U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen has completed her reversal on the Laken Riley Act, but she’s hardly alone. Democrats across the country have abandoned their opposition to increased immigration enforcement and backed GOP proposals.
The question is whether here in New Hampshire, state House and Senate Democrats will do the same.
Just hours after President Donald Trump pounded Democrats’ record on the border in his inaugural address — with former President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris looking on uncomfortably — the U.S. Senate passed the bill, 64-35. Shaheen and her fellow New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan were among the dozen Democrats who voted for the bill.
The act requires federal enforcement agencies to hold illegal immigrants charged with crimes involving robbery and burglary, rather than release them, as they did in the case of 22-year-old Laken Riley’s killer.
The Laken Riley Act had previously passed the House with more than 40 Democratic votes, including those of New Hampshire Reps. Maggie Goodlander and Chris Pappas.
Shaheen declined to respond to a request for comment about her vote, but Granite State political insiders believe it’s more proof that the senior senator — who turns 78 next week — plans to seek a fourth term.
“I thought she was running before,” one veteran political operative told NHJournal. “I know she’s running now.”
Others are asking if Democrats in Concord will follow the shift of D.C. colleagues and abandon their unified opposition to a sanctuary city ban.
Last year, both Hassan and Shaheen voted against the Laken Riley Act, part of a unified Democratic front against the legislation.
Since then, Republicans from Trump down to candidates for the New Hampshire House won victories hitting Democrats on their anti-immigration-enforcement stance.
Perhaps more significantly, polls show voters overwhelmingly support more immigration enforcement, including deportations. A new poll from The New York Times, for example, found 88 percent of Americans support deporting illegal immigrants like Laken Riley’s killer who have criminal records; and 56 percent support deporting every illegal immigrant.
Will New Hampshire Democrats defy poll numbers like those, even as the new Trump administration makes border security a front-page issue?
It didn’t help Democrats’ cause when news broke Monday afternoon that a Border Patrol agent who works in the Swanton Sector had been gunned down in Vermont. According to media reports, the alleged shooter — who was also killed in the incident — was an illegal alien who had overstayed his visa.
The Swanton Sector includes parts of New York and all of New Hampshire. State House Democrats have repeatedly decried the state’s Northern Border Alliance Task Force and the approximately $1.4 million in state spending. They don’t dispute that illegal crossing at the northern border have surged — encounters there in 2024 increased by more than 600 percent compared to 2021. Instead, they note that few illegal aliens have been encountered in New Hampshire, and therefore the program should be dropped.
Gov. Kelly Ayotte has voiced support for the program, which was originally implemented by Gov. Chris Sununu. She’s also said she plans to sign a ban on sanctuary cities when the GOP-controlled legislature passes it this year, as they will almost certainly will.
Will House and Senate Democrats continue their unified opposition, despite the politics and polling?
A member of the House GOP leadership told NHJournal on background they expect Democrats in the legislature to ignore the polls and stay the course. “No more than 10 at most” will break with their party and vote against sanctuary cities, the Republican predicted.
That’s just fine with Rep. Fred Doucette (R-Salem).
“I think we’re still going to have the far-left wackadoodles who are going to do what they do,” Doucette said. “Have they learned anything from this past election cycle? I, for one, hope they (keep) talking up the stupidity that they do … because I’d like to have a 40-seat majority going into the next biennium.”
The Senate amended the Laken Riley Act, expanding the number of illegal alien criminals it covers, so it has to go back to the House for another vote. It’s expected to sail through, once again with significant Democratic support, later this week.
