WILLISTON, Vt. — The Williston Selectboard agreed Wednesday night to sign a letter to Vermont's congressional delegation about the federal immigration facilities in the area, after a resident said earlier oversight efforts have produced no public answers.

Board members reviewed the letter, which had been circulated to members and posted for public view, and said all five would sign it. "I don't think we need a motion or a resolution or anything," one member said. "As as lawyers say, the document speaks for itself."

Another member said the letter struck "the right amount of uh assertiveness" in getting the board's message across.

Resident: oversight letter kept private

During discussion, a longtime Burlington resident told the board he had spoken before about "this community's concern about the three national ice facilities here uh that support and direct ice field work nationwide." He thanked the board for a resolution it passed in January and for inviting the Department of Homeland Security to speak at its previous meeting.

He said a small group has met monthly since early this year with a senior member of Sen. Peter Welch's staff, pressing for in-person, pre-announced congressional oversight visits to all the facilities, and that what has happened "has fallen short of that ask."

He said the group was told in May that the offices of Rep. Becca Balint and Sens. Bernie Sanders and Welch sent a joint oversight letter to ICE about the National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center, and that ICE responded late in the summer. But he said neither the letter nor the response has been made public, citing a reason he said Sanders' office gave: "they do not want to put somebody who provided information at risk."

"We still don't know what questions were asked of ICE nor what their responses were," he said.

A board member said the questions in the town's letter would cover that ground, and another stressed the delegation should "share the information with us, not just do this."