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It turns out there are far fewer illegal, or undocumented, students in the New Hampshire college system than Rep. Joe Sweeney (R-Salem) feared.

Sweeney’s response? Even one is too many.

Sweeney’s been talking for weeks about the fact that the University System of New Hampshire and the University of New Hampshire accept illegal immigrants as students. He argues they are potentially granting some of the illegals lower-cost, in-state tuition, which he says should go to legal residents.

The Salem Republican has been publicly calling on USNH to release the number of illegal immigrants enrolled in the state’s public college system.

On Wednesday, the university system released the number. According to a statement from the USNH, there are a total of three DACA-qualified students enrolled at either UNH, Keene State College, or Plymouth State University in this spring semester out of more than 21,000.

DACA stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an immigration policy that gave people who were brought into the country illegally as children some legal protections and rights. It was instituted under President Barack Obama, halted in President Donald Trump’s first term, and brought back during President Joe Biden’s term. It is now subject to litigation and pending appeals.

Sweeney, the Deputy Majority Leader in the House, has been hammering schools over the fact that 2,400 New Hampshire kids have been turned away from UNH over the past four years. He questioned how many of those students were competing for slots at the schools with illegal immigrants.

USNH pointed out that more than one-third of students who apply at one USNH school also apply to at least one other in the system. 

“So, while a student may have been denied admission at one USNH school, they may have been admitted to another. In fact, USNH accepted 95.2 percent of New Hampshire resident students to at least one institution over the past four fall terms,” its statement reads. “The number of students denied admission to any institution over the past four fall terms was 1,083 individuals (4.8 percent) out of 22,557 applicants.”

And illegal immigration does not play a factor in students getting turned away, according to USNH Chancellor Catherine Provencher. New Hampshire’s higher education institutions have the capacity to add students and will accept all qualified New Hampshire applicants. If they can make the grade.

“Students are denied admission if they are not academically prepared,” Provencher said. “The last thing we want to do is have students paying tuition and possibly taking on debt if we do not think they will succeed academically. We do not admit any students from outside of New Hampshire at the expense of our Granite State students.”

Undocumented or illegal students do not qualify for financial aid, according to the statement. As for Sweeney’s claim that people in New Hampshire illegally could still be getting the lower in-state tuition rate, USNH insists they have safeguards in place.

“USNH students who pay in-state tuition rates must meet all New Hampshire residency requirements as set forth by the USNH Board of Trustees and sign an affidavit under penalty of perjury that they are legal residents of the United States,” the statement reads.

Sweeney and other advocates of increased immigration enforcement are less-than-impressed by the “sign an affidavit” standard.

And Sweeney ally Rep. Ross Berry (R-Weare) notes the immigration status information comes not from federal records, but from students self-reporting their immigration status on a form.

“That ‘three’ number is self-reported. Does anyone really believe that every illegal immigrant in the USNH system self-reported their actual status?” Berry asks.

Sweeney has been sending around a screenshot of the UNH application website that states, “DACA students are not eligible for financial aid, but they can be considered for in-state status for tuition if they meet USH’s residency requirements” to back up his claims.

When NHJournal checked the UNH website on Tuesday, that language had been removed.

Asked Wednesday about the website change, UNH representative Tania DeLuzuriaga dismissed it as an oversight.

“This was outdated information that was posted under a prior administration and was overlooked until it was pointed out,” DeLuzuriaga said

Sweeney says the unwillingness of the university system to address the illegal immigration issue could have unintended consequences.

“If USNH won’t take this seriously, then it’s time to consider 287(g) agreements between campus police and ICE to restore accountability.”

The University of New Hampshire isn’t saying how many of its enrolled students are in the country illegally, and the university appears to be hiding the fact that some of those students are getting subsidized tuition rates.

Illegal immigrants attending U.S. colleges is nothing new. The Higher Ed Immigration Portal estimates that more than 407,000 undocumented students, including DACA recipients, are enrolled in higher education.

