WEST LEBANON – A network of activist groups has reported multiple detentions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement of individuals in the Upper Valley last week.
Between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m. on Friday, August 7, ICE allegedly detained three people in West Lebanon, according to Upper Valley Immigration Solidarity, a local volunteer group.
Last week, the Upper Valley Rapid Response hotline, which coordinates with advocacy groups like the Burlington-based Migrant Justice, sent out multiple alerts to warn Upper Valley residents of possible ICE sightings.
“There have been many confirmed reports of ICE vehicles and agents across the Upper Valley today,” Upper Valley Immigration Solidarity wrote in a statement to the Valley News on Friday. “Migrant Justice and local support networks are in touch with contacts of some of the detainees.”
Efforts to support detainees and their families and to communicate the “current threat level from ICE” to the network of activists in the region are ongoing, the group said.
Initially, the Rapid Response Network erroneously reported a detention in White River Junction on Friday before confirming there were none. Lieutenant William Furnari of the Hartford Police Department told the Valley News last week that the department was unaware of any ICE arrests.
A voicemail left for Lebanon Police Chief Phillip Roberts regarding ICE detentions in West Lebanon was not returned.
“The City is aware of the presence of federal immigration authorities in Lebanon,” Andrew Hosmer, Lebanon City Manager, stated in an email on Thursday. “We remain mindful of our legal responsibilities under New Hampshire law, but the City of Lebanon is not acting in partnership with federal authorities in the enforcement of federal immigration laws.”
The Rapid Response Network confirms ICE activity through first-hand witnesses, Will Lambek, an organizer at Migrant Justice, told the Valley News in a phone interview last week.
“We take great caution to make sure that any information we’re putting out is confirmed,” Lambek said. “Part of the Rapid Response Network is verification of information in order to get eyes on the scene and see what’s happening.”
The principal activity for volunteers responding to ICE actions, he said, is to “observe and record what’s happening.”
“If there are people who are there who are not being detained, (we) try to get information from them about who the detainees are,” he said. “Then (we have) to be alert for any possible rights violations, unlawful search and seizure, ICE searching a vehicle or entering a home without probable cause, or excessive use of force, those sorts of things.”
Activists also confirmed additional ICE activity in Newport and elsewhere in the state, New Hampshire Public Radio recently reported.
Newport Police Chief Stephen Lee, however, said on Thursday that he was not aware of any recent ICE activity in Newport.
“An alleged sighting reported on social media was local officers only engaged in local investigation and patrol unrelated to immigration enforcement,” Lee said.
The day of the West Lebanon detentions, ICE also arrested multiple people in Londonderry, Vt., as part of “a targeted immigration enforcement operation,” ICE communications stated in an email to the Valley News last week.
“ICE Boston routinely conducts operations across New England,” ICE said. “For operational security purposes, ICE does not disclose information pertaining to current or ongoing operations, including law enforcement plans, tactics or strategies.”
With Grafton County Sheriff Jillian Myers’ decision in May to pull out of her department’s contract with ICE’s 287(g) program, which authorizes state and local law enforcement officers to carry out duties of an immigration enforcement agent, there are currently no Upper Valley agencies partnered with ICE.
In Vermont, the state’s Fair and Impartial Policing policy states, “enforcement of civil immigration law is a federal responsibility, and agencies should not engage in such enforcement except as otherwise outlined in this policy.”
