New reports of illegal immigrants and crime keep the border issue hot in New Hampshire politics

ERO Boston officers arrested Gean Do Amaral Belafronte on Nantucket Island on September 11th. (decency)

Dozens of illegal immigrants arrested for sex crimes across state lines in Massachusetts in the last few weeks alone…

A new report reveals more than 660,000 immigrants with criminal pasts in the US, including thousands of murderers and rapists…

A refugee from El Salvador was arrested Tuesday near Martha’s Vineyard and wanted for “crimes against humanity” in his home country…

All of these stories have come to light in recent days, ensuring that illegal immigration will remain a hot topic in New Hampshire politics through November.

“It definitely affects Granite Staters because some of these criminal aliens certainly live in New Hampshire,” said Jessica Vaughan, policy director for the Center for Immigration Studies.

In New Hampshire, Republicans and Democrats clearly have different views on immigration enforcement and border security. Republicans — including gubernatorial candidate Kelly Ayotte — overwhelmingly support a ban on sanctuary city policies, while Democrats in the state House unanimously opposed it.

“We’re being told to worry about one or two mass murderers,” Rep. Jodi Newell (D-Keene) said during House debate on the ban, “and that’s why I think that’s unnecessary and harmful.”

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Joyce Craig has flatly refused to say whether she still supports sanctuary city policies, instead claiming: “New Hampshire is not a sanctuary state and will not be a sanctuary state when I am governor.”

In fact, several communities in New Hampshire, including Keene, are sanctuary cities.

The drumbeat of terrible news from next door in Massachusetts is keeping New Hampshire’s immigration issue in suspense.

The new Boston Herald analysis A series of federal immigration enforcement actions since early August found at least 30 illegal immigrants arrested in the Bay State. Most of these offenders were accused of sexual offenses.

On Friday, Patrick J. Lechleitner – acting director of ICE and de facto acting chief – sent a bombshell letter to Republican House members revealing: “As of July 21, 2024, there are 662,566 non-citizens with criminal histories on ICE’s national file.” That number includes 425,431 convicted felons and another 222,000 illegal immigrants who were facing criminal charges and could be deported – but that hasn’t happened yet.

Law enforcement officials announced that 13,099 of those illegal immigrants still in the U.S. were previously convicted of murder, while 15,811 were previously convicted of sexual assault, among other crimes.

And on Tuesday, federal immigration agents arrested another criminal illegal immigrant in the Martha’s Vineyard area. The Salvadoran national has been arrested or deported from the United States eight times and is currently wanted in his home country for “crimes against humanity.”

Vaughan told NHJournal that the national migrant criminal numbers were only released after pressure from Congress.

“ICE doesn’t typically release it, but every now and then the number comes up due to a congressional investigation,” Vaughan told NHJournal.

Vaughan said the report seemed to “detract somewhat from the really bad news about the hundreds of thousands of criminal aliens that ICE has released from its custody rather than deporting them, which is the bulk of the letter.”

Supporters of Democratic President Joe Biden’s handling of immigration expressed telling opposition CBS News that “many of the convicted criminals described in the letter were in the United States long before the Biden administration took office.” And some are currently incarcerated as well.

Vaughan responded that the problem “has much more to do with the Biden administration’s disastrous immigration policies.”

Meanwhile, the number of criminally convicted illegal immigrants currently in the Bay State is still unknown. But the new report also suggested there were even more arrests in Massachusetts.

Earlier this month, a multi-day ICE raid on Nantucket resulted in five arrests. The alleged incidents involved a 41-year-old Guatemalan National accused of committing a sex crime, a 49-year-old Salvadoran National faces 11 charges of sex crimes against a child, a 28 year old Salvadoran National faces ‘numerous’ charges of sex crimes against a child, a Brazilian non-citizen accused of committing multiple sex crimes against a Nantucket resident, and a 30 year old Salvadoran MS-13 gang member charged with multiple counts of assault and battery.

ICE agents also worked in Boston last month.

On September 12, authorities located one 25 year old Dominican citizen who had previously been convicted of possession of child pornography. On September 11, agents with the Enforcement and Removals Operation arrested a 30-year-old Haitian citizen charged with sexual assault after a Dorchester District Court judge released him on “pre-trial conditions.”

It doesn’t help Craig that she campaigned with Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, who supported the former Manchester mayor in the primary.

When asked by a Boston television news station whether she thought the “vetting process” for new arrivals needed to be sped up after several sexual assaults against minors, she responded Healey said infamously“I think we have the right systems in place. It’s unfortunate that things happen from time to time.”