City Council - workshop

Thank you. Thank you. you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

The hour of 6 o'clock, which means that this council workshop is going to be broadcast and available to you after this meeting or to others who haven't been able to attend. So I'm calling this council workshop to order. It's been called for the purpose of discussing recent federal immigration and customs enforcement activities in Keene. the meeting is broadcast live on the city of keene youtube channel and spectrum channel 1302 the video will also be streamed on the city's website and is posted by the end of the next business day barring any technical difficulties so we'll begin by asking the clerk to call the roll

Randy Elfilio. Here. Michelle A. Chalice. Here. Katherine I. Workman. Here. Brian J. Lake. Here. Jacob R. Favalese. Here. Laura E. Tobin. Here. Robert C. Williams. Here. Phillip M. Jones. Present. Chris E. Roberts. Bettina A. Chadporn. Edward J. Haas. Here. Laura E. Ruttle-Miller. Here. Molly V. Ellis. Thomas F. Powers.

Here.

Mitchell H. Greenwald. Here.

Thank you. We're a quorum of 12. Not that there will be a vote tonight. This is a council workshop and specific for the opportunity to have a dialogue both with the public and among the councillors. I'd like to ask Councillor Powers if you would lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, so what brings us here tonight is the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in our community over the last week. The lack of information about their presence and activities has created some anxiety, some anger, and some accusations that we need to address this evening. The most frequent question that I have gotten is what good can come from tonight's council meeting, so let me be clear about that. First, I hope that everybody leaves with a better understanding of what local government and law enforcement's role in federal immigration and customs enforcement and the limitations that are placed on local governments by both the federal and New Hampshire legislature. A second is that I hope we learn together what resources do exist to support people and families in our communities who might be affected by immigration and customs enforcement. A third is I hope that we will listen to each other, to people in the community, so that we as counselors and elected officials can pass along concerns to other people in elected office. uh and finally i think that this uh the transparency that we are giving to this issue this evening ought to be informative to other communities cities and towns in our state who may be experiencing similar kinds of visits as we had last week we have tried to anticipate the flow of this meeting Council workshops are designed, as I said, to receive and discuss information. On the receiving side, let me begin first. We're going to begin by asking a couple of our city officers, city attorney, the city's police chief to just offer some information to the public and to the council. and we should have a visit from somebody out of town who will join us we'll see if that has initiated itself and then we're going to have about 90 minutes that for testimony for comments uh from people in the audience if it takes 75 minutes that's good if it goes to 90 minutes though i'm going to call an end to public discussion so that we as a council have time sufficient time to have the interaction that we need to have among ourselves so that's that's the flow of the meeting And uh, i'd also like to it may just make us aware councillor jones is also state representative jones he and potentially others in the audience who need to get to a county delegation meeting this evening then we'll be excused and we'll still have a quorum but just to make that clear hopefully councillor jones can rejoin us later in the meeting uh okay with that at this time i'd like to recognize our city attorney amanda palmera and amanda

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good evening, my name's Amanda Palmera, I'm the city attorney. As city attorney, my role is to advise the city council and the city staff as an objective advisor about the laws that relate to their work. As such, I wanted to give a quick general overview of some of the laws and legal structures that are relevant to the conversations we may have tonight. First, the relationship between local municipal law enforcement and federal law enforcement. I understand our focal point tonight may be Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, which is a part of the Federal Department of Homeland Security. What I'm about to say could also be true of other federal enforcement agencies such as the IRS, the FBI, Post Office. federal government structures are a product of the federal united states constitution federal agencies act as the enforcement arms of the federal executive branch authorized by article 2 of the u.s constitution article 6 of the u.s constitution contains what's called the supremacy clause which states that the united states constitution and federal statutes and laws shall be the supreme law of the land that means that the federal law applies throughout the country and cannot be undermined or ignored by the governments within the country In application, the supremacy clause prohibits states and local governments from interfering with or controlling the operations of the federal government. That also means that ICE and other federal law enforcement agencies have jurisdiction and authority to act and enforce federal laws anywhere within the United States of America. It means that state, county, or municipal governments cannot interfere with those operations without risk of violating the supremacy clause. There are also some other federal statutes that have specific ways that law enforcement agencies on the local level must comply with federal law enforcement agencies. For example, the United States Code Title 8 prohibits local law enforcement agencies from refusing to share information about someone's immigration status if they have it with federal immigration authorities. There also have been laws created that directly prohibit local governments from adopting policies or taking actions that would interfere with federal immigration authorities. For example, in May of 2025, the president issued an executive order, number 14287, that ordered the Secretary of Homeland Security to identify communities with policies that are aimed to obstruct federal immigration law enforcement as sanctuary jurisdictions. And the Secretary was ordered to suspend or terminate federal grants and contracts with those communities as appropriate. More locally, in New Hampshire, the New Hampshire legislature passed two bills last year that created several state statutes referred to in New Hampshire as the anti-sanctuary city laws. Those statutes prohibit local law enforcement agencies from refusing to comply with federal enforcement agencies that are enforcing immigration law. And they prohibit local municipal governments from adopting policies that could prevent local law enforcement agencies from complying with the federal laws, the laws that require them to cooperate or communicate with federal immigration agencies. Those statutes are in RSA's Chapter 106P, 106Q, and 106R. Quickly, too, related to the authority of local governments, I want to mention the statutory role of our city council and our city staff. By state statute and as per our city charter, we have what's called a councilor-manager form of government, meaning that the city council is responsible for the fiscal, prudential, and municipal affairs of the city, while our city manager is the head of the administrative branch of our city government, supervising the administrative affairs of the city and carrying out the policies enacted by the elected body. That means that the city manager is responsible for overseeing the city staff and operations. To some degree, this may limit what the city council has the authority and jurisdiction to do at times. Going back to the federal level real quick, separate from the federal statutes and the supremacy clause, I also wanted to mention what's called the 287G agreements. 287G refers to a specific section of the United States Immigration and Nationality Act. And that provision authorizes Department of Homeland Security to deputize state and local law enforcement officers to enforce federal immigration law. You may have heard that the New Hampshire State Police and several other New Hampshire governments, municipalities have signed these agreements with DHS. Keene has not signed one of these agreements. A local law enforcement agency that signs a 287 agreement can be directed by ICE to perform ICE's functions and enforce immigration law anywhere that ICE has jurisdiction, which again is anywhere in the United States, not just within that municipal law enforcement's jurisdiction. I last wanted to address the memorandum of understanding that the Keene Police Department has with other municipalities in Cheshire County. You may recall we discussed this MOU and the FOP committee back in February. There we discussed that this MOU is a mutual aid agreement between the municipal police departments in Cheshire County intending to allow them to call upon each other for backup and assistance, just like other mutual aid agreements and how they function. The MOU is only among the municipalities in Cheshire County. It does not have any part with federal agencies. However, as discussed, a federal agency would not need to be requested to come to a municipality because their jurisdiction is federal.

Thank you, Amanda. Chief Stewart?

Can you turn on your microphone please?

Oh sorry Steve Stewart I'm the police chief I was asked to give a little bit of background in terms of the events of not this past weekend with the weekend before my knowledge my first hand knowledge is pretty limited I'm aware the officers from ICE came to the police station checked in with our dispatcher to let them know that they were going to be in the city conducting some investigations and that they spent some amount of time in our parking lot waiting for each other as a staging area before they went somewhere else. That's pretty much the gist of what I know regarding that. Sort of in terms of going forward, what you could expect or should expect from this police department, That is that every person that we deal with regardless of their immigration status or any other factor in their life is going to be treated fairly and with respect and with as much dignity as each situation will allow. You should expect that we will comply with the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office guidance regarding fair and impartial policing, meaning we will never ask a victim of a crime or a witness to a crime about their immigration status. So those are things that are important to know. in terms of future operations in the city with ice what you should expect is that if they ask for information about a person or a place we will give them the information that we have you should expect that if they are involved in a an emergency situation and require assistance we will respond to assist them you should expect that I will not be issuing any sweeping condemnation of any federal law enforcement agency, and I won't be banning them from our parking lots or property. So, again, what I really want to leave you with is that our intention, our goal, our mission is to treat every person we deal with with respect and dignity and fairness.

Thanks, Chief. Thank you, Chief. The word that stood out for me in the state statute is shall not impede. And that is without definition.

Okay.

Are we having trouble? so there are some resources that we've tried to provide here this evening everyone is the common cards when you came in I haven't bothered to count these but we've got probably 20 at least um i'm going to ask that folks limit their comments to three minutes so that we can hear from as many people as possible in that 90 minute window some of the resources that we have for the evening yeah and if you if you haven't filled out the card and you get motivated to want to fill one out uh they're over at the table

They're in the lobby. We can bring some in though.

Yeah, why don't we bring some in if we can. Anyway. The other resources that we have, and I was hoping we'd have Marianne DeVries from Congresswoman Goodlander's office with us tonight. She's, through conversations in their office, has pledged to be helpful to anybody who in their district, congressional district too, who needs assistance can contact their office. So you'll find on the table over near the entry a couple of release forms. One is a release form for the Congresswoman's office to seek information on someone's behalf. And a second is a release form that goes to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for them to provide information to the Congresswoman on her request. So, we've got copies of those in the clerk's office, but we, because of version control, pick those up if you need them, use them for illustration purposes, but if you need assistance, forms change, and please contact the Congresswoman's office to let them know that you want a form. Good, we've got some more. other things about the evening I want to ask I noticed some people carried signs in please keep them down during the discussions there are people in the back who are going to be wanting to to view have the same view you have so we'd appreciate that that you keep hold them down and or not in other words don't put them up Your comments should be directed to the chair. Speakers should not be interrupted during their speaking by members of the audience. So please refrain from interrupting speakers or otherwise disrupting the meeting. We want everybody to be respected. We also want everybody to be heard. So if you will, please come to the microphone in the middle of the room. uh obviously one is wmur and i believe we also have guests from new hampshire public radio with us this evening when you speak relative to the three minute warning as terry is holding up at two and a half minutes you're going to get the yellow card to remind you that at three minutes you're going to get the ready card and we would ask that you wrap up your comments in that 30-second window after we have offered our 90 minutes we We'll take a five-minute recess, allow the council to then reconvene for our interactive conversation with each other. And the public's welcome to continue to attend, but you're also welcome to view our continuing discussion on YouTube or subsequently tomorrow. as we post the recap. So anything else that I have failed to cover?

