By Theodore Bosen
On December 4, 2023, The Berlin City Council voted to have our police force participate in the Attorney General’s Northern Border Task Force along the Swanton Sector, stretching from parts of New York, through Vermont, and including the entire northern New Hampshire border, by adopting a resolution, with the following false statements supplied by the Sununu administration:
“WHEREAS, there are two State Highways in Berlin, NH that provide a route from the New Hampshire and Canadian border to larger communities in the southern part of our state and other states in New England;”
False: Nobody driving from Canada to Southern New Hampshire goes through Berlin.
“WHEREAS, there has been a significant increase in criminal activity along the New Hampshire and Canadian border, and an increase in the transportation of illicit drugs from Canada to other areas of New England; “
False: Criminal activity along the NH-Canadian border is at a 20-year low. Transportation of illicit drugs, nationally, decreased in the prior fiscal year – fentanyl seizures were down by 30%. In fact, in fiscal year 2023, only 1 lb. of fentanyl was seized at the border in the Swanton sector, and it came through a port of entry, not in between.
Moreover, 80 % of all persons convicted of drug smuggling into the U.S. in recent years have been American citizens, not immigrants. The federal government data from drug seizures in recent years indicate that 97.3% of the drugs coming into the country over land at the borders are coming in through ports of entry, while only 2.7% are coming in between them. Drug seizures in the state of New Hampshire generally, in 2023, were down 10% over the previous year.
WHEREAS, the increased presence along the border can help reduce crime throughout the North Country, to include our community
Crime was already way down in Berlin, especially drug crime. According to government statistics, drug seizures in Berlin in 2023 were down 45% from the previous year, and drug-related crimes were down 30%. Public Safety Secretary Quinn, in testimony before Congress in March of 2023 seeking border patrol powers for the NH law enforcement officers, reported that there was a “humanitarian crisis” along the northern New Hampshire border. The only evidence at that time of any humanitarian issue was the deaths, in a blizzard, of an Indian family and a Haitian refugee who tried to cross through our treacherous wilderness in winter. There was no other evidence of any other crossings in that region. The false statements Quinn recited to Congress in advocating for a grant of federal border powers were these same lies that Sununu had circulated to justify the need for a Northern Border Task Force, citing drastic increases in “encounters” at the Swanton Sector, since Fiscal 2021. But these are designed to mislead by neglecting the following critical context:
In Fiscal 2021, attempted border crossings were near zero because of COVID and Title 42, which required Border Patrol to turn away almost everybody seeking asylum. During that period, the standard of measure of undocumented immigration at the border changed from counting “apprehensions” to “encounters’ for the first time. An encounter is just that – a confrontation. It includes anything from an irregular migration crossing to someone who forgets to bring their passport to the border. Border Patrol data indicate that fully two thirds of recorded encounters are with people who try to re-enter as many as three or four times after being turned away. It does not represent the total number of unique individuals who succeed in crossing, so the fact that the numbers are high is chiefly due to the same individuals trying to come who have tried, repeatedly, before. The other factor contributing to the rise in encounters is that the number of Border Patrol agents has doubled in recent years. With more agents you get more confrontations, even of the same immigrants. In fact, actual absolute numbers of individuals crossing into the country, nationally, have been at or below the level experienced during the Trump administration since before the Task Force has been deployed. That is why the Department of Homeland Security refused to grant Sununu ‘s request to give local law enforcement officers on this Task Force federal powers, but Sununu and Quinn pressed on to assemble it anyway.
Without federal powers, law enforcement officers must abide by 4th amendment constraints, i.e., subjects cannot be stopped without a warrant, direct evidence of unlawful activity, or, in exigent circumstances, probable cause to believe that a crime was being committed. With federal powers, most of that is out the window within 25 miles of the border, including the need to respect one’s expectation of privacy in their private property and freedom of travel. It pretty much permits stopping anyone who fits a profile and demanding, “papers please,” just like in all those Nazi movies most of us watched in the early post-war years. Without those powers at the border, local law enforcement is pretty much useless for confronting border crossers.
The New Hampshire chapter of the ALCU had to sue to obtain the specific border data relating to the Task Force’s encounters along the New Hampshire border, separated from the rest of the Swanton Sector. Those data indicated that, in the first 6 months of the program, there were exactly ZERO encounters of undocumented immigrants trying to cross there. The Task Force, instead, stopped 685 off road vehicles and associated pedestrians, the largest single category of their encounters. Evidently, the people who come to the Berlin area, including to my AIRBNB, virtually half of whom ride ATVs and snowmobiles up to Pittsburgh during their stay, are the ones being confronted by the NBTF, not illegal border crossers. They are the ones driving the tourist economy here by spending money in our communities. They are the ones supplying the business tax dollars I send to the state from the rental fees they pay. New Hampshire recorded a record $88 million in tax revenue from the short-term rental industry last year. Ironically, it is from that stash that the governor and executive council appropriated the money for this program, which, as Canadian-American trade organizations feared, is serving to drive down that tourist activity, especially among Canadians, a major source of OHRV tourists.
The only actual apprehensions at the New Hampshire border by the NBTF in the first 6 months of the program were of 16 American citizens, most of whom were arrested for motor vehicle infractions and none for drugs or major crimes. Nonetheless, Sununu argued that the task force is providing a “deterrent effect” on illegal border activity and crime. In reality, it is providing a deterrent effect on our tourist industry.
It is, however, also serving to gin up hatred and fear of immigrants in this election year as an election strategy for Sununu’s MAGA allies. Polls indicate that an increasing number of New Hampshire voters now believe we have an illegal immigrant crisis at our northern border. Yet along the Swanton sector lies South Burlington Vermont, which consumer watchdog, WalletHub, after a survey of 182 American cities published just last week, declared the “safest” place to live in America. Fourth safest on their list was Burlington, lying even closer to the border, underscoring the fact that Sununu’s hype of a northern “border crisis” creating increasing crime and threats to safety is a manufactured issue. But stoking fear of immigrants by conflating growing numbers of repeated “encounters” as if they were actual “apprehensions” of separate individuals, and falsely fanning fears of fentanyl as being carried by immigrant mules when it’s by Americans at ports of entry, is the primary GOP election strategy. They hope to ride it into office, and Sununu into a White House Chief of Staff position in the next Trump administration now that he is back to kissing the ring!
With what is well over a couple dozen short-term rentals in Berlin drawing tourists to our city, rather than share the tax revenue they generate to address the many dire needs of the Berlin community, Sununu and his rubber stamp Council is using our tax money to hurt our businesses by harassing our customers riding the trails in Pittsburgh. That money, instead, should be used to fix the crater-sized potholes in this city and bolster our public schools, which are dead last in all the fifty states in contributions from state government, causing our local property taxes to rival the highest in the country. Meanwhile, the City Council of Berlin, and its local police force, are allowing themselves to be gaslighted into buying this phony conspiracy theory instead of getting hip to what is really going on. In the process they are losing sight of the real interests of their constituents. Voters need to learn the truth about this Republican scam, and all of us must demand that Sununu return our tax dollars back to communities like Berlin where they are desperately needed for infrastructure and schools. No more biting the hand that feeds us. No more diverting business profit tax dollars for partisan political gain! No more gaslighting Berlin!
Theodore L. Bosen is a lawyer-turned innkeeper and Democratic activist living in Berlin
InDepthNH.org takes no position on political matters but welcomes diverse opinions at nancywestnews@gmail.com
