This story is part of a series of check-ins on where things stand on big issues like housing, the environment and education at the midpoint of the State House calendar. Find more stories at NHPR.org/crossover.
Immigration has been a major subject of debate at the State House this year, and the Trump administration’s promise of carrying out mass deportation is driving lawmakers to consider how New Hampshire should participate.
So, where do things stand at the midpoint of the legislative calendar?
Republicans make ‘sanctuary cities’ a priority from Day One
Since the beginning of the session in January, Gov. Kelly Ayotte said she expected a bill on her desk that would prohibit towns and cities from passing ordinances that prevent local police from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement.
So far, those bills are moving along at a steady clip, as New Hampshire Republicans seem eager to follow the Trump administration’s lead to target places they call “sanctuary cities.”.
But in New Hampshire at least, “sanctuary cities” is kind of a misnomer: No city or town has an outright ban on any cooperation with the federal government. Some do have policies directing officers to refrain from detaining someone solely on suspicion about their immigration status, but those policies mostly appear to be staying in place.
There are two versions of “anti-sanctuary city” bills in the State House right now: one in the House and one in the Senate, but they’re pretty similar. We’ll see how legislators consolidate the bills as they advance.
Drivers licenses restrictions
There’s also a couple of bills still alive that would add additional restrictions to driver’s licenses for non-citizens. One proposes that people who are granted status as asylees can’t get a driver’s license until their application to be a permanent resident has been granted – a process that can take years. That bill passed the House and is now in the Senate
Another bill that the Senate will now take up from the House would make clear that New Hampshire doesn’t recognize licenses from other states held by undocumented immigrants, so if the bill gets passed and you get caught driving on one of those, you could be guilty of a misdemeanor and fined up to $1,200.
A change in political climate
Now, advocates have been opposing these kinds of bills for a while. During previous sessions, proposals to ban so-called sanctuary were killed after police chiefs submitted a letter saying that it erodes trust between law enforcement and local communities. It’s hard to say exactly why they are moving ahead this year, but part of it is no doubt a change in the political climate since the 2024 election.
Immigration enforcement has been a top priority for the Trump administration, with more support for policies that make life harder for some immigrants. Recent polling from CBS found that 53% of Americans approve of how the president is handling immigration right now.
That’s on the federal level. On a state level, Ayotte’s positioning on these issues is also making a difference. As a former attorney general, she’s been pretty vocal on issues of public safety both as a candidate and since moving into the corner office.
For example, early on in Trump’s second term, she was cautiously supportive of deportations, saying that she believes that “dangerous criminals, gang members, and terrorists that pose a direct threat to our safety and national security need to be deported.”
Earlier this year, she also told reporters that if someone had committed a crime and they were in the country without legal status, then the state would prioritize making sure that we are cooperating with federal authorities.
In the months since, she’s also expressed strong support for programs where local communities partner with ICE to carry out immigration enforcement actions at a local level, known as 287(g) programs So far, the towns of Colebrook, Gorham, Ossipee, Pittsburg and Troy have agreements. So do Belknap and Grafton counties. And New Hampshire State Police has a pending application, although this one has been waiting for about a month now
Advocates warn of negative consequences
Advocates who work with immigrant communities are not happy about these developments. For example, organizers at a recent vigil encouraged attendees to reach out to local police departments and register their opposition to these 287(g) programs
Sara Jane Knoy of the Granite State Organizing Project, a coalition of a lot of the religious organizations that advocate around immigration, said that a lot of this legislation is based around the idea that all immigrants are criminals, which is not true, and that some of the proposals will have negative consequences if passed, in particular the one restricting licenses for asylees.
