New Hampshire joins a growing list of states that mandate some level of local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed a pair of bills into law that ban so-called “sanctuary” policies designed to keep local police from cooperating with federal immigration authorities.
“There will be no sanctuary cities in New Hampshire,” Ayotte
declared at the bill-signing ceremony, flanked by lawmakers and sheriffs from across the state. “Period. End of story.”
The first measure,
House Bill 511, requires municipalities to comply with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer requests “to the extent possible and [within] their ability to safely do so.” A detainer typically asks local jails to hold an arrested or convicted individual for up to 48 hours to allow federal agents to pick them up for deportation.
The bill also prohibits blanket sanctuary policies that ignore federal immigration directives. In addition, it bars local police from asking whether someone in their custody is a citizen, unless that individual is under investigation for violating a New Hampshire law.
The second measure,
Senate Bill 62, states that state or local governments must not prevent their law enforcement agencies from entering into voluntary agreements with ICE. It also authorizes county jails to hold individuals for up to two additional days after they’ve resolved their local or state charges, if they are subject to ICE detention.
Local governments violating this second law may be fined up to 25 percent of the total state funds they receive.
Both laws are set to fully take effect in January 2026.
The move fulfills a major campaign promise Ayotte made last fall and reiterated during her
inaugural address. In that speech, the Republican governor referred to Massachusetts as a “cautionary tale,” highlighting the significant burden placed on taxpayers as its Democrat-led neighbor state tried to take care of the unprecedented influx of illegal immigrants.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey has explicitly
said that her state is not a sanctuary state, and that she will not get in the way of federal immigration agents doing their jobs. However, Healey has also made clear that state police will not assist in federal deportation efforts. Several Massachusetts cities, including Boston and Cambridge, have proclaimed sanctuary status.
Massachusetts runs an
overburdened emergency shelter system, which implements the state’s right-to-shelter policy that guarantees temporary housing, food, and medical care for eligible families regardless of immigration status. Since 2022, the state has contracted with hotels and motels as emergency shelters, and officials
estimated that the state would need more than $1 billion to keep the system afloat through the end of fiscal year 2025, roughly in line with spending levels in previous fiscal years.
In February, Healey signed a supplemental budget allocating another
$425 million to support the shelter services. The funding came after Republican proposals to tighten criminal background checks for shelter residents and to allow ICE access to the shelters were rejected by the Democrats.
“This is something we ran on to make sure that New Hampshire would not go the way of Massachusetts and their billion-dollar illegal immigration crisis,” Ayotte said Thursday.
New Hampshire now joins a growing list of states that have enacted anti-sanctuary laws. According to legal advocacy group Immigrant Legal Resource Center,
more than 20 states, including Alabama, Florida, Texas, and Georgia, have laws mandating at least some level of local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
On the other side, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington have taken steps against local involvement in immigration enforcement.
