Some New Hampshire Republican legislators are aiming to add new rules focused on immigrants and immigration enforcement, particularly for undocumented residents.
The proposed bills — which range from requiring municipalities to cooperate with immigration authorities to requiring businesses to use the federal E-verify program — come as the incoming Trump administration promises to carry out a mass deportation effort in U.S. history once he’s in office.
Another bill, proposed by a House Democrat, would ban mass deportations in the state and tighten restrictions on the state’s only immigration detention center.
For some immigration advocates, the roughly dozen or so bills this session are part of what they consider a growing anti-immigrant agenda in the state and the country. Other proposals from Republicans in the House and Senate would invalidate out-of-state driver’s licenses issued to undocumented immigrants, and another would withhold money from schools if they house immigrants in an emergency.
In her inaugural address, Gov. Kelly Ayotte said she expected Republicans to pass a ban on so-called “sanctuary city policies,” which would make it illegal for state or local governments to prohibit cooperating with federal immigration officials.
Two bills, one in the House and another yet to be made public in the Senate, would require state, county and local governments to help enforce federal immigration law. The proposals would also prohibit any municipality from adopting policies that would hinder federal immigration enforcement.
Rep. Ross Berry, a Republican from Weare, is one of the bill’s co-sponsors in the House.
“State, county, and local governments should not adopt policies that encourage or protect illegal immigration,” Berry said in an email.“Our country struggles with the problems it has now and we cannot afford to take more on.”
Supporters argue that such measures would benefit New Hampshire by helping Immigrations and Customs Enforcement to deport criminals and undocumented people.
Critics say that enforcing immigration laws at the local level would be a strain on local police department budgets as immigration enforcement is typically handled by federal agencies like ICE or Customs and Border Protection.
A similar effort failed last year, after it faced opposition from advocates and some police chiefs, who argued it would damage trust with immigrant communities by making residents less likely to trust police and report crimes. Both bills have exceptions for undocumented residents who are the victim or a witness of a crime, although critics say that the exceptions don’t go far enough.
As it stands, a handful of New Hampshire communities like Manchester, Nashua and Lebanon have policies in place that prevent their police officers from detaining anyone solely based on a suspicion they are of living in the country illegally, unless they are also suspected of another crime – or under some policies, motor vehicle law violation or city ordinance violation.
For example, the city of Lebanon adopted an ordinance in 2021 that prevents city officials from asking about a resident’s immigration status unless they have a valid reason. It also prevents local law enforcement from detaining anyone for being undocumented or participating in immigration enforcement actions.
City Manager Shaun Mulholland said that out of hundreds of arrests in the past four years, there have only been three encounters with people who might have had an immigration issue. However, he said if this proposal passes, the city will have to change its rules.
“There’ll be provisions in there if that passed into law that would preempt what we have in our welcoming Lebanon ordinance, and we’d have to obviously not enforce or have the council take action to change the city code to comply with that new law,” he said.
The police departments in Manchester and Nashua declined to comment on the bill.
Another proposal would require all New Hampshire businesses to enroll in E-verify, a federal program used to confirm employment eligibility by comparing records submitted by prospective employees to those available to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration.
“My thinking is the E-Verify program protects American workers by theoretically ensuring only eligible people are being hired by American businesses,” Rep. Aidan Ankarberg, a Republican from Rochester’s Ward 3, who sponsored the bill, said in an email.
Under his proposal, there wouldn’t be a penalty for businesses that aren’t in compliance.
Over 1.34 million employers are enrolled in the system nationwide, although different states have different requirements. Some states don’t require E-Verify at all, while some states like Florida and North Carolina require all employers to use the system. Others, like Texas and Virginia only require it from public employers.
The incoming Trump-Vance administration has also signaled its support for a mandatory federal E-Verify law.
Similar bills were introduced in New Hampshire in 2012, 2022 and 2024, but ultimately did not pass. Ankarberg co-sponsored the 2022 version of the bill and believes that adopting it is a way to move with the times.
“The goal here is to formally adopt the E-Verify program as mandatory best practice for our business community as it seems this may be somewhat inevitable,” Ankarberg said. “Better we be prepared and have our local stakeholders on board and aware of the program and how it works.”
A similar bill that’s being proposed by Republican Sen. Bill Gannon of Sandown would require businesses with more than 25 employees to enroll in E-verify.
Other legislators are going against signals from the incoming administration.
Rep. Tim Horrigan, a Democrat from Durham, introduced a bill that wants to tighten rules for immigration detention facilities. If passed as-is, the bill would prevent New Hampshire detention facilities from being run privately, participating in mass deportations or detaining a U.S. citizen.
Although there is only one detention facility in the state at the Strafford County Jail, he said that he did not want New Hampshire to be an active participant if mass deportations are carried out.
“A federal mass deportation effort, that’s something that I think is contrary to our live free or die tradition and our tradition of tolerating people from elsewhere who want to come here and enjoy the many great things that New Hampshire has to offer,” Horrigan said.
He added that he introduced the bill as a way to start the conversation about immigration detention in New Hampshire.
These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.