Immigration and Customs Enforcement listed the Kingston, Milton, Pittsfield and Newton police departments as “participating agencies” this week.
This uptick comes as the Grafton County Sheriff’s Office has pulled back from their agreement to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, marking the first withdrawal since a wave of New Hampshire law enforcement agencies started signing 287(g) agreements last spring.
The 287(g) program allows local law enforcement agencies to partner with the Department of Homeland Security to enforce immigration law.
Although Sheriff Jillian Myers has not responded to requests for confirmation from NHPR, County Commissioner Katie Wood Hedberg, a Democrat, confirmed the change with Sheriff Myers earlier this week.
“There was [a] burden on her office with 91-a requests, which are the release of information,” Hedberg said. “And she had been getting ongoing concern from constituents about this agreement.”
There have been several efforts from county residents to end the agreement, including gathering signatures, writing editorials, and submitting petitions to the commissioner’s meeting.
Activists say they are counting the withdrawal as a win – if a symbolic one, since the department had only one trained deputy, had not made any 287(g) arrests, or taken stipends from ICE.
The four new towns are listed by ICE as participating agencies, but their memoranda of understanding are listed as “pending” by an ICE tracker. Most of them are clustered in the Southern Tier, including the police departments from Kingston, Milton, Pittsfield and Newton.
Newton has been listed by ICE as participating since Thursday, but Newton Police Chief Rob DiFlumeri said the department is still weighing its options and hasn’t finalized their agreement yet.
The other three departments of could not be immediately reached for comment by NHPR.
