On Feb. 9, after declining to leave an office building in Williston, Vt. that houses Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center, 11 people, including Roan Wade ’25 and Geisel School of Medicine professor Donald Kollisch, were arrested on misdemeanor trespassing charges.
The NCATC “analyzes data in numerous law enforcement and immigration databases to develop leads on removable noncitizens” according to ICE’s website. A separate office in Williston houses a separate ICE facility, the Law Enforcement Support Center, which coordinates efforts with local law enforcement.
In interviews with The Dartmouth, Wade and Kollisch said the protests were organized by a group of Upper Valley activists without a name or organizational structure. Both of them said they knew others in the group from past activism.
Wade said the goal of the sit-in was to “raise awareness” about a facility that is “doing the most direct, concrete work for ICE” and is located “just a little over an hour away from” Hanover.
“There’s this misconception that New England is somehow spared from the violence that ICE is committing,” Wade said.
Around 25 protesters attended, according to Vermont Public. The group entered the building at 1:30 p.m., and Vermont State Police arrived an hour and a half later and gave protesters two opportunities to leave before making arrests, according to Kollisch. Thirteen stayed inside, two of whom were given citations and the rest were arrested.
Wade said the group read the names of “dozens of people” who were “killed by the horrific violence ICE has been perpetuating across this country.”
Wade, who is currently taking an off-term, said they are unsure how this arrest will affect their enrollment at the College. Wade was previously arrested in October 2023 for participating in a pro-Palestinian encampment on the front lawn of Parkhurst Hall. They were suspended in May 2025 following a pro-Palestinian sit-in in Parkhurst earlier that month, preventing their graduation last spring. Wade said they are on “indefinite probation.”
“My status with the College is always up in the air because of the disciplinary action I’ve received,” Wade said. “The College has made clear that they will subject me to further punishment, but … I feel the need to put all of my time and energy into trying to reduce harm in any way that I can, even if that makes it so it takes me a little bit longer to graduate.”
College spokesperson Jana Barnello declined to comment.
Kollisch said he was inspired to protest the facility because of recent ICE detainments in New England. On Feb. 4, Vermont Public reported that Steven Tendo, Vermont resident and asylum-seeker from Uganda, was arrested by ICE and is still being detained.
“There are people who desperately needed to come here, because they were in danger in their home countries,” Kollisch said. “Their only crime is that they’re here. These people would be brutalized and deported off into a country different from the one that they originally came from. So I said to myself, ‘Somebody’s got to call attention to the fact that some of the people that are doing that are right here in our community.’”
Wade said there was a 65-year age range between the group.
“It’s a privilege and honor to be arrested alongside community elders who’ve been doing this work for decades,” Wade said.
Kollisch said he is not worried about any professional repercussions from being arrested, although he said he will have to report the arrest to medical licensing boards in New Hampshire and Vermont.
“All of these people being accosted by ICE don’t have the security that I have,” he said. “So if somebody’s going to get arrested, it should be me.”
The protesters’ arraignment is scheduled for March 2, according to the VSP press release. Chittenden county prosecutor Sarah George declined to comment.
Iris WeaverBell ’28 is a senior news reporter, writing about free speech at the College. She is from Portland, Ore., and is majoring in economics and minoring in public policy.
