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The law firm that represented Manchester public schools in a lawsuit over its policy of keeping students’ gender-related behavior secret from parents is now involved in another controversy: helping public schools in Maine obstruct immigration law enforcement.

The Maine Wire reported this week about a memo sent to Maine school districts from lawyers with law firm Drummond Woodsum detailing ways to legally stymie federal agents searching for people in the country illegally. Among their suggestions: destroy school records if necessary.

Drummond Woodsum has offices in Portland, Maine as well as Manchester and Lebanon, N.H. According to its website, the firm represents several public school districts in the Granite State.

In its “Immigration Client Alert” distributed on Jan. 21, Drummond Woodsum advised, “School officials should generate a plan for what to do if immigration officials seek to conduct activities at school, and provide appropriate training to those who may come in contact with officials.”

Among the legal tips is the advice to destroy certain student records that include information on students’ U.S. citizenship, nationality, country of birth, U.S. entry date, the date a student first attended school, or the immigration status of the student or their parents or guardians.

“[T]his information should not be stored as part of a student’s education record and should be destroyed as soon as it is no longer needed,” the memo states.

Drummond Woodsum is a major firm in New England with offices in Maine and New Hampshire. It represents many cities, towns, and school districts throughout the two states. Representatives for Drummond Woodsum did not respond to NHJournal’s request for comment, but public documents show it has represented the Timberlane Regional School District and SAU55 (Hampstead), as well as Manchester.

Perhaps the firm’s most famous school district case was its successful defense of the Manchester School District’s policy of hiding information about student’s behavior from parents who requested it. When a mother asked if her child was using a different gender identity at school, Manchester administrators told her she was not allowed to know.

The Drummond Woodsum attorney representing the school, Meghan Glynn, argued if parents didn’t like being left in the dark, “they can homeschool, or they can send their child to a private school.”

Meanwhile, some Granite State public schools are already preparing for the possibility that the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts may come to their campuses.

“I know the schools are all getting prepared just in case,” said Eva Castillo, director of the New Hampshire Alliance for Immigrants and Refugees. 

President Donald Trump’s flurry of executive orders includes a move to reverse the prohibition on agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection from arresting people in sensitive areas like schools, churches, and hospitals. 

“They were sensitive areas before, schools, churches and hospitals. [ICE] had the authority to go in but, discretionarily, did not. Now they have the green light to do it,” Castillo said.

Many organizations focused on refugees and immigrants throughout New Hampshire are seeking legal advice on what to do if ICE agents show up, she said. The second Trump term has ushered in an era in which people in the country illegally, and the groups that assist them, need to be careful, she said.

“After hearing all the campaign promises, yes, I think that’s the new normal,” Castillo said.

Member churches in the New Hampshire Council of Churches are also seeking legal advice to help illegal aliens remain in New Hampshire, said Executive Director Lisa Beaudoin. 

“We represent seven denominations and each are seeking legal advice and looking to their [advocates] for directions should ICE knock on their doors. Different churches are preparing as events unfold,” she said. 

The council is made up of members from the Episcopal Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church, Presbyterian Church, Quaker Society of Friends, United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church, and the Unitarian Universalist Association.

“We have an explicit duty to protect and care for those in need, including caring for strangers,” Beaudoin said. 

Between 11 and 20 million illegal aliens are believed to be in the U.S., and irregular immigration — illegal border crossings and unfounded asylum claims — hit new records during the Biden administration. At one point, there were more than 12,000 border crossings a day during Biden’s presidency.

In the first week of the Trump administration, that number fell to fewer than 600.

Though there have not been any enforcement actions in the Granite State, Castillo says the effects are being felt here. A business owner in an immigrant community told Castillo customers are too afraid to leave their houses now and business is hurting.

“It affects the whole community. It’s not only the immigrants who suffer,” Castillo said.

Beaudoin worries that children will stop going to school, and people will stop going to church as they fear potential arrest.

“People will disappear,” Beaudoin said.

Supporters of immigration enforcement say people in the U.S. illegally should take actions to resolve the issue, like returning to their home countries and getting in line with those waiting to come to the U.S. legally.

Trump’s Department of Justice has signaled it will go after local government officials who try to thwart his immigration plans, according to a memo released last week.

“Laws and actions that threaten to impede Executive Branch immigration initiatives, including by prohibiting disclosures of information to federal authorities engaged in immigration enforcement activities, threaten public safety and national security. The Civil Division shall work with the newly established Sanctuary Cities Enforcement Working Group. within the Office of the Associate Attorney General, to identify state and local laws, policies, and activities that are inconsistent with Executive Branch immigration initiatives and, where appropriate, to take legal action to challenge such laws,” the memo states.

