By GARRY RAYNO, InDepthNH.org

CONCORD — Opposition turned out for a bill that would prohibit any sanctuary cities or towns in the state and block local officials from preventing local law enforcement from cooperating and working with federal immigration authorities.

House Bill 511 passed the House on a 211-161 vote and had a public hearing Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee where opponents called it an unfunded mandate and another blow by the legislature to local control.

But bill sponsors said the bill is intended to send a message to undocumented immigrants that they are not welcome in New Hampshire.

“We are protecting our families, we are protecting our communities and our state,” said the bill’s prime sponsor Rep. Joe Sweeney, R-Salem. “If you are in New Hampshire illegally, you are not welcome here.”
The bill requires law enforcement agencies to comply with immigration detainers of inmates and prohibits state and local government entities from adopting sanctuary policies to prohibit or impede the enforcement of federal immigration law.

Blanket policies against compliance with immigration detainers would also be prohibited as would any government entity or law enforcement agency from restricting the use and transmission of inmate immigration information, and it prohibits New Hampshire law enforcement from investigating an inmate’s citizenship status unless there is a violation of New Hampshire law.

A co-sponsor of the bill, Rep. Ross Berry, R-Weare, suggested judges be added to the bill to prevent any instances like the one that occurred in Milwaukee where a judge was arrested last week.

“There should be no political cover for criminals,” Sweeney said. “We want them held accountable, not shielded and given a free pass.”

Defending New Hampshire citizens comes first, not illegal aliens, he said.

Sen. Debra Altschiller, D-Stratham, asked Sweeney even if her local select board directed the police chief not to engage in training with ICE agents, the bill would require them to participate.

Sweeney said if the agency wants to participate, they would not be able to be stopped by any state or local government entity.

That’s like telling local law enforcement your local board is not in charge anymore, Altschiller said.

Sweeney said it is telling them “It is not up or down,” at the state level the priority is to keep New Hampshire safe.

But Michael Lambert, who said he is from Hillsborough County, said immigration is a problem all around the globe, not just in the United States, but this (Trump) administration used it as the perfect problem to win the White House.

They are using it as a tool to divide the country and create squabbles among people and the bill is evidence New Hampshire is being used as a tool to tell everybody that everyone who works in this country as an immigrant is a criminal or a rapist and come from either a prison or an insane asylum and they need to be rounded up like animals.

“This is who we are. We are better than this,” Lambert said. “We must not allow ourselves to be used as a tool in this way.”
Instead immigrants should be helped to fill out documents to become citizens and to find shelter.

“They need us,” he said, “and in fact we need them.”

Glennifer M Gillespie of Peterborough also opposed the bill noting she is originally from South Africa but now is here as a legal immigrant and hopes she can contribute something to the United States.

“I live in New Hampshire because of its history of grassroots democracy,” she said, “and support any town in New Hampshire to make their own decisions on matters that affect them whether it agrees with my personal principles or not.”

Gillespie said recently ICE came to Peterborough and removed four working people from the local Mexican restaurant.

“They are good hard-working people; they are our neighbors,” she said. “They are not mass murderers or criminals, and they have not committed any crimes.”

The voters in town should be able to determine what their police are able to do, she said.

David Blair of Harrisville, which has a town ordinance similar to Peterborough’s, called the bill an unfunded mandate noting his town’s police department is tiny and is stretched thin.

“To ask local law enforcement to participate and to begin to do the work of federal law enforcement is an unfunded mandate,” Blair said, “and infringes on local control.”
He is not saying in any way, local law enforcement should obstruct, but they should stay in their lane and when they stop someone for a tail light out, they do not need to ask the driver about his or her immigration status.

“They do not work for federal law enforcement,” Blair said.

He said lawmakers should consider the cost of a lawsuit, which will surely come and cost millions of dollars if someone is unjustly and incorrectly detained.

He said he has worked with immigrants and refugees since 1984 and many come to this country afraid of law enforcement from experiences in their homeland.

Local law enforcement worked hard to build relations of trust with the immigrant communities so they will come forward and cooperate and share information and testify, that keeps “our cities safer,” Blair said.

He has seen ICE work in a very professional manner and do wonderful work, not like what you are seeing in the news now, he said.

“Any immigrant that wants or wishes to assist law enforcement,” Blair said, “now has reason to fear.”
Speaking on behalf of the NH Association of Counties, Tim Lethbridge, Superintendent of Grafton County Jail, opposed the bill saying it needs to be changed so that the counties that want to participate in holding immigrants for ICE may do so but the others should not be required to house immigrants if they do not want to mostly because the facilities are not built to separate groups of prisoners.

He said all county jails cooperate with ICE, who is notified if they are holding someone for a New Hampshire law violation.

“We all cooperate with ICE and relay information,” Lethbridge said, and they wait outside if someone is going to be released.

“The challenge with this bill is not all jails in the state are set up (for detaining immigrants),” he said, “and the costs associated with doing that are very high.”

You have to keep the civil detainees separate from the criminal detainees in separate holding areas and he noted the risks are high and “we get sued a lot.”
If something happens and an immigrant is victimized, the county’s taxpayers are responsible for that, he noted.

“When ICE makes a mistake,” Lethbridge said, “historically they have left the locals holding the bag.”
He noted an immigrant held in the Strafford County jail needed to be med-flighted to Boston and the manpower hours to sit for security cost $31,000.

The issue is not sanctuary cities, but you need a contract with ICE that does not allow them bail if they break the law or for medical expenses, so the county taxpayers do not have to pay for it, he said.

Lethbridge told the committee Strafford County has a contract with ICE, and Hillsborough, Rockingham and Cheshire counties are exploring contracts with ICE.

No Shelter in Schools 

The committee also held a public hearing on House Bill 71 which would forbid public schools and colleges from being used for shelters for undocumented immigrants.

The bill’s prime sponsor, Rep. Juliet Harvey-Bolia, R-Tilton, said her bill is almost identical to the one Texas Sen. Ted Cruz introduced into Congress.

She said the impetus was the schools closed in Brooklyn, New York to house immigrants that poured into the city.

Harvey-Bolia said there are exceptions that will allow use of the schools in an emergency, but the limit is 72 hours.

“The bill says schools are prioritized for our children, not other populations,” she said. “Others after me may say this is a mean bill, but it isn’t, it’s kind to our children.”
The committee did not make an immediate recommendation on either bill.

Garry Rayno may be reached at garry.rayno@yahoo.com.