But with the state’s budget tight and the University System of New Hampshire (USNH) complaining about modest cuts proposed by House Republicans, Rep. Joe Sweeney (R-Salem) wants to know what impact illegal immigration is having on the system. He’s also expressed concern that the system’s willingness to take undocumented migrants might mean legal Granite State residents are losing slots.

When he asked UNH for the data on the number of students who are “undocumented, or in the country illegally,” he didn’t get the answer, he told NHJournal.

“They told me they don’t keep those numbers,” Sweeney said.

Sweeney wants to know exactly how many UNH students are illegal immigrants, and how many of those undocumented students are getting in-state tuition rates, or any other form of financial aid. 

“You can be in this country illegally and you can get a subsidized education at UNH,” Sweeney said.

When NHJournal reached out to UNH to follow up on Sweeney’s request, it declined to respond. Sweeney provided NHJournal with a screenshot recently taken from UNH’s admissions page that states DACA students can, in fact, get in-state tuition. 

“DACA students are not eligible for financial aid, but they can be considered for in-state status for tuition if they meet USH’s residency requirements,” the website states in the screenshot. 

But when NHJournal checked Tuesday afternoon, the information about in-state tuition for DACA applicants was missing.

“DACA students are students that came to the U.S. as children and meet guidelines in which they can work/study in the United States. It is the student’s responsibility to contact the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to request consideration of DACA. This determination is not made by the University of New Hampshire. DACA students are not eligible for financial aid,” the page stated on Tuesday afternoon.

For Sweeney, the concern is that undocumented students, or students who are in the country illegally, are taking spots at the state university that should be going to New Hampshire natives and getting the in-state rate. Tuition for 2024-2025 was $15,520 for New Hampshire residents and $36,170 for non-residents. 

Sweeney is concerned that UNH may have turned away a total of 2,400 New Hampshire applicants in the last four years, at the same time it was seeking DACA students to apply. Sweeney’s critics point out that the USNH system already accepts more than 85 percent of all New Hampshire residents who applied to UNH. The rates at Keene State and Plymouth State are even higher.

Eva Castillo, director of the New Hampshire Alliance for Immigrants and Refugees, points to another math problem in Sweeney’s argument: There simply aren’t enough undocumented people in New Hampshire to ruin any Granite Stater’s college dreams.

“There are 88,000 foreign-born people in New Hampshire, and less than one percent are undocumented,” Castillo said. “I don’t know where this idea has come from that we’re being flooded by undocumented people.”

Castillo says undocumented students at UNH do not qualify for traditional forms of student aid, and they have to pay out of pocket for their education. Rather than promoting attendance, they face a barrier to seeking college degrees or specialized job training. In many cases, these students have been in the country since they were children.

“These kids are kids who have been raised pledging allegiance to our flag,” Castillo said. “I don’t understand what is the purpose of (Sweeney’s) attitude … These are not the principles of the America I have known.”

Perhaps, but UNH’s unwillingness to share its data and its decision to delete DACA information from its website raises questions about the real numbers on campus.

Sweeney told NHJournal he isn’t against illegal immigrants attending universities, he just doesn’t want them to go to UNH or any New Hampshire college.

“They can pursue education in their own countries when we send them back,” Sweeney said.

As the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced a guilty plea in a case involving an illegal immigrant crossing the border into New Hampshire, Granite State Democrats continued their defense of sanctuary city policies at the State House.

On Tuesday, Esdras Aaron Calel-Cumes, 29, pleaded guilty in federal court to helping fellow Guatemalan, Luis Felipe Xiloj-Ambrocio, 31, cross the U.S.-Canadian border near Pittsburg, N.H., last September. Border Patrol agents spotted Xiloj-Ambrocio on trail cameras in the woods near the border and soon tracked him to the car Calel-Cumes was driving on Route 3. 

Xiloj-Ambrocio has already been deported, and Calel-Cumes faces deportation after he serves a sentence for Tuesday’s conviction. He faces up to five years in prison and will be sentenced at a later date. 

“This effort is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

It’s not a sentiment shared by Democrats like state Sen. Debra Altschiller (D-Stratham), who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee and heard testimony on HB511, a proposed ban on sanctuary cities.

