This article was updated on January 7 to include comments from a representative of the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office.

Student activist Sherrie André will stand before the New Bedford District Court on January 7 on trial for charges related to a protest outside the Bristol County House of Corrections in August 2018.

André is one of four protesters arrested during the demonstration, in which members of the FANG Collective chained and cemented themselves to the Faunce Corner Road facility’s gates.

Two protesters, including André — one of the FANG Collective’s co-founders — also perched on 26-foot tripods to block entrances and exits to the jail.

The collective was taking action against the 287(g) agreement between the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which allows the sheriff’s officers to act as federal immigration agents.

An ICE detention facility is also located on the site.

During the protest, officers “took down my co-activist’s tripod first, and I watched them completely pull the poles out from under her and slam her body to the ground,” said André. “She hit her head on the pavement...And then they proceeded to take me down after I saw them do that to her.”

However, Sheriff’s Office spokesman Jonathan Darling stated that officers did not slam protesters to the ground.

“This was serious action that disrupted jail operations by blocking visitor and first responder access to the Bristol County correctional facility and ICE detention center, and resulted in hours of work by Dartmouth Police, Fire and BCSO officers to restore normal operations and access to the complex,” Darling noted in a written statement. “The court system will decide the penalty, if any, for this individual, as the system has already for the others who were arrested that day and found guilty of violating the law.”

Those arrested at the protest were charged with trespassing, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and disturbing the peace.

Three of the protesters took plea deals; two served ten days each in the jail last summer, and one was ordered to pay $3,000 in restitution for lost time and was given a suspended sentence of one year.

But André decided to contest the charges.

“We all decided to do the things that felt best to us based on our conditions,” André said, noting that the other protesters were charged with crimes like resisting arrest, which could have kept them in jail for up to two and a half years.

André’s charges of trespassing and disturbing the peace, on the other hand, carry a maximum sentence of 30 days and a $150 fine. 

“For me, it felt like another opportunity to continue to fight,” they said. “[I think] the judges were jumping to conclusions and making assumptions about what actually happened that day. A lot of them accused us of blocking traffic on Faunce Corner Road...Which is not true.”

André said the trial was also a way to continue to bring attention to the jail and Bristol County’s 287(g) agreement, as well as Sheriff Hodgson.

“His power in making decisions over what happens in that facility ultimately impacts people outside of Massachusetts, not just those within Bristol County,” André said.

André grew up between Providence and Warren, RI, living in New Bedford while attending classes at UMass Dartmouth. 

The student has seen first-hand how undocumented people from Providence and other local communities are sent to the Dartmouth facility.

“My family is from Puerto Rico and Thailand and we feel those impacts intergenerationally,” André noted. “If someone in my family were to be detained, that’s where they would be brought.”

“I’m definitely worried about my neighbors and my friends and my friends relatives,” they added.

Among André’s concerns, of course, is the possible outcome of the upcoming trial. 

But the philosophy student is taking it philosophically. 

“No one wants to go to jail,” André said. “Jail is not meant to be comfortable. It’s meant to be a punishment...If that’s the punishment that I am given then that’s what will happen.”

“I’m just trying so hard to just focus on the reasons why I’m going through this process,” said André. “And just hope that it’s an educational moment.”

“I have the opportunity to bear witness to how messed up the system is,” they added.