Arnie Alpert spent decades as a community organizer/educator in NH movements for social justice and peace. Officially retired since 2020, he keeps his hands (and feet) in the activist world while writing about past and present social movements.
By ARNIE ALPERT, Active with the Activists
In a letter delivered Wednesday to Governor-elect Kelly Ayotte, more than one hundred New Hampshire immigrant advocates have called for the state to avoid involvement in President-elect Donald Trump’s plans for mass deportation.
Calling on Ayotte to be “the Governor for all New Hampshire residents,” the letter says, “There is no need for New Hampshire law enforcement entities to step outside of their primary obligations to protect the people of New Hampshire, regardless of citizenship status.”
The list of signatories includes 122 faith-based groups, advocacy organizations, and individuals from many corners of the state, among them leaders of the Granite State Organizing Project, American Friends Service Committee, NH Alliance for Immigrants and Refugees, and various congregations and committees of the United Church of Christ, the state’s largest Protestant denomination.
The statement was prompted by Ayotte’s election-season rhetoric and a recent interview with WMUR, in which she said she would support federal mass deportation efforts. Ayotte has also said she would work to ban “sanctuary policies.”
Outgoing Governor Chris Sununu added his name to a recent letter from Republican governors supporting Trump’s plans. “We stand ready to utilize every tool at our disposal—whether through state law enforcement or the National Guard—to support President Trump in this vital mission,” the letter said. Sununu had already sent members of the National Guard to Texas last spring to join Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star, a military force aimed at repelling what Abbott termed “an invasion” of migrants.
“The incoming President’s threats to engage in mass deportations is an inhumane response to a federal problem caused by the U.S. Congress’s decades-long failure to fix the immigration system. Historically, mass deportation efforts in our country have been rooted in racial, ethnic and religious animus and this current threat will disproportionately focus on people of color,” the advocates’ letter said.
In recent years, local groups concerned about civil rights and the well-being of immigrants and their loved ones have worked with state and local law enforcement agencies to adopt policies which achieve a degree of separation between federal immigration enforcement and the practices of local police. As an example, the advocates’ letter cited the Department of Safety’s Fair and Impartial Policing Policy, which has been incorporated into the Attorney General’s Law Enforcement Manual and the New Hampshire Police Standards and Training Council’s training materials.
Such policies could be threatened by efforts to ban “sanctuary cities,” a term which refers to municipalities which prohibit local police from collaborating with federal immigration enforcement agencies.
A bill banning sanctuary cities, SB 563, was defeated last year after being opposed by several police chiefs and numerous municipal officials. “We feel that SB 563 would place law enforcement in the precarious position of enforcing federal civil immigration laws, which could harm this trust we have worked hard to develop,” said a letter to Senators from the chiefs in Manchester, Dover, Hudson, Merrimack, Portsmouth, and Nashua, plus the sheriff of Cheshire County.
Police in several communities have adopted policies under which police generally don’t ask individuals about their immigration status, but which do not preclude assisting federal agents in all enforcement measures. For example, the town of Harrisville has a policy, approved by a 2017 Town Meeting resolution, which states, “In order to ensure that Harrisville is a safe and welcoming community, to see if the Town will direct that its Police Officers, in the performance of their routine duties in Harrisville, will not ask any person about his or her immigration status and will refuse to share information regarding any person with the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), except in cases involving allegations against such a person of violent criminal activity or of a violation of NH State felony laws.” The measure passed 74 to 48.
It’s a matter of building trust, said Christine Wellington, a former police officer and retired legal services lawyer who spent much of her career working with immigrants. “When immigrants and their families fear the police, they are less likely to report crimes, making our communities less safe for everyone,” she said.
Additional signers of the letter to Ayotte include individuals associated with the NH Youth Movement, Kent Street Coalition, Canterbury Citizens for Democracy, Dover and Concord Quaker Meetings, Keene Immigrant and Refugee Partnership, Ascentria Care Alliance, Welcoming NH, Project Home, Reproductive Freedom Fund of NH, and NH Indonesian Community Support.
“We expect that as Governor you will focus your efforts on protecting all New Hampshire residents from federal government overreach,” the advocates told Ayotte.
They hope to meet soon with the Governor-elect.
The advocates, who organize through several overlapping networks of organizations and individuals, are also making plans for response to proposed legislation hostile to immigrants, including bills affecting education, driver licenses, and law enforcement. They are preparing to once again contest the $1.4 million Northern Border Task Force, passed under Governor Sununu, which they say diverts tax dollars from necessary services to combat a nearly non-existent immigration problem. Some churches are also reaffirming commitments to serve as safe spaces for immigrants fearing deportation.
The NH Immigrant Solidarity Network, which has held monthly prayer vigils outside the NH headquarters of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Manchester for 8 years, will make its vigils weekly starting January 7.