Residents of sanctuary communities like Peterborough and Lebanon testified on behalf of their pro-illegal-immigration policies, arguing that they — and not the state — should determine whether local police are allowed to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.

Chairman Sen. Bill Gannon (R-Sandown) responded by pointing out that allowing illegal aliens to live in their communities exposes other communities to the criminal aliens’ actions. He noted, “There was a mass murderer in Rye,” a community next to his district. “A mass murderer from Brazil who killed 12 (sic) people.”

Altschiller, who represents Rye, objected.

“There was no mass murder in Rye. There was a man arrested. There was not a mass murder in my district,” Altschiller responded angrily. “It was in another country. It wasn’t even in the United States.”

When Gannon pointed out that he said “mass murderer,” not “mass murder,” Altschiller added, “Alleged. Alleged.”

In fact, “Antonio Jose De Abreu Vidal Filho, 29 … was convicted of 11 murders and sentenced to 275 years and eleven months in prison in June 2023,” ICE said when it announced his arrest, in Rye, in 2023.

State Rep. Ross Berry (R-Weare) challenged Altschiller’s statement when he testified before the committee about the bill he co-sponsored.

“This arrest in Rye, it’s not ‘alleged.’ The guy was convicted. He was convicted by a jury of killing 11 people in Brazil. And apparently, because the mass murder happened in Brazil, it’s not a big deal,” Berry said. “It’s a big deal to me, it’s probably a big deal to everybody around him. But these are the sort of people that we should just let through (the U.S. border), because it makes us feel good. It’s ridiculous.”

Berry also urged the committee to consider amending the bill by expressly covering judges, referencing the recent arrest of a state judge in Wisconsin charged with helping an illegal alien evade arrest. According to witnesses, Judge Hannah Dugan escorted the illegal immigrant through a back door of the courtroom to avoid federal agents with a warrant waiting to arrest him.

“I would like to see the judicial system added to this legislation, given what we’ve seen in Milwaukee,” Berry said.

As if to echo his point, the Boston Herald reported Tuesday that a Massachusetts judge, Shelly Joseph, is facing removal from the bench over her decision to allow an illegal immigrant originally from the Dominican Republic to walk out a back door of the Newton District Courthouse to avoid getting arrested by the ICE agents in 2018. Her case has been in the judicial system for years. Joseph is scheduled to finally face a hearing on June 9.

Also on Tuesday, it was reported that New Hampshire State Police are now clear to work with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, becoming one of 38 states to enter into an agreement with ICE that allows state and local police to enforce immigration laws on a limited basis.

Gov. Kelly Ayotte, who has been pushing for the agreement for months, applauded the move.

“Criminals who are in our country illegally and pose a danger should be apprehended and removed. I support and encourage New Hampshire law enforcement agencies to cooperate with ICE to enforce our laws and keep our communities safe,” she said in a statement.

ICE reports its agents have arrested 66,463 people in the first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s administration. During President Joe Biden’s first year in office, the agency arrested 74,000 illegal immigrants during all of 2021.

The city of Manchester suffered the fewest opioid overdose fatalities in February since 2020, part of a statewide trend of fewer deaths and fewer ODs.

Mayor Jay Ruais (R-Manchester) is celebrating the good news but, along with fellow Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte, says there is still more work to do.

“The significant decline in fatal opioid overdoses across the state and here in Manchester is the positive news we have been working so hard toward,” Ruais said.

Manchester recorded just three opioid overdose fatalities in February, the lowest one-month tally since November 2020. Chris Stawasz, with ambulance company Global Medical Response, Inc., said Manchester’s fatalities are now 12 percent lower than the previous 12-month rolling average.

And Manchester isn’t the only bright spot for a state that’s struggled to address the opioid epidemic for years. The state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner’s latest report shows a 35 percent drop in opioid overdose deaths from 2023 to 2024.

Ayotte said the numbers show New Hampshire is on the right track.

“Thanks to our state’s coordinated approach to fighting the drug crisis, New Hampshire is a model for the nation in bringing down fatal overdose deaths,” Ayotte said.

