NH Senate Republicans kill bill on immigration checkpoints

Apr. 15—A bill to require prior public notice of federal immigration traffic checkpoints was killed by N.H. Senate Republicans on Thursday despite its easy passage in the GOP-controlled House early this year.

Under House Bill 579, which proponents characterized as a "pro-liberty" measure, New Hampshire law-enforcement agencies would have needed to provide notice to the public of a federal agency's intent to conduct an immigration checkpoint.

The bill was scrapped on a 14-10 party-line vote. It passed the House, 254-85, on Jan. 6.

Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro, said in a statement that the checkpoints are an important tool for law enforcement.

"It makes no sense to give traffickers bringing fentanyl and illegal immigrants across our borders prior notice so they can evade immigration checkpoints," he said. "We shouldn't be making it harder to prevent illegal border crossings and drug smuggling."

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire filed a lawsuit in December in federal court in Concord contending the checkpoints, which are conducted within 100 miles of a U.S. border, violate unreasonable search and seizure protections under the U.S. Constitution.

Border Patrol agents and local police conducted a checkpoint in Woodstock Aug. 25-27, 2017, in which every vehicle traveling south on Interstate 93 was stopped and searched with drug-sniffing dogs, the lawsuit says.

"Because of the checkpoint, 33 people who were lawfully in the United States were arrested or summonsed for state drug-related offenses. Of these 33 individuals, 31 were charged in state court with violation-level offenses for allegedly possessing small amounts of drugs for personal use (mostly marijuana or marijuana derivatives). No individual was summonsed or charged with unlawfully crossing the Canadian border," the lawsuit says.

Gilles Bissonnette, legal director of ACLU-NH, said in an interview Thursday his organization is "profoundly disappointed" by the Senate's vote against HB 579.

"What this would have done was minimize the intrusion and negative impact of immigration checkpoints," he said. "You do get notifications for other checkpoints for alcohol and impaired driving.

"At the end of the day, these are stops that are done without reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed, and that's why notice is critical."

Bissonnette said people of all political persuasions should agree that authorities need a good reason to stop a motorist.

"That's presumably why the House overwhelmingly passed this," he said. "People could and should get behind the notion, which goes to the core of our founding, that police shouldn't be able to stop you without evidence of a crime."

N.H. Sen. Jay Kahn, D-Keene, voted in favor of the bill.

"I think it is a valuable safety issue to alert the public when there are going to be delays resulting from these periodic checks," he said.

The checkpoints are often held on busy holiday weekends on major highways. Public testimony on the bill indicated they can lead to traffic backups and inconvenience.

Before the vote, Sen. Bill Gannon, R-Sandown, said public notification before sobriety checkpoints is a good thing because these notices deter drunken driving.

"I can differentiate that totally with what the Border Patrol is trying to do," he said. "The Border Patrol is trying to catch criminals, and if we give them advance notice, it's probably a bad idea."

HB 579 was sponsored by Rep. Kevin Craig, R-Lancaster.

Rick Green can be reached at rgreen@keenesentinel.com or 603-355-8567.