AUBURN, NH – The Auburn Police Department has joined 12 other law enforcement agencies across the state in signing “task force model” agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ICE to carry out federal immigration arrests in New Hampshire.
New Hampshire is the only state in New England where any local police department has an ICE agreement. New Hampshire law enforcement agencies that have signed agreements include New Hampshire State Police; the Belknap, Grafton, Hillsborough and Rockingham County offices; and police departments in Candia, Carroll, Colebrook, Gorham, Ossipee, Pittsburg, Troy and now Auburn.
Auburn Police Chief Charles “Chip” Chabot said he signed the agreement on Jan. 6, 2026. The issue was not put before the police commission, he said, because as “police chief it falls under my purview.”
Under the agreement, called the “Memorandum of Agreement 287(g) Task Force Model,” before an officer obtains Law Enforcement Agency (LEA) authorization to perform immigration officer functions, “they must successfully complete mandatory training on relevant administrative, legal, and operational issues tailored to the immigration enforcement functions to be performed as provided by ICE instructors and thereafter pass examinations equivalent to those given to ICE officers. The mandatory training may be made available to the LEA in both in-person and online, recorded or virtual-meeting formats, as determined by ICE. Only participating LEА personnel who are nominated, trained, certified, and authorized, as set out herein, have authority pursuant to this MOA to conduct the delegated immigration officer functions, under ICE direction and supervision.”
Chabot said he is primarily interested in the ICE agreement to ensure his officers are trained to handle situations that may arise as they patrol Route 101 and other roads that cut through Auburn, a town of about 6,000 residents.
The department is comprised of 10 full-time officers, including the police chief, and seven part-time officers. Chabot expects five of the officers will be trained and certified to assist ICE in enforcing the law.
“We’re more than happy to do it,” he said.
Chabot said he does not expect his officers will be breaking down doors to make arrests but rather the training will be used in roadside stops where the officer encounters someone suspected of violating ICE regulations or who is wanted on an ICE detainer.
“If we can do something to keep our community safer, that’s what we’re going to do,” he said, “And if we never, never, never actually arrest an illegal alien, that’s fine with me too.”
Asked if he isn’t concerned about ICE’s enforcement actions, Chabot said “when somebody is trying to kill you, you’re entitled to defend yourself.”
He said he’s seen the video of the incident in which Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed by an ICE officer in Minneapolis.
“Everyone has a right to defend themselves,” he said.
He said when his officers encountered an “illegal alien,” under the Biden Administration, they would record the necessary information and file it. Chabot said there was no point in forwarding the information to ICE because the administration never did anything about it.
Now, once officers are trained, he said, if they run into someone on Route 101 and there is a detainer on them, there is a mechanism to deal with them.
In the meantime, the ACLU-NH has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit seeking NH 287(g) training documents from ICE.
ACLU Legal Director Gilles Bissonnette, in a news release, said ICE did not respond to its official request for documents concerning what is used in training about 138 law enforcement officers in 13 New Hampshire departments.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Concord, argues that the public has a right to know those law enforcement agencies —including New Hampshire State Police, the state’s largest police force – will enforce a federal immigration program that was previously suspended in 2012 following racial profiling concerns.
The ACLU-NH said it is critical, especially after the recent killing of Good in Minneapolis, to learn how law enforcement officers who are engaging in immigration enforcement are trained.
“Across the country we have seen deadly, harmful, and fear-inducing tactics used by federal immigration officers. Now our local police are deputized to do this work despite ICE providing no transparency as to the training it has provided,” said Bissonnette. “There have already been concerning arrests made under these 287(g) agreements right here in New Hampshire that ruin or change the lives of the people involved, and yet Granite Staters have few answers as to what the rules are for how local law enforcement are supposed to operate. We need transparency.”
The 287(g) Program is a set of partnerships between ICE and state and local agencies that effectively turns local officials into ICE agents, authorizing selected officers to identify, arrest, and process certain people for immigration enforcement and ultimately deportation, according to the ACLU-NH.
The Troy, Colebrook and Carroll police departments, along with the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office have already engaged in immigration arrests under this program, according to the ACLU-NH.
The court documents filed Thursday highlight a number of examples, including:
- The Troy Police Department’s arrest of a person from Brazil who was a passenger in a vehicle. He had valid work authorization and had received special protective status. After being detained by Troy police, this person was subsequently detained for more than a month with no criminal charges and only released after a court order following the filing of a lawsuit.
- Troy police arresting a man who then spent 15 days in ICE custody in Strafford County jail in Dover before he was released through court proceedings. After the filing of a habeas petition, the U.S. District Court ruled that the man’s “present detention without a bond hearing violates” the federal Immigration and Nationality Act. The Court ordered that an immigration judge hold a bond hearing within seven days. The man posted a $4,500 bond, and he was released. The man had a two-month-old baby and a young daughter.
- In another case, the Troy police chief elected to stop a vehicle for travelling the speed limit of 55 miles per hour, but then “all of a sudden” putting on the brakes and slowing down to 45 miles per hour, which was lower than the speed limit. It is unclear what motor vehicle offense this driver committed.
The press release and lawsuit can be viewed here