You better watch out, you better not cry, you better look out, I’m telling you why: Satan is coming to town.

Or, at least, The Satanic Temple of New Hampshire and Vermont (TST) is bringing its Satanic Representation campaign to the capital. 

The faux devil-worshipping group unveiled its holiday display at the Concord City Hall Plaza in front of the State House over the weekend, just a few yards from the traditional creche displaying the nativity of Christ.

Now, visitors stopping to get a glimpse of the baby Jesus can get in the holiday spirit by also viewing a statue of the goat-headed demon, Baphomet, holding a lilac and an apple. There is also a marble slab displaying the TST’s seven tenets.

“A lot of people run from the word ‘satanic,’ but we embrace it,” TST Minister Vivian Kelly said at Saturday night’s unveiling.

State Rep. Ellen Read (D-Newmarket) helped the TST get the necessary permits for the display and told NHJournal the group has every right to have its display alongside the traditional Christmas imagery.

“Everything has the potential to offend, even the nearby nativity scene. Not only is over a third of the state not religious, never mind Christian, but I can imagine those who have been judged, harmed, or abused by the Christian church feeling offended by the nativity scene displayed on public grounds. And yet the nativity scene has stood perennially, unmolested, for years,” Read said in a statement provided to NHJournal.

The TST, not to be confused with Anton Lavey’s Church of Satan, is an atheist, liberal activist organization that supports abortion access, the rights of transgender people, and the separation of church and state. As Kelly said Saturday, the group supports people choosing their own path.

“People can live their best lives as they want as their true authentic selves,” Kelly said. “Just because we’re not large in numbers doesn’t mean our beliefs are less important than any of the other religions represented here.”

Critics of the Satanist display say it’s not an attempt to share their beliefs but rather an attempt at attention seeking from a fringe group that hopes to disrupt the Christmas traditions so many Granite Staters, regardless of their personal faith, enjoy during the holiday season.

“Christians should either ridicule these displays as cartoonish or else deny ‘The Satanic Temple’ the attention they use to generate media exposure and funds,” Shanon McGinley, executive director with Cornerstone, said in a statement. 

McGinley says the group is atheist in principle and holds no actual religious beliefs, but instead uses the guise of a Satanic church to push a feminist agenda.

“They are normal, atheist feminists who use Satanic imagery as a legal tactic, to fundraise through media exposure, and because offending Christian grandmothers brings a sense of meaning to their sad lives,” McGinley’s statement reads.

The Satanic Temple’s website acknowledges its atheism and that it embraces Satan as an anti-authority figure and uses Baphomet essentially as a mascot. Baphomet is a fictional creation of the Middle Ages that was later taken up by occultists like Aleister Crowley, who pioneered 20th-century devil worship and the practice of magic. 

Real or not, Baphomet drew onlookers Sunday, curious about the goat-headed demon.

“I like the Satanism display better than the Nativity,” said a woman from Manchester who declined to give her name. “I don’t believe Jesus was real. I’m not religious in any sense.” 

She and a group of friends had come to Concord specifically to see the paganism display.

“It’s the sole reason we’re here, to be honest,” she said.

A local Concord man, who also was unwilling to give his name, echoed those sentiments. 

“I think it’s so cool. It’s really I think it’s awesome, dude,” he said.

The man argued that if the Nativity display can be on the State House sidewalk, why not the Church of Satan display? 

“I think it’s funny that people get so bent out of shape about it,” he said.

Asked if he sees any moral differentiation between Christianity and Satan worship, he said ,“No.”

On the other hand, a passerby who didn’t stop to talk commented, “I hope someone tears it down.”

Read said someone did try to tear it down Saturday night, about two hours after it was unveiled. Though the incident was not reported to the police, Read said Baphomet was knocked down ,and a crack was put into the marble slab.

“If we presume that those that have vandalized the display of Baphomet are doing so in the name of Christianity, then does that speak for a family-friendly holiday celebrating love, peace, and goodwill towards all?” Read said.

McGinley’s statement did not call for any violent response to the display, but it encouraged those who want to counter TST’s Baphomet to do so in a Christian manner. Christmas displays on private property, orthodox and joyful street preaching, and more displays on any public space possible are the best response, she said.

“We encourage Christians to place larger, more aggressive, and more frequent Christmas and other Christian displays in every public venue available,” McKinley’s statement read.