Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s office shared two documents late Thursday that provide more detail about plans for an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Merrimack, N.H., saying she only received them that day from the Department of Homeland Security.
The documents include an economic impact analysis and a memo detailing the “ICE Detention Reengineering Initiative” and frame the planned ICE detention processing center in Merrimack as a boon for the local economy.
The memo also appears to confirm ICE’s nationwide plan to convert warehouses around the country into detention facilities. A draft proposal of the plan was first reported by the Washington Post in December.
The memo says that the proposed building, located at 50 Robert Milligan Parkway, will hold between 400 and 600 immigrant detainees at once and be operational by Nov. 30. It described the Merrimack facility as a processing site that will serve as “staging locations” for transfer to either larger detention centers or deportation, holding detainees for a week or less.
Ayotte shared the documents after denying ICE director Todd Lyon’s claim that federal officials had communicated with her about the ICE facility in Merrimack in recent weeks.
Ayotte shared an updated set of the documents Friday afternoon that she said she received from DHS. The only changes in the new documents appear to be replacing references to “Oklahoma” with “New Hampshire” and removing an internal comment between ICE employees visible in the original memo.
Ayotte has not answered multiple questions from NHPR about the documents. ICE has also not returned any of NHPR’s repeated requests for comment on their plans in Merrimack.
‘Merrimack Processing Site’
The release of the new records has some Merrimack residents and local officials saying they are not sure they trust Ayotte’s leadership or the information in the documents.
Town manager Paul Micali said he was “blindsided” by Lyons’ claims on Thursday that his agency had been in touch with the governor and he said he quickly reached out to Ayotte’s office. Merrimack town leaders said they had not received any direct confirmation from federal immigration officials about the facility, despite numerous attempts.
The analysis released last week claimed the facility would serve as an economic boon for the town, bringing jobs and tax revenue. But, once Ayotte shared the documents, Micali said he noticed three inaccuracies in the analysis right away.
“First glaring discrepancy was that it mentioned Oklahoma,” he said, referring to a sentence in a document’s opening summary that described “all ripple effects to the Oklahoma economy” the facility would have.
The next discrepancy he noticed was a reference to income taxes and state sales tax: New Hampshire does not have either tax, but the document claims about “$10.7 million in local, state, and federal tax revenue would be generated by annual operations, including sales tax and income tax.”
In the updated document from Friday, the reference to sales and income tax remain the same.
“And then another glaring discrepancy to me was it talked about county… New Hampshire government is not a county government. It’s a town government,” he said.
This reference remains the same in the updated document.
Micali said he wants to learn more about the methodology DHS used to calculate its estimates.
“It is very tough for me to say the numbers are accurate or inaccurate, but they do seem a little bit high to me,” he said.
Like Micali, Merrimack resident Christy Benedetto started pouring over the documents as soon as the news broke. She noticed many of the same inaccuracies.
“I felt a little gaslit,” she said.
Town leadership has previously cited concerns over adverse financial impacts as a major reason for opposing the facility.
“We’re already struggling,” Benedetto said.
Merrimack residents doubt Ayotte’s version of events
Ayotte has long denied having inside information from federal officials about the ICE proposal for Merrimack. Earlier this month, she said the first confirmation she received was when the state’s ACLU chapter published documents it obtained from a state agency showing ICE communication confirming the plan.
Ayotte said that agency, the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, failed to notify her office about the communication, leading to the forced resignation of the department’s commissioner, Sarah Stewart.
But Lyons’ comments Thursday implied more extensive communication with federal immigration officials than had been previously stated. Ayotte quickly denied Lyons’ claim in a statement just hours after his testimony.
“Director Lyons’ comments (Thursday) are another example of the troubling pattern of issues with this process,” she said.
But some town residents are not sure they believe Ayotte was kept in the dark like them.
“I don’t know if I can really believe (Ayotte) or not,” said Luann Benjamin, a retired postal worker who has lived in Merrimack for 25 years. “My feeling is that she knew about it, and she’s just using somebody as a fall person.”
Elected officials representing the town echoed skepticism and frustration about Ayotte’s statements.
“I don’t believe for one second that (Ayotte) didn’t know,” said Democratic state Rep. Wendy Thomas.
State Rep. Rosemarie Rung said Lyons’ references to conversations with the governor made her feel she “was punched in the stomach.”
She said a lot of her constituents are angry about the plan.
“I truly ask and beg Governor Ayotte to be more assertive in opposing this ICE center,” said Rung, a Democrat.
Ayotte has not yet said publicly whether she supports or opposes the facility. When asked directly, she has called for the town to be able to share its opinion and for more transparency from federal officials.
Friday, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey called on Ayotte to take a firmer stance.
“This is outrageous and absolutely the wrong move for New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and our entire region,” she said in a statement. “…I oppose this in the strongest possible terms, and I am demanding that Gov. Ayotte do everything in her power to block a new ICE facility in Southern New Hampshire.”
A nationwide approach
The Merrimack site is just one of a constellation of detention centers ICE is planning to construct this year. The memo said that ICE aims to increase its bed capacity to more than 92,000, hire 12,000 new agents and streamline its deportation efforts. It will fund the project through $38.3 billion from President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” passed last summer.
Most processing sites will hold between 1,000 and 1,500 people, and larger “mega-centers” will detain between 7,000 and 10,000 people for 60 days on average.
Oklahoma officials received a similar historic preservation request for a warehouse in Oklahoma City to the one the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources received in New Hampshire.
The town of Social Circle, Ga., was told that DHS did an economic impact study on a proposed facility there. Local officials confirmed they had no involvement in the study.
In San Antonio, Texas, city officials pushed back against a proposed warehouse there, which could hold up to 1,500 people.
During a Senate hearing Thursday, New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan said that plans for a facility in Mississippi had been scrapped after Sen. Roger Wicker wrote a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem opposing the proposal. Hassan asked Lyons if something similar could happen in Merrimack. Lyons replied with a firm “no.”
State and local officials have said it is unclear what measures residents can take to stop ICE’s moves, but many have plans to fight any progress on the site regardless. Organizers said protests in the area are already being planned, following Thursday’s news.
Thomas expressed hope that, despite the obstacles, the community will find a way to stop ICE’s plan.
“I’m confident at some point we will be able to get this shut down, but it’s going to come at a very, very high price,” she said.
These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.