We just, our team's meeting is now working properly, so our guest is here.

Great, Marianne, I may have stolen your thunder, thank you for joining us. But I did explain that your forms are here and that the office is available to anybody who in Congressional District 2 needs your assistance, but please introduce yourself.

Thank you, Mayor, and hi, everyone. This is Mariana DeVries, Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander's Chief of Staff. You'll have to apologize for my technical difficulties for whatever reason. I can't get my camera to turn on. But it sounds like, Mayor, you've already covered it. I just wanted to reiterate our office is here to help any constituent or any family member who would like us to submit an inquiry on their behalf on the status, location, and next steps for any family members impacted by any ICE enforcement in the region. So please take a look at those forms. Please reach out to our office if we can be of assistance. And please let folks in the community know that that is a resource that we can provide. Thank you all.

CHAIRMAN BRYANT L. Thank you, Mary Ann. And thanks for the assistance you're providing. Also, we've got a immigration project in our local community. I've been provided with some information resources that they rely on and that they provide to people with inquiries. There's a QR code over on the corner table and if you scan that QR code, it will open up to a couple of pages that provide information for instance from the National Immigration and Law Center, federal also from the ACLU. and you know so there are other resources available to people if you want to become better informed or need to okay we're ready for public comment so we're gonna go till 10 of 8 Uh, and I'll begin with, I do have a bias, but not a prohibition on wanting to hear from people in Keene or who work in Keene. Uh, uh, use that as you will. There's no prohibition on anybody from speaking. Um, Steve shook. Steve Pablo shook. Welcome. Please, when you come to the microphone, indicate your name for our minute taker as well as your place of residence.

Sure. So Steve Shook or Pablo, depends on how you know me. My wife and I live in Hancock, and I've been involved for the past five years working often as a volunteer with different mostly Spanish-speaking families in the Monadnock region. I have a huge appreciation for the friendliness that has been shown by many people. The international festival that Keene has every year is wonderful. The ESL secondary English classes through the community ed program are wonderful.

If you ever go to one of those classes, you will see people smiling and laughing.

And they're not just learning English, they're finding community. And so it has been Really painful in the past week especially. Some of the families that I know and love have gone into hiding. They have felt absolutely terrorized by what happened. I know people right now whose dream was to make a new life here in this community and they're seriously considering giving up and just feeling the terror and the uncertainty is just too difficult, unpredictability. There are many folks who are working in this community. If they were not here, we would miss them very badly. Some of them are working at Cheshire Hospital. Some of them are working in senior citizen homes. Some of them, a lot of them are working on roofs for our buildings. On days it's 100 degrees and more up there. I love these families I've gotten to know. And they would be afraid to be here tonight. They are right now, many of them, they would be afraid to go to the police station to ask a simple question. I don't think we want them to be afraid to go anywhere in this city, and yet they are. And so I would ask, certainly something like the 287 agreements, I would beseech that this that can not join in with that. At least that's one thing. And that we continue having things like the ESL classes. I can't tell you how beautiful those are. And other resources that may exist. The people who've come to this community from overseas add so much in so many ways. Just as our families came once overseas.

from other places so I thank you for your support I ask you that you continue it thank you there are going to be a lot of folks that you appreciate so let's avoid the outburst thank you next up is Sandra Whippy and to be followed by Evan John Sandra?

My name is Sandra Whippy. I've been a member of this committee for this community for a very long time. I turned 90 a few months ago and I can't think of a time when I have been more frightened I work a lot with schools and churches. I work a lot with people. And many of them are young. actually have five families of great-grandchildren. And two of those families include children who have been immigrated to this country. One particular family came into Vermont because the grandfather was hired to be a herdsman and he brought his two teenage daughters with him to work in Vermont. As you all, I think, have become aware, it's hard to find people to take care of the cows. I was shocked when Stonewall Farm had to sell their cows because they couldn't find anyone to take care of them. This man came from Mexico. to be a herdsman and he brought his teenage daughters who were high school age. They fell in love with the Vermont boys and now there are families involved. But they're frightened. They're actually frightened. I think that in all the years I taught school, things are very different now. And it concerns me that our families, particularly immigrant families, are literally frightened to be in our community and they have reason to be. That's what scares me. They have reason to be frightened. We need to keep that in mind.

Thank you, Ms. Whippy. Evan John. Mr. John, thank you. Next up is Will Hunter, so next steps can make their way. Thank you, Mr. John.

My name's Evan John. I live in Troy, and I represent a group of us who have come out to this meeting. I thank the council and- They can't hear you. Pardon?

They can't hear you.

I thank the council and the public for providing this forum to us. As you know, the town of Troy has a 287G agreement in place. The town of Troy is responsible for about 30% of arrests in the state of New Hampshire. Route 12 is a major conduit. Certainly Keene is served by that major highway and the arrests take place along that highway. I don't believe any residents of Troy have been arrested or detained. The chief and his department are arresting people just passing through. The chief of police is considering an extended agreement with ICE that would enable them to the department to receive grant funding for their purposes and my concern is that that agreement is going to incentivize the department and the officers to arrest and detain even more people. My greater concern is that our local police department that serves a community of 2,000 is going to become part of a federalized army or police state. So I think that's a broad concern that a lot of us share. And I just want to bring that concern to light. So we're watching the situation in Troy. We're hoping that there's enough community involvement and participation to kind of turn the ship. The chief does enjoy fairly broad support in town. The selectmen are tacitly in support of his activities. So it's a hard mountain to climb. But I just wanted to present this information to a larger forum so that everybody's aware. There's been a lot of press in the Sentinel about it, a lot of letters to the editor. So it's an act of concern. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. John.

Will Hunter?

All right. So thank you. And before I read what I had prepared, Steve, you guys already addressed some of this, so I apologize if it sounds like there's already answers to some of these questions, but I didn't hear you before I wrote it. So thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening. My name is Will Hunter. I do have three specific questions, but I want to qualify them with some quotes from an article that was actually published recently on August 13th on the My Keen Now website. These are quotes. Khan said he was not notified in advance that ICE would be in Keene. He said Police Chief Stewart was informed that ICE agents would have a presence in the city, but that notification did not include details about specific enforcement actions. The mayor said much of what he learned about the activity came from residents and community members rather than through the police department. Khan said he did not know the man's name or his current status. This is the gentleman that was taken and that information available to him came through community contacts. And then let's hear from the public, he said. But then let's have a conversation among the city councilors to see what understanding we need to build to keep people informed. So those are those are art from the article. My first question, how could you possibly keep people informed and provide accurate information if you yourselves are choosing by way of policy not to be very informed in any but the most minimal and vaguest capacity? Or how could you even do that if you're not even bothering to inform each other? Writing on that and focusing specifically on the role of Keene Police Department, here's some additional quotes from that article. You're not going to obstruct. You're not going to interfere, Khan said. And to the extent that you have resources, it really doesn't say that you will cooperate. It says that you will not obstruct. And peed, I think, is the word that Jay just honed in on. He said, New Hampshire law requires local authorities not to obstruct or interfere with federal immigration enforcement. and includes potential consequences involving state aid. The mayor said clarifying the role of the Keene Police Department is particularly important so residents understand what local officers can and cannot do when federal immigration agents are operating in the city. So before I ask my question, I want to read the following that's on Keene Police Department's website. The mission of the Keene Police Department is to protect life and property and to maintain order within the city while assuring fair and respectful treatment of everyone. So my second and third questions are given the choice to remain uninformed about nearly every pertinent detail or to even share what few details you had with others, how is it possible to achieve the mission of protecting life, maintaining order, and assuring fair and respectful treatment of everyone by also choosing this policy of non-obstruction? and then given that reason for a policy of non-obstruction is meant primarily to safeguard state funding, how much money did the city of Keene secure by refusing to learn or share any information about the impending abduction of one of its own to the degree that they effectively allowed it to happen? I see the yellow card. Government agents rolled into our city, abducted our neighbor and roamed our streets and local authorities chose neither to prevent this, which I understand is the law now, got it, nor to help inform us or maintain any semblance of order, seemingly not even overseeing that operation at a distance. And while it is totally understandable that some things can't be revealed to the public, it is also a fact that ICE is responsible for a host of very public mistakes elsewhere, some of which involved actions that led to deaths. There are concerns. All right, let me finish the sentence. There are concerns that many of us have when ICE shows up, who will be hurt, who will be killed, and who is next. So the only conclusion that we can reasonably draw is, unfortunately, no resident of Kenos State from its federal government, because its own local government, refuses to sacrifice state funding. So let's make some changes. Thank you. I apologize.

