By NANCY WEST, InDepthNH.org

Late last month, Gov. Kelly Ayotte and Colonel Mark Hall announced that the New Hampshire State Police has joined hundreds of other law enforcement agencies across the country in entering into a Memoranda of Agreement (MOA) with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a component of the Department of Homeland Security.

“New Hampshire will not go the way of Massachusetts, where sanctuary policies have enabled violent crime and a billion-dollar illegal immigrant crisis,” said Governor Ayotte in a news release. “Criminals who are in our country illegally and pose a danger to our communities should be apprehended and removed. I’m glad to have State Police and county and local law enforcement working with our federal partners to enforce our immigration laws, and I thank them for their continued efforts to protect and serve New Hampshire.”

The MOA, which became effective last Friday, April 25, 2025, will provide State Troopers with the authority to perform certain immigration enforcement functions under a Task Force Model after they are trained and certified by ICE in the coming weeks and months, according to a news release.

The other law enforcement agencies in New Hampshire that have also signed agreements with ICE are:

 https://www.ice.gov/identify-and-arrest/287g

Here’s what InDepthNH.org readers emailed us when asked what they thought about local, state and county law enforcement teaming up with federal ICE:

DEBORA HATCHER, DOVER:
“I am an independent voter in Dover NH.  I am opposed to my city or country working with ICE, opposed to the NH legislature mandating that local resources support ICE efforts and am very disturbed by the recent actions of ICE and the existence of 10 287(g) agreements in NH according to a recent Guardian article and information posted on themarkup.org.  The failure of the NH State Police, Rockingham County Sheriff and Candia PD to make their agreements public is a particular concern:  What are these elected officials hiding from the public?  ICE is violating the law with many of their detentions.  They are acting without warrants, denying people due process and detaining legal immigrants and citizens.  There seems to be no regard at all for the law or public safety.  I do not want my state, county or city to be any part of the atrocities committed by ICE and other departments of the federal government.  I do not want law enforcement and judicial resources diverted to these activities.  I do not want our LEOs put in the position of committing crimes being injured through participation in unlawful poorly managed actions.  I do not want my state, county or city to bear the burden of the cost of these activities.  I do not want to worry about my governor, state police, county sheriff or city police threatening me or any other resident of NH.  I want our state elected officials to stop interfering in local government.”  Debora Hatcher

NANCY MARASHIO, New London — “My municipality should go on record that it will not work with ICE.  Whatever its decision, the municipality – not the state legislature – should be the entity that makes decisions about such local control items.  New Hampshire’s Constitution emphasizes the people as the source of decisions – not the legislature.” Nancy Marashio

MAY YOUNGCLAUS, Exeter: “I believe that each municipality should decide if their law enforcement budget should be impacted by the cost of housing ICE detainees. I actually would like you to investigate how the Rockingham County Sheriff has built up his department, expanded his mission & has just signed a contract with ICE that the County Commissioners & county citizens knew nothing about!!” — May Youngclaus

JANET METCALF, Bristol — “NO!  Our local town budget includes money for our local police force and we alone should decide where those resources go.” Janet Metcalf

GAIL MITCHELL — “Absolutely not. We need to make sure that those in ICE are highly qualified and trained on how to react to all sorts of people. We probably should have warrants, social workers, court papers  involved in arrests so papers can be checked before a person is taken away. We need to train people more than a short night course on not using guns, tolerance of people’s families and possessions. Some small time police depts are not made up of qualified police let alone ICE officers. We must stand up to the injustices that are happening presently.” Gail Mitchell, NH 

ELLIN LEONARD of Conway: “My answer is NO.” Ellin Leonard

SUE HUNT, Alexandria — “State legislature should NOT decide what individual communities’ police forces are going to do as far as working with ICE goes. I am speechless about the Republicans in our state legislature, never mind the federal. They preach on and on about local control, and yet they don’t want local communities to have said control.” Sue Hunt

ANN SCHULTZ, Dover – “This administration shouts local control but pushes against when it suits its agenda. No! NH Legislature and Governor – should reject this insidious power grab.” Ann Schultz

WILLIAM G. KINGSTON , New Castle – Proposed Motion for Town Meeting 2025
“Since the present State and Federal governments are attempting to deport immigrants in total
disregard of their constitutional rights and our laws and:
Whereas since this country needs the hard-working immigrants who make America Great and
Whereas since our nation does not have a real sensible immigration policy and
Whereas since the New Hampshire Constitution Article 10 gives us the right of revolution and
Article 15 defines the rights of an accused and Article 17 prescribes the right for the trial of an
accused to be in the location where the crime was committed and Article 19 regulates search and
seizures and,
Whereas since Due Process, which is a fundamental right of Democracy has been suspended,
it is once again necessary for all of us to defend our Constitutional Liberties and The Rule of
Law and,
Whereas since an Administrative Warrant from a government official or agency does not have
nearly the same power as a Judicial Warrant, and,
Whereas every time the government has been challenged in court over these deportations, the
government has lost and,
Whereas since the government has threatened immigration lawyers with deportation who dare
to challenge the government by defending these immigrants and,
Whereas since the government has made errors in deporting the wrong people and defied
court orders to rectify these errors and
Whereas since the government is trying to use local law enforcement officers to assist in these
illegal and unconstitutional arrests and removals, and,
Then let it be moved that the Town of New Castle and its employees and law
enforcement officers shall NOT COOPERATE with any other government organization
that attempts to stop, question, apprehend, or locate any person under threat of
deportation.” William G. Kingston

ADAM WHITTIER, Sunapee – “My opinion is a resounding NO. The state should NOT undermine Sunapee’s (or any town’s) right to decide if and to what degree we choose to work with ICE. To do otherwise is to essentially stick the towns with an unfunded mandate. Many small-town police departments don’t have the personnel to handle these extra responsibilities, and also don’t have the space to detain both immigrants and arrested persons, who must be kept separate as a matter of safety. Viewed more broadly, this forced collusion is even more frightening and wrong. I use the word “collusion” on purpose here, for that’s really what state lawmakers want: for local police to aid in ICE’s unethical and unconstitutional assault on immigrants. Given the brazen and horrific disappearances perpetuated by ICE so far (and the many still-unresolved cases of people unlawfully detained and/or deported) New Hampshire lawmakers should be doing everything in their power to prevent these same abuses from happening in our state. History will remember their collaboration and their cowardice.” Adam Whittier