News & Updates - New Hampshire

January 3, 2026

“No role for NH in Trump's macabre political theater”

—Rep. David Preece, NH Union Leader

NH Sanctuary Communities Petition Governor & Exec. Council to Resist Cooperation with ICE

”The people of New Hampshire do NOT want our resources used to support this cruel – and too often unlawful and unconstitutional – mass arrest and detention system.”
–from the petition to the Governor & Exec. Council

(NH residents - Please sign the petition.)

On December 17, Sanctuary Community citizens from throughout New Hampshire peacefully attended the beginning of the last Governor & Executive Council meeting of 2025. They handed the state leaders copies of a petition. State media provided coverage:

Concord Monitor (PDF)

InDepthNH.org

NH Journal

New Hampshire Sanctuary Communties
Press Conference Oct. 28, 2025

Sanctuary Communities Press Release

For more information:                                                                          
https://www.WeAreSanctuaryCommunities.com            
we.are.sanctuary.communities@protonmail.com              

Press conference held at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Concord                                                           

N.H. Residents Blanket State with “Sanctuary Communities”

Citizen Groups Defend Against Assaults by Masked ICE Agents

 

CONCORD, NH (October 28, 2025)  At a Concord news conference today, New Hampshire residents announced the formation of Sanctuary Communities that cover its cities and towns. Multiple groups have joined together to protect their communities from federal agents who are detaining legal immigrants and American citizens alike.

“We call ourselves the Live Free or Die State,” said spokesperson Megan Chapman, a mother and attorney, “and we can’t sit by while police-state tactics threaten our communities. We will resist federal efforts that intimidate our neighbors and threaten our democracy.”

Statewide organizers of New Hampshire Sanctuary Communities note that while the Trump Administration is threatening American municipalities that have declared themselves Sanctuary Cities, private citizen groups are free to organize themselves to oppose federal immigration policies that they say are reminiscent of gestapo actions in Nazi Germany.

Eight area-wide Sanctuary Communities have formed across the state, the first being the North Country Sanctuary Community created by residents of towns and rural areas in the state’s northernmost region. Another group, the Capitol Area Sanctuary Community, includes numerous towns surrounding Concord, and the state capitol itself. Their action comes after Governor Kelly Ayotte recently signed a law to make Sanctuary Cities illegal statewide.

“Ayotte does not speak for us,” noted Ken Barnes, a retired Concord attorney. “She may be willing to comply with Mr. Trump’s harsh treatment of our friends and neighbors by ICE, but we reject their unlawful police-state tactics.”

The state’s Sanctuary Communities will engage in various activities: monitoring and videotaping ICE raids; providing witness information to state and national media and local law enforcement; informing houses of worship, veterans groups, health facilities and schools about heavy-handed ICE actions; and writing letters and placing ads to oppose police-state tactics that threaten legal immigrants, neighbors and fellow citizens.

The development of New Hampshire Sanctuary Communities is part of a national effort to create them across states, to provide protection against secret agents in unmarked cars abducting people off the streets. For more information: https://www.WeAreSanctuaryCommunities.com/.

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Press packet / Handouts: List of NH SCs NH SCs Q & A
Chapman statement Baker statement Kaifer statement

Media Coverage:
InDepthNH.org NHPR.org Concord Monitor. NH Journal Manchester Union Leader Boston Globe Caledonian Record Monadnock Ledger-Transcript Gov. Ayotte’s same-day press release

Other news…