The ACLU of New Hampshire held a Know Your Rights training in Concord Thursday night. The training was in response to the immigration checkpoints conducted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection along I-93.
Around 80 people sat in rows in the basement of Concord's St. Paul's church for the training. Gilles Bissonnette, Legal Director of the ACLU of New Hampshire, spoke about the 100 mile zone where border patrol can operate immigration checkpoints.
"New Hampshire is really uniquely situated such that under these policies, the state is almost exclusively captured under this regime," he said.
Using a cardboard cutout of a car door, organizers acted out different ways people can respond to Border Patrol at a checkpoint, emphasizing the right to remain silent and encouraging participants to record encounters.
Several attendees shared their experiences of being stopped at the checkpoints on I-93.
Arnie Alpert is the co-director of the American Friends Service Committee's N.H. Program, one of the sponsors of the event.
"A lot of the training is for anybody to understand what are your rights when you're confronted by an immigration officer, what do you have to do, what can you refuse to do, legally," he said.