By GARRY RAYNO, InDepthNH.org

CONCORD — Counties or communities could not stop their law enforcement departments from helping federal agents with enforcing immigration laws under a bill the House passed Thursday.

The bill would also prohibit cities and towns from becoming sanctuary communities for immigrants after the House added the provision to the bill.

Senate Bill 62 prohibits local officials from barring law enforcement and county correctional facilities from entering into agreements with the federal government on issues related to immigration detainees, and those who do not abide by the proposed law could lose state aid under the bill.

Several county corrections facilities hold federal detainees currently and some law enforcement departments have agreements with ICE as do the State Police to both aid with arrests, as well as share information.

Supporters of the bill said while they do not want local police doing the federal government’s job, they do not want the local police to be locked out of information or training.

But opponents pointed to what has been happening around the country and close to home, where agents with masks, plain clothes and who do not identify themselves are arresting people in what looks more like a kidnapping than law enforcement.

Rep. Buzz Scherr, D-Portsmouth, unsuccessfully proposed an amendment that would require any New Hampshire law enforcement working with ICE to identify themselves, give their badge number and under what department they are working. 

“That is the way we do things in New Hampshire,” Scherr said. “We do not want to create something that feels like a kidnapping when you see it.”

Rep. Terry Roy, R-Deerfield, said the agents are masked and in plain clothes so they will not be identified because of criminal cartels that have killed and targeted agents.

“We should support the men and women of law enforcement we ask to take these criminals out of our society,” Roy said.

House Deputy Majority Leader Joe Sweeney, R-Salem, proposed adding the contents of a bill prohibiting sanctuary cities and towns the Senate sent to interim study, to the bill.

“As I have said before, if you’re here illegally, you are not welcome in the State of New Hampshire,” Sweeney said. “New Hampshire should never be a sanctuary state.”

Rep. David Meuse, D-Portsmouth, opposed the addition saying it is another attempt by legislators in Concord to override local control to the point it could be “drowned in a bathtub.”
The amendment is not about sanctuary cities but about some lawmakers imposing their will on cities and counties where they do not live and forcing them to use their taxpayer dollars on things they do not want, Meuse said.

He called it corruption and increasing lawless authoritarianism and UnAmerican that also downshifts costs to local taxpayers.

“These people do not live in your town and your county,” he said, “but they want to control your town, to control your county and control your local budget.”

None of this will make a measurable increase in public safety, Meuse said.

“We have always been a state about freedom,” he said. “This bill is about tyranny and overreach.”

The bill was approved on a 200-162 vote and goes back to the Senate because of the change the House made.

Budget Cap

On a 193-168 vote the House approved Senate Bill 105, which would allow towns to impose spending caps on their budgets with a similar method to caps approved last year for school districts, while cities have long had the ability to pass spending caps.

The town cap would be tied to its population and the rate of inflation instead of enrollment like schools and could be overridden by a three-fifths majority vote.

Rep. Diane Pauer, R-Brookline, said local town spending continues to increase year after year with no end in sight for taxpayers.

“Frankly, it’s out of control,” she said, noting the spending cap would allow towns to better manage spending in a fiscally responsible manner.

She said they would be the same as the widely popular school district caps passed last year. 

All but one of the school district caps on warrants this spring were defeated by large margins at annual meetings.

“This will keep local property taxes under control,” she said.

But Rep. Eleana Colby, D-Bow, said the bill is filled with undefined and vague terms and would not allow a town meeting to amend a warrant article.

The state has been downshifting costs to local communities that are absorbed by local property taxpayers and now the majority wants to make it more difficult to navigate the chaos.

“These onerous restrictions not only undermine the democratic process,” she said, “but also erode local municipal sovereignty and trample on individual liberty.”

Child Sex Trafficking

House Bill 262 would increase the minimum sentence for sex trafficking anyone under 18 years old from seven to 11 years.

Supporters said the minimum sentence now is not enough and the state has fallen behind its neighbors in increasing the penalties.

Rep. Jennifer Rhodes, R-Winchester, said people in trafficking know that and “come up this way” because the penalties are less.

She said if someone takes her child for sex trafficking and is found, “I hope to God the person who did this to my child never sees the light of day again.”
But Scherr noted over the last five years there have only been seven cases of trafficking minors for sex in the state, five were dismissed, one was found innocent by a jury and the other did not show up for trial.

He said what is needed is more training and resources to better prosecute and investigate these cases because the people who commit this crime don’t want to be known and go underground.

Increasing the penalty will make them go further underground, he noted.

“This sends them deeper into the shadows,” Scherr said, “and makes it harder for state prosecutors to convict these people.”
The bill passed on a 290-71 vote and goes to the governor.

The House also approved:

Senate Bill 141 which extends the time to request a new criminal trial beyond three years due to an accident, mistake or misfortune.

Senate Bill 153, which allows for an expedited approval process for driveway permitting of major entrances for residential use of 20 units or greater.

And Senate Bill 58, which would change the venue for a trial for the distribution of a controlled drug when a death is involved.

The House killed CACR 8, which would have moved the age limit on sheriffs from 70 years old to 75. The bill failed to meet the three-fifth majority requirement to approve a proposed constitutional amendment. The bill had passed the Senate on a 21-3 vote.

Garry Rayno may be reached at garry.rayno@yahoo.com.