Salem Rep. Joe Sweeney stepped up to the microphone to deliver what he called a “simple, clear message” on behalf of New Hampshire residents: “If you are here illegally, you are not welcome in New Hampshire.”

He then testified during a public hearing on the bill Tuesday that his legislation, House Bill 511, would back up that message with action by banning sanctuary cities and policies that limit cooperation with national immigration enforcement. The law would require police departments to comply with federal immigration officials with “no excuses, no games.”

But Sweeney’s message didn’t resonate for Peterborough residents like Linda Field, who defended the town’s 2017 vote to prevent its local police department from aiding in immigration enforcement.

“You’re instructing our police to go in and do something that the town itself is against,” Field said. “You’re instructing us to be bystanders by law, when we don’t see that a crime has been committed.”

HB 511 wouldn’t force local law enforcement to participate in any partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but would prohibit them from actively interfering with any ICE investigation. It would also strip the rights of towns to adopt a so-called “sanctuary” policies. If passed, the new state law would outrank local policies. Peter Leishman, a Democratic state representative from Peterborough and Sharon, said the attorney general’s office could step in if a municipality attempted to defy it.

The bill soared through the House of Representatives on its first vote, with a 351-6 margin. Leishman said like many of his colleagues, he trusted the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee’s recommendation to pass the bill. Things changed, Leishman said, when the Finance Committee, which reviews all passed legislation with a budgetary impact, took a stab at it. A second vote by the full House still passed, but came in at 206-161, along party lines.

Leishman opposed it the second time, saying that immigration enforcement has gone “way too far” – both in federal agents’ raid of local restaurant Mi Jalisco and detainments happening across the country.

“It’s the federal government’s responsibility,” Leishman said, not something that municipalities should be dragged into.

The Peterborough Police Department didn’t assist in ICE’s search of Mi Jalisco in February.

“We keep being told that there are criminals or dangerous people, and they’re going to protect us from these dangerous people,” Field said. “What they did was they found some person who had been living in our town, working for four years, had a little family –  people knew him, everything was lovely – they took him away.” 

Glennifer Gillespie, another Peterborough resident, agreed.

“These were good, working people, and they were our neighbors,” she said. “They were not criminals, mass murders and, to my knowledge, had committed no crime.”

ICE has not yet released the names or statuses of the four people it located in the town.

Republican lawmakers argued that even if residents may not see a crime actively being committed, people who are in the country without proper documentation are breaking the law.

“Entering the country illegally is a crime. They are criminals,” said Weare Rep. Ross Berry. “If you do not come into this country with documentation, if you are not authorized to enter here, you are a criminal. Period.”

Peterborough residents also took issue with the idea of the state stifling local control. Gillespie, who said she is a legal immigrant from South Africa, told senators that she moved to New Hampshire because of its “history of grassroots democracy.” She argued that towns should be able to govern themselves, with each given the right to ground their policies in their specific values.

But Berry maintained that local rights are just that – given.

“Every right that a town has actually flows from the state down to the town,” Berry said. “We as a state have every right to tell a town, ‘No, you cannot adopt this sanctuary city policy.’”

Sanbornton Sen. Bill Gannon, a Republican who heads the Senate Finance Committee, argued that the state needs to step in on some matters because a town’s actions don’t exist in a vacuum.

“Do we not have a right as a state, because the actions of your town will let the people in who the rest of the state may not have?” Gannon asked. “Your actions are going to affect the next town.”

In a separate effort from HB 511, Gov. Kelly Ayotte has encouraged local law enforcement to sign up for active partnerships with ICE. If a police department applies and is approved, officers in that jurisdiction can be deputized to carry out immigration checks during routine operations. 

Nine county and municipal law enforcement agencies have been approved so far, including the Troy Police Department near the Monadnock region. New Hampshire State Police was also approved to join the ICE task force last week.

Charlotte Matherly is the statehouse reporter for the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript and Concord Monitor in partnership with Report for America. Follow her on X at @charmatherly, subscribe to her Capital Beat newsletter and send her an email at cmathelry@cmonitor.com.