Over the last year, we have all seen the uptick in Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) and its arrest of immigrants all over the country. Depending on where you live, your state government might have laws that have your local police department helping with ICE detainments, lending them a “helping hand.” In New England, New Hampshire is the only state out of the six that has a task force model for this.
New Hampshire Public Radio (NHPR) reported the model is called the 287 (g) program, and it deputizes local police officers to carry out federal immigration enforcement. This includes serving warrants and detailing people who are suspected of being in the country without authorization. According to NHPR, there is new data that shows that the 15 local partnerships are “… contributing to an increase in ICE arrests in the state during the second Trump administration.”
Being the only state in New England that is actively working with ICE to detain “suspects” is very interesting. New Hampshire is a mostly Republican state, but it is surrounded by blue and purple states. It seems as though there is no influence from states like Vermont or Maine to not participate in creating laws like 287 (g). The top-ranking Republicans in N.H. are in full support of this model–including Gov. Kelly Ayotte. According to NHPR, Ayotte has signed two laws since last year that prohibit municipalities from limiting any and all forms of cooperation with federal immigration enforcement officers.
NHPR states a total of 429 people have been arrested, with local agencies making 51 of those arrests. That doubles the amount of arrests in the last 15 months when compared to the tail end of the Biden administration.
Two out of three arrests made by ICE in N.H. are people who have not been convicted of a crime, NHPR states. 51 people may not seem like a lot compared to the 429 people in total, but that is 51 individuals that were blindsided by their local police departments. 51 individuals who are no longer with their families, many of whom have not committed a violent crime.
People who have the same mindset as Gov. Ayotte say that these programs are good and that they are in the best interest of the people. Police chiefs and county sheriffs show their support by agreeing with Ayotte, saying that these programs are in place to apprehend violent criminals. But NHPR explains that “the data presents a more nuanced profile of the people being arrested in N.H. during the second Trump administration.” According to NHPR, there is an even split between those who have been convicted of a crime, those who have pending criminal charges and people with another immigration charge on their records.
NHPR states that ICE assigns the people arrested a ‘threat level,’ which is based on their criminal conviction. But around 14% of people arrested in the state were assigned a threat level that is equivalent to a conviction for a dangerous or violent crime. The rest were arrested for an immigration violation and are waiting to be charged with a crime. To me, this shows that ICE, local law enforcement and the New Hampshire government officials are not fully paying attention to the facts. They are making arrests and giving people criminal records that they do not deserve in order to deport them. So many republican representatives support ICE, the detention centers and the treatment of these individuals, all in the name of protecting U.S. citizens. But who are they protecting us from? They say they only deport immigrants with “violent criminal records,” but that does not seem to be the case. Not entirely.
Arkayde Smith can be contacted at
