Fans of school choice and border security cheered big wins in the New Hampshire State House on Thursday as legislators passed bills allowing local police to assist with federal immigration enforcement and eliminating the income cap on the Education Freedom Accounts.
The two issues — school choice and cracking down on illegal immigration — are top priorities for first-year GOP Gov. Kelly Ayotte.
They also inspired progressive calls for a boycott of New Hampshire businesses and vacation destinations in order to cut tax revenues to the Granite State.
A key development Thursday saw GOP lawmakers successfully fold a separate bill (SB 71) outlawing illegal immigration-friendly “sanctuary city” policies into legislation (SB 62) giving cities and towns the ability to opt local law enforcement into cooperation agreements with federal immigration officials.
Every Democrat but one opposed the bill (Rep. Dale Girard of Claremont was the exception), but the bill passed in a 200-162 vote and heads back to the Senate. A separate House sanctuary city bill (HB 511) is currently in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Democrats argued the legislation strips local control from deciding whether cities and towns can choose for themselves to participate in the enforcement of immigration law. Republicans say it simply stops local politicians from overriding law enforcement decisions by the police.
Rep. David Meuse (D-Portsmouth) accused cities and towns participating in agreements with federal immigration authorities of “being complicit in terrorizing anyone with a foreign accent or different skin color.”
For Meuse and most of his fellow Democrats, their vote served as a reminder of their brief flip-flop on sanctuary city policies. A year ago, Democrats in both chambers unanimously voted against a ban on sanctuary cities. In February, nearly every House Democrat flip-flopped on the issue and joined their GOP colleagues.
But by April, Meuse and his colleagues had reversed course yet again, voting nearly unanimously against the ban. Rep. Chris Muns (D-Hampton) dismissed the nation’s borders as “only a line on a map.”
Rep. Terry Roy (R-Deerfield) took to the House floor Thursday to counter the Democrats’ local-control argument.
“This issue doesn’t stay local,” Roy said. “When you make your community a haven for murderers and rapists, there’s no border at your town, keeping them there,” he added. “There’s no force-field that keeps them only in your town where you put your local control.
“Your local control impacts the lives of everyone,” Roy said, adding: “It’s not local control — it’s our state of New Hampshire.”
Democrats were also unanimous in opposing SB 295, the school choice bill removing household income thresholds from EFA eligibility requirements. The legislation, which has already passed the Senate, was approved in a 188-176 vote.
Education freedom advocates were ecstatic.
“New Hampshire will become the 17th state to pass universal school choice in the past four years,” said Corey DeAngelis, executive director of the Education Freedom Institute. “New Hampshire Republicans voted to unleash education freedom for all families in the state. No more picking winners and losers.”
Rep. Hope Damon (D-Croydon) attacked the popular EFA program as a “Free State marketing scheme,” echoing a conspiracy theory floated a week ago by her Education Finance Committee colleague Rep. David Luneau (D-Hopkinton).
Luneau theorized during the committee’s hearing on the bill a week ago that SB 295 “is really turning into a recruiting tool to bring in ‘Free State freeloaders’ into the state of New Hampshire.”
State Rep. Rick Ladd (R-Haverhill), chairman of the House Education Funding Committee, responded Thursday.
“The EFA program is not a voucher scam and is certainly not a recruiting tool for people moving into New Hampshire,” he said.
SB 295 now heads to the House Finance Committee.
In other notable votes:
Republicans successfully beat back Democrats’ efforts to reintroduce a proposal (SB 23) that would upgrade various child endangerment charges from misdemeanors to felonies. The Senate had previously advanced the measure on a unanimous, bipartisan vote. House Republicans fear the language is too broad and could criminalize a parent’s decision to take a child hunting or rock climbing. Democrats responded by accusing their Republican colleagues of protecting child abusers.
Republicans also successfully advanced a measure — over some objections from Democrats — to increase the mandatory minimum sentence for convicted child sex traffickers from seven to 30 years in prison to 18 years to life.
SB 262 advanced on a 290-71 vote. State Rep. Buzz Scherr (D-Portsmouth) pointed out in his remarks that the state has only prosecuted one sex trafficking case in the last five years.
“Increasing the mandatory minimum to 18 years really doesn’t address the problem. That only takes effect when somebody is convicted. Nobody is being convicted,” Scherr said. “If we really want to deal with this problem, we (should) fund the county attorneys’ offices better.”
“It’s not a good bill because it sends sex trafficking of children deeper underground, thereby making it harder for state prosecutors.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: An earlier version of this article mistakenly reported that House Democrats unanimously opposed the immigration enforcement bill. One Democrat, Rep. Dale Girard of Claremont, voted yes. We regret the error.
