No ICE in Merrimack
by Allie Parello
Recently, New Hampshire governor Kelley denied the immigration processing center of Merrimack College.
The proposal of this facility quickly became a political issue in New Hampshire when 1,500 Merrimack residents joined together to form a protest outside of Town Hall.
One resident, Donna Larue stated “This is an atrocity, and we’re trying to push back in any way we can.” Federal planning documents calculated that renovations would have cost the state about $158 million and $146 million to have this site operate at Merrimack.
Recently, Governor Ayotte traveled to Washington, D.C. to discuss the proposed immigration facility with the Department of Homeland Security.
“During my trip to Washington last week, I had a productive discussion with Secretary Kristi Noem, and I’m pleased to announce that the Department of Homeland Security will not move forward with the proposed ICE facility in Merrimack,” Ayotte shared with the press.
The overall plan for the ICE facility was to have it expand and potentially become nationwide. If the ICE detention facility had been built, the 324,000-square-foot warehouse would have held up 400-600 beds. The placement of the ICE facility was made to be convenient at about an hour from Boston and only twenty minutes from Manchester airport, making it much easier and quicker to get people in and out.
Many residents were concerned about the costs. If the federal government were to have bought the building, then $529,000 worth of tax revenue would have gone into the development of this facility, affecting the school departments and towns.
It’s safe to say that the people of New Hampshire and Merrimack made it very clear that they were against this facility and many locals of New Hampshire are satisfied with how Ayotte went about this issue and believe that she did the right thing for the state.
