A House bill aims to create an “anti-sanctuary act” in the state, a proposal that conflicts with multiple warrant articles approved by voters in the Monadnock Region in 2017.
NH HB 232 would require state and local government to comply with federal immigration detainer requests and would further prevent them from creating policies that prohibit or discourage federal immigration law enforcement.
“We don’t tell the FBI they can’t investigate kidnappings… why would we tell ICE they can’t enforce immigration law?” said Rep. Werner Horn, R-Franklin, one of the bill’s 11 Republican sponsors.
Voters in Wilton, Dublin, Temple, and Peterborough all passed language during their town meetings that asked town employees to not inquire about or report on any person’s immigration status.
A petition article was also placed on the ballot in Hancock, but it was not passed.
It was stated at many of the town meetings that if the warrant articles were to pass, they would be non-binding.
Peterborough was the only town to have an article that specifically used the words “sanctuary city,” but that article was not passed.
Many of the warrant articles passed in the area were created during a number of private meetings at Rep. Ivy Vann’s Peterborough home, a byproduct of a group of people meeting up to discuss concrete action that could be taken after President Donald Trump’s election.
“Our position all along was that we do not want local or state law enforcement personnel to enforce immigration policies,” Vann said. “That is the responsibility of the federal government.”
Vann said Friday she felt the bill “detracts from the real problems we need to deal with.”
“I think it’s a really unfortunate bill,” Vann said. “If it’s a fence, it would be a spiked fence. I think it’s unnecessary and a little spiteful.”
Rep. Sean Morrison, R-Epping, said the bill is not an anti-immigration bill, but rather an anti-illegal immigration bill.
“It’s an anti-breaking the law bill,” Morrison said.
Morrison said he isn’t against immigration, as his mother immigrated from Ireland.
“I think [santuary cities] are discriminatory against immigrants who do it the right way,” Morrison said. “Some countries have to follow the laws and others do not.”
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) reports as of May 2018 that there are 564 jurisdictions with sanctuary policies in the United States, up from 11 prior to the year 2000.
In addition to Deerfield, Dublin, Harrisville, Lyme, and Manchester, the report lists Cheshire County as a jurisdiction with a sanctuary policy.
County Sheriff Eliezer “Eli” Rivera announced in March 2017 that his department would not ask about a person’s immigration status or detain someone based on an “administrative civil detainer that is not issued by a judge.”
“It is without dispute that the enforcement of immigration laws is the responsibility of the federal government and that the Cheshire County Sheriff’s Office does not have the authority or jurisdiction to enforce them,” Rivera wrote on his website.
Nicholas Handy can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 235 or nhandy@ledgertranscript.com.