Immigration Policy

Citizens Count Editor

As of 2017, immigrants made up 6.2% of New Hampshire’s population. That includes both foreign-born naturalized citizens, legal non-citizen immigrants, and immigrants who are here illegally. New Hampshire’s immigrants come from a wide range of nations. The largest immigrant populations are from Canada and India.

Forty-five percent of immigrants in New Hampshire have a college or postgraduate degree. Nearly 90% of them report speaking English well or very well.

Refugees in NH

New Hampshire is an established site for the U.S. refugee resettlement program. The cities of Manchester, Nashua and Concord have all opted-in to the program. From 2011-2017, refugees were resettled here at a rate of roughly 400 per year. That number dropped to 162 in 2018, as the Trump administration throttled back the refugee program.

New Hampshire’s refugee program is run by the state Department of Health and Human Services. The DHHS works in partnership with several nonprofit organizations. The program is funded by the federal government. Refugees receive assistance with finding employment, school integration, and English language learning. They may also be eligible for cash assistance.

Most refugees in New Hampshire come from Africa or Asia. There are particularly high populations of refugees from Bhutan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Temporary immigration to NH

Each year, a couple thousand immigrants come to work in New Hampshire with temporary visas. Most of these immigrants are skilled workers on H-1B visas. There were 2,879 such visa holders in 2014, the most recent year for which data is available. Most were in the high tech industry. A smaller number of immigrants work in New Hampshire temporarily on H-2A or H-2B visas, for agricultural or seasonal work.

Illegal immigration in NH

An estimated 13% of New Hampshire’s immigrants are undocumented. That amounts to 0.7% of the general population.

Unlike some states, New Hampshire does not allow undocumented immigrants to get driver’s licenses. They are also not eligible for in-state tuition at state colleges and universities. New Hampshire law explicitly prohibits undocumented immigrants from receiving Medicaid or CHIP. (Some states use state funds to offer coverage through those programs for immigrants here illegally.)

New Hampshire does not require employers to run prospective employees through E-Verify, a federal system that determines citizenship status.

Drivers licenses for immigrants in NH

Immigrants who are in New Hampshire legally can apply for a non-citizen state driver’s license. This includes foreign college students or people in the state for business reasons. They will need to present documentation proving their legal status and must take a full driving test. Get more information.

NH immigration field office

The Manchester field office for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is located in Bedford. It handles a range of services related to immigration but by appointment only. The office does not accept walk-ins. A request for an appointment should be made through the USCIS Contact Center.

(The Manchester field office should not be confused with the National Visa Center in Portsmouth, which is not open to the public. The National Visa Center is a processing facility and does not offer any direct services to immigrants.)

Immigrants who are looking for more assistance may wish to contact support groups or an immigration lawyer. A list of resources for immigrants in New Hampshire is available here.

Immigration debates in NH

New Hampshire has seen its share of recent immigration controversies.

Border checkpoints

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has staged several immigration checkpoints in places like Woodstock and Lebanon. Most of these were on I-93 some distance from the border. The checkpoints have been highly controversial, sparking legal actions by the ACLU.

Sanctuary cities in NH

Sanctuary cities limit how local police and government cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

There are no municipalities in New Hampshire that have officially declared themselves sanctuary cities. Portsmouth and Durham considered doing so in 2017. They ultimately backed down under pressure from the Trump administration. A few towns and one county do have policies that limit when local police or officials can inquire into someone’s citizenship status.

An attempt to ban sanctuary cities statewide failed in 2019.

Learn More

American Bar Association: Commission on Immigration

FAIR - Federation for American Immigration Reform

National Conference of State Legislatures: Immigration

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Comments

Neil

February 8, 2013

One of the main issues facing the current Obama administration is Immigration reform. While ideas have been expressed on both sides, a concrete and over-arching plan has yet to be determined.

As New Hampshire's Home for Politics, the New Hampshire Institute of Politics & Political Library seeks to explore issues, like immigration, in a non-partisan, open and civil manner.

This Friday the 15th, we will be joined by Jose Jorge Mendoza, a professor at Worcester State University, who will discuss his interpretation of the Philosophy of Immigration.

