Hillsborough County’s sheriff department will soon be deputized to carry out immigration enforcement across the 31 municipalities in its jurisdiction, including New Hampshire’s two largest cities, Manchester and Nashua, both of which have significant immigration populations.

The contract, called a 287(g) agreement, authorizes local police to arrest and interrogate people for warrants on or suspected immigration violations. They can also issue immigration detainers and hold custody of people arrested locally or by ICE, as well as transport them to ICE-approved detention centers.

“We’re not targeting individuals … We’re simply arresting people on immigration detainers if we come across them,” Newcomb said. “If we come across somebody and we happen to run their name … and it comes back that they have a detainer from ICE, we would go ahead and act on it.”

Hillsborough is the fourth county in New Hampshire to join with ICE, following Belknap, Grafton and Rockingham counties. New Hampshire State Police also signed on, as have half a dozen towns: Pittsburg, Colebrook, Candia, Gorham, Ossipee and Troy.

Newcomb’s application to work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was approved late last month, and he expects the department will have the partnership up and running within 60 days. All officers who participate must undergo training from ICE.

Gov. Kelly Ayotte has encouraged localities to sign up for the 287(g) agreements and cooperate with ICE, as she and State House Republicans push a law-and-order approach to immigration. Ayotte also signed a bill last month that bans local so-called “sanctuary” policies that seek to keep municipal authorities from carrying out federal immigration enforcement.

Some New Hampshire residents don’t want their local law enforcement cooperating with or aiding ICE. Several localities – including Lebanon, Hanover and Peterborough – have ordinances that forbid their police departments from doing so. People have also protested President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown at demonstrations across New Hampshire.

Newcomb said he has gotten messages from locals who are curious or concerned about their sheriff’s new role. He said he responds to such messages by explaining the nuts and bolts of the agreement and pitching it as a public safety measure.

“We just want to make sure that we let ICE know so that they can take the appropriate action based on their citizenship status,” Newcomb said. If he let someone go and “they victimized someone else,” he said he “would feel horrible about that” because he could otherwise have prevented a crime.

Charlotte Matherly is the statehouse reporter for the Concord Monitor and Monadnock Ledger-Transcript in partnership with Report for America. Follow her on X at @charmatherly, subscribe to her Capital Beat newsletter and send her an email at cmatherly@cmonitor.com.