As President Donald Trump takes a flurry of actions designed to slow down immigration and increase deportations, Republicans in New Hampshire are proposing their own slew of policy proposals.

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday, Sen. Bill Gannon, a Sandown Republican, introduced three bills related to immigration in the state. The first, Senate Bill 71, would ban “sanctuary cities” — municipalities that have opted not to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement authorities such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The second, Senate Bill 62, would prohibit state or local governments from blocking law enforcement agencies from voluntarily working with ICE via formal agreements.

And the third, Senate Bill 13, would invalidate any driver’s license issued by another state to an undocumented person — specifically those designated for undocumented drivers. That bill would also make it a class B misdemeanor to drive in New Hampshire using that form of ID, a category that can incur up to a $1,200 fine but no jail time.

The bills come as part of a broader Republican push to crack down on immigration in the Granite State, bolstered by newly elected Gov. Kelly Ayotte, who campaigned heavily on pledges to increase patrols of New Hampshire’s Canadian border and ban sanctuary towns and cities.

Introducing the anti-sanctuary city bill, Gannon said he wanted to target “welcoming ordinances” passed by some towns that state that local law enforcement will not report to ICE when they arrest people who appear to be undocumented. Some cities, such as Lebanon and Hanover, have adopted policies to block municipal police officers from asking the immigration status of people they stop or arrest.

Gannon also connected illegal immigration to fentanyl use and crime in the state.

“The question we need to ask is why wouldn’t people want public safety threats out of their community?” he said. “When there are no sanctuary cities, less women and children will be subject to sex trafficking, less residents will die of fentanyl overdoses, and less illegal aliens will die making the journey across the border because they will know there’s no shelter for them in New Hampshire.”

Gilles Bissonnette, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire, said the anti-sanctuary city bill could open the door to local law enforcement having to hold people in custody on behalf of ICE.

“I think it very plausibly can be read to require compliance with detainers which don’t have due process baked into them, which aren’t signed off by a judge, and I just have profound concerns with that,” he said.

Bissonnette also said SB 71 could damage the relationships local law enforcement agencies have built with immigrant communities, both documented and undocumented.

The House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee also heard testimony Wednesday on House Bill 511, which would bar sanctuary city policies and empower the state Attorney General’s Office to sue municipalities that don’t comply.

In 2024, the Republican-led House struck down another anti-sanctuary city attempt in House Bill 1292, after last minute disagreements with the Senate during the committee of conference process.

But in her Jan. 9 inaugural address, Ayotte called on the Legislature to pass the legislation this year.

“We’ve got the Massachusetts illegal immigrant crisis right down the road,” Ayotte said. “And if you want to see what these dangerous policies do, not just to communities, but to a budget, they’ve spent a billion dollars housing migrants rather than spending it, investing it on their law-abiding residents. We can’t allow that to happen here in New Hampshire.”