NH Gov. Ayotte Fires Back At MA Gov. Healey Over 'Demands' In ICE Facility Dispute

By Michael Graham, NH Journal

“Get your own house in order, Maura.”

That was Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s response to Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey’s call for her to join the Bay State Democrat in opposition to the Trump administration’s proposal to open an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Merrimack, N.H.

“This is outrageous and absolutely the wrong move for New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and our entire region,” Healey said in a statement.

Healey, whose state has spent billions of dollars providing housing for illegal immigrants, argued that ICE’s enforcement actions have included the deaths of two American citizens who confronted immigration enforcement agents in Minneapolis.

“ICE is shooting people dead on the street. Mothers have been ripped from cars and separated from children. U.S. citizens have been stopped, detained, and even killed. Peaceful protesters have been assaulted. Parents are afraid to send kids to school, to go to church, to seek health care, and report crimes. None of this makes people safer — it makes us all less safe.”

“We should be opposing ICE’s tactics, not allowing them to expand. We certainly should not be allowing ICE to build new human warehouses when they can’t be trusted to keep people safe and protect due process. 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,” Healey added.

Ayotte has declined to endorse or oppose the proposal, saying her job is to represent the interests and concerns of the Merrimack community.

Asked about Healey’s statement, Ayotte pointed to Massachusetts’ struggles to deal with illegal immigration within its own borders.

“New England is in this position because Gov. Healey and Massachusetts created a billion-dollar illegal immigrant crisis in our region. Get your own house in order, Maura,” Ayotte said.

“I will continue to advocate for the town of Merrimack and New Hampshire.”

The ICE facility has been at the center of two high-profile political stories in the Granite State in the past week.

On Monday, embattled DNCR Commissioner Sarah Stewart submitted her resignation to the Executive Council after her office leaked information to the New Hampshire ACLU that the Department of Homeland Security had contacted her department about the Merrimack property. That information was never given to Ayotte’s office, and Stewart claimed she was unaware of it as well.

On Thursday, acting ICE Administrator Todd Lyons told U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) during Senate testimony that his agency “has worked with Gov. Ayotte, has spoken to the governor about economic impact. We did provide an economic impact summary.”

In fact, the economic impact statement had not been sent, and DHS did not forward it to the Governor’s Office until after Lyons testified. The document DHS forwarded included multiple factual errors, including references to the facility being in “Oklahoma” and to the state’s sales and income tax revenue. New Hampshire has neither.

That has not stopped Healey’s fellow Democrats from attacking Ayotte over the issue, claiming she knew about DHS’s plans.

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

Healey’s demands fell on deaf ears in New Hampshire’s GOP-controlled legislature.

“Maura Healey may have spent more time campaigning here for Joyce Craig than she does governing Massachusetts, but the voters roundly rejected her agenda to Mass up New Hampshire,” said House Majority Leader Jason Osborne.

“You might think, given the state of Massachusetts’ budget, that Gov. Healey would thank us for taking illegals off her hands and saving her residents a billion dollars or more, but once again, she is just showing Granite Staters what is at stake in our elections here.

“Gov. Healey should worry less about what New Hampshire does and more about why her own residents keep moving here to escape her failed policies. Massachusetts is a cautionary tale — not a model — and we have no intention of following them off the cliff.

“If she wants to run a sanctuary state that bleeds taxpayer money and rolls out the red carpet for illegal immigrants, that’s between her and the voters she’s failing. But New Hampshire answers to Granite Staters, not to a Massachusetts governor who can’t keep her own house in order.”

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.