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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.

The three Republican candidates vying to take on Democratic Rep. Annie Kuster this fall clashed over immigration and abortion Monday night during the New Hampshire Journal debate at Saint Anselm’s New Hampshire Institute for Politics. 

Bob Burns, the “pro-Trump” candidate from Pembroke, spent most of the night on offense. He attacked his opponents, Weare’s Lily Tang Williams and Keene Mayor George Hansel, over their stances on illegal immigration. 

Burns accused Tang Williams of supporting a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants and called out “Woke George’s sanctuary city, Keene.”

“So, you’re lying again, Bob, as usual,” Hansel responded. “Keene is not a sanctuary city.”

Hansel said Keene’s police chief assured him the department will cooperate with federal agents when enforcing immigration laws, as opposed to the policies in actual sanctuary cities where police do not assist federal immigration agents.

Tang Williams also accused Burns of lying about her record. She supports a pathway to citizenship for people who qualify for the DACA program, those brought to the U.S. illegally when they were children and who were raised in America. However, she said she does not support a pathway for people who came illegally as adults.

“Bob’s campaign has been attacking me from the very beginning,” Tang Williams said. “Who needs Democrats when you have Republicans attacking you?”

They also differ on abortion considering the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the Dobbs case. Burns said if elected he will push for a federal heartbeat bill that would limit abortions nationally.

“Instead of codifying Roe v. Wade, we should be codifying life,” Burns said.

Tang Williams supports the recent Supreme Court ruling to send the question of abortion back to the states, allowing local voters to make their own decision. Tang Williams does not support any new federal law regulating or banning abortion, saying the matter needs to be left to the people in each state.

“It should always belong to the states to let local people decide it,” she said.

Hansel, who is pro-choice, agrees with the Dobbs ruling, saying it allows states to craft laws that make sense for their own people. He does not support any federal law regarding abortion.

“This is an issue that is firmly with the states, which is where it belongs,” Hansel said. “This is a contentious issue, and the decisions belong as close to the people as possible.”

Hansel said voters are very concerned about record levels of inflation and soaring energy prices, issues where President Joe Biden’s administration has failed and they are not up for fighting more culture war battles.

“It’s all about inflation, it’s all about the higher costs that people are paying here in New Hampshire because of Joe Biden and Ann Kuster’s reckless Washington agenda,” Hansel said.

Both Tang Williams and Burns sent out press releases Monday night claiming victory in the debate.

The full debate, hosted by NH Journal, is available for streaming online at NH Journal’s Facebook page.

New Hampshire progressives say they’ve had enough of Sen. Maggie Hassan and what they call her “racist”  policies on immigration, and they’re not planning to support her re-election in November.

Tension between Granite State progressives and the governing establishment is nothing new. What is notable, however, is the willingness of progressive activists to criticize a powerful incumbent Democrat so publicly.

“Maggie Hassan is racist. No need to dance around the obvious for much longer,” said Marcus Ponce de Leon, until recently an executive team member of the New Hampshire Democratic Latino Caucus.

Rep. Maria Perez, D-Milford, another leader of the Latino Caucus, says she’s been trying to get Hassan to meet with members of the Latino community for months, to listen to their concerns about her immigration stance. Perez has finally had enough with the state’s junior senator.

“I asked Hassan today for a time to meet and she said that she’s not meeting with us and if we need to ask questions to speak with someone in her office,” Perez said over the weekend. “I’m done supporting someone who doesn’t have time to meet with us.”

After her narrow victory in 2016 — she defeated incumbent Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R) by just 1,017 votes — Hassan was a reliably liberal vote, voting with Democratic leader Sen. Chuck Schumer 96 percent of the time. But as the political climate changed and her re-election approached, Hassan began shifting her stances on issues like increased drilling for oil, tax cuts for fossil fuels and building more of Trump’s border wall — all positions she voted against in the past.

