Senate adopts amended bill directing model school protocols for encounters with immigration enforcement

The Senate on the floor adopted an amendment to S227 and passed the bill creating state-directed model protocols for how school officials should respond when immigration enforcement appears on campus.

The amendment, reported by the senator from Chittenton Southeast, adds a change requiring that, in one specified instance, an immigration enforcement officer provide official identification and a judicial warrant before taking certain actions. The amendment also struck statutory language that would have prohibited school officials from obstructing immigration enforcement and instead directed the development of a model policy with best practices for situations when officers access non-public areas without immediate identification or a warrant, the senator said.

The reporting senator described committee discussion about the word "obstruct" and said the committee sought to avoid criminalizing common protective actions by school staff. "We talked about what obstruct could mean, whether it's locking doors and going into other protocols, short of essentially trying to get in a physical altercation with law enforcement that could cause more harm," the senator from Chittenton Southeast said.

Senators raised clarifying questions about the amendment's phrasing; the senator from Rutland asked whether a conjunction should be "and" or "or" in a key sentence referencing identification and a warrant. The floor clarified that the amendment's language allows procedures to address situations when an officer presents identification but not a warrant, presents a warrant but not identification, or presents neither, so different procedures may be appropriate in different scenarios.

The chamber adopted the committee amendment by voice vote and passed S227 as amended.

The bill now directs the relevant education authorities to develop model policies and procedures, and it asks the Senate to support the committee's approach that emphasizes due diligence and school safety while providing guidance for staff confronted by immigration enforcement. The Senate then moved on to other business.