PORTSMOUTH – Two-Day Demonstration Calling for “ICE Out of Pease” Targets Tens of Thousands of Visitors for the “Thunder Over NH” Air Show, according to a news release from Occupy NH Seacoast 

New Hampshire residents are expected to turn out en masse in Portsmouth on Saturday and Sunday, September 6 and 7, 2025, for a demonstration calling for an end to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportation and transfer flights out of Pease International Airport. 

In late July, news broke that the increasingly notorious federal agency had started moving immigrant detainees on flights from Pease International Airport – seemingly pushed to look for a new airport in the region following protests about ICE flights from Hanscom Air Field in Massachusetts. 

Concerned New Hampshire residents quickly began monitoring ICE operations at Pease. “Since early August, a volunteer team has documented first-hand the abuse and transfer of over 300 individuals by ICE agents using flights in and out of Pease. ICE is running at least five flights per week through Pease, transferring people in custody from New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, and Massachusetts to far-flung parts of the United States. Commercial operators of ICE flights from Pease include GlobalX, Eastern Air, and Avelo,” says Sarah Cornell of Portsmouth. 

Avelo Airlines which operates commercial flights from Portsmouth, Manchester, and Portland has become known infamously as ‘ICE Air’ and is facing a nationwide “Stop Avelo” campaign. 

In late August, the Pease Development Authority (PDA) came under pressure as nearly two thousand NH residents signed a petition calling for an end to ICE operations at Pease. At least seventy protested outside the PDA Board meeting on August 19 while twenty-seven spoke inside. 

One notable speaker on August 19 was former U.S. Senator Gordon Humphrey, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee during his tenure, who has openly criticized ICE operations and the idea that NH public resources would be “passively complicit” in ICE abuses. 

While the PDA Board members expressed sympathy with the concerns shared and promised to look into what possible recourse might be available to end ICE operations at Pease, ICE flights have continued to fly in and out, week after week, without any sign of slowing or stopping. 

“ICE’s Gestapo-like raids are a stain on our national honor,” asserts former Senator Humphrey of Concord, who joins protesters weekly at Pease International Airport. Multiple federal court decisions have held ICE in violation of the United States Constitution, he points out. “If the Constitution is not sacred, neither are your rights or mine. Our American values of decency and the rule of law are under attack. Stand up for your children’s future. Speak out. Join us. Protest, while you still can.” 

“These kidnappings lack due process and are unconstitutional; they violate all our civil rights as well as being immoral. At the same time, they are detrimental to the health of New Hampshire’s economy,” says David Holt of Occupy NH Seacoast, one organization leading the protest, along with NH Ch. 62 Veterans For Peace (VFP), the Mount Washington Valley Resistance, among others. 

“We want to be sure that all those coming to enjoy the annual air show also understand that this location is now the site of terrible rights abuses and the systematic dismantling of the lives of countless individuals and families,” says former Air National Guard member Jesse Gillis of Pembroke, an organizer and a member of VFP. “Everyone coming out to protest this weekend is appalled that these abuses are happening in our state.” 

“People are just realizing that these horrible deportations are happening right here. Which means that we have the chance and the responsibility to do something right here. This is why people are protesting again this weekend even though it may be an inconvenient moment to do so. Pease is a site of great harm, and everyone is called to interrupt that and defend our neighbors and the principle of due process,” says Rev. Kendra Ford, a minister with the United Universalist Church.