The straw that broke the camel’s back was Hassan’s trip to the southern border, where she recorded a video calling for more enforcement and “physical barriers” while standing in front of a barb-wire laced section of the Trump wall. She also endorsed continuing the Title 42 policy put in place during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic by the Trump administration, allowing border officials to immediately turn away would-be undocumented migrants without allowing them into the country.

Ponce de Leon said Hassan’s supporters in the New Hampshire Democratic Party are endorsing white supremacy by not holding her to account. He called the New Hampshire Democratic Party an embarrassing disappointment.

“I’m struggling with parsing white supremacy vs. those who support @SenatorHassan … Today many of them flat out said they didn’t care what black and brown people are going through. They chanted ‘603 for Maggie’ as if they hadn’t heard our testimonies,” Ponce de Leon wrote on Twitter. He was referencing the chaotic scene outside the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s office Friday when progressives and Hassan backers tried to shout each other down as the senator filed to run for re-election. Security had to repeatedly intervene, and Hassan was eventually forced to flee the Secretary of State’s office out the back door.

Talking to reporters after her filing, Hassan appeared to confirm Perez’s account that the senator is unwilling to meet with Latino leaders.

“I have spoken with some of their members and my team continues to have conversations,” Hassan said. “But we have a disagreement here,” Hassan said. “I do not think the administration should lift Title 42 until there are resources at the border to ensure safety and security. All sides of this issue agree that, when Title 42 is lifted, we’re going to see an increase in illegal border crossing attempts,” she said. “I respect they have a disagreement with me about this. At the end of the day, I need to stand up for the safety and security of my state and my country.”

Progressives are not satisfied. 

Several weeks ago, activist Asma Elhuni confronted Hassan at a public event, an encounter caught on video. Rather than answer Elhuni’s questions, Hassan responded by telling the young activist she didn’t know what she was talking about.

“First of all, you have some facts wrong,” Hassan said. “What I understand is what I need to do is to make sure that we have a safe, orderly migration at the border.” Hassan also claimed she had spoken to migrant families and was genuinely interested in their concerns.

“You’re actions speak louder than your words,” Elhuni responded.

“You’re not interested in hearing my side,” Hassan concluded and walked away, accompanied by her handlers.

Robin Vogt, co-chair of the New Hampshire Progressive Coalition, called Hassan’s immigration policies disgusting, and he said Democrats who do not take progressive issues seriously will start to face challenges from the left.

“Holding my own party accountable does not mean myself and others are being ‘unreasonable’. It simply means that we are ready for political leadership to start listening and take action here in New Hampshire. If not, we come for your seats, and you will get called out,” Vogt wrote on Twitter.

Hassan is viewed as unusually vulnerable in a state that rarely votes for Republicans at the federal level and where no GOP challenger has yet emerged from the Republican field. The conservative group One Nation just announced a nearly $1 million buy targeting Hassan, who narrowly won the seat in 2016 by just 1.017 votes.

Ironically, progressive attacks on Hassan could fit in with her campaign strategy of triangulating against her own party. The Associated Press published a story Monday listing Hassan as one of several Democrats “actively trying to distance themselves” from the Democratic Party. They note she’s running a TV ad accusing Democrats of getting the issue of gas prices wrong (“I’m taking on members of my own party to push a gas tax holiday.”)

On the one hand, polls show the Democratic Party is struggling to earn voters’ trust on the top issues of the day — the economy, gas prices, crime and the border. On the other, Hassan’s approval ratings continue to lag in the low to mid 40’s, meaning she needs an energized Democratic base to turn out if she hopes to win re-election. Will they turn out?

“Senator Maggie Hassan will criticize Trump when he’s in office but literally support those same racist policies as if her party’s name will always protect her,” Elhuni tweeted this weekend. “This is the time for bravery. People need to stand up to Hassan and say no to racism.”

In an emotional speech from the floor of the New Hampshire House, Rep. Maria Perez accused members of the state’s federal delegation of treating voters of color like “tokens” while supporting Trump-era immigration policies.

