New Hampshire Democrats Pounce As Gov. Ayotte Gets ICE'd Again

By Damien Fisher, NH Journal

CONCORD, NH — Just days after a state commissioner was forced to resign for mishandling a federal request regarding a potential site for an ICE facility in Merrimack, Gov. Kelly Ayotte appears to have been blindsided again.

This time, it was a claim from a Trump administration official about giving Ayotte an economic report on the facility that she hadn’t been sent.

During his testimony before the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Thursday, Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) that his agency “has worked with Gov. Ayotte, has spoke to the governor about economic impact. We did provide an economic impact summary.”

“When exactly did you speak to Gov. Ayotte, since she has denied until recently knowing anything about it?” U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan asked.

“DHS officials spoke with the governor in the past weeks, but I can check on that exact time and get back to you on it,” Lyons responded.

Lyon’s testimony hit New Hampshire politics like a hand grenade. Both of the rumored Democratic candidates pounced on the report.

“First, we were told she was not informed. Now we learn she had been speaking with DHS for weeks. Both cannot be true,” said Portsmouth Mayor Deaglan McEachern. “Leadership requires transparency, especially when it comes to federal involvement in our state.”

And former Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington posted her first Tweet since March of last year.

“Granite Staters deserve to know if Gov. Ayotte supports the development of this ICE facility — and whether she tried to hide it from the very start,” Warmington wrote. “There’s no running from this any longer.”

Ayotte responded by saying that Lyons was mistaken, that she had no contact with DHS, and that the agency hadn’t shared any information about its plans in Merrimack with her.

“This is simply not true,” Ayotte said of Lyons’ testimony.

“Director Lyons’ comments today are another example of the troubling pattern of issues with this process. Officials from the Department of Homeland Security continue to provide zero details of their plans for Merrimack, never mind providing any reports or surveys.”

Representatives for ICE did not respond to NHJournal’s request for comment and for a copy of the economic development report Lyons said was sent to Ayotte.

Then, at the end of the day, news came that Ayotte had finally received the document, hours after Lyons’ testimony.

“After my office inquired about the economic impact study following today’s Senate hearing, DHS has now for the first time distributed the document. Once the document was received, we immediately shared it with the Town of Merrimack. We are publishing this document on my website for the public to find.”

The published document bolsters Ayotte’s claim that it had not been sent to her previously.

For one thing, while the headline says “Merrimack, NH,” the document has multiple references to “Oklahoma.”

The economic impact study also estimates the facility would generate millions in tax revenue, “including sales tax and income tax.”

New Hampshire has neither.

The incident has eerie echoes of recent events at the state Department of Natural and Cultural Resources (DNCR), where employees had received an inquiry from DHS about the Merrimack property, but that information was never given to Ayotte or her office.

Instead, Ayotte learned of the documents after the New Hampshire ACLU made them public.

The ACLU got the documents 24 hours after filing a Right to Know request. DNCR Commissioner Sarah Stewart claimed she also knew nothing about the DHS inquiry, but on Monday, she resigned after it became clear she would be fired for incompetence.

Despite the acknowledgements from DNCR managers that they failed to notify Ayotte, Democrats continue to claim that Ayotte was in touch with DHS and is lying about her cooperation with the Trump administration. Republicans expect the same reaction from across the aisle regarding Lyons’ inaccurate testimony.

“The one thing we have going for us,” one Republican told NHJournal late Thursday, “everyone knows the Trump administration is a total mess.”

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.