New Hampshire has focused on making recovery programs more accessible, getting life-saving naloxone to people who need it, and making sure people with substance abuse can get medical care and employment. 

In Manchester, Ruais has focused on getting people experiencing homelessness into housing instead of temporary shelters where overdoses run rampant. This week, the city’s Board of Aldermen voted to spend $201,000 to pay for a mobile crisis unit and case manager to reach out to people in the grip of addiction. At the same time, the city will spend $250,000 from its Affordable Housing Trust fund to create up to 30 transitional housing beds to get people off the streets.

“We are making real progress addressing homelessness and reducing drug overdoses, so now is not the time to take our eye off the ball,” Ruais said.

Ayotte wants to see more done to stop drugs before they hit the streets.

Last month, she held a joint press conference with the mayor of Lawrence, Mass. — a notorious hub for illegal drugs in the region — to announce a joint effort to stem the flow of fentanyl and other opioids.

“We will build on this progress and continue to be vigilant by strengthening our drug interdiction efforts through Operation Granite Shield and Northern Shield while supporting those in recovery with investments in our Community Mental Health Centers and Recovery Friendly Workplaces,” Ayotte said.

On Tuesday, Acting U.S. Attorney Jay McCormack announced the arrest of three illegal immigrants from the Dominican Republic, charged with selling cocaine in Nashua. The arrests were carried out by the Drug Enforcement Agency with the help of the Nashua police.

Elizardo Escaria Delison, 32, Belisario Luis Delison, 49, and Rayddy Delison De Aza, 28, were each charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute and possession with the intent to distribute controlled substances.

 Their arrests were part of Operation Take Back America, an initiative that, in part, targets overseas drug cartels operating in the United States. 

For all the positive signs, Stawasz cautions people to be ready in case things start going south again.

“Please keep in mind that due to the nature of the opioid epidemic and its clear history of unpredictability, it is always possible that the trend of lower numbers could quickly change,” Stawasz said.

Premier New England law firm Drummond Woodsum (DW) says it did not tell the school districts it represents in New Hampshire to break the law by destroying records containing student immigration data.

That’s because it is not illegal to destroy that data, Drummond Woodsum said in a statement sent to NHJournal.

“The advice we gave was similar to that provided by attorneys general in other states and was intended to support our clients in this time of uncertainty. We are dismayed that the content and purpose of the memo has been widely misrepresented,” the statement reads.

Drummond Woodsum sent a memo to school district clients in New Hampshire and Maine last week as President Donald Trump was issuing a flurry of new executive orders as part of his effort to deport millions of people who are in the country illegally. Among the orders is a directive to federal immigration agents to arrest people in sensitive areas like churches, hospitals, and schools.

According to the Drummond Woodsum memo sent last week, school district staff at times need to collect 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.

But, the law firm warned, those districts should be careful not to keep that data.

“[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,” according to the guidance they sent to some public schools.

After the Maine Wire reported on the memo, Drummond Woodsum issued its statement clarifying it does not encourage clients to obstruct immigration officials. Federal agencies already recommend schools destroy the sensitive data in question.

“Federal agencies have long advised schools not to maintain records of a student’s immigration status because doing so could be evidence of national origin discrimination; advice we reiterated in the memo. Contrary to what has been reported, DW did not – and never would – recommend that its clients violate state or federal law or destroy records to obstruct enforcement of the law,” the statement said.

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act prohibits school districts from sharing sensitive student and family information with anyone without either family consent, or court order. As Trump’s immigration orders and directives make it possible for federal agents to conduct investigations and raids in public schools, Drummond Woodsum took the proactive step to advise clients to be prepared.

“Schools are often faced with the challenging situation where they are required to quickly respond to frequently-changing federal rules and policies, reassure their community, and answer questions from their teachers and staff – this situation is no different,” the Drummond Woodsum statement reads. 

There are not been any reports of ICE raids in schools or churches in New England.

Drummond Woodsum tilts decidedly left on the political spectrum. The firm includes a land acknowledgment on its website, honoring the ancestral lands of the native people who first inhabited Maine and New Hampshire. 

