Republicans want Ayotte to appeal ruling on illegals

HUDSON - A group of Republican legislators wants Attorney General Kelly Ayotte to change her mind and appeal a judge's ruling that police chiefs can't charge illegal immigrants with trespassing.

The New Hampshire House Republican Alliance sent Gov. John Lynch a letter Wednesday asking him to instruct Ayotte "to reconsider her stand" to throw out the trespassing charges against illegal immigrants by the police in New Ipswich and Hudson. The police chiefs reasoned that if the immigrants were in the country illegally, then they were in their towns illegally, too.

"It is vital to the safety of New Hampshire citizens that the flow of illegal immigration through New Hampshire be checked. Being a border state makes New Hampshire susceptible to infiltration by those entering illegally who could do harm," said Rep. Andrew Renzullo, a Republican from Hudson.

"The recent report that Attorney General Kelly Ayotte will not take this case to the Supreme Court calls for the governor to step up to the plate on this issue,"he said in a news release.

Ayotte had written to the state's police chiefs on Aug. 15, saying her office will not appeal, and instructing them not to use the trespassing law to take illegals off the street.

"Having carefully examined the court's decision and the relevant case law, this office has determined that there is an insufficient basis for appeal," Ayotte wrote.

Jaffrey-Peterborough District Court Judge L. Phillips Runyon ruled on Aug. 12 that the trespassing charges cannot be used as an immigration tool.

Lynch spokeswoman Pam Walsh said she doesn't believe that the governor has seen the letter. But she said Ayotte's decision was hers to make. She noted that Lynch disagreed with Ayotte's appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate New Hampshire's parental notification law, but that he didn't intervene.

"Governor Lynch believes it's important that federal immigration laws be enforced," Walsh said. "The federal government needs to step up to the plate and start enforcing the laws they passed."