I went over. No, thank you. And I... folks come on we're taking time from other speakers so all right next up is mr. Shapiro Joe and following Joe is Helen Fields Joe Shapiro from 288 Church Street Keene New Hampshire it's easy to know what

I'm going to say if I'm the first one to speak, but once other people have spoken, there's a lot more material to sift through. First of all, I want to thank you for having this meeting. I think that every tragedy or unfortunate situation also lends an opportunity And in this case, let's be honest here. This is not Minneapolis, and we haven't seen people smashing windshields and killing people. But this is a tragedy when people are taken from their homes. The wage earners are taken from homes. Parents are taken from their children. Families are separated. This is an enormous tragedy for the people involved. It's also enormous tragedy for all the other people who are affected by the by the fear that they could be next. And there's a lot of those people in Keene, people who have some kind of immigration status, some people who are actually citizens, some people who have a green card and are relatively safe, and some people who are in the process of developing some kind of status. we shouldn't make small what what has happened here it's a big thing even though it was only three people who were taken um i guess i just want to say that um i'm disappointed with the presentation by the city attorney which was very um thorough and i i understand all the things she was saying but it for me it gave the feeling that instead of coming together to to have a conversation about how Keene can be enhanced, how Keene can be, we can affirm what a wonderful place Keene is and what a safe place it's been for the most part for immigrants and everybody. Instead, it felt to me like, here's all the things we can't do instead of talking about what we can do. I mean, I think, you know, maybe Maybe some of us know more than others about the various laws that affect. And I don't think you said anything that was inaccurate. But I think we should be really focusing on what we can do to make Keene and Moore welcoming more compassionate more kind community rather than starting off with talking about all the things that we can't do and my last question really is for the chief who i know has said that um in the past that he has no intention of joining a 287g agreement and in his presentation said that his involvement was very limited i would just ask in the future that he respond to the question of what does it mean if ICE comes that we will give them, I'm not really even sure what you said, but the names or location of where people are and what is the necessity of that. And I might have the details wrong, so I'll stand corrected.

Thank you, Joe. Thank you. Ms. Fields, the following Ms. Fields is Sean O'Mara.

Thank you for listening to me. My name is Helen Fields. I moved to Keene three years ago to become a member of a civilized community and city. I lived in the woods for about 30 years and one of my neighbors went to Washington D.C. on January 6th and I decided I didn't want to be around people like that. So I came to Keene. I would like to follow up on the previous speaker with a little story. I might shock a few people. I'm from Baltimore, in case you can't tell. And on 25th Street, there were a group of people that were feeding the community, poverty community, teaching them, giving them education. They were known as the Panthers. On 25th Street in Baltimore, the FBI told the police department, Baltimore Police Department, we're going to show up, and we're going to get those people, which they did in Philly, in case you don't remember. Look it up. and the police department surrounded it and they stopped the FBI now we can't do that today by law thank you solicitor for very accurate I was a social studies teacher that was a good job but I will say this There's plenty I would like this city council to do to be there every time ICE pulls up next to one of our citizens and says anything. I would like our police department to maybe we can beef up the budget that we have in this time of crisis because it's not going to get better, it's going to get worse. before it gets better it will get better but I would like to see this city council and the police department come up with a very thorough emergency plan right now to be there for every single person in this town that gets approached by any agent from any federal government representative I don't care what department they're from and I would also like to know if you will do some serious research if you haven't already like some cities have Mandating that they're not allowed to wear masks because that is a danger and a threat. If I walked into a bank with a mask on, you wouldn't like it. I don't like it that they're wearing masks. I don't like it that they don't have cameras every single time that we have access to. And I would ask this city council to do as much research as you can to get as many of those laws enacted and to work with as many local citizens as you can to have a presence at every single approach to every single member of this community every single time. Thank you.

Mr. O'Mara followed by Mr. Lindsey.

Hello, I'm Sean O'Mara from 19 Martin Street in Keene. I have something written down that I'll read so that I will try to stay as brief and concise as possible. First of all, I believe that American citizens are elected leaders and our law enforcement should all follow the law. As long as the laws are moral and just. However, as Americans, we have a long and patriotic history of resistance to immoral and unjust laws, as well as the use of laws to inflict suffering or vindictive cruelty. Our nation was born out of a movement to resist what our founders believed to be immoral and unjust British laws. In the 1850s, thousands of Americans actively defied the racist and inhumane fugitive slave laws. In the mid-20th century, heroic Americans resisted unjust and immoral segregation laws. So today, to say that ICE is simply enforcing a law would be akin to someone in the 1960s saying that Bull Connor was just enforcing the law. The question then, and the question today, is not what is simply legal, but rather what is moral. Our laws and how we implement them should be a reflection of our society's morals, not a shield to use to justify immoral or vindictive cruelty. In this moment, I hope the city and community of Keene chooses to respond in a way that reflects our humanity and our morality instead of simply using the law as an excuse to accept immoral cruelty. Thank you.

Please, please, folks. I'm up to 20-plus names here. Please, Steve, come forward.

Hello, I'm Steve Lindsay, and I'm a former state rep, a lifelong resident of Keene since I was born at Elliott Community Hospital in 1960. I also live across the street on Franklin Street from the roofer that was taken away. And so this is kind of personal for me to be speaking tonight because before that roofer moved in, that house was known as narcotics place where people came at all times of the night. And then he moved in after the police cleared out the house and it was sold. And he moved in with his family and others and there were little kids in the yard and made it a much better place. He was a hard worker and his crew were hard workers. I've never seen people try to fulfill the American dream as much as he did. He did more than I ever did for this country. And so it was quite impressive to watch these believers from Ecuador or whatnot and do what they do. Before he moved in, I tried to get the city to put more lighting on Franklin Street. Franklin Street, Church Street, Elm Street are places where a lot of activity in the night takes place. And I was told by the city staff that this would be unfair to other neighborhoods if we got more lighting. And so we kind of surrendered on that. But then he moved in and he bought a truck and then a second truck and a van and had ladders and he put his own lights the front of his house and on either side of his house and he drove off the dealing that was going on on the corner of Roxbury and Franklin Street. So I'm quite saddened by this turn of events because he was a good man and is a good man and he was improving our community until this situation erupted and I would speak the highest of him. Thank you.

Can you turn on your microphone please?

Denise Burstead. And following her is Annie Derarer. Sorry if I butchered that name.

Hi, thank you all for creating this workshop. My name is Denise Birchstead. I live in the city of Keene. came here asking to speak i wanted to make uh three specific requests i think as already noted there's been a lot of things we can't do that's been highlighted and there's many things we can do and um here are some others uh and you know i just want to start by saying like We watched a secret police abducting people off our streets. Like those words haven't been said yet. This is a secret armed police. This is unsafe. Like this is so fundamentally unsafe. Like I can't believe I'm standing here saying it feels unsafe to have a secret police. So at the most like barest minimum, which isn't even beginning to address the problem, We have a right to know the identity of federal agents moving around in our city. What agency do they work with and what are their names? So at a minimum, can the city have a policy If we cooperate with the Department of Homeland Security, if city staff cooperates with them, what are their names? What agency are they working with? This seems like a most basic thing for a policy within a city to be implemented. And that information should be public. Why do we have a secret police? We don't need one. We don't live in a country that needs a secret police. I don't live in a city that needs a secret police. My second one is that that same information be shared regarding the agents and their agencies who were here last week. We presume it was ICE. Do we even know? Department of Homeland Security I think is enough. But beyond that, we know that there are other agencies who work for them. And who were they? And what were the vehicles that were parked there? There were a lot of them. The third one regarding the vehicles, I'd like to ask that the city council reach out to our congressional delegation to our governor and find out why they needed so many vehicles. When you count up how much space was capable to hold people in those vehicles, based on the demographics that I found on the internet, we're looking at like 10% almost of the Hispanic population of the city of Keene. Why do we need that many space to move that many people? What were they doing? Why were they here to do that? I think that's a really basic question that we deserve the answer to.

30 seconds.

That level of preparation for removal of people from our city amounts to declaring the intention of ethnic cleansing. We know from scholars of events in other places in the world declaring the intention precedes genocide. I'm horrified this is happening here. And do we have the moral community, the moral clarity as a community to actually act to prevent that from escalating? Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, I wish to be excused. I'll be back as soon as I can.

Thank you. Anya. I think you were saying my name.

It's Anya Dedanen. And I live at 37 Cottage Street in Ward 2. On Sunday, August 9th, I learned that the wife of a community member who had been abducted by ICE the day before was contacted and told to come pick up his keys at the Keene Police Department. Before she went, out of concern for her safety, I went to the Keene Police Department parking lot to check for ICE's presence in the area. While there, I went in and asked, hypothetically, how a situation like this would be handled. What I learned shocked me. I was told, the keys have been returned to ICE. Instead of returning a family's property to the family, our police department handed those keys back to ICE? A decision that meant ICE would be the one to track her down. That put her in the position of being sought out and approached by ICE directly, with all the fear and risk that carries. instead of simply being asked to walk into her own police department and retrieve her husband's keys. It is my understanding that Keene police are obligated to assist ICE when presented with a judicial warrant. That is the law, and I'm not asking anyone to break it. But choosing to hand over a resident's personal property to a federal agency seems beyond what the law requires. That was a choice that made a grieving, frightened woman more vulnerable, not less. So tonight I'm asking this council for three things and the police department. First, a clear public accounting of what KPD's actual policy is regarding cooperation with ICE, where the legal obligation ends and where discretion begins. Second, a commitment that when KPD holds a resident's personal property, that property is returned to the resident of their family, not handed to a federal agency as a matter of convenience or default practice. Third, a public commitment that our police department's priority is the safety of Keene residents, all of them, not smoothing the path for ICE beyond what the law strictly requires. Our police are supposed to serve and protect this community. I'm asking you to make sure that includes families like this one. Thank you.

