Sanctuary city ban to become law in N.H., as local police join in federal immigration enforcement
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'It will prevent localities from putting in a sanctuary city policy in their communities, and that was what I supported,' she said Wednesday during a press event.
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Ayotte said her office has reviewed the bills and found that they are compatible. 'They can complement each other,' she said.
Immigrants' rights advocates have opposed efforts to ban sanctuary cities, warning that local police should not use local resources to enforce federal law. They argue blurring these lines will undermine immigrants' trust in local law enforcement, which could make them more hesitant to report crimes or turn to the police for help.
And civil liberties advocates, including attorneys at the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire, said the measures will erode due process.
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'These bills would require police to aid in federal immigration enforcement by executing ICE detainers in many instances — which are not signed by a judge and do not go through due process,' Amanda Azad, policy director at the ACLU of New Hampshire, said in a statement.
HB 511 requires local and state law enforcement to comply with immigration detainers of inmates and bans sanctuary policies that would hinder enforcement of federal immigration law. It also stops law enforcement from withholding inmate immigration information.
It includes exceptions for some people who have witnessed or been the victim of a crime, and it prohibits law enforcement from investigating an inmate's citizenship status in some cases. The measure is slated to take effect at the beginning of 2026.
Similarly, SB 62 bars local governments from getting in the way of state or federal law enforcement carrying out immigration law, and it allows the attorney general to sue jurisdictions found in violation.
The bill also allows county corrections departments to hold individuals for up to 48 hours after state charges are resolved to deliver them to ICE custody.
In addition, SB 62 seeks to protect the state and local communities' ability to partner more closely with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement through agreements that deputize state or local officers as federal immigration agents.
SB 62 would prevent communities from prohibiting such arrangements with ICE under Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
Ayotte has actively encouraged state and local law enforcement agencies to partner with ICE on federal immigration enforcement. She wrote a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in February urging the Trump administration to reactivate and bolster 287(g) programs, so police could take a more active role in this area.
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The Trump administration then reestablished a 'task force model' that had been shuttered years earlier amid a slew of racial bias accusations. With the governor's
The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, which serves the state's most populous county, signed an ICE agreement last week for a task force model. It was the fourth to do so in New Hampshire, joining the Rockingham, Belknap, and Grafton county sheriff's offices, according to
Hillsborough County Sheriff Brian J. Newcomb did not immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment about his decision to pursue the ICE agreement.
New Hampshire is a regional outlier. The only other police force in New England that has signed a task force model agreement is the municipal department in Wells, Maine, according to ICE's website.
When it comes to state-level sanctuary policies, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island are identified as 'sanctuary' states, while Maine has taken 'no position' on the matter, according to the National Congress of State Legislatures in Denver.
There aren't any towns in the state that have officially adopted a sanctuary designation, although cities such as
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Meanwhile, states in the South and Western United States such as
Amanda Gokee can be reached at
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