Organizers said about a dozen people were arrested Friday morning at ICE’s National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center.

Police arrested a group of protesters at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement surveillance office in Williston on Friday morning. The group intended to block ICE employees from accessing the facility by sitting or standing in front of its entrances, according to protest organizers.

Julie Macuga, one of the organizers, said 13 people were taken into custody, most of whom came to the demonstration expecting to be arrested. State and local police carried several protesters out of an east-facing entrance to the building around 10 a.m.

Macuga said demonstrators gathered at the office, which has been the site of similar demonstrations and arrests, around 7:30 a.m. Friday.

Vermont State Police had not publicly identified those arrested as of midday Friday or what charges they might be facing. Macuga and other organizers described the protest as a response, among other reasons, to the shooting deaths by ICE agents earlier this month in Maine and Texas.

The Williston facility, which is in the White Cap Business Park off Industrial Avenue, houses ICE’s National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center. Data collected at the office from publicly available sources, such as social media feeds, help ICE officers throughout the eastern U.S. know whom to arrest, according to federal records.

Several demonstrators Friday said that in addition to hindering the office’s operations, they wanted to draw more public attention to that work.

Video of the Protest