April 6, 2026, 11:13 a.m. ETA judge ordered the release on bond for a man accused of smuggling people into the U.S.Jose Ignacio "Nacho" De La Cruz, an immigration rights activist, was arrested on charges stemming from a February indictment.Prosecutors argued he was a flight risk, while his lawyers noted he remained in Vermont despite knowing of the investigation.A Migrant Justice leader accused of smuggling people into the U.S. was released on bond April 2, as a judge rejected federal prosecutors’ argument that he was a flight risk and should be held without bail.Jose Ignacio "Nacho" De La Cruz, 30, had been in a state prison since March 26 on charges arising from a Feb. 19 indictment and a June 2025 arrest.Judge Kevin Doyle approved the release as long as De La Cruz followed conditions laid out by the court, allowing him to leave Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans, where he’d been held prior to the April 2 hearing.The arrest of De La Cruz, a well-known local immigrant rights activist with Migrant Justice, came soon after the March 11 raid by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in South Burlington. The advocacy group had organized much of the protest over the raid, and its leaders said the timing of De La Cruz's arrest was "no coincidence."“ICE targeted a recognized community leader just weeks after their botched South Burlington raid and ongoing disastrous fallout for the agency,” the group said on social media.ICE officers broke down the door of a Dorset Street home that day with a warrant for a Mexican citizen. They didn't find him and instead detained three immigrants inside the home, all of whom were later released by a judge. The multihour standoff went from protesters singing in a human chain around the home to clashes between people, police and ICE officers, crowds blocking law enforcement vehicles and federal officers setting off flash-bangs.Opposing prosecutors' argument that De La Cruz would flee the country before his next court date, federal public defenders Alejandro Fernandez and Barclay Johnson pointed to the length of time between the June 2025 arrest, the Feb. 19 indictment and the re-arrest a month later.“The government waited some seven months … to even obtain an indictment,” wrote Fernandez and Barclay in an April 1 court document. “It then waited another month before arresting Mr. De La Cruz. Clearly, the government had no actual concern about flight in this case. Instead, it knew exactly where it would be able to find Mr. De La Cruz because he had been released on conditions and was following those conditions.”De La Cruz stayed in Vermont, they said, despite knowing of the ongoing investigation and potential pending charges, which “are not new.”“Had he simply stopped fighting his removal and dropped his efforts to be released, he would almost certainly have been deported before the government charged him with any crime,” they wrote.His effort was a “powerful demonstration of his commitment to staying in Vermont with his family, ” the lawyers wrote.Last June, De La Cruz and his daughter were stopped and detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents for "suspicious border activity," a federal spokesperson would later say. Migrant Justice and De La Cruz have maintained the father and daughter were delivering food to farmworkers at the time.In a motion filed March 26, federal prosecutors requesting his detention said De La Cruz was an “alien smuggler with years of experience moving people into, out of and across the United States without detection.”According to prosecutors, De La Cruz has been in Vermont since 2016 without a visa or work authorization while working in construction and as a farm laborer.He and another defendant, whose name was redacted, were accused of illegally bringing others into the country in April 2025 for “private financial gain,” according to the indictment.Between November 2022 and June 2025, he and others conspired to make fake IDs, which were sent by mail, leading to charges of “interstate and foreign commerce” violations, the indictment says.On April 1, Armando Paulino Estudillo, described by prosecutors as a co-defendant and co-conspirator in the alleged smuggling activity, was arrested and ordered to remain in jail prior to his next hearing. Federal authorities said Estudillo was also in the country illegallyCorey Arwood is the Burlington Free Press city reporter and can be reached by email at CLArwood@gannett.com.