NORTH HAVERHILL — The Grafton County Sheriff’s Department has withdrawn from a partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after just over a year due to “burdensome” public records requests and a lack of immigration law enforcement activity.
The department, which signed a “memorandum of agreement” with ICE in March 2025 under a program known as 287(g) to have at least one officer trained to enforce immigration laws, is no longer on ICE’s list of participating agencies in New Hampshire, which now stands at 19. Currently, there are no Upper Valley agencies participating in the agreement.
At a Grafton County Commissioner’s meeting on May 12, Commissioner Katie Wood Hedberg stated that Sheriff Jill Meyers informed her that she had pulled out of the department’s agreement with ICE the day before.
Hedberg explained Myers’ decision to the other commissioners as Myers was not in attendance at the two meetings earlier this month where they discussed the contract. Myers told Hedberg that the public records requests were “burdensome” and the department “had not had enforcement activity with ICE,” Hedberg said at a commissioner’s meeting on May 19.
“When I asked about details, (Myers) said she received about five (public records) requests per month, many of which were vague and extensive,” Hedberg said.
One example Myers gave was a request to the department for “all emails with Homeland Security for the past year,” Hedberg added.
“(Myers) also said that since she does not have in-house counsel, learning about the specifics of the law and putting the responses together were all done by her and were taking an inordinate amount of her time,” Hedberg said.
Myers confirmed to Hedberg that the department hasn’t engaged in any “enforcement activities with ICE” since signing the agreement just over a year ago.
Since Myers signed the agreement to partner with ICE last spring, county residents have voiced their opposition by speaking up at commissioners’ meetings and collecting signatures on petitions, raising human rights and racial profiling concerns and receiving little response from Myers.
“I did ask Sheriff Myers if she was going to make a formal announcement to the press,” Hedberg said at a May 19 commissioners’ meeting. “And she said no.”
Hedberg told the commissioners that Myers, a Democrat who is up for reelection in the fall, also had no intention of making a formal announcement to the commissioners.
Commissioner Martha McLeod stated in the meeting minutes that Hedberg’s report was “helpful, but she is worried that it would enable this behavior rather than having the sheriff come to a public meeting.”
Efforts to reach Myers on Thursday and Friday were unsuccessful.
Grafton County Deputy Sheriff Benjamin Adams received ICE training, equipping him with much of the same authorities as an ICE agent, including the power to interrogate any undocumented immigrant or anyone believed to be an undocumented immigrant concerning their right to be in the country, and to detain and transport undocumented immigrants to ICE detention centers, the Valley News reported in May 2025.
The 287(g) agreement said that ICE is responsible for installing information technology infrastructure and for providing training, but the local agency must cover all other expenses, including salaries, benefits and local transportation.
The Grafton County Sheriff’s budget for fiscal year 2026 is around $2.4 million.
The average cost to arrest, detain and remove an undocumented immigrant is around $17,000, the Valley News previously reported.
At the May 19 Grafton County Commissioners’ meeting, Hedberg stated that Myers told her that while her department is no longer partnering with ICE, “the State Police has a 287(g) agreement, ICE can call them if needed.”
New Hampshire State Police entered into the program in April 2025. New Hampshire agencies partnering with ICE have made over 50 immigration arrests in the past year, New Hampshire Public Radio reported in April.
