Liberty Alliance and Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) member, Rep. Julia Harvey-Bolia (R-Tilton) has sponsored a “preventative” bill, HB 71 aimed at yet another “problem” that doesn’t exist! The bill states:
II. As a condition on receipt of state financial assistance under any applicable program by a district public school, chartered public school, public academy, or an institution of higher learning, the facilities of the school or institution shall not (emphasis added) be used to provide shelter or housing for specified aliens.
Rep. Harvey-Bolia seeks to prevent schools (only public ones are in the bill) from closing if immigrants or refugees, here legally, are looking for emergency shelter. She claims, “The bill does not seek to ban the use of schools for immigrant housing so much if you receive state money, then your agreement is you will use schools as schools. We want to keep the schools for schools.” Are these the same schools the legislative majority wants to defund? And why are private, religious schools not included in this bill?
Luckily, HB 71 has a “humane” exception for something like extreme weather emergencies, something we experience more and more:
(b) “Short-term” means for a duration not to exceed 72 hours.
According to Bill Gillett, the International Institute of New England's director of public policy and advocacy, “This bill seems to be directed at something that hasn’t been an issue and is unlikely to become an issue.”
But that’s not the only bill looking to target immigrants. Rep. Bill Gannon (R-Sandown) has submitted proposed bill SB 13 which would invalidate out-of-state driver's licenses issued to undocumented immigrants. They tried this last year too and now it’s back again. People who receive these licenses from other states, including those who are undocumented, must pass road test exams, have driver identification, and often maintain car insurance. Not to different from NH requirements for drivers. Why the desire to hassle these folks?
Liberty Alliance member Rep. Tom Walsh (R-Hooksett) has introduced HB 452, a bill concerning drivers' licenses for “aliens” temporarily residing in NH. Why can’t they be as laser focused on extreme weather and climate change?
Again according to Gillett, “. . . extending (legislation) to refugees, asylees and parolees does not make any logical sense, given that they are lawfully admitted into the country and can obtain or can come with work authorization.”
Fun fact: As of the beginning of this month, NH’s Northern Border Alliance reported law enforcement had no incidents related to illegal immigration at the New Hampshire-Canadian border in the past 6 months.