Thank you. Please. Followed by Miss aging.

Sam Jackson, Court Street. Good evening and thank you for scheduling this emergency meeting. Like others in the city, I'm deeply disturbed by the blatant kidnapping and disappearing of our Keene community neighbors. I knew it would end up here, even though deep down, I also didn't really believe it possible. Naivety aside, ICE has kidnapped our neighbors, stolen away with friends and fathers and husbands, left families in disarray, and enshrouded our city in terror. I feel it. Hundreds more feel it too. This assault has no place in our community. We cannot allow this terrorism to be our future. Neighbors are on alert, sprinting to help. Communities interweave their skill sets to catch and support the neighbors that remain after the dark wave. Donations pour forth from members of your city and surrounding areas, but you hold unique positions of power. What is City Council going to do in this dark wake? What is the Keene Police Department going to do in this dark wake? I'd like to know to what extent the police cooperated with ICE, and I know that you already went over that, thank you. Did they investigate the individuals and confirm their identities? Did we make a record of the individuals who entered our city, the plate numbers, make a model of the vehicles? Did we cross reference this with federal records to make sure the individuals claiming to be federal agents were indeed federal agents? This is not interference, you did, okay?

Oh, thank you.

This is not interference. This is basic investigation. I heard that somebody went around a rotary the wrong way. Did we pull them over and ticket them for that? We have to push back. If you are complacent, you are complicit. And y'all know me. My bicycle advocacy didn't just blow over, and nor will this. Thank you again.

Thank you. All right, so there are people outside of the room that do want to testify. So if there are folks that have testified, if you can give up your seat, then we'll get more people in here. But the cards keep coming, folks. Okay, Ms. Agee? I'm all set. All set, thank you. Autumn?

I would hope our city councilors are organizing however they can to ease the burden, the threat, the fear many of our citizens face. I understand there's an astounding little they can do officially in their roles as city councilors. The state and federal governments do a lot to hobble us. But perhaps remember that you are citizens, like us, too. Citizens like the dozens I know who have organized a patrol, keeping eyes on the street. The volunteers running grocery orders to afflicted families, afraid to leave their homes. Like the generous carpoolers who seek to ensure vulnerable neighbors and coworkers aren't driving and so don't need to present a license when inevitably stopped for unrelated reasons on their way to the job site. Like those who know what size diapers are needed and make sure families are supported when their family order is upended. Money, time, attention. Time and again, the most valuable thing we've had is the opportunity to know where detainees are going and keeping them in contact with legal aid. That requires accountability of federal agents who are encouraged to work behind a smoke screen, behind masks. If our police can confirm any assailants, operators, kidnappers, et cetera, are in fact ICE agents by name, by badge number, by federal record, that assures they are accountable and increases the chances that our neighbors who are detained without evident cause see an ounce of due process. More importantly, responding to every such threat ensures that bad actors who would take advantage of the chaos do not get away with impersonating ICE. By no means can any of us encourage anyone, much less officials, to stand in ICE's way. But do not stand aside either. Complying in advance is dangerous. All it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing. Ask questions, videotape, confirm license plates, badges, and IDs. There's a lot we can do lawfully that slows down the blitz ICE is attempting. Not impeding, but ensuring our rights are respected.

I'll say that relative to ICE representative, that invitation was issued prior to the meeting but not responded to. Okay, Ms. Scully and then Mr. Gogolin and then Ms. Stevens. Carla Scully here.

Hold it.

All right. Good evening, Mayor Khan, members of the City Council, and everyone here at this evening, and everyone just watching online later. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak this evening. My name is Carla Saleh, and I am here as a resident to speak on the recent events in Keene. Not the immigration and customs enforcement detainment that recently took place, but the way our city has responded to it. I read comments online saying things like deport them, clean Keene, and even a desire to contact Immigration and Customs Enforcement to report individuals. I would like to appeal to the council and everyone listening to look at each person living in Keene as a neighbor. Instead of accusing each other, can we ask questions? Can we be curious, curious about the struggles that not only immigrants but all of us have or will have? At one point or another, each of us will be in a position where we will be truly vulnerable and in need of help. Possible illness, major disasters, tragedies at home, tragedies concerning our loved ones, old age. Can we find space in our hearts to look at the individual, the person, our neighbor, the father of my child's best friend, the person? I believe that we can do this as a city. I mean, just imagine what would happen if the people of Keene and surrounding areas approach each other asking questions and meeting their neighbor where they're at. To end, I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Pope Leo. Draw close to one another with patience, put ourselves in the place of other stories and suffering, and recognize that we share the same dreams and the same hopes. There are no enemies, only brothers and sisters. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Gogolin.

My name is Robert Gogolin. I live at 27 Langley Road here in Keene, and I won't take my whole three minutes because people have already said most of what I wanted to say, but I want to really strongly remind the council that we have a long tradition in our country of civil disobedience. And so that to the extent you can practice civil disobedience in executing your role in Keene, I encourage you to do so because what's going on is immoral and it is awful. Thank you.

Tina Stevens.

Yes.

Then Teresa Quigley, then Dr. Duggan.

Hi, my name is Tina Stevens and I live at 32 Union Street here in Keene. I also work with immigrants. I volunteer and I also teach a class to immigrants. I can only speak to what I experienced on Saturday and then again Sunday and into Monday. On my street, which is in town Keene, I saw on Sunday night an ICE vehicle going down my street, black vehicle with red lights on the dash that were blinking. Behind the vehicle was a Keene police vehicle, going behind that vehicle. I also had a neighbor who was very, very concerned because she has a family who's been here for 10 years, an immigrant family, and she saw the ICE vehicle out in front of her residence. And so she asked me what she should do. And I communicated with her about things that I already knew from the wonderful support group that I'm a part of here in Keene. There are many, many people that come together and really work together to let each other know what's going on with our immigrant friends and how to best provide support for them. And I applaud them. I think they are wonderful and I'm just grateful to be a part of that group and grateful for my work that I've done with immigrants here in Keene. I also know that through communication, in the area where that gentleman was taken, there was also some concern about some other people who felt unsafe. And so we had to work together to find a place for them to go. There was pounding on their door by ice, and there's the fear. I'm not even sure how many students I'll be teaching in the fall because I think some of them might be afraid to come and see me and work with me. and they're they're just so grateful as many people have already said for being here and being a part of our community and we've always the volunteers and myself the people that work with them have always said oh yes it's a very safe community this is a wonderful community and i love living here i've lived here for a while it's it is a wonderful community and i would hope that we could come together and support our immigrants I have a question about if the police were not working directly with ICE, why were police vehicles following the ICE vehicle? Also, I saw an increase in police activity on my street. There was a sense of fear that was instilled in all of us. I am glad that I was able to come and help our immigrant friends and the people in my neighborhood. And I felt okay. But even somebody who's been here for a long, long time, who has a family and a son and a husband, she came home and I won't say her name, but she lives near me and she was scared. She had some people come follow her home from her job here in Keene so that she could get safely to her residence. So that's that's what I want to say. I just think we really maybe aren't being given all the complete information. So thank you.

Thank you. And I want to recognize the city manager, just to fact check.

I just want to clarify the black vehicle with the red light is the fire department. That is a command vehicle, and the fire department, and the police department, and the fire department go together, not an ICE vehicle.

OK, thank you. So Ms. Quigley?

It's a black SUV.

Thank you. Followed by Dr. Duggan, and after that, Mr. Hutchinson.

Hello, my name is Teresa Quigley. I live in Keene, 9 Drummer Road. I work in Keene as a teacher, and I have a family here in Keene. I'll be brief. I'm going to add to the voices that have already spoke before me. I don't feel safe with ICE on our streets. I've had only positive experiences with the immigrants in our community. I would like some reassurance as a teacher that there will not be any ice activity near schools in our town. I don't know what the law says about that. But I fear for my families who won't come to school because they might fear for ice presence in and around schools. That's what I want to say.

Thank you. So Ms. Duggan.

So I'm Marie Duggan. I live at 330 Hurricane Road in Keene. I want to add my name to those who thanked you for organizing this workshop. I think in these difficult times, it's really important for us to come together and actually talk to each other. The internet or the TV just isn't the same. And I will add my voice to those who say that I think we need something a little different from the city council and from all of our elected representatives. I vote Democrat as it's not, It's no secret. But all four of the delegation voted for the Locke and Riley Act, which gave the government the right to indefinitely detain people. So in the past, we could trust a little bit more that the government wasn't going to push through things that were so ugly. So I can understand how that could catch people off guard. um what could i ask the city council to do well i've read that when immigrants are detained and they finally get to court it really makes a difference to show up like to have the community show up and say we really like these people i thought steve lindsay was pretty convincing that this roofer was a pretty great asset and i would love to show up and if the city council could tell us when that hearing is and where it is maybe we could arrange as a group to go I also heard that this Brazilian woman arrested in Troy had to spend $35,000 to get out of prison to go back and take care of her US citizen grandchildren. I'm not gonna give anybody 35,000, but $20 I could come up with, maybe even 25. So if we could have some GoFundMe for people that need legal defense who were taken in Keene and if the city council could get involved with spreading the word, I would imagine immigrants don't wanna put up notes about that because nobody wants to identify themselves And I wanted to speak to the policeman who told us about law enforcement. And I always have had a lot of respect for law enforcement. And I have a lot of respect for you. You just exude basic decency. And that's my experience with the police, right? And the idea that there are people on the streets that wear masks and do not identify themselves is chilling. And to me, they aren't law enforcement. I understand that legally they're law enforcement. To my way of thinking, you are law enforcement and I respect law enforcement, but these people who wear masks and don't identify themselves are Well, they're reminding me of things that happened in the Nazi time. And when I was a kid, I grew up in a town with many Jewish people. My best friend lost 30 relatives in the Holocaust, which was a pretty common story, I imagine, even for many people in this room. We said, oh, you know, those Germans, they must have been terrible people. Well, now, here I am, like, not really knowing how to respond to this situation, right? I can't, as an individual, run out into the street and protect my neighbors. So if we could find ways to do it as a group, it's really important. And I thank you for that, because I think that's kind of what the city council does, is bring us all together. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, Mr. Hutchinson. You don't see Mr. Hutchinson, but if he's in the building, we'll hold your name. Carolyn Ogren. Followed by Dan from Harrisville. By the way, please mention, say your name and the town that you're from. We don't necessarily need your address. But Dan from Harrisville, you're up next.

