House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee meeting. Jan. 22. Screenshot
CONCORD, NH – The House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee voted Inexpedient to Legislate (ITL) – an unfavorable motion – on HB 1822 on January 22, relative to reporting of civil immigration detentions by state, county, and local law enforcement and correctional facilities.
The bill requires “Any state, county, or local law enforcement agency that has detained a person for a civil immigration violation for any period of time (including pursuant to an immigration detainer, a federal 287(g) program, or RSA 106-R:3, I),” to submit a semi-annual report to the attorney general “indicating the number of people it has detained for such civil immigration violations in the preceding 6 months and the length of each such detention.”
The attorney general shall submit a semiannual report to the governor, senate president, and speaker of the house of representatives summarizing the information received.
According to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the 287(g) Program is a partnership that state and local law enforcement agencies can enter with ICE.
Sponsor of the bill, Representative Zoey Manos, D-Stratham, said that the bill is based on the Northern Border alliance Law, which requires, “semi annual reporting to the governor, senate president, and speaker of the House of Representatives, which includes measurable program results and a detailed accounting of program funding and uses.”
Manos said the bill arose after she and another representative attempted to get “very basic” information about an ICE detention that happened a year ago in June near Exeter, received conflicting information and were never able to pinpoint exactly what had happened.
Representative Paige Beauchemin, D-Nashua, testified in favor of the bill, and said detentions are one of her constituents’s biggest concerns. She said it is frequently heard that people are being detained without criminal offenses, and that the bill would provide numbers and evidence that would show the reality of the situation.
“I think also for the constituents, it’s either going to let them know what they’re up against or it’s going to ease their concerns and give them a little bit more confidence in what’s happening in our government and I think everybody could use a little of that right now,” Beauchemin said.
Committee chairman Rep. Terry Roy, R-Deerfield, made the motion for the bill to be ITL, saying that while data is important, this would only give a “tiny silver of data,” and that there are only 13 agencies in the state involved in the 287(g) program, and that it’s not clear that they can share data while working with the federal government.
According to information obtained by The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) New Hampshire from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, the county sheriff offices of Belknap, Grafton, Hillsborough, Rockingham, and the police departments of Auburn, Candia, Carroll, Colebrooke, Gorham, Ossipee, Pittsburg, and Troy, as well as the New Hampshire State Police, have entered in agreements with ICE under the 287 (g) program.
While saying it is “sometimes” true that some data is better than no data – as argued by Representative Buzz Scherr, D-Portsmouth – he said that partial data can lead to “erroneous assumptions” and bad policy decisions.
Representative David Meuse, D-Rockingham 37, said he was “very disappointed” with the ITL motion.
“Transparency is a good thing. Collecting data like this is a good thing because it helps us understand the issue and it helps ground our arguments in facts rather than in suppositions,” he said. “I don’t think throwing our hands up in the air and saying that it’s too little, it’s not enough, really gets us any closer to solving the problem, which is the fact that nobody can tell me how many people are being detained in new hampshire right now in these 287 (g) situations.”
Roy argued that the numbers they would receive would be “basically useless,” as there would be nothing they could do with the information, except use it for political purposes.
“I’m not [going to], especially when three of the twins I represent are involved in [the 287(g) program], allow to the extent that I can stop it, collecting information to use against them politically. Until I see a reason or something we could do with this data I just can’t support it,” he said.
The vote was along party lines. In favor of the ITL motion were Representatives Jennifer Rhodes, Mark Proulx, Richard Lascelles, Ricky Devoid, Kathleen Paquette, Matt Sabourin dit Choinière, and Terry Roy.
Opposed were Representatives Linda Harriot-Gathright, David Meuse, Ray Newman, Nancy Murphy, Alissandra Murray, and Buzz Scherr.
These articles are being co-produced by Nashua Ink Link and Granite State News Collaborative and shared with partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.