The New Hampshire State Police on Wednesday announced that it has entered an agreement with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to crack down on illegal border crossings.
State troopers will be trained and certified by ICE in the coming weeks and months. The training authorizes law enforcement members to interrogate people suspected of unlawfully entering the United States, as well as detain those people, without a warrant, among other actions.
Wells is the only town in Maine whose police department has entered a formal partnership with ICE.
The town’s decision came just days after a Democratic state lawmaker in Maine submitted legislation that would ban Maine police departments from partnering with the federal agency, which has solicited at least 230 local law enforcement agencies to help with what the Trump administration hopes will be the country’s largest deportation campaign in history.
The agreements are based on the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which allows the federal government to delegate power to state and local police to perform certain duties under the oversight of ICE.
Anti-Trump protestors have voiced concerns over Wells’ cooperation with ICE.