My name is Carolyn Ogren. I live here in Keene for the last three and a half years or so. This may not be news to a lot of people, but it seems from the commentary on social media that it is to many here in the community. People from all over the world who come to this country come And they do it by following the laws that exist now. If they're seeking asylum at the border, they were given the opportunity to do that. If they came with a green card or they got one, then they're here legally based on the laws that exist. If they're naturalized citizens, they did that legally. If they're adopted, their family did that legally for them. It appears as though folks like to think of these human beings who have followed every law that exists in order to come and become members of our community and America. that they have done it with the laws that exist. And what seems to be apparent is that folks often consider that that isn't enough. But that isn't their fault. They have come following the laws that exist now and for the United States of America and DHS and ICE to change that narrative and make it appear as though they're the ones that are in the wrong when the laws that could benefit them and solve this problem need to be affected by the people in Congress and by the federal government to change the law so that they can become legal citizens in a more effective way. So that's what's happening broadly in the United States. But here in towns and cities all over the country, we are the people, we are the only bulwark in support of these folks. And if we don't do it, if we don't support them, if we don't find ways to make it possible for them to live in community with us as our neighbors and as our friends and as our family members, then we are not living up to the tenants of this country as individual citizens. And that's what I ask that people consider.

Thank you. So, Mr. Hutchinson, I see you here. Dan from Harrisville, followed by Clara Bryan from Keene.

Yes, sir. I'm Bill Bradford Hutchinson from Keene. It's okay, Dan. It'll be just a couple of minutes. It's very clear. I'm the bravest man in this room. Daniel in the lion's den. I'm not particularly a huge fan of Mr. Donald J. Trump, but I do support the office of the president of the United States of America. The current office holder is Donald J. Trump. Immigration law, U.S. immigration law is federal law. It's passed by Congress. It's very clear. It's cut and dried. I'm prepared to speak a lot tonight. I have a lot to say. There's three city councilors I would like to speak to specifically. I think they know what I might have to say. about their role in organizing a gridlock of Main Street last Monday night, a gridlock from Church Street all the way down past the traffic circle at Winchester Marlboro Street, thinking that's funny. Why? Because last weekend, federal law enforcement enforcing federal law slid into Keene with a warrant, picked up an individual and slid back out. No muss, no fuss. And that's could have been the end of it. Could have been the end of it, but no, the flying monkeys, the virtue signaling social justice warriors, the people who only care about their feelings with their tunnel view that thinking that it's a good thing to say that Donald Trump and his mega Republicans are going to start a civil war this year. leading up to the presidential election a couple of years ago. Donald Trump and his mega Republicans are going to start a civil war this year. That was two years ago. Charlie Kirk is assassinated horrifically, and he says, oh, he was a piece of shit. And that's okay to say. The precedent has been set. He has every constitutional right to say that, so I have a constitutional right to say it. and then monday night august 10th three city councilors outside agitators outside organizers not from keen antifa style combat knee pads, combat elbow pads, combat helmet and mask on the common combat monday night in keen because federal law enforcement quietly slid into keen to serve a warrant and slid back out again, and that's all it needed to have been. Instead, we've got this. August is supposed to be the city council's vacation. But look, the flying monkeys, the social justice warriors, the virtue signalers have to make a big to-do. It's all emotions, emotions, emotions. And what does this do? This kind of thing, it gets people killed. New people need to think about that, if you're still capable of thinking.

Thank you.

Because I'll tell you, every one of you is a coward.

Thank you. A coward.

Thank you. I'll take on all.

Folks. Thank you. All right, enough. You're the insurrection. Thank you.

You're the insurrection. You're the insurrection. Thank you.

You're the insurrection. Thank you. You're the insurrection.

All right, we got Dan from Harrisville. Are you here still, Dan? I know we saw you. Follow that.

all right my name is dan i grew up in keen harrisville and marlborough spent a lot of time there growing up on the square here with when i was a little kid with other friends in new hampshire and i think what i want to say is that It's important to just say it like it is, and this is racism. Those who remain neutral on matters of oppression stand with the oppressor. Desmond Tutu of the Archbishop of South Africa. 50 years from now, or say 26, 24 years from now, Google says that white people will no longer be at the majority in North America. What that means is 24 years from now, according to Google, Keene will be inhabited by all sorts of colors. So I think the question that I want to bring up is, Our grandchildren and children are being born right now, 24 years from now. They'll be 24 years old. And the decisions you're making now, what do you want them to think about? Do you want them to think about whether you followed the law or whether you did what you felt like that gentleman said before was morally right? Thank you.

Dan, if you would just a name, need a last name, you can write it on here if you have concerns about that, but for our records. I don't have your last name and I don't think you presented that. Thank you. Okay, Clara Bryant. Clara here. okay we'll hold Clara's aside Melanie Griffin you'll have to introduce yourself and location town speaking from the mic I don't know we got we got Melanie and Clara Melanie and Clara Clara, do you wish to speak? I would love to speak. Okay. You were next up. Sorry, Melanie, don't go far. Clara, please.

Sorry, I've been downstairs. I'm playing catch up. Yes. Hi, everybody. My name is Clara. I am a resident here in Keene, and I am deeply concerned about the well-being of my neighbors here in town. I prepared a statement and after listening to the testimony from today it's not quite relevant so I'm just gonna say a few words real fast okay I feel like our city leadership and our state leadership and our federal leadership has let us down in the worst possible ways. I have been asking for answers and what I have received is basically a pat on the head and a run around saying that oh well we don't we don't control the chief of police so we don't have any ability to regulate anything their feds and I don't feel like that's good enough I'm asking for courage in a very scary moment where the rules no longer seem to apply. The things that we were raised to believe in don't make sense anymore. Our neighbors are being snatched. Our friends are living in fear. It doesn't feel safe. And when I'm begging and demanding from my representatives and the people I pay their salaries of, such as the chief of police, Do better. You have clout, you have a voice that is bigger than mine. Use it, speak up for the vulnerable. If we don't take care of the least of us, then what are we as a society? That's all I have to say, thank you.

Thank you, Clara. I'm Melanie Griffin, and I put my town on the card. But I will say I don't feel safe saying my town out loud, which is pretty bad. But I've heard a lot of people talk about safety and fear. But one undertone that I noticed that I just want to speak into the room is grief. There's a lot of grief here tonight about what's happening to our town. This is supposed to be a progressive city with the heart of a town. It's not the Keene that I have always spent my life here. I was at CVS the other day and I saw a family come out, a husband and wife and two little kids, Hispanic family, and instead of the way I would normally smile and feel fond, aren't they cute? I felt grief for them and that's just not okay. I wanted to point out somebody mentioned what goes on on social media, which is pretty scary. But being undocumented is not a criminal violation. It's a civil infraction. And the way people are being treated like felons, they are not coming after the worst of the worst. Everybody knows that. They're coming after roofers and contractors and nurses and teachers. and they're separating families, and it's not okay, and it's completely out of range of reality and what is needed. We have laws and processes for these civil infractions, and ICE is not following the law. anonymous men and unmarked cars running around our streets. I think we at the very least have to demand that anybody comes in here representing ICE has ICE on their car and great big letters. They need to have ICE on their badge and their name. I mean, that's the kind of stuff that we can ask for. You know, this is our town. People are just being disappeared and that's not okay. It's illegal and it's not it's not American. And I really appreciate Dan mentioning racism because it's, you know, hey, it's not a coincidence that the black and brown people that are getting disappeared. It's a result of the cruel national quotas that are coming out of D.C. politicians. And I just feel like we really have to stand up and speak out and push back and as much as we can. I mean, you don't want to impede.

Well, OK, but speak out, be there and speak out and stand up.

Because this is just the beginning, as somebody else mentioned. They're coming back. They're going to be back and back and back. And the more we are out there saying, we don't want you, we don't like you, we don't approve of you, we're not going to enable you, I really appreciate the Sheriff of Cheshire County not being an enabler and not being compliant with ICE by signing one of those 287Gs. And so I want to thank him, and I want to thank all of you all. for being here tonight because um it's us that give these people the courage right to stand up because now you all know how your town feels thank you in the mayor's absence i'll call the next person forward we're looking for ryan asher

OK. Ken Raskoskis. And I have Chloe Gross is the next name.

Hello, my name is Chloe Gross, and I live in Keene. I'll keep it simple and quick. And I think this reflects the sentiments of many people in this room. We don't want ICE in Keene, and we especially don't want the Keene Police Department to collaborate with ICE. And I ask the city council to do everything it can to protect all of our community members. Thank you.

have either Ken or Ryann joined us? Come on up.