“Our New Hampshire offices in Portsmouth, Lebanon, and Manchester reside on the ancestral lands of the Abenaki and Pennacook. We recognize that these lands, like so many others, were not given up freely but taken by colonizers through the forced displacement and cultural and physical genocide of these Indigenous peoples,” the acknowledgment states. 

Individuals affiliated with the firm donated more than $46,000 to Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024, according to Open Secrets. Drummond Woodsum also touts its work for President Barack Obama and the Maine House Democratic Caucus on its website.

In New Hampshire, the firm’s Meghan Glynn defended the Manchester School District at the state Supreme Court in the lawsuit brought after a mother discovered school staff were socially transitioning her child into a different gender without the mother’s knowledge or consent. 

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.

Border Patrol agents say a couple coming up from Massachusetts were stopped close to the northern border in New Hampshire Monday morning after they picked up a friend who illegally crossed from Canada.

Now, Guatemala citizens Esdras Aaron Calel-Cumes, 29, and Luis Felipe Xiloj-Ambrocio, 31, are charged with immigration offenses. A Venezuelan woman, Nayelis Carolina Martinez-Arrias, has not yet been charged for her alleged role.

When they were picked up on Route 3 near Pittsburgh in northern New Hampshire, neither Calel-Cumes, Xiloj-Ambrocio, nor Martinez-Arrias was in the country legally, according to court records.

Agents were alerted by a remote camera system on Monday morning that a man was walking into New Hampshire from Canada, north of the legal point of entry, according to the federal complaint.

Agent Guthrie Peet drove out to investigate. The only car he spotted in the remote and undeveloped region was a red Acura with Massachusetts plates headed south. Peet stopped the car and found Xiloj-Ambrocio, the man from the surveillance photos, in the passenger seat, according to the complaint. 

Under questioning, Peet soon learned none of the people in the car were U.S. citizens.

“Agent Peet asked if the individuals were present in the United States legally or illegally and Calel-Cumes shrugged and stated he didn’t know if he wanted to answer that,” the complaint states.

Though Calel-Cumes did not want to discuss his immigration status, he was able to give Peet a valid Massachusetts drivers license during the stop.

Calel-Cumes later told Peet he and his girlfriend, Martinez-Arrias, drove up to the border that morning in order to pick up Xiloj-Ambrocio. 

Calel-Cumes is charged with one count of transporting an illegal alien, and Xiloj-Ambrocio is charged with one count of illegal entry. While Martinez-Arrias is in the country illegally, she is free with a pending immigration court date set for February. 

The charge of transportation of an illegal alien carries a sentence of up to 5 years incarceration, up to 3 years of supervised release, and a fine up to $250,000.  The charge of illegal entry carries a sentence of up to 6 months incarceration, up to one year of supervised release.

A migrant center resident who allegedly molested a 12-year-old Manchester girl had recently finished his probation on a federal identity theft conviction.

Angel M. Rivera-Laureano, 59, was arrested last month at the migrant shelter in Chelmsford, Mass., on the Manchester warrant, according to court records obtained by the Maine Wire. But Rivera-Laureano’s known criminal history goes back to at least 2012, when he was caught cashing counterfeit IRS checks in the Queen City, according to court records.

The Maine Wire quotes a “law enforcement source with knowledge of the case” that Rivera-Laureano is a suspected illegal immigrant using different names and identities since coming to the U.S.

“The source said Jan. 1 is a birthday frequently used for illegal aliens living under assumed identities and that law enforcement isn’t even certain Rivera-Laureano is his real name,” the Maine Wire reported.

Rivera-Laureano’s story adds to the drumbeat of crime news involving migrants. On Monday, two New York City police officers were wounded in a shootout with a Venezuelan man who was in the country illegally. 

According to the New York Post, a judge closed the immigration case against alleged shooter Bernardo Castro Mata, 19 on May 6. Mata illegally crossed the border into Eagle Pass, Texas, where he was caught and arrested but later released in July 2023, according to the report.

