Residents feel betrayed as their lawmaker parrots a hidden government script to justify DHS mega-centers

It turns out that a state lawmaker’s strong defense of a new migrant detention center was a direct copy-paste from government-approved talking points. When protests exploded over a Trump administration plan to turn a warehouse in southern New Hampshire into a detention center for up to 1,500 migrants, State Representative Jeanine Notter (R) forcefully backed the idea.

The Washington Post reported that Notter wrote an op-ed for a local news website, telling residents they “should be celebrating, not protesting.” She cited crime statistics about arrested migrants that were actually inaccurate, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s own figures. She also claimed that protesters who gathered in front of the town hall earlier that month had been bused in, a fact refuted by a peaceful protestor at the scene.

Here’s the kicker: these claims closely tracked talking points drafted by a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) staffer and sent to local officials in New Hampshire just two days earlier, according to emails obtained. Patrick Farrell, a deputy assistant secretary in DHS’s congressional outreach office, sent talking points that said, “If there’s a new facility going in here, Merrimack residents should be celebrating, not protesting.” 

Yep, my friends, she was parroting propaganda

This situation highlights how DHS has been trying to quietly get local Republican leaders to promote the administration’s $38 billion plan to transform industrial warehouses across the country into migrant detention centers to contain the immigration plans of the administration. Faced with growing opposition, the agency is using backchannels to political allies, sometimes with misleading messages, while staying largely silent in public.

Before Trump announced Kristi L. Noem’s removal as DHS secretary, a department spokesperson stated that Noem “aims to work with officials on both sides of the aisle to expand detention space to help ICE law enforcement carry out the largest deportation effort in American history.” 

The New Hampshire effort wasn’t exactly a roaring success for DHS. Governor Kelly Ayotte (R) announced that DHS was actually scrapping the proposed Merrimack facility after she raised concerns about it in a meeting with Noem. The fact is that residents wanted more answers than the DHS or their puppets could give. Of course, allied republicans denied receiving the emails, even when presented with evidence, with one Senator stating, “I get a lot of emails.” 

In Maryland, State Senator Paul D. Corderman (R) received an email saying, “Here are the recommended talking points, tailored to MD.” DHS added that “Maryland’s sanctuary politicians should be thanking” ICE. They even included a link to Notter’s column, referring to it as “an op ed that another state legislator wrote in a similar circumstance to yours.” 

Meanwhile, in Arizona and Pennsylvania, DHS has been providing Republican members of Congress with details about warehouse projects, including economic benefits they could tout. Residents and local officials, however, are still clamoring for more information.