This event is free and open to the public. For more information, go here.

rich

September 25, 2014

Immigration Reform is like eating an elephant, its best leaving it alone. We have a system that appear to work, abet poorly.

Jackie

June 21, 2018

The Trump administration claim it is only enforcing the law when separating minor immigrant children from their parents, but they have made a choice to interpret the law as they have and implement this policy. It is doing irreparable harm to these children, and goes against everything America should stand for. New Hampshire should do everything in its power to oppose the separation of families.

Alan

July 3, 2018

fallow the federal law's.if your here illegally you should be prosecuted as a felon.no country in the world would let you into there country without knowing who you are.to many drug dealers an criminals coming here an if you send your unaccompanied children here they should be sent back.An stop all welfare for anyone here illegally START FOLLOWING THE LAWS OF OUR NATION.AN STOP TRYING TO MAKE YOUR OWN WITHOUT GOING THRU CONGRESS

Janet

January 9, 2020

To understand the fight that is taking place right now over the border wall and the influx of illegal aliens, one needs to look no further than the United Nations Global Migration Compact, which 193 countries have signed. While I urge everyone to read this document, the sum and substance is that any individual in any country of the world has the right to migrate to the country of his or her choice and the host country is obligated to bend over backwards to accommodate the cultural, religious, and physical needs of these aliens.
Since President Trump refused to sign this agreement, the UN and liberal globalists such as George Soros and his Open Borders Society have been covertly organizing these caravans from South and Central America to storm our borders under the guarantee that they have the right to enter our country illegally and we have the obligation to accept them. We are obligated to house, clothe, feed, educate, provide medical treatment, attorneys, interpreters etc. The cost of illegal immigration to the American taxpayer (federal, state and local) according to Immigration Reform Law Institute (September 27, 2017) is $116 billion a year; “On the federal level, medical ($17.14 billion) is by far the highest cost, with law enforcement coming second ($13.15 billion) and general government services ($8 billion) third.”
So when Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and the rest of the liberal globalists squawk about $5 billion to build a physical barrier to prevent these invaders from entering our country and forcing an untenable financial burden to we taxpayers we must question their motives. Are they working in the best interest of America? No they are not. They, like Angela Merkel are of the same globalist mindset.
“Nation states must today be prepared to give up their sovereignty,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel to an audience in Berlin. She urged sovereign nation states not listen to the will of their citizens when it comes to questions of immigration, borders, or sovereignty.
And Pope Francis during his Christmas speech urged Christians to reject sovereignty and embrace globalism in order to make the world a better place.
After World War II there was a push for a New World Order whereby all countries would cede sovereignty so that the unelected and unaccountable United Nations would become the world governing body, forcing us to live under the tyrannical rule of the UN despots. Think about that for a moment. Without borders we have no sovereignty, without sovereignty we no longer have a Constitution or the rights and protections guaranteed in the Bill of Rights.
The plan was going seamlessly until the unexpected election of Donald Trump, the non-politician Nationalist who dared to uphold his oath “to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” His election thwarted the globalist agenda. Politicians, world leaders and the media on a daily basis relentlessly attack him for his America First policy. Since his first day in office these anti American globalists have been feverishly trying to find ways to impeach and remove him from office.
The Democrats have become the face of the New World Order; Open Border activists who put us all at risk with their Catch and Release policies, their desire to abolish ICE and their taxpayer funded Sanctuary Cities and States. Our government has a duty under our Constitution to protect our citizens, yet these liberal politicians are actively protecting illegal aliens at the expense of the American people and in violation of American immigration law.
A republic founded upon the consent of the people can only survive with an informed electorate. Unfortunately, too many of the electorate today is ill informed, with much of their news obtained from sound bytes spewed from a left-leaning media. And George Soros, the self proclaimed Open Borders advocate has ties with more than thirty of these mainstream news outlets.
We the People will lose our republic unless we rise up and demand that our elected officials who took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States be forced to uphold their responsibilities to America and Her interests first and foremost. And those who do not should under the laws of the United States be punished.