Hi there. My name is Ryann Asher. I'm a citizen or a resident of Keene. I am I say this with the most respect to everybody here, but I don't believe the police chief and I've lost trust in my government of Keene. I have a lot of people in my community who are here legally and they have come to me because they're like, what's going to happen if they come for me? Do I get any rights as a legal immigrant here to be protected by the police from these people that are coming after us? which we have seen are coming after, I mean, citizens. US-born citizens have been detained. I think it's completely inadequate to see what happened the other weekend and stand here in front of all of your constituents and be like, well, sorry, can't help. and to everybody that is here in this crowd. And also, you guys are missing the party downstairs. It's full lobby, right? People care. And I'm hearing a lot of people talk tonight about being scared and being in grief and totally feel all that stuff. We have to see and look around and don't let them take your hope and don't let them think that they're more powerful than us as a group, okay? Hope doesn't come without fear. It doesn't come without grief. And you gotta feel those things and still find the hope. And I really hope that this collection of government officials, the police chief, we pay your salaries, we vote you into office. So again, like everybody else has said, I hope and expect better. Thank you.

Ken Raskowskis. Ken. We'll hold Ken. Ken Raskowskis.

OK.

Might be elsewhere in the building. Mohamed Salah?

Thank you Mayor and the City Council. My name is Muhammad Saleh. I live in Keene and I have been an active member of the Keene Human Rights Committee for eight years and I'm also co-founder of a local non-profit that settles asylum seekers from around the world and many of those guests are also traumatized by the recent events. My prior speakers have mentioned very specific, I think useful ideas that I think city council should consider. So I won't repeat them. I will tell two stories that kind of captures what I'm coming from. And this is from an experience of an immigrant who understands that immigration laws are not black and white. I have been held back at the airport for hours, separated from my children, when I have worked 16 years as a research scientist at the U.S. Air Force. And I have been a citizen for 30 years. And if it happened to me, I cannot imagine how some of these other people are going through who are not as equipped and resourced. This first story is of a guy named Eliezer Ayala that I had the fortune to rescue from ICE with the support of the community. When I went to the lawyer, He was arrested because he had a flat tire and somebody called and he had an accident, so he was facing deportation. He lacked paperwork, but it turned out he was not completely illegal because now he has a green card and he avoided deportation. So when I was representing him, I went to the lawyer, I said, there's no case, this is a hopeless case. I said, are you sure? He said, yes, there's no chance here. Would you say the same thing if he was your brother? Let me repeat that. Would you feel the same way about a law if it is about your brother? And I think that's where the morality, people mention morality, comes from. And the lawyer took a moment and said, no, there is actually a path. So he took that path, and after two years of appeal that hour, Many of kin people funded. We had a celebration when he got released from ICE at Wheelock Park. You can Google it. His name is . We had a celebration. So that shows the power of empathy and where we're coming from. So I implore and beg all of you to consider that when you're looking at some of the recommendations. The last story I'll say, I actually had Heated debate, not heated, interesting conversation with an ICE officer. When I went to rescue this guy, the ICE officer just barked at me, just because somebody had two minor cases, you think they can come here? I said, If you knew his story, and if you know my story, you probably would feel differently. So he gave me a call. This guy became my friend, and he used to ask me how I'm doing. So all of those who feel differently, I'm begging you, take a moment, get to know your neighbors, because without knowing each other, we can solve the problem. Thank you.

next up Bethany Hughes followed by Mackenzie Perkins either person here I'll keep reading down the line we'll hopefully get to the through the cards Bridget Archbold or Arch can't read the last few letters and if they're outside the room hopefully they're listening again we've got ken raskowskis brittany hughes mckenzie perkins bridget archbold may i speak in place of one of them sure we're using our time well

It was the regional director of ICE.

Good evening. My name is Judy Lang. I live in Nelson, New Hampshire. I used to live in Keene. When I was living in Nelson, I was the place where my daughter would bring people home from other countries because she was going to an international program and they needed places to be in the holiday seasons because they lived in Rwanda China and all over the world. One day I had one of the gentlemen from Paraguay walking down the streets of Keene in front of what used to be, well, right out here. And there was a police person coming on the same side of the street and he panicked and said, come, come on. And I could not imagine what he was trying to tell me. And what he was telling me was about the fear of people who are in authority. And that was my first introduction to fear by people from other countries. Now I can tell you that I know firsthand and repetitively through the cultures of people in our community what this feels like. And I'm charging you all with doing the best that you can do Not only uphold the law as you must, but question it. And also, remember the humanity that is inside each of every one of us. Remember what it was like to hold our first child the day they were born. Or maybe it was your neighbor. Just remember that because that's the responsibility that we have and the responsibility that we have for the future. I know most of you. I'm probably sure that most of you know who I am or have heard my name. I hope so. I stand here nervously because of what I do know and what I don't know. But I'm here because I'm bearing witness to what happens to our community. I'd be glad to talk with you more. Not here. and not with names and locations. But here I am, and so are you. Please, please draw from your inner strength now and from this day forward. We have a lot of work to do. I see a lot of really good people that are standing up and doing that. Please continue. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Judy. I'd also like to, if you recall an hour or so ago, that some of the goals that we had for this meeting, limitations on government, local government, connecting us with other organizations in the community that are resources for those in need. relative to that question if there's somebody from project home or somebody who's connected with a family fundraising effort that wanted to identify those resources please feel free to do so I appreciate that there are organizations in our community I'm glad that I've reached them or they've reached me and Uh, I think for us to be able to share your information and contact information, uh, with people that we come in contact with is one of the virtues of our, uh, governing role. So that's all I'll have to say about that. Uh, okay. Anybody that we called McKenzie, please.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and persons of Turtle Island. I'm Mackenzie.

I'm sorry, Mackenzie, do you have it? Yeah.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you. All right, start the clock again. All right. I'm Mackenzie. I've resided in both Stoddard and Keene. So I know how beautiful it is here, and I know all our beautiful people and what we do for our community. But I also implore that, like, us, the individuals, we, the people, We go to places like Project Home, Keen Mutual Aid, Manana Collaborative, and RAD, all these organizations that are grassroot, a little bit more funded by our voices. The things that are important to actually help the chain that need to be changed. So I just implore you to find individualism and find what you can do for the community. Because there's due processes that stand in between us and what we want so you know if the due process is going to come too late i find that it'd be easier if we did it ourselves so that's all i have to say thank you

Hello, my name is Bridget Archbold. I appreciate the opportunity to come and speak with all of you. I'm sorry, I didn't. Bridget Archbold.

Thank you. And town?

I'm here in Keene. Yeah, good.

Yeah.

And to that point, it's okay. Start again. Yeah. So my name is Bridget Archbold. You got that, not you. I relocated here with my family nine years ago from Minneapolis. And so you can imagine I have a lot of contacts and family in Minneapolis who I've been in close communication with over the past several months. And while I appreciate all of the sentiments that have been shared here, and I'm confident there are other people in this room that have been following things in Minneapolis, I just wanted to share a little bit of information in that regard. I don't feel safe sharing my full address here because I don't want that to be used against me down the road. I've heard that sentiment in this room already this evening. I don't want to run the risk of being targeted or my family being targeted or my neighbors being targeted. I have social media following and I have raised my voice there and I've been shadow banned. And so even though I'm sharing information in alignment with my values, These constraints are real and they're everywhere. Being from Minnesota, I have close friends and family, as I mentioned, who have been directly impacted by the terror of ICE. Doctors, attorneys, teachers, all US citizens who've been pulled over and intimidated and interrogated by ICE because of the color of their skin. Their cars were legally registered and they were pulled over anyway. This is happening in our country. People are being abducted and in Minnesota in the winter, they were being brought out into the middle of nowhere and left to die, freeze. Circumstances escalated in Minneapolis really quickly and they can escalate here too. They're already escalating in Troy and that's 15 minutes away. It's a testing ground. I'm speculating and I'm also deducing based off of the data that I've seen in Minneapolis. So I appreciate the opportunity to come here and share these details and facts and I implore this group and I implore our police to please protect the citizens of Keene and the surrounding areas. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, have we missed, there's still Brittany Hughes and Ken Raskowskis, and please introduce yourself.

Hi, I'm Brittany Hughes, I live in Keene. I am concerned about the fear and uncertainty ICE's enforcement tactics create in our neighborhoods, tearing families apart and undermining trust. ICE expansion outpaces accountability. Their surging numbers have no room for the required training to deal with any local population. They don't meet the standards to understand federal law in order to comply with it. No consequences means no change. They do not have intervention training. They constantly allow their own agents to use excessive force, as the whole world has seen. How can people trust them when they don't even stop each other? Thank you.

All right. We still have a couple of minutes, seven minutes before our 90-minute clock. Bill?

Did you want information on Project Home?

I would welcome it.

OK. My wife was one of the people who started it and was Totally unreasonable, which is the best way to be, I think. It's projecthomenh.com if you want to find out more about it. She was having lunch with some friends. They would get together every once in a while and talk about how their lives were going. This was a few years ago, and one of them said, why don't we just get a bus and go down to El Paso and pick a bunch of them up and bring them back? We could use them here, and they could use us. They laughed, and then they went, hmm. And eventually, they wound up making contact with people. And we've got a number of people. This town looks a lot different than it did three years ago. And at any rate, the organization is way beyond anything that they expected. So keep up the good work. Thanks for getting us together, too.

Thank you, Bill. Joe?

Mayor Kahn, you mentioned resources for help for people. And I think you're going to have a discussion after this between the city councilors. There is a GoFundMe page to assist families who have been affected by the recent raids. and I guess one thing you could discuss among the council is whether you'd be willing to put that GoFundMe page if the people who started wanted to be on the Keene City website so I'd have to get permission from the people who actually started it and you'd have to agree that that was an okay idea but that maybe that's a will be open for discussion when you have your discussion

You know, as previously suggested, we are individuals. And I also respect the privacy and privilege information that's been shared with me. So I'll look forward to people providing guidance as to what can be shared.

Okay. Thank you. Well, if you want the link to that, we will get it to you.

Thank you. Please do. Is Grace Johnson here?

Hello, good evening. I'm Grace Johnson. 20 minutes outside Keene. I lived in Keene previously and may well again in the future. And I work with Project Home as well. I was coming up the stairs, so I didn't hear all of what Bill said, but thank you, Bill. And someone may have clarified, it's projecthomenh.org. I wanted to just say two brief thoughts at this point, since so much has been covered. I would ask that you all in your roles are researching what other municipalities and other local law enforcement agencies have done, have come up with to creatively protect their residents. And I would ask that you all find places, trusted places for yourselves to talk about and think through what you can do in your roles, because I am sure there are things that we haven't thought of yet. and we're not gonna think of them just in our own heads. So finding whatever it is for you, spaces for yourselves to talk to each other, reach out to someone that you respect and trust in the community. It's Eli Rivera, would he be open to talk about what can you do from that law enforcement perspective? hire a consultant, whatever it is for yourselves. I'm thinking of the apocryphal story, the urban legend about Denmark during World War II, that when the Jews were required to wear the Star of David, all of Denmark wore the Star of David. There's things we haven't thought of yet. Thank you.

Thank you. I think our last speaker.

All right. Hi. My name is Cindy Nadelman and I'm from Keene and I've lived in New Hampshire for more than 20 years. And I'm not really a public speaker, although I've had some opportunities to speak out. And I'm really glad that I'm taking the opportunity to speak out. Normally I don't, but I think it's important for all of us to come together and it looks like we have. And I do have a question about authority. Who invites federal agents to our city and why? And how do we know these people are who they say they are? And can we ask for identification? When I was in the Air Force, I wore a uniform. People knew I was in the Air Force. Although you can buy an Air Force uniform on any street and pretend, although it's against the law, to impersonate an officer. I wonder if it's against the law to impersonate an ICE agent, and I know people have. I just think it's important for us to stand up, to stand up for what's right and not always what's legal.

Thank you. I'll call a recess in a moment. Let me thank everybody who has come this evening and provided input. I'm sorry I'm seeing a little bit of hand waving we're all good thank you for coming thanks for your thoughts your input your challenge that you've given us if we weren't up to wanting to accept the challenge we would not have scheduled this meeting so yeah that's deserves a little bit But it is challenging and I don't think that there are all the things that suggested that can be done. I think there are answers that need to be, that we can provide. I think there are statements that we can make but I recognize that we need to stand With our community, number one, we need to stand for the safety of people in our community. We need to represent what this community has been over many, many years. A community that is welcoming, that has respect and dignity for all people. And I'm not sure where that leads us down the road in the future. I think we'll have a conversation about strategies. But we couldn't have gotten to that next conversation without your input. So thank you. We will be acting on behalf of our constituents and people of Keene. Thank you very much. Five minute recess.

Thank you.

All right. We'll enter the next phase of this meeting. This is a council workshop. Please use the mics and use them with the opportunity for us to rebroadcast this for people that have left the meeting or never got here to begin with. I think city manager had a thought she wanted to share. Yeah.

Thank you, Mayor. So the first thing I wanted to let you know is while I'm in this meeting, I sent an email to the fire chief and the deputy and said, please make sure there is identification on the black SUV with the red light. There is something on the back, but it's not that clear. And so I think that that will help. I mean, addressing those sort of things as they come up instead of letting it go. I think it's important to do that because we can try to, you know, nip it right in the butt. So I did that. And then I also want to start and I know most everyone, a lot of people have left, but it's great to see some of you stuck around for this part. I want to thank everyone that came this evening to speak to us I listened very closely I took lots of really good notes and before tonight I actually did research about other towns and other states and things that they have done and in what sort of creative ways they've been able to address some of these concerns One of the challenges that we have here is in the state of New Hampshire, there's this anti-sanctuary bill that has created more hurdles for us to get creative. So if you're looking at something like Minneapolis or another state, It doesn't always directly correlate here in the state of New Hampshire. And so that's obviously a challenge for us. And I want to also just start by affirming my trust and confidence in the Keene Police Department. I don't think this is about the Keene Police Department. Our chief and department leaders and officers serve this community with professionalism, sound judgment, and a commitment to treating people fairly and with dignity. And I believe that 100%. I've seen it. I've witnessed it. I've been here long enough to know. And so tonight, as a council, and as you begin these conversations, it would be really helpful to me if you were to identify areas of consensus as a council where you believe additional guidance or clarification or work should be done. And we know not every concern raised tonight falls within the city's authority, and not every question will have a clear answer. There's always gray when you interpret different things. If it's not super clear, that may be the answer as well. So it would be helpful to understand the council's thoughts after listening to all of the input. And based on the council's discussion this evening, I will work with the police chief in consultation with our city attorney and deputy city attorney to distinguish what the city can appropriately address, what falls within the chief's independent law enforcement responsibilities, and what lies outside of municipal jurisdiction. Just to make it clear and really to try to dig into that, I then will report back to the council on what I think are some appropriate next steps. These may include administrative actions within the city manager's authority, clearer public information a review of clarification or clarification of existing city policies and procedures or sometimes it's just referrals to the appropriate agency or community resources which we talked a little bit about tonight and so you're on break and for the next few weeks we won't be meeting in any sort of formal way but that's what i intend to work on for the next few weeks before the council comes back in session so if you could in your discussion tonight just build some consensus on the things that you are interested in hearing or learning more about okay thank you by the way did everybody get one of these

uh no okay well i've got four they may only go to the first two people on each side but oh i'm sorry this is uh ice rapid response this is something i won't identify but i will identify the woman who who did give me uh her name in case you had questions about this uh but this came this came from emily bagel and I have contact information should you want to contact her any case it seems like a It seems like it possesses the kind of information that the QR code links us up to. It has, from my recollection, a comparable source. So, but I won't verify that it has all the same information and I won't verify the information, but you might want to. So, anyway, they're here. Please, I don't know what to do with them. Mayor was the intent that they would become part of the record if so I'll make sure they're in the record and we will if anyone would like one I think that was her intent We've got the managers request I know no other way to go around this but offer everybody the opportunity to speak once you can say I pass you know reserve the right to come back to me that's okay too but let's let's hear from everyone in the room let's keep in mind that let's not grandstand too much on one on one seat let's try to get through the first round and then we see where we go from there

I did take some notes initially and before we get to consensus building. I just wanted to address all those that showed up tonight and all those that were home watching on television because from what I hear, there was quite a few out there. But mainly some of the notes that I jotted down, not only as a city councilor but a lifetime resident of Keene. I want to thank all those that attended and all that watched on television. As we see tonight, government only works when we all get together and as I say many times, silence is never an option. um as we heard the city attorney tonight too and thank you very much because i thought that was clear even in legal terms about exactly what we can do and what we can't do and that our we have limited purview what we can do as a city council we know that from the legal point of view you know personally i took some notes and listened to some of the residents tonight and personally you know as a vietnam veteran as council roberts is also I was directly involved in the resettlement of over 125,000 Vietnamese refugees during the initial evacuation of Vietnam. So the issue of immigration is personal to me, as I've been involved with it directly before. We did it because we did the right thing then. It was a humanitarian effort. It wasn't Democrat or Republican. It was simply about humanity and decency, and that's something the current administration knows neither about. So basically, what do we do now? The simple, most articulate way to say it is vote. I mean vote. It sounds simple. I know it sounds like a simplistic answer. We're going to change the law. You're going to change the people that write the laws. So we need to get out vote midterms coming up. Um, thank you again everybody for your words. I know it's on the soapbox a little bit here and I look forward to hearing the rest of my counselors. Thank you very much. Councilor Chalice.

I won't repeat what you said in terms of the thanks vote in the primary September 8th. This is the day after our holiday weekend. I just want to remind we are experiencing a 2450% increase in the number of people without a criminal record being held in ICE detention on any given day. Judges throughout the nation have ruled against ICE detention practices in roughly 90% of the cases. I'm new, but my understanding is that several successful policies that this city council has put into place were not supported by our legal council. It is incumbent upon each of us as citizens, and the language is, to overthrow an unjust and immoral government. So I ask the council as a whole individually and as the city council, what is our role here? You know how vocal I am. I have been, anyway, you know how vocal I am and I've been very good about keeping city council separate. What is our role?

Councilor workman.

Oh, we're to start. Um, A lot was said tonight. I agree with a lot that was said tonight. I want to highlight that what's happening right now is impacting our local economy. We saw a decrease in the number of vendors that came to the Keene International Festival last year. We'll likely see a decrease again this year. People are not coming to Keene because they have to go through Troy to get to Keene. um it impacts our college enrollment students are coming back soon to keene to franklin pierce they serve international students parents aren't going to want to send their kids here to keene um i want to highlight the trauma that this is causing our entire community not just those that are impacted And I'm sorry, I don't have the same confidence and trust that our city manager has. I sat here tonight and listened to the number of inconsistencies that came from folks up there. Those inconsistencies erode trust. I've had private conversations with the city manager, with the city attorney, with the police chief late last year. I'd like to know what will be different than those conversations because I had I went to you guys looking to be proactive rather than reactive and we could have avoided everything that we've got gotten to this point if we took a more active proactive approach back in February and you can disagree with me all you want but it is true thank you

I'm going to disagree with that statement because what we talked about was the Troy police chief. And we talked about the issues with addressing that and how best to address it. And how we addressed it was the chief talked to him and he said he wasn't going to come here anymore. We dealt with the Troy issue with him coming into the city without needing further action. The activities of the ICE organization, it would have happened regardless of Detroit Chief of Police. I mean, I don't think those two things should be combined.

