Summary

• NH Gov. Kelly Ayotte tells Healey to "get your own house in order" after Bay State governor demanded she block ICE facility
• Ayotte: "New England is in this position because Gov. Healey and Massachusetts created a billion-dollar illegal immigrant crisis in our region"
• NH House Majority Leader: Massachusetts is "a cautionary tale — not a model"
• Meanwhile, ICE has been arresting convicted murderers, rapists, and drug traffickers living freely in Massachusetts for years

CONCORD, N.H. — Gov. Kelly Ayotte isn't taking orders from Maura Healey.

The New Hampshire Republican fired back at her Massachusetts counterpart Friday after Healey publicly demanded she oppose a proposed ICE detention facility in Merrimack — telling the Bay State Democrat to worry about her own state's mess first.

"New England is in this position because Gov. Healey and Massachusetts created a billion-dollar illegal immigrant crisis in our region," Ayotte said. "Get your own house in order, Maura."

"I will continue to advocate for the town of Merrimack and New Hampshire."

Healey's Demand

Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey has made opposition to federal immigration enforcement a centerpiece of her administration.

Healey had issued a statement earlier this week calling on Ayotte to join her in opposing the Trump administration's plan to open a 400-bed ICE processing center at a former warehouse in Merrimack.

"ICE is shooting people dead on the street. Mothers have been ripped from cars and separated from children," Healey claimed. "We should be opposing ICE's tactics, not allowing them to expand."

She demanded Ayotte "do everything in her power to block a new ICE facility in southern New Hampshire."

Ayotte has declined to endorse or oppose the proposal outright, saying her job is to represent the interests of the Merrimack community — not to take marching orders from Boston.

What ICE Has Actually Been Doing in Massachusetts

Migrants apprehended crossing the US-Mexico border. Massachusetts has spent billions housing illegal immigrants while violent criminals slipped through the cracks.

While Healey rails against federal immigration enforcement, here's who ICE has actually been arresting in her state:

A convicted murderer ordered deported in 1997 — Khambor Phouthongseng, an illegal immigrant from Laos with Massachusetts convictions for second-degree murder and kidnapping, was finally arrested last week. He'd been living freely in the state for nearly three decades after being ordered removed. A convicted rapist who paid a smuggler to return — Eugenio Isidro Victoriano, 54, was deported in 2004, paid a smuggler to sneak back in, and settled in western Massachusetts. Police even fingerprinted him in 2021 and matched him to his immigration records — but released him before ICE could act. He was later convicted of rape. A fentanyl trafficker living on a stolen identity — When a Boston city councilor called an ICE arrest an "abduction," federal officials revealed the suspect was charged with trafficking cocaine and fentanyl while living under a stolen identity.

These aren't the sympathetic cases Healey portrays. These are violent criminals and drug traffickers who found sanctuary in Massachusetts while their victims got none.

NH Republicans Pile On

Healey's demands fell flat in New Hampshire's GOP-controlled legislature.

House Majority Leader Jason Osborne didn't hold back:

"Maura Healey may have spent more time campaigning here for Joyce Craig than she does governing Massachusetts, but the voters roundly rejected her agenda to Mass up New Hampshire."

"You might think, given the state of Massachusetts' budget, that Gov. Healey would thank us for taking illegals off her hands and saving her residents a billion dollars or more," Osborne continued.

"Gov. Healey should worry less about what New Hampshire does and more about why her own residents keep moving here to escape her failed policies. Massachusetts is a cautionary tale — not a model — and we have no intention of following them off the cliff."

The Backstory

The proposed ICE facility has been at the center of multiple controversies in recent days.

Last week, embattled DNCR Commissioner Sarah Stewart resigned after her office leaked information about the Merrimack property to the New Hampshire ACLU — information that was never shared with Ayotte's office.

Then on Thursday, acting ICE Administrator Todd Lyons told Sen. Maggie Hassan during Senate testimony that his agency "has worked with Gov. Ayotte" and "spoken to the governor about economic impact."

That turned out to be false. DHS didn't forward its economic impact statement to Ayotte's office until after Lyons testified — and the document was riddled with errors, including references to the facility being in "Oklahoma" and mentions of "sales and income tax revenue" in a state that has neither.

Democrats Pounce Anyway

Despite the confusion coming from federal officials, Massachusetts Democrats and their New Hampshire allies have tried to pin the blame on Ayotte.

"First, we were told she was not informed. Now we learn she had been speaking with DHS for weeks. Both cannot be true," said Portsmouth Mayor Deaglan McEachern, who is reportedly considering a run against Ayotte in November.

For Ayotte, the message is clear: she'll work with her constituents in Merrimack to address their concerns — but she won't be lectured by a governor whose own state is drowning in the consequences of its sanctuary policies.

As Osborne put it: "If she wants to run a sanctuary state that bleeds taxpayer money and rolls out the red carpet for illegal immigrants, that's between her and the voters she's failing. But New Hampshire answers to Granite Staters, not to a Massachusetts governor who can't keep her own house in order."