By Rep. PAUL BERCH, D-Westmoreland
ICE activities in Troy and Keene have increased the already high level of concern about ICE activity in our communities. A constituent recently asked for my thoughts, particularly in light of these events.
ICE did not create the American deportation system. Most of ICE’s fundamental legal authority comes from laws enacted before ICE existed—particularly the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 and major amendments enacted in 1986 and 1996. What has changed dramatically from administration to administration is who is targeted for enforcement, how aggressively those laws are enforced, what priorities are established, and how much state and local governments cooperate.
In my view, under the current administration immigration enforcement has become far too aggressive and too often insufficiently restrained by due process. The concerns are serious: arrests of people with no criminal record, including asylum seekers and people legally authorized to work; allegations of racial profiling; arrests arising from routine traffic encounters; inadequate access to lawyers and meaningful bond hearings; troubling conditions and medical care in detention; and efforts to remove people before they have a meaningful opportunity to pursue their legal claims. These are not concerns that should be dismissed simply because the federal government has legitimate authority to enforce our immigration laws.
At the same time, I do not believe the answer is to abolish immigration enforcement. The United States has both the right and the responsibility to enforce its immigration laws, protect its borders, and remove individuals who pose genuine threats to public safety or national security. But enforcing the law and respecting constitutional rights are not competing principles. We can—and must—do both.
The answer to abuses by ICE is not to abolish immigration enforcement, but to fundamentally reform how we carry it out. It may be possible to reform ICE, with stronger oversight and accountability, meaningful due process, humane treatment of those in federal custody, and clear enforcement priorities focused on serious criminals and genuine threats to public safety and national security.
But right now, I would support dismantling ICE entirely and creating a new immigration enforcement agency since that seems what is necessary to achieve those reforms. The name of the agency and its organizational structure are far less important than its mission, its culture, and the safeguards governing its conduct. We need an agency that enforces our immigration laws firmly and effectively, while respecting constitutional rights, due process, and human dignity.
A nation committed to the rule of law must insist that the government obey the law while it enforces it. In a Constitutional republic founded on principles of human dignity, the laws in question and the enforcement of those laws must be both just and equitable.
I will work to hasten the time when the United States embraces immigration reform that secures our borders, smoothly processes refugees and asylum seekers, meets the needs of employers, provides a path to citizenship, and respects the humanity of all people.
Rep. Paul Berch
Cheshire – 06 (Westmoreland, Chesterfield, Hinsdale)
Ranking Democrat – NH House Judiciary Committee