The state plans to use its “Live Free” brand to pull in more tourists and more money this summer. U.S. Customs and Border Protection might have other plans.
Last year, the Monitor learned through public records that border officials planned to execute six checkpoints throughout 2018 after a Memorial Day weekend operation on Interstate 93 near Lincoln. A year later, officials say that information cannot be released.
“That information is law enforcement sensitive,” said Michael McCarthy, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The department has the authority to hold inland border checkpoints within 100 miles of a United States border. At the checkpoints, agents can search for drugs, cite legal non-citizen residents who aren’t carrying federal identification cards and arrest undocumented people.
“CBP will continue to operate immigration checkpoints with the primary purpose to apprehend illegal aliens and those involved in smuggling operations,” a statement from the department said.
Customs and Border Protection set up its first checkpoint of the summer during one of New Hampshire’s busiest tourism weekends, Laconia Motorcycle Weekend. During an eight-hour stretch at a spot on I-93 near Woodstock, agents issued 29 citations for failure to carry immigration documents and made six separate seizures of marijuana and paraphernalia, leading to a traffic slowdown.
“I think it affected Bike Week,” said Gilles Bissonette, legal director at the ACLU of New Hampshire. “Hundreds, if not thousands, of people were traveling on I-93 to enjoy New Hampshire.”
McCarthy said that the time and location of the checkpoint was considered beforehand.
“It’s something we look at closely, based on routes of egress we see smugglers use or attempt to use,” McCarthy said. “We have seen that that area is appealing to smugglers mainly because there are several major thoroughfares that can take a smuggler from the border to the interior of the U.S.”
The checkpoint came days before the state Department of Business and Economic Affairs announced they expect a 2.7% jump in tourist visits and spending this summer. They also announced that they plan to continue using the “Live Free” brand to attract nonresidents to the Granite State. Bissonette said he doesn’t believe the checkpoints suit that brand.
“What a checkpoint is, is a situation where the government stops individuals who are simply going about their business without reasonable supposition or probable cause,” he said. “They allow police to seize individuals without reason to suspect criminality. They go against the core principles of the Fourth Amendment … New Hampshire should not be a police state.”
The Monitor has filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act for more details on the future of border protection checkpoints in New Hampshire.