“Gov. Kelly Ayotte is applauding the application by New Hampshire State Police to take on immigration enforcement duties for the Trump administration. We fear that this will not be a one-act play and that it will end in tragedy.
“The state police are volunteering to partner with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency under a section of federal law, 287(g), that would allow troopers to question, detain and arrest people based on their immigration status.
“ ‘It is critical for state and local law enforcement to cooperate with federal authorities and protect our citizens,’ Ayotte said. ‘Criminals who are in our country illegally and pose a danger should be apprehended and removed.
“True enough, but we know of nothing that now prevents state troopers from apprehending dangerous criminals, whether they be undocumented immigrants or, more likely, U.S. citizens. Instead, it appears that what the state police — and some local police agencies, including the Grafton County Sheriff’s Department — propose to do is help enforce immigration laws, a responsibility of the federal government. Violation of these laws is regarded as a civil — not a criminal — offense, punishable not by jail but by expulsion from the United States. The public has been told repeatedly over many years that the state police lack sufficient resources to perform their current duties, so why do they want to take on additional ones that do not pertain to crime?
“Rather than enhancing the safety of New Hampshire residents, this change presents a clear and present danger to it. The most obvious one is that if immigrant communities fear the police, as they surely will if they perceive officers to be simply another arm of ICE, they will naturally fear to report crime or to cooperate with authorities in the prosecution of it. This would affect not only immigrant enclaves but broader communities.
“A number of local police departments have recognized this reality and have gone the extra mile to build strong relationships with immigrants within their borders. All this effort will be undermined if the state’s pre–eminent law enforcement agency becomes an immigration enforcement agency as well. It is a lot to expect immigrants to distinguish among police agencies they come into contact with.” — NH Police Put Mission Aside to Pursue Immigrants, Editorial, Valley News, 3/14/25 [Link]
Fact Check of Above Quote: The 287(g) law has proven successful as a means of enhancing immigration law enforcement. This is why illegal alien advocates strongly oppose it. They claim that state and local officers should not assist ICE because immigration law enforcement is a federal responsibility. The reality is that 287(g) is a federal law which allows local and state officers, with specified training, to support ICE.
This editorial asserts that local and state enforcement discourages illegal aliens from coming forward to report crimes. This is a common claim by illegal alien advocates, though it has little basis in fact. Research has consistently shown that this “chilling effect” on crime reporting doesn’t happen. One example is an in-depth study conducted by researchers from the University of Virginia on crime reporting in Virginia’s Prince William County after it implemented a program to cooperate with ICE. The study found no chilling effect, while it also found a decline of certain violent crimes.
Local and state assistance to ICE Is not a waste of their resources. Illegal immigration is not a victimless crime. Aside from violent criminals, all of them break multiple laws which negatively impact America citizens. The people of New Hampshire are fortunate to have a leader like Gov. Ayotte who cares about our country’s rule of law. He should ignore the pundits who hardly seem to care about it at all.