ICE rammed Vermont home on mistaken identity, detained three innocent immigrants whose subsequent detentions courts ruled unlawful

On March 11, 2026, ICE agents engaged in a car chase in South Burlington, Vermont, after identifying a man they believed to be Deyvi Daniel Corona-Sanchez — a Mexican citizen they were seeking to apprehend — as the driver of a vehicle on Dorset Street. ICE claimed the suspect struck an unmarked ICE vehicle and another car before fleeing on foot into a home on Dorset Street. After obtaining a search warrant, agents wrenched activists who had gathered at the front steps away from the door and rammed through it. Corona-Sanchez was not inside. Instead, agents detained three other immigrant residents who were in the home.

Federal and immigration judges independently reviewed the detentions and ruled all three unlawful, ordering the men released. ICE did not correct its public account of the operation following the court rulings. On March 24, however, ICE agent Colton Riley filed a revised criminal complaint that acknowledged a significant factual revision: the agency no longer believed Corona-Sanchez had been in the pursued vehicle at all. One of the men detained in the raid — Christian Jerez Andrade — had told the FBI that he was the actual driver of the car ICE had chased. The identity error that precipitated the entire operation had been disclosed, but ICE had not issued a public correction.

The raid sparked an hours-long confrontation between ICE agents and activists outside the Dorset Street home, involving mutual accusations between state and local police and federal agents over the handling of the standoff. Vermont law enforcement and local officials had objected to the raid's planning and execution before and during the operation. The whereabouts of Corona-Sanchez — the man ICE was actually seeking — remained unknown after the revised complaint was filed.

Updates

2026-03-11 — Agents pepper-sprayed, flashbanged 200+ crowd; one discharged weapon [3, 4]

Federal agents deployed pepper spray and flashbang devices against a crowd of more than 200 people who had gathered outside the Dorset Street home during the day-long standoff, and one agent tripped and accidentally discharged a service weapon while inside the house. Senators Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch and Representative Becca Balint called the agents' conduct "irresponsible, reckless and unprofessional"; Republican Governor Phil Scott called it "totally unnecessary" and cited "a lack of training, coordination, leadership, and outdated tactics." Local officials said they were separately reviewing whether a Burlington police officer used excessive force against a protester and whether Vermont State Police violated the state's Fair and Impartial Policing policy by assisting the operation.

2026-04-17 — Released police reviews found ICE pushed ahead despite repeated objections from local and state officials [2]

Two police reviews released in April 2026 — one from South Burlington and one from state authorities — documented that ICE agents pushed ahead with the high-risk Dorset Street operation despite repeated warnings and objections from local and state law enforcement, and without adequate coordinated planning. The South Burlington report detailed a fraught exchange during the operation underscoring the pushback Vermont officials faced when raising safety concerns with federal agents.