Merrimack ICE warehouse: New bill to require local consent for detention facilities

The all-Democratic congressional delegation from New Hampshire is introducing legislation to block the US Department of Homeland Security from opening new detention facilities without a local community’s consent.

The proposal, which the sponsors unveiled Monday morning, comes amid public outcry over plans to convert an industrial warehouse in Merrimack, N.H., into a regional processing center for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Trump administration is seeking to build out a new nationwide network of facilities with enough beds to incarcerate more than 92,000 people nationwide.

Merrimack officials have been raising alarms about the ramifications of ICE’s plans. More details were released** **by Governor Kelly Ayotte on Feb. 12. Among local leaders’ concerns: If the federal government buys the 43-acre warehouse property, that would reduce local property tax revenues by nearly $530,000 while likely placing an added burden on police and emergency services.

Some local Republican leaders, including state** Senator Tim McGough and state **Representative Bill Boyd, have joined in vocally opposing the federal government’s plans. DHS and ICE officials have remained tight-lipped.

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Senator Jeanne Shaheen said the “Respect for Local Communities Act” — which she is sponsoring with Senator Maggie Hassan and Representatives Chris Pappas and Maggie Goodlander — responds directly to the concerns of local leaders in Merrimack and elsewhere across the country where ICE has proposed setting up new detention facilities.

“They were never consulted about ICE’s plans, and they don’t want the chaos of new detention facilities in their communities,” she said in a statement.

Shaheen said the United States needs border security and immigration rules, but the Trump administration has instead delivered violence and cruelty.

“Americans are justifiably concerned as DHS moves to open secretive facilities across the country to detain thousands of individuals at a time, with little transparency or regard for the communities they’re being located in,” she said.

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This legislation would require that DHS take certain steps before building, acquiring, or renovating real estate for ICE detention centers. Those steps include a 30-day public comment period, a formal notification to Congress, and signed agreements documenting that state and local officials have consented to the project.

Goodlander said DHS’s campaign to convert industrial warehouses into detention centers without local approval is “a dangerous and un-American overreach” by the Trump administration.

“It is eviscerating public trust. It is imperiling public safety. It is threatening economic growth,” she said. “It must stop.”

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Steven Porter can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @reporterporter.