President Joe Biden is finally bowing to pressure on the border. On Tuesday, he announced an executive order closing down ports of entry to those seeking asylum. But Biden’s move after years of stalling is not enough, says Republican gubernatorial candidate Kelly Ayotte.

“Joe Biden’s open-border policies have allowed millions of unvetted illegal immigrants into our nation and made our country less safe. Biden’s political move today is too little too late and does not do enough to stop the flow of illegal immigrants into our country” Ayotte said.

Ayotte, a former U.S. senator, is facing former state Senate President Chuck Morse in the GOP primary for governor.

“This horrific example illustrates how weak border policies make every state a border state, inviting drugs, crime, and gang activity to New England,” Morse said. “Candidates like Kelly Ayotte, who voted to give amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants, are no better than Joe Biden and can’t be trusted to suddenly grow a backbone on this issue. As governor, I will always protect New Hampshire families and will not back down from maintaining strong stances on immigration.”

The Ayotte campaign pushed back against Morse’s claim.

“Kelly Ayotte has never and will never support amnesty. Chuck Morse can’t rewrite history — he killed the sanctuary city ban and didn’t use E-Verify at his own company,” said spokesperson John Corbett.

Neither of the two major Democratic candidates for governor, former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig or Executive Councilor Cindy Warmington, responded to a request for comment. Craig’s previously expressed openness to so-called sanctuary cities. Warmington has said that while she’s not a fan, she would not seek to ban them. Ayotte said Craig and Warmington are not going to protect Granite Staters.

“Joyce Craig and Cinde Warmington support [Biden’s] disastrous policies and would turn New Hampshire into a sanctuary state. As Governor, I’ll never allow that to happen, and I will work every day to protect Granite Staters.”

U.S. Marshals caught Rivera-Laureano at a taxpayer-funded shelter operated by the state of Massachusetts, according to the Maine Wire. The converted Best Western hotel is now a shelter for illegal aliens or homeless U.S. citizens. Why Rivera-Laureano was living at the shelter is unknown. Court records list two addresses, the shelter and a home in Chelmsford, Mass. 

Rivera-Laureano was sentenced to three years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to several counts including aggravated identity theft and fraud in 2013. He reportedly had fake drivers licenses made for an accomplice he recruited in New York, and the pair went north to cash the fake IRS checks in Manchester where they were caught.

Rivera-Laureano’s exact immigration status isn’t clear from available court records. His plea agreement and sentencing memorandum do not reference his immigration status being put at risk for the plea. There is a note in the sentencing order written by Judge Joseph Laplante recommending that Rivera-Laureano be allowed to serve his incarceration as close to Manchester as possible.

After his release in 2016, Rivera-Laureano was ordered to be on supervised probation for another three years, according to the sentencing order. That means Rivera-Laureano was free and clear as of spring 2019.

Rivera-Laureano came to live with an aunt in New York at age 16 after suffering abuse from his heroin-addict mother and her family, according to his sentencing memo. His father had abandoned the family when he was a small child, the memo states.

“It is clear that the defendant experienced a deeply deprived upbringing which left him unprepared for adulthood, the ramifications of which continue to this day,” the memo states.

Rivera-Laureano’s now being held without bail at Valley Street Jail in Manchester. He’s due in court for an arraignment in July. 

According to investigators, a young Dover girl hid under her bed, scared for her life, as Jheisson Rizo Suarez broke into her home during a burglary.

Now, Suarez, 39, from Colombia, is facing his second deportation after pleading guilty in U.S. District Court in Concord to one count of reentry after deportation.

Suarez is the third high-profile illegal immigrant arrested in New Hampshire in recent months, including a convicted mass murderer and an alleged human smuggler. It is part of a national crisis that has reached from the U.S. border in Texas and Arizona to New Hampshire’s border with Canada.

Some seven million undocumented migrants have poured into the U.S. since President Joe Biden took office, But Democrats like Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), who sits on the Homeland Security Committee, have declined to take any action.

Suarez was arrested in 2021 in connection with the burglary. Police responded to the residence when the girl, alone at the time of the break-in, called 911. According to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for New Hampshire, she reportedly whispered to the 911 operator that an unknown person or persons had forced their way into her home.

