Republicans in the New Hampshire State House are moving quickly to deliver on one of their top legislative priorities: pushing a tougher line on immigration enforcement.
The state Senate is poised to pass several immigration bills today, including one that would forbid communities from prohibiting local police from cooperating with federal immigration officials.
Last week, a House committee voted unanimously to recommend the full House approve a similar version of the bill.
Both bills could invalidate municipal ordinances – also known as welcoming ordinances – that generally prevent any local official, from clerks to police, from asking someone about their immigration status, and prevent local law enforcement from participating in immigration enforcement actions.
Salem Republican Rep. Joe Sweeney, the lead sponsor of the House version of the bill, said that the bill is taking aim at cities with those ordinances.
“We're passing this bill so that there's no sanctuary in New Hampshire,” he said. “There's no welcoming in New Hampshire. If you are here illegally, we don't want you to be in the state of New Hampshire.”
The House bill also was amended unanimously by both Democrats and Republicans on the House Criminal Justice & Public Safety Committee Friday. It requires local police to “the extent possible and their ability to safely do so” comply with ICE requests to hold someone already held in jail for violating New Hampshire law.
The New Hampshire Municipal Association opposed the original bill, which required law enforcement to use their “best efforts” to enforce immigration law. In written testimony, executive director Margaret Byrnes argued that if passed the bill would result in an “unfunded mandate” for local governments.
In an interview with the Keene Sentinel, the superintendent of the Cheshire County Department of Corrections said his jail would be “responsible for housing people beyond our authority.”
Sen. Bill Gannon, a Republican from Sandown and lead sponsor of the version of the bill in the Senate, says mandating cooperation with federal authorities would help decrease crime by helping immigration enforcement detain more undocumented immigrants.
Research shows that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than those born in the U.S.
Several immigration advocates presented testimony against these bills, arguing that the bills would decrease trust between police and the community.
New Hampshire ACLU Legal Director Gilles Bissonnette testified against both bills. He said that the version of the bill now in the Senate takes power away from local communities and could add a financial burden if local law enforcement is required to hold undocumented immigrants for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“I do think that this policy creates a scenario where local police will likely have to do whatever federal immigration officials want, no matter how costly, to local taxpayers,” he said during a public hearing.
Other legislative efforts
A related effort up for a vote in the Senate today would forbid government officials in New Hampshire from passing ordinances that would prevent local police officers participating in ICE training programs that delegate some functions of immigration enforcement to state and local police. Currently, no municipality in the state participates in such a program.
Other immigration-related bills heard recently include one that would invalidate out-of-state driver’s licenses issued to non-citizens and one that would withhold money from schools that house immigrants in an emergency.
Another bill that could require New Hampshire businesses to enroll in the federal E-Verify system was unanimously voted inexpedient to legislate by a House committee. Another version of the bill will be heard by the Senate Commerce committee.
