This story was originally produced by The Keene Sentinel. NHPR is republishing it in partnership with the Granite State News Collaborative.
Police officers who collaborate with federal immigration authorities in New Hampshire would be prohibited from wearing masks under a measure to be considered next year by the state Legislature.
This is one of several Democratic proposals aimed at bringing greater public accountability to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s 287(g) program, under which ICE partners with state and local law enforcement.
A dozen police organizations in New Hampshire, including the New Hampshire State Police and the Troy Police Department, participate. Troy Police Chief David Ellis Jr. didn’t return a call for comment on Tuesday.
ICE agents sometimes wear masks when making arrests, and also may be in plain clothes without name tags or badges.
The American Civil Liberties Union and others say this leads to situations where someone is taken away and bystanders don’t know if the person has been arrested by authorities or kidnapped by criminals.
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ICE says on its website that masks are used to prevent its agents or officers from being subject to doxing, in which identifying information about a person is posted online with malicious intent.
Police officers who join ICE agents in New Hampshire enforcement actions would be required to identify themselves and would be prohibited from wearing masks under N.H. Rep. Alexis Simpson’s legislative proposal.
“This is fundamentally based in transparency, which I consider an important value and a Democratic norm,” Simpson, D-Exeter, said Tuesday.
“I really think that visible identification like an agency patch, a name or badge number provides basic transparency and lets the public distinguish lawful officers from others, and then hold the government accountable.”
Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed a bill on May 22 that prohibits state, county or municipal governments from blocking law enforcement agencies from entering into 287(g) agreements.
Republican-led passage of that bill came amid a Trump administration immigration crackdown. Lawsuits have been filed across the country challenging fast-tracked deportations and alleging constitutional due process violations.
In a partisan vote on May 8, the New Hampshire House defeated a proposed amendment by Rep. Buzz Scherr, which would have required state and local law enforcement to identify themselves by name, badge number and agency when operating under the authority of ICE.
Rep. Terry Roy, R-Deerfield, chairman of the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee, said after the amendment was defeated that Mexican drug cartels pose a serious enough threat to allow officers to limit their public identification during immigration arrests.
“Normally, I’m 100 percent in favor of our law enforcement needing to be visible and identifiable,” he said. “There should be no secret police in this country.
“However, when we are actively working against an enemy that wants to kill us, I feel we have to give that protection to our members.”
Roy said local law enforcement “would stick out like sore thumbs and be made targets” if their appearance was different from their masked federal partners on an immigration action.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security asserted in a news release Tuesday it has credible evidence that criminal organizations in Mexico, working with “domestic extremist groups,” have put “targeted bounties on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel.”
Scherr, D-Portsmouth, has a proposal to be considered by the New Hampshire Legislature next year that would require police agencies to get approval from budget-writing authorities in their jurisdiction before entering into a 287(g) agreement.
He said that under his measure, a city council, for example, could tell its police agency that for budgetary reasons, “we are not going to spend money to do ICE’s work.”
The legislation would also call on the police department to estimate how much time and money it planned to spend to assist ICE.
Two other measures to be considered by the state Legislature next year would require agencies to file public reports on their ICE-related activities.
Another would limit the use of state, county and municipal funds for the construction and operation of immigrant detention facilities.
“We know Granite Staters don’t want secret police,” said Rep. Zoe Manos, D-Stratham, who plans to introduce one of the public reporting bills. “And they want transparency, to know where and how their tax dollars are being used, and to feel safe in their own communities.”
The New Hampshire Legislature begins its 2026 session in January.
