The mass deportation campaign unfolding across America is not a distant crisis confined to Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Chicago or Houston. It has reached New Hampshire — and it is terrorizing our families, friends, neighbors and loved ones.
People are afraid to drive to work, take their children to school, attend church, seek medical care or report a crime. American citizens and people who are lawfully present in this country increasingly fear that their appearance, accent or last name could make them targets for questioning, detention or worse.
That is not public safety. It is fear masquerading as law enforcement.
The federal government has changed its tactics since the highly visible confrontations in Minneapolis. The raids may attract fewer cameras, but the machinery of detention and deportation has not stopped. It has become quieter, faster and more difficult for the public to witness.
We cannot allow that silence to become acceptance.
Here in New Hampshire, 27 law-enforcement agencies have joined or committed to participating in ICE’s 287(g) program. That includes 22 municipal police departments, four county sheriff’s offices and the New Hampshire State Police.
The participating communities include Auburn, Brentwood, Candia, Carroll, Chester, Colebrook, Epping, Gorham, Hillsborough, Kingston, Milton, New Boston, New Durham, Newton, Northumberland, Ossipee, Pittsburg, Pittsfield, South Hampton, Troy, Weare and Whitefield.
The Belknap, Coös, Hillsborough and Rockingham county sheriff’s offices are also participating.
These agreements authorize selected state and local officers to perform certain federal immigration-enforcement functions. They blur the line between community policing and federal deportation operations, placing local officers in a role they were never elected or hired to perform.
Manchester has not entered its police department into a 287(g) agreement. Neither has Nashua. But both cities are within Hillsborough County, whose sheriff’s office has joined the program. Residents therefore have every reason to demand clear answers about where, when and against whom this authority may be exercised.
Immigration law is extraordinarily complicated. A person’s legal status cannot always be determined by looking at a document, checking a database or hearing an accent. Citizens have been questioned and detained. Lawful permanent residents, visa holders, refugees and asylum seekers have been swept into enforcement actions. Families of mixed immigration status live with the knowledge that one encounter could separate parents from children.
Citizenship and lawful status must mean something. So must the Constitution.
Every person in the United States is entitled to due process. The government should never seize people first and sort out their rights later. No American should be forced to carry papers merely to prove that he or she belongs here.
Supporters of these agreements claim that they make our communities safer. But public safety depends upon trust.
When immigrant families fear that calling the police could expose them or a loved one to immigration enforcement, crimes go unreported. Witnesses remain silent. Victims of domestic violence, wage theft and exploitation become more vulnerable. Children learn to fear the very officers they are taught to approach for help.
That makes every community less safe.
This campaign also ignores the enormous contributions immigrants make to New Hampshire. According to 2024 Census data, immigrants constituted approximately 7.5% of New Hampshire’s employed workforce. They work in healthcare, education, manufacturing, construction, hospitality, technology and professional services.
They are physicians, nurses, home-health aides, teachers, researchers, engineers, business owners, restaurant workers and tradespeople. They pay taxes, purchase homes, rent apartments, support local businesses and help care for our aging population.
Foreign-born workers earned approximately $4.6 billion in New Hampshire between 2018 and 2022 — about 7% of the state’s household earnings. Removing even part of that workforce would hurt employers, reduce consumer spending and weaken communities already struggling with worker shortages.
These are not statistics to be erased from a spreadsheet. These are human beings. They are parents waiting outside our schools, workers standing beside us, families worshipping in our churches and neighbors shoveling one another’s sidewalks after a snowstorm.
New Hampshire should not participate in a system that treats entire communities as inherently suspect.
Police departments and county sheriffs should withdraw from 287(g) agreements. Municipal officials must demand full public disclosure of how these agreements are being implemented, how much local taxpayer money is being spent, what training officers receive, how complaints will be investigated and what safeguards exist against racial profiling, wrongful detention and violations of constitutional rights.
The Legislature must also act. Local police should not be transformed into a federal deportation force, especially without meaningful approval from the residents whose taxes fund those departments.
This is not an argument for ignoring serious crimes. People who commit violent offenses should be investigated and prosecuted under the law, regardless of where they were born. But immigration status alone is not evidence of violence, dangerousness or criminal intent.
We must stop equating immigrants with criminals.
New Hampshire’s motto is “Live Free or Die.” Those words become hollow if families must live behind drawn curtains, afraid that a knock at the door could tear their lives apart.
We cannot wait for a wrongful detention, a family separation or a fatal confrontation in one of our communities before deciding that this has gone too far. Nor can we look away simply because these operations have become less visible.
What is happening may be quieter now, but it is no less cruel.
Our immigrant neighbors are part of New Hampshire. Their children attend our schools. Their labor strengthens our economy. Their cultures enrich our communities. Their safety, dignity and constitutional rights are inseparable from our own.
If government agents can disregard the rights of one family because of its name, birthplace or ancestry, none of our rights are secure.
This is the moment for New Hampshire to speak clearly: We will not allow fear to replace justice, suspicion to replace community or federal intimidation to replace the rule of law.
Our families, friends, neighbors and loved ones are not expendable. They belong here — and we will stand with them.
Rep. Wendy Thomas represents the town of Merrimack and is on the Science, Technology and Energy Committee. David Preece represents Manchester and the executive director of the Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission.