Remarks (Unabridged) At the Hampton Select Board Meeting on ICE Agents in Hampton

Last night, July 14, 2025, the Select Board of Hampton met and, as always, after the Pledge of Allegiance, the meeting begins with public comments. Any person with an address in Hampton can comment about anything. There is a homeless man, an agent of the United Nations and the US Supreme Court who has, for the last two meetings questioned whether the Hampton Police are drug tested. The Board chairman replies that the Board does not reply to questions.

This is a peculiar truth about Hampton Board meetings, whether they are Select Board or School Board, the elected members, once elected, once sitting on the stage, as it were, do not answer questions or prayers, as gods, once elected, do not speak to mere mortals.

Usually the gallery is nearly empty, but last night it was standing room only and people flowed out into the hall because Governor Kelley Ayotte had just signed into law a law requiring local town police forces to cooperate, aide and assist ICE agents and, anticipating revolt, established financial penalties for towns which refuse.

The usual cast of characters appeared including Regina Barnes and Hampton State Representative, Linda McGrath.  Both women decried the politicization of this very reasonable law to enlist Hampton police in the effort to protect the community from all those dangerous immigrants we see about town, when we can find them on rooftops replacing roofs, or landscaping or pruning trees.  We were told this is simply a matter of enforcing the law and even if we disagreed, it's the law and there's nothing we can or should do about it. Making this political, they insisted is nasty, unpatriotic and self immolating.

Ms. Barnes emphasized her 45 year tenure in Hampton, which Mad Dog took to mean that since she came over on the Mayflower or whatever boat landed in 1638, everyone else following her is an immigrant and her ideas should be taken as law.

Linda McGrath

Ms. McGrath enlightened the audience by spooling out statistics which, she claimed, showed 100,000 violent immigrants cross the Southern border yearly, even under Trump, and that is a hard number derived from her sources which say 10 million illegals cross annually and 1% of them are violent up to no goods. Her math was unimpeachable, and numbers, as we all know, do not lie.

Except for Ms. McGrath's numbers, which require quite a large inductive leap. She also informed us that just across the border, in Maine, are row houses filled with "Chinese Mafia," just aching to cross over into New Hampshire. This is a woman who represents Hampton in the state House of Representatives. We can only hope that the old adage, "the worst thing for a bad product is good advertising" applies here. Or, "sunshine is the best disinfectant."

There were several worthwhile speeches given by opponents of ICE, notably by Chris Muns, Cybele Grier and  a Mr. Plank and others. 

Mad Dog will endeavor to present the texts of their speeches, as many of them cut their remarks shorter than the 3 minutes allowed to allow others to speak as there was a large crowd. If everyone spoke 3 minutes the meeting might still be going on.

Here is one for which Mad Dog has the written text, unabridged from a Hampton resident.

"I have lived 18 years in Hampton. Before that I lived in two big cities, three small cities and the suburbs. And in all these places, I have known the local police. Nowhere has any police better, and truth be told, nowhere has police as good as here in Hampton. Most people I know really like the police here. They do community policing.

But, you know, police should not do every job. A few years ago dead seals washed up at Plaice Cove. Died of bird flu, it turned out. I was pretty sure they had died of something infectious because two weeks earlier the beach was littered with dead sea gulls. It never occurred to me to call the Hampton police about this. I called the New England aquarium: they know how to investigate stuff like this. 

Call the Cops!

And if, tomorrow, a Russian submarine surfaces off Plaice Cove, I will not call the Hampton Police. I might call 9/11, but only to ask how I can reach the Navy or the Coast Guard. Not every job should be sent to the Hampton Police. The police should not be put at unnecessary risk doing jobs they are not trained or equipped to do, and should never do.

Some years ago, Tip O'Neill, the Massachusetts congressman said, "All politics is local." But times have turned this on it's head. Now all local politics is national.  We have been told by Ms. Barnes and Ms. McGrath that we should not make ICE collusion political. But this could not be more political. This is all about politics. That's why we are all here tonight; that's why this crowd. We are told we should not turn a police action into something political. But this ICE stuff is not about policing or even about Hampton. It is Washington politics being rammed down the throats of Hampton citizens.  And those who dissemble about being not political are, in fact, political as Richard Nixon would say, political right down to their MAGA underwear. 

I'm told the law carries a provision to financially penalize towns which do not comply. Governor Ayotte knew there would be an uprising. 

But money can be intimately tied to patriotism and honor.

My father used to smile when he wrote out his check to the IRS on April 15th. "I guess I'm just a closet patriot," he would say.

Patriotism must involve sacrifice, sometimes financial, sometimes life.

Real Patriotism

I consider myself a patriot, but I know my country sometimes does bad things, sometimes goes astray. We put Japanese Americans into concentration camps while their sons fought and died for America in Italy during World War Two. I'd like to think members of this Board would vote against that, given the chance. Out of honor.

This law is about a MAGA witch hunt. It is not about Hampton. It is about what President Trump and Kristi Nome want. 

$50 on the Internet: Anyone can have one

It is not even about police. President Trump pardoned January 6th insurrectionists who bludgeoned police. His no true friend of police.

We can resist, but it will cost us money.

But we should remember the final sentence of the Declaration of Independence: We pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, our sacred honor.

I don't know if this Board will ever get to vote on ICE collusion, but if you do, I hope you'll cast a patriotic vote of honor.