Vermont’s Republican governor tried to focus his weekly briefing on tax relief proposals. But Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, activity is overshadowing his legislative proposals.
Governor Phil Scott opened his weekly briefing Wednesday emphasizing that lawmakers must focus on affordability, especially with the session now past its halfway mark. He reviewed a set of tax relief proposals his administration has presented to the Legislature.
“They include things like exempting the tax on military pensions, reducing the Social Security tax burden, expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit and expanding the Child Tax Credit which we believe will help reverse the demographic trends we’re seeing,” Scott said.
Scott’s plan to focus on tax relief proposals was sidelined as most questions turned to federal interactions with the state.
A widely viewed video shows a Tufts University student from Turkey being taken into custody by masked ICE agents in Massachusetts. Court documents now show that she had been moved to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Vermont before a judge issued an order to keep her in Massachusetts. After spending a night at the facility, she was flown from Burlington to Louisiana.
Governor Scott was quizzed about how much he knew about the student’s federal detention in Vermont.
“I wasn’t aware until this morning that that individual was brought to Vermont and I don’t believe they were brought for detention in the traditional sense. I think brought to the ICE office, possibly in St. Albans. So I don’t know much more about it than that. I wasn’t made aware,” Scott maintained. “This is a federal office and something that the federal government has control over. We don’t have control over what they do there. But I’ve been fairly clear in terms of what I believe: those who are here peacefully we should just leave them be. “
Scott said he did see the video of the student as she was detained.
“We should be ashamed that we’ve come to this level. We might not agree, all of us agree, with what she was saying but that’s a right in our country and this person should be allowed to do that. It’s a Constitutional right. I think they’re stretching the limits in this case and probably other cases as well,” remarked Scott.
Questions also turned to tariffs. Scott said if the federal administration has issues with trade, it should renegotiate the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, which was signed by President Trump during his first term.
“I’m not a big fan of tariffs. We obviously have a right to defend ourselves in some respects in a trade situation, a trade war. But we started this one,” Scott notes. “If they want to do something in terms of adding tariffs just open the agreement back up. Negotiate with Canada. Negotiate with Mexico. A broad assault on our friends to the north and south is counterintuitive to me. So in that regard I think his rhetoric is hurting our economy at this point.”
A plan to address homelessness with funding for a hotel-motel voucher program is working through the legislature. Scott said he is concerned about increased funding but there are some good provisions, adding it is too early to discuss whether he will veto or sign the measure.
