Residents Oppose Possible ICE Facility In Merrimack At Town Council Meeting

By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org, InDepth NH

MERRIMACK, NH — More than a dozen residents of Merrimack stood up before the Town Council Thursday night to urge the town to resist any efforts by the Trump Administration to warehouse individuals for ICE.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which is reportedly considering the town of Merrimack for a potential facility to detain and deport individuals from the United States.

The council, which said it has not been briefed by the Trump Administration, offered up time at its regular meeting to residents to speak as hundreds of protesters congregated outside the meeting, opposed to ICE actions nationally.

It came after a Washington Post story on Dec. 24, 2025, indicated that the Trump Administration aims to build several large-scale holding centers and several small ones for ICE detainees and named the town of Merrimack as perhaps the only center in New England to host a facility to house up to 1,500 detainees.

On Thursday night, residents went to their Town Council to express their concern. Before and during the meeting a sizable gathering outside the Town Hall opposed the federal government's policies related to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement which looks to house 80,000 immigrants nationwide, according to the Washington Post.

The article noted that the administration was seeking contractors to help overhaul the system in a plan that focuses on the re-use of industrial warehouses across the country to detain individuals.

The town closed its offices for the afternoon in anticipation of a large crowd of protesters and perhaps counter-protesters but limited discussion at the selectmen's regularly scheduled meeting to Merrimack residents only.

Nearby schools reportedly cancelled after-school activities Thursday because of the anticipated crowd.

The event also comes after a woman in Minnesota was killed by an ICE agent Wednesday in which state officials and the federal government dispute what happened. Also, reports came during the meeting of two individuals who were apparently wounded by gunfire at an incident involving federal agents in the state of Oregon.

Tim Fischer of Merrimack said his family came from Ireland to Canada and then to the United States by walking through the woods of Maine to avoid discrimination.

He said to warehouse human beings in his town was something he would hope the town would do everything in its power to prevent.

Brandon Villa said this potential housing in his town impacts "everyone in the community" and urged the town to thwart all federal efforts to create housing in the town.

One resident said two people shot by federal agents protesting an hour ago., adding "This is going to snowball and just going to escalate one after another so do what you've got to do."

Several councilors, including Jennifer Jobin spoke to the issue saying the town has not been given any information and asked people to take a break from social media and share what brings people together.

State Rep. and Town Councilor Nancy Murphy, D-Merrimack, said beyond her opposition to any ICE facility in the town, based on the logistics, infrastructure limitation and potential tax impacts, property value impacts and other likely other impacts, she is a person of faith and is morally opposed to housing people in warehouses.

"I don't believe this is who we are," Murphy said.

She said there has been no information given to the governor and said that they will be as fully transparent as possible if any information is provided.

Rep. Wendy Thomas, D-Merrimack, said in an email: "This proposal asks Merrimack to sacrifice its values, its resources, and its quality of life to support a system rooted in cruelty and injustice.

"We are better than this. Merrimack should be investing in development that strengthens our community, not imprisoning people for profit, not normalizing human rights violations, and not burdening our town with costs we did not ask for," Thomas said.

This article first appeared on InDepthNH.org and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.