This is a breaking story and will be updated.
By NANCY WEST, InDepthNH.org
State Rep. Rosemarie Rung, D-Merrimack, posted on social media a list of what appear to be site locations, including one in Merrimack, NH, for proposed temporary housing of immigrants as part of a plan by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to speed up deportations.
The Merrimack listing shows a now large empty facility at 50 Robert Milligan Parkway among the 46 site listings around the country. New Hampshire’s is the only one in New England.
It is listed on the second screenshot below, saying it will have 500 beds and had a site visit two days ago. Gov. Kelly Ayotte didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
Ayotte told reporters on Jan. 7 that if this were a real plan, “which I don’t know yet,” she believes there would be a process in which members of the local community could weigh in, along with the state.
Ayotte called it “speculative, because we have not been notified that is happening.”
The Washington Post first mentioned the possible New Hampshire site in a story Dec. 24, 2025, and despite protests against such a facility in Merrimack since the story was published, state and local officials say they have been told nothing of the plan.
Rung said she believes the list is credible and was likely leaked. She said she doesn’t know anything else about the plan and said the Merrimack Town Council also hasn’t been told.
“I think it shows that ICE is ignoring communications with local officials and that speaks to the disrespect it has towards the public,” Rung told InDepthNH.org Wednesday.
The following is Rung’s posting on the Positive Merrimack Forum page on Facebook.
Rep. Wendy Thomas, D-Merrimack, said: “The news that ICE plans to move forward with a warehouse-style detention center in the town of Merrimack is horrifying and deeply disturbing. This decision makes it painfully clear that ICE does not care what the people of Merrimack want, or do not want, within our own community.”
She said Merrimack residents have repeatedly voiced strong opposition to such a facility.
“We have raised concerns about human rights, legality, public safety, infrastructure strain, and the long-term impact on our town. Yet ICE appears determined to impose this facility on us anyway, disregarding local voices, local governance, and the character of our community.
“A detention center of this kind will forever alter the culture of Merrimack. It will redefine how our town is known, not as a place where families live, work, and care for one another, but as a place where people are confined, dehumanized, and warehoused out of sight. That is not who we are, and it is not what we want our town to represent,” Thomas said.
She said ICE should halt the plan immediately.
According to the original Post story the Trump administration plans to build holding centers around the country for more than 80,000 people.
“Rather than shuttling detainees around the country to wherever detention space is available, as happens now, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement aims to speed up deportations by establishing a deliberate feeder system, the document says. Newly arrested detainees would be booked into processing sites for a few weeks before being funneled into one of seven large-scale warehouses holding 5,000 to 10,000 people each, where they would be staged for deportation,” the Post reported.