Granola Bar Trial Cancelled – Charges Dismissed

In September of 2025, three activists including Nastasia Lawton-Sticklor, and Nathan Phillips, attempted to deliver baskets of food to people being detained in the ICE Boston Field Office in Burlington.

The ICE facility had been the site of numerous protests in the past and is one of the many “hold rooms” where ICE has been illegally holding people well beyond 72 hour limit for these facilities. The Burlington location has also been cited for zoning violations, and shortly before their action local reporters had covered the lack of safe, edible food at the facility.

Even though they did not enter the facility or obstruct others from coming and going, and even though they were responding to a well reported problem (the lack of food in a facility not designed or permitted to operate as a detention center), ICE agents insisted that local police arrest and remove the protestors. Two of the activists — Nastasia and Nathan — were subsequently charged with trespass in the Woburn District Court. On August 19, the day of their trial readiness hearing, and two days after the defense filed its witness list, the Commonwealth dropped the charges and canceled the trial.

Instead of spending her Wednesday in a courtroom, Nastasia Lawton-Sticklor will be speaking at the Bearing Witness Standout at the ICE facility at 1000 District Ave, Burlington, MA 01803, on Wednesday August 26 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Reporters and supporters looking to learn more and connect on next steps are encouraged to join us. Please check the Bearing Witness website for logistical information if you haven’t attended before.

“In her letter notifying me that my charge was being dropped, the District Attorney stated that “it is in the interest of justice not to go forward with a criminal prosecution.” I agree. But justice isn’t served solely by dismissing our case. Justice is a world where every family lives freely and joyfully without fear. Justice is a world where not one person knows the horrors of being isolated inside the Burlington ICE field office, or any facility,” said defendant Nastasia Lawton-Sticklor, a mother of two from Leominster, Massachusetts. “Every one of us has the power to say no. To say no to cruelty, no to abuse of power. Let us all continue to say no and work towards the interest of true justice.”

The defendants had just submitted a list of witnesses to the court, showing they were prepared to prove conditions inside the Burlington MA facility were dangerous, and that their actions were moral, measured, and lawful.

The defendants further intended to use the trial to vigorously defend their right to render aid to neighbors, and to speak out and protest in nonviolent assemblies that challenge federal immigration policy. To prove this to a jury of their peers, they had assembled a diverse community of neighbors, lawyers, activists, and experts for a trial that could have national implications given the prevalence of similar hold rooms around the country and the Trump Administration’s ongoing attempts to criminalize protest.

“We were prepared to go to trial using a necessity defense,” said defendant Nathan Phillips, a professor and father of two from Newton, Massachusetts. He continued, ”We were compelled to take direct action to aid mistreated neighbors because all reasonable legal avenues failed. And repeatedly, this very court helped make that case for us, for example by being unable to compel ICE to produce evidence that would exonerate us, while acknowledging it was evidence we deserved and needed. While I’m disappointed that we cannot put ICE and its profiteer landlord on trial, the failure of the prosecution’s case legitimizes our action and emboldens us to act further to end ICE’s crimes against humanity. The outpouring of support for my co-defendant and I in this case showed how when we act together with and for our neighbors, love overcomes inhumanity and injustice.”

Attorney Ben Falkner said: “While I am disappointed that the cruelty of ICE policy and practice will not be laid before the feet of the jury, the Commonwealth has now explicitly acknowledged, in writing, that ‘it is in the interests of justice not to go forward with a criminal prosecution.’ While that acknowledgement is well taken, in my opinion, it was never in the interests of justice to prosecute Nathan or Nastasia.”