Immigration

Congresswoman Annie Kuster describes conditions at border facilities in Texas as "inhumane."

Kuster visited the facilities in McAllen and Brownsville this past weekend with a congressional delegation.

She says she saw overcrowding, and the abnormally high volume of migrants that have been passing through the facility.

"The night before we were there, they had picked up 2,000 migrants. So the volume coming through the facilities at this point is extremely high. They told us it was the highest it had been since 1986,” Kuster said.

Presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke decried the treatment of immigrants and asylum seekers at the U.S. border while campaigning Friday night in Peterborough.

O’Rourke spoke at one of many “Lights for Liberty” vigils held across the state and the country. The vigils were part of a nationwide campaign to protest reported conditions at immigrant detention centers.

Candlelight vigils focusing on the treatment of immigrants and asylum seekers at the border will take place across New Hampshire Friday night.

They're part of a national event called “Lights for Liberty,” happening across the country.

“We believe that these child prisons should be closed immediately, and the children released to their relatives and extended families in the U.S.,” reads a press release from Lights for Liberty event organizers in Hanover.

The Manchester Equity Review Team, a group tasked with improving equity in the city's public schools, is recommending the district increase racial diversity among staff and change how it disciplines students.

In the last decade, Manchester has struggled with a decline in state aid and major demographic shifts; the percentage of Latino students, English language learners (ELL's) and students on free and reduced lunch in Manchester have nearly doubled.

The ACLU is accusing the federal government of denying undocumented immigrants due process rights while they’re detained, in violation of constitutional protections.

Officials with U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued tickets to 29 people for alleged immigration violations at a checkpoint on I-93 near Woodstock on Sunday.  

The violations were for legal visitors to the U.S. who didn’t have appropriate paperwork on them, as required by law, accordign to the CBP.

Agents also made six marijuana seizures.

A checkpoint held over Memorial Day weekend on Route 3 led to six of the same immigration citations, but also no arrests. 

Presidential candidate Marianne Williamson made a stop by the Statehouse in Concord on Wednesday as she wrapped up her latest campaign swing through New Hampshire.

U.S. Border Patrol agents issued six immigration-related citations during a checkpoint in the northern New Hampshire town of Columbia on Memorial Day, but officials say that they made no arrests for immigration violations.

Rather, the tickets were issued to legal visitors of the United States who didn't have appropriate paperwork in their possession, as required by law.

Border Patrol says they made nine separate marijuana-related busts, but aren’t pursuing criminal charges in those cases. The agents used K9 teams during the stop.

Lawyers representing an asylum-seeker from Somalia who's been detained for over 2 ½ years without a bond hearing say he's been released.

Acting on behalf of Mahamed Ahmed-Cali, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire sued the heads of the departments of Justice, Homeland Security, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, and Enforcement and Removal Operations, as well as a county corrections department.

Immigrant rights activists in Massachusetts are calling for the release of two local organizers detained by federal immigration authorities in New Hampshire.

Cosecha Massachusetts is hosting a vigil Monday night in front of Lawrence City Hall to support residents Nelson Lopez and Heiner Nolasco.

The advocacy group says the two men were detained May 13 after the car they were riding in was stopped for speeding and local New Hampshire police turned them over to federal authorities.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman said he'd comment later.

President Donald Trump is unveiling an immigration plan that would vastly change who's allowed into the United States. The administration's proposal focuses on reducing family-based immigration to the U.S. in favor of employment skill-based immigration. Watch his remarks from the White House Rose Garden live, scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Thursday (May 16).

The ACLU of New Hampshire is suing the U.S. government on behalf of a man they say has been in immigration detention for more than two years.

Mahamed Ahmed-Cali, a Somali native, was detained at a California port of entry in 2016 after requesting asylum.

Since then, immigration officials have transferred him to several states, including Louisiana, Florida, Alabama and, most recently, New Hampshire at the Strafford County Department of Corrections.

A chef in Franconia who's facing deportation has had his case picked up by the ACLU of New Hampshire.

Cornelia Lorentzen runs the cafe where Juan Pu works. A little more than a year ago, Lorentzen says she convinced him and his family to move from Florida to Franconia to work as a chef in her restaurant.  

She says Pu was detained two weeks ago by ICE officers in plain clothes.

The New Hampshire House passed a bill Wednesday that would allow residents in the state who do not have a social security card to get a driver's license.

Supporters of the measure say undocumented immigrants already living in the state should be able to drive to work and transport family members without breaking the law. They argue that many are already driving without licenses and this bill would make roads safer.

The number of people apprehended along the U.S. border with Canada is continuing to climb, according to newly released statistics from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Statistics from the fiscal year that ended last Sept. 30 show that 4,316 people were apprehended near the more than 5,500-mile border last year, up from 3,027 in 2017 and 2,283 in 2016.

Latino immigrants in Manchester now have a place to go for free referral services. 

The Centro Latino de Hospitalidad, located at the Catholic parish St. Anne-St. Augustin, aims to become the central place for Latinos to get help figuring out where to go for things like housing and legal services.

The center will be open on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons and be staffed by volunteers from Sisters of Mercy and local colleges, with help from the Granite State Organizing Project.

Earlier this week, the newly elected governor of New Mexico ordered the majority of National Guard troops stationed at the southern border in her state to withdraw. Among those soldiers is a single guardsman from New Hampshire.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced the withdrawal on Tuesday, and criticized President Trump’s decision to send active duty troops to the region.

A Littleton resident who served in the U.S. Army for two years says he is being denied citizenship after it was promised to him.

After studying in America and receiving a dental degree, Indian national Hiren Korat was recruited by the U.S. military.

A Portsmouth grandmother has been released after nearly eight months at a jail in Dover. Etty Tham has lived in the U.S. since fleeing religious persecution in Indonesia almost two decades ago.

She was arrested at an immigration checkpoint on I-93 last May.

Tougher border security is at the heart of the debate that's led to a government shutdown, now more than three weeks old. But some immigration-related federal contracts in New Hampshire are going unpaid.

Raymond Bower is administrator for Strafford County. The Department of Corrections there has an ongoing contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to board immigration detainees in Dover.

Victor Gonzalez-Triana of Barrington, N.H., was released from custody Tuesday, after he was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

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Attorneys for a man who was recently granted permanent resident status in the country say he's being held by ICE unlawfully.

A bill coming before New Hampshire's next legislative session would prohibit sanctuary cities in the state.

Many so-called sanctuary cities across the U.S. have limited how much local law enforcement can work with federal immigration authorities.

Federal immigration officials have apprehended dozens of people suspected of living in the country illegally in a series of sweeps in New England.

The Boston Herald reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have detained some 58 people in raids this week in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Connecticut.  In Massachusetts, the arrests were carried out in Lawrence, Worcester and the Boston neighborhoods of Dorchester and East Boston.

A federal judge has freed a Somali immigrant who was held for nine months in a New Hampshire jail without a hearing.

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire contends Immigration and Customs Enforcement unlawfully detained 45-year-old Abdigani Faisal Hussein, of Portland, Maine, who was released from the Strafford County Jail on Thursday.

A federal judge ruled in Concord Tuesday that a man held in immigration custody in New Hampshire for more than eight months will get a hearing.

Abdigani Faisal Hussein is a Somali national who came to the U.S. as a refugee in 1996. His lawyers say he has three daughters who are American citizens.

Congressional 1st District candidates Eddie Edwards and Chris Pappas met last night at a debate in Manchester hosted by WMUR-TV. 

Despite toeing their party lines, the two candidates both said they were ready to work across the aisle and bring New Hampshire ideals to a broken system in Washington.

Some highlights of the debate include: