New Hampshire
Trump wants ICE facilities in Merrimack, N.H., and across the US. Some Republicans are pushing back. – The Boston Globe
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By all outward appearances, Tim McGough has been a fan of President Trump and his immigration agenda for years.
McGough, a Republican state senator who represents Merrimack, N.H., spoke at a Trump campaign rally ahead of the state’s 2024 GOP primary. In 2023, he welcomed Tom Homan, Trump’s former ICE director and current border czar, to New Hampshire for an event about securing America’s borders. And he was in Washington for Trump’s second inauguration, writing on social media that “God Blessed America” with “our 47th President.”
But McGough seems less excited about how Trump’s immigration agenda is unfolding in his own district. Last week he spoke out forcefully against an administration plan to convert a sprawling local warehouse into an ICE processing center for hundreds of detainees. “There are locations across the state and across the country that will willingly accept this type of facility,” McGough said, “and Merrimack is not one of them.”
McGough, who didn’t respond to requests for comment, may be right that other communities would welcome ICE. But in a sign of how the politics of immigration are shifting, he’s part of a growing number of lawmakers and residents pushing back against the administration’s plans to locate potentially dozens of detention or processing facilities in their cities and states.
It wasn’t always this way. Last summer, Florida Republicans proudly partnered with Trump to build a detention facility that became known as “Alligator Alcatraz.” And immigration policy was once a bright spot for Trump, with more voters than not favoring his tough approach.
But the politics have changed. Most Americans now disapprove of Trump’s handling of the issue and say ICE’s tactics have gone too far. Even some Republicans have recoiled, distancing themselves from immigration crackdowns in places like Minnesota.
Merrimack, a closely divided town Trump narrowly lost to Kamala Harris, opposition to the proposed ICE facility has been building for weeks. In December, the Washington Post reported that the administration was eyeing a vacant warehouse there to repurpose. Local Democrats sounded the alarm, hundreds of residents protested, and the town council came out against the plan.
The pushback quickly became bipartisan. In December, McGough first said it was “too early to draw any conclusions” about a possible ICE facility, then said he opposed it. Last month, another local GOP lawmaker called the proposal “federalism run amok” that would give Merrimack “a negative connotation.”
Governor Kelly Ayotte, a Republican who has banned “sanctuary” policies in cities and urged local police to cooperate with ICE, initially said she hadn’t heard anything from the administration about the plans. Yet after the ACLU of New Hampshire published documents confirming them, Ayotte lambasted a state agency she said had known about the proposal since January but hadn’t told her; the head of that department resigned Monday.
New Hampshire is Trumpy only by New England standards, and the private company that owns the Merrimack warehouse hasn’t said whether it plans to sell it to the administration. Yet resistance to local ICE facilities is growing even in places that have long supported him.
In Utah, Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma City, and a New Jersey county Trump won in 2024, residents have rallied against similar plans. A company that owns a warehouse in Virginia’s Hanover County, which backed Trump in 2024, reneged on a handshake deal to sell to the administration after residents and lawmakers protested.
Even so, the administration has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in recent weeks to acquire facilities in Maryland, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Texas in a bid to vastly expand its capacity to imprison detainees. The proposed Merrimack facility could reportedly hold up to 1,500; plans for one in Hutchins, Texas, call for housing six times more.
Yes, most Republicans still support Trump’s immigration agenda. New Hampshire Republicans blocked a bill that would let municipalities reject permitting for facilities that lack local approval. But for now, the opposition appears to be getting louder — and not just there. As one protester in Merrimack told WMUR, “It’s just not who we are as New Hampshire people. It’s not who we are, I suggest, as Americans.”
🧩 2 Down: Map detail | ☁️ 34° Thawing out
Winter Olympics: Team USA’s three-time ice dancing world champions fell short this time, losing the gold medal to France. Peek inside the team’s Winter House, where athletes can get away from it all. And here’s what to watch for today.
ICE in Massachusetts: A judge dismissed immigration authorities’ case against Eva Helena Mendes, a Rhode Island green card holder detained at Logan Airport over old shoplifting charges. And a jury found a former Worcester City Councilor guilty of assaulting a police officer during a chaotic clash last May between protesters and immigration agents.
A History Fight: A group that promotes Black Americans’ contributions to Boston history is “throwing up plaques as fast as we can” to combat the Trump administration’s efforts to erase similar markers elsewhere.
I’m on a boat: Why did the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department launch a harbor patrol in Winthrop, far from the jail it runs?
Up and down: New England colleges and universities keep cutting costs, but their endowments keep going up. At $56.9 billion, Harvard’s is bigger than Iceland’s economy.
Tariffs: Six House Republicans voted with Democrats to end Trump’s import duties on Canadian goods. The measure is unlikely to become law, but Trump threatened to support primary challenges against its Republican backers anyway. (WashPost 🎁)
Oops: The FAA closed El Paso’s airspace for hours after Customs and Border Protection officials used a laser on loan from the Defense Department against what they said was a Mexican cartel drone. It turned out to be a party balloon. (NYT 🎁)
Pam Bondi: During a congressional hearing, Trump’s attorney general yelled at and insulted lawmakers asking about her handling of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein and refused to apologize to Epstein victims who were in the room. (Guardian)
Nancy Guthrie: A potential lead fizzled in the disappearance of the “Today” show host’s mom, leaving authorities without a suspect in custody. (AP)
Poll, axed: Gallup, which has tracked US presidents’ popularity since Franklin Roosevelt, will no longer do so. The firm recently found Trump, who has threatened to sue over polls he says portray him negatively, with a 36 percent approval rating. (The Hill)
By David Beard
🦃 Where is Sandwich? Not the food, not the town on the Cape, but the beloved turkey who paced and pecked around a Northampton hospital. There’s a suspected Sandwich snatching — and the turkey hunt is on.
🏠 Home of the Week: Inherited art and antiques transformed and revitalized this drab Milton Colonial. Also, a Sunday River ski home, anyone? And should you even try to sell your home yourself?
🛞 First Person: Kevin Zhang thought it was okay to park in a neighborhood spot. Someone disagreed, he writes in “To the person who slashed my tires.” Plus, an Eastie man was so angry over “space savers” he shoveled the neighborhood himself.
📺 RIP James Van der Beek: The former “Dawson’s Creek” heartthrob, who later mocked his hunky appearance, was 48.
🐅 16 astonishing images: Sit back and enjoy, from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest. (Popular Science)
📕 Fran Lebowitz isn’t joking: “This is not kind of like what the Nazis did. This is precisely what the Nazis did,” says the writer, appearing next week at the Emerson Colonial.
🌅 Best/worst states for retirement: New Hampshire makes the 10 best in this survey; Rhode Island the 10 worst (what, someone didn’t like the Cliff Walk?). See the list. (Business Insider)
Thanks for reading Starting Point.
This newsletter was edited by David Beard and produced by Diamond Naga Siu.
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Join us for a community conversation exploring how land conservation supports thriving communities, healthy ecosystems, and local economies. Recent research from Maine highlights the growing economic value of conserved lands — from supporting recreation, forestry, agriculture, and tourism to protecting clean water, storing carbon, and strengthening climate resilience. The findings reveal something important: protecting natural landscapes is not only good for the environment, but also for the people and communities that depend on them.
Together, we’ll explore what this research means both regionally and here at home. How do conserved lands shape our quality of life, local economy, and sense of place? How can communities balance growth, conservation, and long-term sustainability? And what role can each of us play in protecting the landscapes that support both nature and people?
At each “Let’s Talk Nature” gathering, we share a short article in advance and come together for an informal, welcoming discussion. Each session stands on its own, and everyone is welcome. No expertise needed. Bring your curiosity and a willingness to listen and share. Drinks and cookies provided.
Read this session’s article: Conserved Land in Maine has Growing Economic Power
Grey Rocks Conservation Center
10:30 AM – 11:30 AM on Wed, 1 Jul 2026
Event Supported By
Newfound Lake Region Association
603-744-8689
info@NewfoundLake.org
High winds and widespread rain contributed to more than 12,000 power outages Saturday as a low pressure system passes over New Hampshire.
A high wind advisory remains in effect for southeastern New Hampshire until midday.
There is a high surf advisory in effect for the Seacoast area until 8 p.m. Saturday, with large-breaking waves in the range of 6-9 feet, according to the National Weather Service.
The forecast warns of dangerous wintry winds for hikers and campers, with heavy wet snow likely at higher elevations and a foot of snow possible on summits in the White Mountains.
In southeastern New Hampshire, the wind advisory calls for steady winds of 15-25 mph, and potential wind gusts up to 50 mph.
Eversource reported over 10,000 outages as of 9:30 a.m. Unitil had about 1,400 outages at that time.
The Mount Washington Observatory has recorded winterlike weather over the past 24 hours. Weather observers there say over half a foot of snow and sleet has fallen at the summit.
New Hampshire
Opinion: The farm bill passed the House. Western New Hampshire got the bill. – Concord Monitor
In 1794, George Washington wrote that he knew of “no pursuit in which more zeal and important service can be rendered to any Country than by improving its agriculture.” Two hundred and thirty years later, the House just passed a farm bill that proves his successors stopped believing it.
Drive Route 12 through Walpole. Take Route 10 up through Haverhill. Cut across to Littleton, past the diner that has been feeding the town since 1930. The farms are there. Lush land that produces. People who work till their sweat and blood soak the ground they nurture. A region with every ingredient to feed itself.
What is not there is the processing facility that makes it worth raising the animal. The cold storage that keeps the crop from spoiling before it finds a buyer. The regional market that pays a price worth planting for. I want to believe Washington did not forget to build those things. Regardless, it built something else instead — a system that works beautifully for an operation running 10,000 acres in the Midwest and leaves the farmer on Route 12 doing the math at the kitchen table at midnight wondering if this is the last season.
And the 2026 Farm Bill just made that system more expensive to survive. Large commodity operations received a $54 billion subsidy increase over the next 10 years, with individual payment caps that can exceed $900,000 per operation. Is the farmer at your farmers market in position for this kind of payout?
The bill guarantees money, codified by law, for the people who need it least. Local food programs were reauthorized with zero mandatory funding, but plenty of empty words. They exist on paper and nowhere else. It means a farmer in Plainfield cannot count on them. It means Coos County, where one in seven people cannot reliably put food on the table, keeps waiting for help that has been promised and deferred so many times the promise itself has become an insult. Especially when supermarkets and superstores — just 15% of SNAP-accepting establishments — vacuum up nearly 74% of every food assistance dollar, while the local farm stand sees almost none of it.
And that is before the input costs.
Local farmers know this better than most. You buy fuel and fertilizer on global markets you have no vote in and no say over. Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, causing record high prices for fertilizers globally, all because Russia is the world’s top exporter and suddenly it wasn’t exporting. And while that news cycle is long buried, remember that the Iran war has closed the Strait of Hormuz, through which a third of the world’s seaborne fertilizer travels. Diesel recently crossed $5 a gallon, which large trucks that move food and tractors rely on. Fertilizer went from $500 a ton to $850. One tractor cost $350 more than it did last year. You did not start either of those wars, yet you pay for both of them. And that is not even accounting for the sharp sting of tariffs on the inputs you depend on to plant next season.
Chapter 12 farm bankruptcies rose 55% in 2024. Then another 46% in 2025, and those numbers only count the farms that qualified for Chapter 12, which requires the majority of family income to come from farming. The ones that don’t qualify quietly disappear, not even a balance sheet to mark the years of struggle, labor and community these farmers gave. They just stop. Since 2018, this country has lost more than 158,000 farms, with every size category shrinking except operations over a million dollars in annual revenue. Those are still growing, and will do so as long as the policy is written to grow them. Another example of an unlevel playing field where the rich get richer.
To be clear about something: large-scale agriculture feeds a lot of people and nobody sat in a room and decided to destroy the small farm. But does intent matter when these are the results? The system produces what it was designed to produce. That is exactly the problem. It was not designed with you in mind, and after enough years of that, the results look intentional even when they are not.
I got involved locally here because I believe western New Hampshire has everything it needs to feed itself and then some. Four thousand farms, nearly half a million acres, led by a direct-sales culture that leads the entire country. What is missing is not the land or the people or the will. What is missing is a representative who walks into bill negotiations fighting for the farmer on Route 12 instead of the operation collecting a $900,000 subsidy check in a state they have never visited, and pretending it actually helps their constituents.
I have a specific plan for how existing federal dollars already flowing into this district get redirected toward processing, storage and regional market access that actually serves the farms here. No new appropriations. No new programs. A full breakdown is at livefreenh02.com/food-independence.
Daniel Webster, born thirty miles from where I am writing this, put it in the Capitol: “The farmers, therefore, are the founders of human civilization.” Washington and Webster were not just statesmen. They farmed. They understood what was at stake when the land stopped producing for the people who worked it. The authors of the 2026 farm bill apparently do not.
Robbie Mahrou is an independent candidate for U.S. Congress in New Hampshire’s Second District and a Walpole resident. She can be reached out robbie@livefreenh02.com.
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