Dover police officers soon had Suarez in custody and discovered it wasn’t his first sojourn to the United States. Suarez had been previously deported in 2013, according to prosecutors.

Suarez, due to be sentenced in January, faces up to 10 years in federal prison. His plea comes weeks after Mexican national Reynaldo Velasco-Velasco, 36, was arrested at the Canadian border for allegedly smuggling people into New Hampshire.

Velasco-Velasco had already been deported from the U.S. in 2011 when U.S. Border Patrol agents caught him this month. According to court records,  Velasco-Velasco was illegally leading four other Mexican nationals across the northern border into New Hampshire. 

The smuggler allegedly had two cars ready for the people he was bringing through, and Border Patrol agents stopped the cars as they were trying to flee the border region.

And last month, federal agents raided a home construction site in Rye to arrest wanted killer Antonio Jose De Abreu Vidal Filho, 29. According to federal sources, Filho was in the U.S. illegally after overstaying his visa. The former Brazilian military police officer entered the country legally in 2019, even though he was fleeing prosecution for his role in the Curio Massacre.

According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Filho was recently convicted along with three other military state police officers of 11 murders, plus charges of attempted murder and physical and mental torture, for his role in the 2015 massacre in the Curio neighborhood in Fortaleza.

El Globo, a Brazilian news outlet, reported the murders had been retaliation for the death of a Brazilian police officer in Fortaleza. Four of the 11 people murdered were teens under age 18; three were between 18 and 19, according to El Globo.

Filho was ordered to serve a 276-year prison sentence for his part in the massacre.

The arrests come as New Hampshire’s northern border is in crisis. This month, Chief Patrol Agent Robert Garcia of the U.S. Border Patrol’s Swanton Sector — which includes the New Hampshire border with Canada — announced more apprehensions in the past year than in the previous decade.

“Over 6,100 apprehensions from 76 different countries in just 11 months, surpassing the last ten years combined. Swanton Sector Agents are resolute and determined to hold the line across our 295 miles of border in northeastern New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire,” Garcia said via social media.

Gov. Chris Sununu has been raising the alarm for months and keeps getting turned down when he asks President Joe Biden’s administration for help. This month, Biden’s team rejected Sununu’s request that the federal government restore millions of dollars in border security funding New Hampshire received during the Trump administration. The funding, through Operation Stone Garden, gave the state resources to backstop federal border enforcement actions.

Sununu has not gotten any help from New Hampshire’s all-Democratic federal delegation. Sens. Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen, as well as Reps. Annie Kuster and Chris Pappas have been MIA, according to Sununu.

“I haven’t heard from them. I haven’t heard of any action that they’ve taken with the administration. I haven’t heard of any actual action or results that they have even attempted to bring to the table,” Sununu told NHJournal after the latest Biden rejection.

Asked Monday by NHJournal what they planned to do about the border chaos,  Shaheen, Hassan, Kuster, and Pappas all declined to respond.

While prominent elected New Hampshire Democrats have been silent, state party Chairman Ray Buckley spoke for them, reposting a social media message calling Ayotte a “fascist fearmonger” for focusing on the border.

Presumably, Buckley was not hiding under a bed when he posted that message.

The illegal immigrant convicted of murdering 11 people in the infamous 2015 Curio Massacre in Brazil lived as an average Granite Stater when he was arrested at his roofing job in Rye earlier this month.

“He’s somebody who was definitely in hiding. He didn’t want to be found,” said Rye Police Chief Kevin Walsh.

Federal authorities confirmed to NHJournal that Antonio Jose De Abreu Vidal Filho, 29, was in the country illegally at the time of his arrest. The former military police officer entered the country legally when he fled prosecution in his home country but illegally overstayed his visa, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman said.

“Antonio Jose De Abreu Vidal Filho entered the U.S. lawfully in 2019 but did not depart according to the terms of his admittance. He will remain in ICE custody pending a hearing before a federal immigration judge,” the spokesman said.

