they refused to leave an office building in Williston that houses ICE's National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center: the intelligence hub that packages surveillance data for all 25 of ICE's field offices nationwide. The protesters, ages 21 to 85, demanded the landlord cancel ICE's lease. This was the second sit-in at the facility in two weeks, and the first to end in arrests. The NCAT center is where ICE plans to station a dozen analysts for 24/7 social media monitoring.

What Happened

Around 1 p.m. on Monday, roughly 25 to 30 people walked into White Cap Business Park in Williston, Vermont, a quiet office complex 15 minutes outside Burlington. They sat down in the building that houses ICE's National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center. They sang. They spoke about people killed by ICE in recent weeks. They asked the landlord to end the lease [1][2].

The property manager asked them to leave. They didn't. Williston police showed up but took no action. Then Vermont State Police arrived, issued a dispersal order, and warned that anyone who stayed would be arrested [3].

Twelve people walked out. Thirteen stayed.

Douglas Smith, 85, of Sharon. Karen Bixler, 83, of Bethel. Henry Prensky, 79, of Burlington. Revell Allen, 75, of Middlebury. Donald Kollisch, 74, of Hanover. Laura Simon, 72, of White River Junction. Timothy Price, 71, of Ripton. Dorothy Mammen, 70, of Middlebury. Sherri Wormser, 57, of Colchester. Peter Booth, 57, of Jericho. Jennifer Wasiura, 46, of Weybridge. And two others cited and released [4][5].

All 13 face criminal trespassing charges. Arraignment is set for March 2 in Burlington [4].

"They're killing people, they're breaking up families, they're disrupting communities," said Laura Simon [6].

What's Inside That Building

This isn't just some random ICE office. The National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center is the intelligence nerve center for ICE's deportation machine. Federal records and reporting by Wired, The New Republic, and the Boston Globe describe a facility that:

  • Packages intelligence for all 25 of ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations field offices across the country [7]
  • Compiles biographical information, criminal history, immigration history, custody data, and vehicle and insurance records on targets [7]
  • Queries commercial data brokers on a weekly basis for information the government can't collect itself [7]
  • Has accessed IRS data since April 2025, through a memorandum of understanding signed by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent [7]

And it's about to get bigger.

In October 2025, Wired reported that ICE planned to hire a dozen open-source intelligence analysts at the Williston facility to scour social media 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, looking for information to target immigrants for deportation [8][9]. Separately, ICE signed a $5.7 million contract with Zignal Labs for AI-powered social media surveillance analyzing 8 billion posts per day, and a $4.2 million deal with Fivecast for its ONYX tool to scan social media, the dark web, and online marketplaces [10].

All of that intelligence flows through facilities like the one these Vermonters sat down in.

The Second Time in Two Weeks

This wasn't the first action at White Cap Business Park. In late January, about a dozen residents, many of them elderly, walked into the same building and staged a sit-in. That time, nobody was arrested [3].

Protests at the site go back further. In October 2025, more than 100 people rallied outside the facility after the Wired report revealed the social media surveillance expansion plans [11]. Activists have been pressuring the building's landlord to terminate ICE's lease ever since.

"We just wanted to show what people are able to do," said community organizer Julie Macuga [3].

Counterprotesters also showed up Monday around 4 p.m. "It's important to keep our country safe and secure," said Orison Brown, a Shelburne resident [6].

Why Vermont?

There's something about ICE running a mass surveillance operation from one of America's bluest states that reads like satire. Williston is 15 minutes from Bernie Sanders' Burlington headquarters. Vermont has some of the strongest pro-immigrant local policies in the country.

But ICE has been in Williston for years. The New Republic called the facility a "deportation nerve center" [7]. Along with the NCAT, ICE runs a separate Homeland Security Investigations tip line operation at the same business park that's planning to hire 100 new employees: 90 call center analysts and 10 supervisors [7].

The facility is largely unmarked. You wouldn't know it was there unless you were looking for it. Which is part of the point.

The Surveillance Backdrop

The Williston arrests come during one of the most aggressive periods of federal immigration surveillance in recent memory:

  • ICE's Mobile Fortify app lets agents scan faces in the field using a 1.2 billion-image database. Agents have been photographed scanning faces at protests in Minnesota [12].
  • Operation Metro Surge has deployed thousands of agents across Minneapolis, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, and Denver, with over 3,000 arrests [13].
  • On February 5, the ICE Out of Our Faces Act was introduced in Congress to ban ICE and CBP from using facial recognition entirely [14].
  • On the same day, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu signed an executive order banning ICE from city property and ordering release of surveillance footage showing federal agent conduct [15].

The protesters in Williston sat down inside the building that feeds intelligence to all of it.

What Happens Now

The 13 face arraignment on March 2 in Chittenden County court. Chittenden County State's Attorney Sarah George declined to comment on the charges [4].

Vermont State Police said they "respect the right of people to protest" but that "private building owners also have the right to restrict people from their property" [3].

Organizers say this won't be the last action. The Central Vermont Refugee Action Network and other groups have called for sustained pressure on the landlord. Roan Wade, a Dartmouth student who participated, said the goal is disruption: "By disrupting just a couple hours of work... we hope that a few fewer people will not be detained" [6].

An 85-year-old man got arrested to make that point. Whether the landlord listens is another question.

References

  1. Vermont Public: 11 protesters arrested at ICE surveillance facility in Williston (February 10, 2026)
  2. VTDigger: 11 arrested during ICE protest at Williston business park (February 10, 2026)
  3. WBUR: Vermont State Police arrest protesters at ICE surveillance facility in Williston (February 10, 2026)
  4. WCAX: Police arrest protesters during sit-in at Williston DHS facility (February 10, 2026)
  5. Boston Globe: 11 protesters arrested in Vermont after they refuse to leave ICE surveillance center (February 10, 2026)
  6. CT Public: Vermont State Police arrest protesters at ICE office in Williston (February 10, 2026)
  7. The New Republic: ICE Runs Its Mass Deportation Machine From America's Bluest State
  8. Engadget: ICE is planning to create a surveillance team that hunts for leads on social media (October 2025)
  9. Seven Days Vermont: ICE Plans to Surveil Social Media From a Vermont Office (October 2025)
  10. Democracy Now: ICE Bolstering Social Media Surveillance Nationwide (October 8, 2025)
  11. VTDigger: Over 100 protest ICE surveillance plans at Williston intelligence hub (October 12, 2025)
  12. NBC News: How ICE agents are using facial recognition technology to bring surveillance to the streets (February 2026)
  13. Wikipedia: Operation Metro Surge
  14. State of Surveillance: The ICE Out of Our Faces Act Would Ban Federal Face Scanning
  15. State of Surveillance: Cities Fight Back: Boston's ICE Surveillance Footage Order