By JEFFREY HASTINGS, InDepthNH.org
MANCHESTER, NH – A small number of people protested in front of Manchester City Hall on Elm Street Saturday holding signs and shouting messages to passing cars.
One sign said: “Stand with Renee,” referring to Renee Good who was shot to death by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Wednesday in Minneapolis. Another said “Impeach Trump Now.”
Speakers talked about US actions on the ground and in the waters around Venezuela and also about the recent death of Renee Good.
Karishma Manzur, a Democratic candidate in New Hampshire for U.S. Senate, spoke about the monetary cost, and loss of lives when the United States engages in war.
Manzur has been a staunch defender of Palestinian human rights and opponent of Israel’s actions in the war in Gaza. Her campaign launch video focused on the struggles of low-income Americans and her own childhood growing up as an immigrant in a working-class family.
On Thursday evening hundreds gathered at the Merrimack Town Hall to protest a possible ICE facility there to hold immigrants before deporting them.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which is reportedly considering the Town of Merrimack for a potential facility to detain and deport individuals from the United States.
The Merrimack town council, which said it has not been briefed by the Trump Administration, offered time at its regular meeting Thursday to residents to speak. Gov. Kelly Ayotte said Wednesday that she hasn’t received any information about the proposal.
It came after a Washington Post story Dec. 24, 2025, indicated that the Trump Administration aims to build several large-scale holding centers and several small ones for ICE detainees and named the Town of Merrimack as perhaps the only center in New England to host a facility to house up to 1,500 detainees.
Before and during the meeting a sizable gathering outside the Merrimack Town Hall opposed the federal government’s policies related to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement which looks to house 80,000 immigrants nationwide, according to the Washington Post.
InDepthNH.org reporter Paula Tracy contributed to this report.