“I will say to the congressional delegation who’s been criticizing the previous administration about going to the border and speaking negatively about immigrants — What happened to you? You tokenized us to talk negatively about the previous administration, but now you’re utilizing immigrants to win some votes. Shame on you!” Perez said.

Perez echoed complaints from the New Hampshire Democratic Asian American Pacific Islander Caucus which is critical of U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan and Rep. Chris Pappas’ right turn on immigration.

“All of us feel like we’re tokens,” said Shideko Terai, a member of the New Hampshire AAPI Caucus. “This is not okay. You can’t use us and abuse us.”

According to multiple sources, leaders in the state Democratic Party have been pressuring Black and Brown activists to remain silent as Pappas and Hassan push for Trump-era immigration policies like building more of the border wall and continued enforcement of Title 42 authority against would-be migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

“I feel very disgraceful to calling myself a Democrat because a lot of Democrats have been calling people [of color] onto the carpet saying just to say ‘do not go out in public, do not talk about it,'” Perez said Thursday. “Shame on you! Shame on you for trying to silence our voices.”

Terai says she received the same message from Granite State Democratic Party leaders. “I was told, ‘We have to be really careful. We need Sen. Hassan’s fundraising,’” Terai said.

Last week, the New Hampshire Democratic Party Latino Caucus resigned from the party en masse over Hassan and Pappas’s new policies. Now, Perez said, it is a non-partisan organization promoting issues important to her community.

“I had to take a hard decision for my caucus to leave the NHDP,” Perez said. “We left the executive committee of the Democratic Party because my caucus doesn’t feel welcomed by the Democratic Party. I believe our community has been tokenized, and it’s time for us to win the respect.”

Sen. Maggie Hassan in front of the Trump-era wall at the U.S.-Mexico border in April 2022.

Hassan’s reversal on immigration, from repeatedly voting against Trump’s border wall to calling for more of it to be completed, has caught the attention of national media. According to Politico, Hassan is one of a handful of embattled Senate Democrats whose prospects for re-election are in trouble and are trying to distance themselves from Biden and his policy.

“On social media, where they shy away from praise of the president and instead focus on their efforts to prod the White House to action, it’s hard to tell they’ve voted in line with Biden no less than 96 percent of the time,” Politico reported Thursday. And, they add “Democratic operatives” say Hassan is making the right move politically by supporting tougher immigration policies, “even if it’s at the expense of alienating some progressives.”

Some of those progressives at the national level are speaking out.

“Attn: Sen. Hassan. We need you in the Senate, but going after GOP anti-immigration voters and introducing a bill to keep Ukrainian and LGBTQ migrants out will lose you more voters than you gain,” tweeted Douglas Rivlin, communications director with the progressive immigration group America’s Voice.

In a later tweet, he added: “Sen. Hassan [is] defining Dems as the party in support of Stephen Miller’s approach to excluding immigrants, and refugees.”

Stephen Miller was President Donald Trump’s lead immigration policy advisor.

New Hampshire’s lead immigrant’s rights advocate, Eva Castillo, is outraged by Hassan’s pro-wall politics.

“It was a slap in the face for us Latino immigrants,” said Castillo, director of the New Hampshire Alliance for Immigrants and Refugees. “She could have talked about anything other than the stupid wall.

“That’s not an issue for a New Hampshire incumbent senator to be running on. I’m sick and tired of people playing politics with immigration, on both sides. And it’s especially annoying when it’s the Democrats that are supposed to be friendlier to immigrants,” Castillo said.

Hassan apparently needs the help. A new UNH Survey Center poll found Hassan is in a statistical tie with her potential GOP rivals retired Gen. Don Bolduc, state Sen. Chuck Morse, and former Londonderry Town Manager Kevin Smith, despite the fact they have very little name ID.

Also problematic for Hassan: Just 35 percent of voters have a favorable view of the incumbent senator, while 51 percent view her unfavorably.