Meaning he lived illegally in the U.S. for some eight years, even as Brazil’s government was prosecuting him in absentia for a high-profile crime.

Filho was arrested last week by federal agents who had tracked him from Brazil to New Hampshire. Known as Tony Vidal or Tony Filho, he lived in Merrimack and worked as a roofer. 

At the job site in Rye, no one suspected “Tony” was a convicted killer sentenced to 276 years in prison for the torture and murders he committed as a member of the Brazilian military state police.

“We had no clue. The guy seemed like a nice guy, made chit chat,” Sammy Johnson, a carpenter working on the same house as Filho, told Boston’s 25 News.

The morning of the arrest, Johnson was shocked when a flashbang device exploded, and a large truck sped up to the house carrying armed agents who quickly started barking orders. Within moments, they had Filho in custody, Johnson said. Johnson never suspected the roofer was a wanted criminal.

“You have no clue, no clue in this day and age, and how he got into New Hampshire,” Johnson said.

Walsh insisted that although Rye police proactively patrol the wealthy seaside community for traffic violations and speeding, they never had any contact with Filho during the months he worked construction. If Filho was never stopped, it may have been because he was trying to avoid police attention.

“This is a guy who followed every motor vehicle law. This is a guy who did not want to be found,” Walsh said.

What Fihlo’s employer knew about the killer’s identity is another unknown. Employers are supposed to check immigration status for hires, but Walsh said there are many ways around that requirement in the contracting world. He said that many builders tend to look the other way with the tight labor market.

“If a guy shows up on time and does a full day’s work, a lot of places don’t ask many questions,” Walsh said.

New Hampshire Department of Labor Deputy Commissioner Rudolph Ogden said if Filho were working as a subcontractor, a common practice in the building trades, he would not be considered an employee. In that case, contractors are under no obligation to check the immigration status of subcontractors. Despite the apprehension of an illegal worker just days ago, the Department of Labor is not currently investigating the businesses involved in the construction site where Filho was arrested.

Michael Garrity, communications director for the New Hampshire Department of Justice, referred all questions to ICE.

Agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, or ERO, approached Walsh about their planned arrest of Filho before Monday’s raid. The agents had been watching Filho at different locations in the state and determined the safest place to get him was in Rye, Walsh said.

“They felt this was the best location,” Walsh said.

The arrest went down without any incident or violence on Filho’s part, Walsh said.

Agent John Mohan declined to comment on the arrest.

It was unclear how long Filho has been in the Granite State. He reportedly fled Brazil in 2019, taking his family to the United States after deserting his post in the military police. 

According to a statement from ICE, Filho was convicted along with three other military state police officers of 11 murders plus charges of attempted murder and physical and mental torture for his role in the 2015 massacre in the Curio neighborhood in Fortaleza.

El Globo, a Brazilian news outlet, reported the murders had been retaliation for the death of a Brazilian police officer in Fortaleza. Four of the 11 people murdered were teens under the age of 18, and three were between 18 and 19, according to El Globo.

Once he was convicted this summer, Filho became the subject of a Red Notice issued by Interpol, the international police organization that combines the efforts of police in 195 countries around the world. Interpol Red Notices serve as international wanted notices on fugitives who have fled prosecution or escaped from prison.

Gov. Chris Sununu acknowledged that “not all illegal immigrants are mass murderers,” of course. But he said the incident was yet another reminder of the need to step up U.S. border enforcement, including at New Hampshire’s northern border, where illegal crossings have soared by more than 800 percent.

Sununu is imploring the Biden administration and the Democrats in the federal delegation to restore funding for state support of border enforcement stripped after Joe Biden was elected president. In 2018, New Hampshire received nearly $4 million from the Trump administration through Operation Stone Garden to secure the northern border, but those funds were slashed to $180,000 by the Biden administration in 2022 and $200,000 in 2023.

Biden’s cuts to border security go deeper, however. Biden has been steadily cutting funding across the board. The proposed 2024 budget includes another cut to the number of ICE detention facilities even as the number of illegal immigrant apprehensions reaches record highs.