Detention center is wrong for NH
Last week, the ACLU of New Hampshire made public documents that confirm the federal government’s plans to put a new Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility on Robert Milligan Parkway in Merrimack. A detention center in Merrimack would be a huge mistake on ethical, constitutional and pragmatic grounds, and it’s critical that we let Governor Ayotte know that.
As the child of a Holocaust survivor, I am sickened by the moral repugnance of these
ICE/CBP concentration camps, where detainees are cold, and lack adequate medical care, food and water, and are demeaned, traumatized, and murdered. Though no human being should be treated this way, the injustice is heightened considering that only 5% of immigrant detainees have committed violent crimes, some have convictions for minor traffic violations, and 70% have no criminal convictions at all. Many legal immigrants have been detained and abused by unmasked and untrained ICE and CBP agents who bring chaos and violence not only to our immigrant neighbors and friends, but to everyone in our communities.
New Hampshire’s immigrants are watching to see what happens in Merrimack. They strengthen our communities in innumerable ways. For example, in New Hampshire, one-third of the adults disabled by aging or developmental disabilities are cared for by immigrants. If they flee, it will create a crisis of unimaginable proportions..
Will we show our immigrant neighbors and friends that they will remain safe and valued in New Hampshire? Will our state continue to be a place where communities thrive, nestled by our mountains, and by the way we care for each other? Or will New Hampshire become a dangerous place where masked agents pummel all of us with rubber bullets, pepper spray, tear gas and worse?
Please write Governor Ayotte at the State House, 107 North Main Street, Concord, NH, 03301, and tell her not to compromise New Hampshire’s ethics and destabilize our quality of life by allowing an ICE/CBP detention center in Merrimack.