On February 24, federal agents detained four workers at Mi Jalisco in Peterborough. They put a cook and three other employees into custody. Residents of Hillsborough County town were understandably bewildered by the news, and many questions are still unanswered. Most don’t know who was detained, why or what their current status is.
According to WBUR, chair of Peterborough’s select board, Tyler Ward, expressed that “the people of Peterborough have no interest in harboring criminals.” I highly doubt that the people detained were criminals, and this is the opinion of many other residents, including Mi Jalisco’s owner. These are people I know, people I went to school with and bumped into at the drugstore. What, then, are they being detained for? What is their crime?
This issue is obviously not specific to Peterborough. Anti-immigrant sentiment has been on the rise since President Donald Trump’s first term. Many liberals who are on the side of the immigrants point to the fact that without immigration, America wouldn’t exist. It seems clear to me that this sort of reasoning isn’t swaying people on the other side of the aisle. Republicans who are in favor of stricter enforcement of immigration policy have a picture of the past that doesn’t include illegal immigrants, only the safe, white, legal ones that came from Europe and did everything through the system. Anyone else isn’t worth their time. In my mind, it should be enough that these are human beings that deserve better than being detained, better than the treatment they receive in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers, to get someone to understand that what is happening to these people is wrong. But even that can’t shake the fundamental belief that immigrants aren’t even people to begin with.
I myself am a Peterborough resident. I have lived there since 2019 and have been visiting since I can remember. It is famous for being the basis of Thornton Wilder’s classic play “Our Town” (at least in part) and while that designation does pepper the signage, it is so much more to me and many others. Peterborough is one of the strongest, most welcoming communities in southern N.H., rich with art and local businesses. It also has a populace that is for the most part left-leaning, which makes the detainment of workers feel all the more shocking for the townspeople, especially since Peterborough law prevents its police officers from enforcing federal immigration laws.
Perhaps this is not quite as surprising as it seems. Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s primary campaign slogan was “Don’t Mass up New Hampshire,” which was in reference to what she referred to as our southern neighbor’s “illegal immigrant crisis.” For years, Republican candidates have listed cracking down on immigration as one of their primary concerns when campaigning. Now it seems they are making good on that promise. New Hampshire has for some time leaned more conservative than its neighbor states, but for me, this is a bridge too far. We cannot allow federal agents to detain people as they please.
May Cassidy can be contacted at
mcassidy@kscequinox.com