You and I can respectfully disagree, but I know the conversations I've had with you.

As do I.

All right. calls for lake thank you Mr. Mayor I don't want to belabor the point too much but I just want to thank the community for coming out and sharing their stories particularly the story about the individual that was removed from our community and the positive impact that he had had on his neighborhood and the people around him and the loss that our community is going to feel because of his removal so I look forward to the city manager's report and the suggested actions that that we can take going forward to keep the community safe thank you

somewhere along the way I was going to say this anyway but employers in the city are employed city employers are concerned about how this is affecting their businesses so I think we heard that from testimony from somebody today I just want to reiterate it that employers did reach out to me and I reached out to several and

uh yeah this has an economic impact as well as a social impact yeah counselor families yeah thank you mr mayor i will also echo the the thanks for the community and it's times like these and nights like this actually where i am so grateful to live in such a civically engaged community where people show up on a monday night and and speak to these issues so that we can hear them I want to wait until other counselors speak and maybe offer some more concrete ideas. I want to be really careful about over-promising and then under-delivering, giving the kind of restrictions that we've heard about at the state level, at the federal level in terms of legislation. And don't want to, you know, give false hope to the folks that spoke tonight, the folks listening at home that feel like something has to be done. In terms of presenting specific solutions. So I too look forward to the conversation tonight. Maybe there can be some creative pieces that come out of it. But I also want to be really conscious that there's a lot that we can't do. And that's a really frustrating thing to kind of sit with and live with. But it is the reality.

Councilor Tobin.

Thank you. I think one of the, I mean, really the overwhelming thing that I heard tonight was about fear for safety. And I think that the, it's kind of two things, right? You know, that you can say that, oh, well, this was only three people, which only in itself is problematic. this of this impacted a lot more than that and the perception of safety and how people feel is actually impacting the culture in the area and i think that some of those things while i don't while I'm not clear about whose authority each thing falls under, I think that there are opportunities to communicate better. And I think it is kind of strange that this was such an event in the community and Even if there was little information that could be provided, finding out about all of this from rumors felt pretty frustrating. I would have liked just something saying, here's what happened. And that did happen tonight, but it was sort of after a week of escalating tension. And just some of the things that I have heard, The way that that fear impacts the people who live here, in my opinion, is disturbing and it breaks my heart because when I have, I was with a friend the other night and This is after hearing that someone is considering writing a phone number on, you know, a citizen is considering writing a phone number on their skin because if they were taken, then they wouldn't have their phone with them to have someone's number to call. And then the same day, another friend is telling me that she was contacted and told that she should be keeping her proof of citizenship on her dashboard. And the reason she should be keeping it on her dashboard is that if she reached for it, then someone might think she was reaching for something else. Now, the interesting thing about this is that this is not even this person. She was born in the United States. Her parents were born in the United States. um just a long time citizen but and so then i you know and i have been thinking to myself should i need do i need to carry around proof of citizenship but i mean if we're going to just say it like it is i don't have to because i'm white and that's not fair i i don't have brown skin and so i don't have to worry about that and i don't think that's okay

Councillor Williams.

Hi, thank you. I'm just gonna share some of my perspective of the events as I saw them unfold. I wouldn't say I had a front row seat, but maybe I had a second row seat. So hopefully I can fill in some of the information that people might not have heard. The first indication that something was going on was actually on Friday, August 7th, when we got a yellow or we got a red alert from a group in the Upper Valley that said ICE was taking people in West Lebanon. And then we also heard that day that, well, we heard three people were taken in West Lebanon. We heard five were taken in Londonderry. One was taken in White River Junction. So this is one of the reasons why I think this is perhaps a regional surge of ICE. August 8th was the day I got a call that they'd arrived in Keene and as soon as I got that information I circulated it to as many people as I could. That particular Well, one of the ways I communicated was through a Facebook post, and we all know what happens with Facebook. First, it was a good way to get information out, but then Facebook tends to show things to people that will make them angry to get a response. And so there was a wave of Whole lot of angry angry responses directed at me directed at immigrants directed at our city from all over the country because Facebook was holding us up as Well because we've been attacked and we were we were saying something about it So the information as it unfolded on on Saturday August 3rd was that People were called to a job near Baker Street, perhaps on Baker Street, and were arrested when they showed up at that job. The information we have says that three people were arrested. We think two people were arrested in that event, and we don't know where the third person was. All we know about the third person is that they were seen in ICE detention. We only have their first name. We don't have any information beyond that about this person. And I think it's a disgrace that we're not able to get that information. As I understand it, one of the people who was taken chose to agree to be deported. And I understand they can put a lot of pressure on people to make that decision. There was a rumor of an Egyptian, or maybe it was an Ethiopian, who was hung upside down until he agreed to sign an agreement to be deported. I can't say whether that's true or not, but that's what people believe. That's the fear that people have. On August 9th, so Sunday, that was a day of kind of trying to figure out what happened. You heard about the incident with the keys, which was very concerning to me. The keys were given apparently by ICE to the police department and then returned to ICE and then the very next day ICE showed up at the home. and I got a call that morning when I showed up at home and I was I was about 30 or 40 minutes out of town so I I figured I'd miss ice if they'd come up come to the home so so I went to the police station just as a check to see what's going on maybe there'd be something going on the police station I was not at all prepared for what I saw to scary-looking black vans Ford Transit vans with quite a bit of capacity were parked in the parking lot next to the police station but more closer to the Keene ice area There were four agents, shall we say, dressed in their assault gear, whatever, tactical gear, whatever they were. standing around waiting to do something I guess and I took a picture of that that's a picture that circulated widely I believe the reason that picture was so blurry is that my hands were shaking and soon after that witnessed from the parking lot area right next to the police station so the section where there's a sign that says police only that part of the parking lot so not the public part of the parking lot I witnessed about five ice vehicles and we believe they were ice vehicles because someone else who was there had previously seen some people getting prepared and getting in those vehicles So they all got in a convoy and rolled out from the police side of the parking lot. And I was grateful to the Keene Sentinel. They showed up. in a very timely manner and tried to give chase to one of the black vans when it departed. I expect these ICE drivers are very good at losing. They have a lot of practice with this kind of thing. So they made an illegal turn in the circle and got away. And the rest of the day was just a lot of chasing ghosts. We heard a lot of rumors. We heard that there were rumors that people had been taken from the hospital. This wasn't true. What actually happened was a lot of people who worked at the hospital had stayed home. And their coworkers were concerned that they'd been taken. This is the level of fear that was going on. I just want to say to the families that are affected by this, I'm so sorry this is happening to you. I'm so sorry to those in immigrant communities who are feeling fear because of this, and my heart is with you.

Councillor Jones. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. If I may just get my emotions out of the way, I'm scared, I'm upset. I have a lot of good friends within the Spanish community who mean a lot to me and they wouldn't come here tonight because they don't want to be in the queue even though they're documented, they're properly documented. uh they're afraid to go to work and i'm ashamed to be part of this society that is like this right now uh this is 2026 and whoever thought this would be happening um get my motions out of the way and i want to thank the city attorney for mentioning the three RSAs, because I've been looking at them all week to see what kind of amendments can be made to those RSAs. And I just want to point out in 106Q, what we're up against as a city, it does state that the New Hampshire Attorney General can sue non-compliant local entities in court. And below that, penalties. Courts can impose injunctive relief and punitive damage, including fines up to 25% of total state funds received to the local entity If that ever happened to us, we would kill ourselves trying to cut services. That would be a major thing that we would be up against. And I think those RSAs definitely need some amendments, and hopefully we get the right people that can do that. And one last thing I want to bring up is, and I don't know if you discussed this while I was gone, the difference between an administrative warrant and a judicial warrant The police cannot act on administrative warrant. ICE can. So I believe if ICE is acting on an administrative warrant, they can't even call the police in unless a judicial warrant is issued. And if I could leave with a question, the 287 , can they react to an administrative warrant? Or does that agency able to react to an administrative warrant? Or does it still have to be a judicial warrant?

I mean, it's my understanding, and we do not have a 287G. There's no interest in us signing a 287G. No, but communities around us are. Communities around us are, and it's my understanding, but Amanda's going to correct me if I'm wrong, that they can act and do whatever ICE tells them to do under their authority.

So actually they can work under an administrative one.

The language in the 287G agreements from what I've reviewed, because all the templates are available on the federal government website, says that any municipality that signed a 287G agreement with ICE will act under the supervision and at the direction of ICE. And as I mentioned earlier, them having jurisdiction federally, they can direct those municipalities wherever they have jurisdiction. To your question about the administrative warrants versus judicial warrants, I understand what you're talking about. I don't know that the distinction will come up with the interactions from the federal government to the local government. They have the authority to ask us for information. It doesn't necessarily matter what type of warrant they have, from my understanding. I believe the distinction is an administrative warrant is executed by the department while judicial will have been reviewed by a judge. If they are pursuing under either warrant, they have the right by federal statute to ask us for information either way.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Councilor Roberts.

Yes, Your Honor. To listen to what some people brought up today and looking, there was hardly no one of color that was in the audience here and in the audience downstairs. Looking over the census data, they expect in 2013 the population of Keene is going to peak and it's going to level off and slowly go down. The population up to 2030 is not supposed to be, by their projection, is to be white. The population after 2030, to help maintain it, is not going to be white. It's going to be a lot of people of color. And I remember in 2014 when I sat here and I said, be careful with the pumpkin fest. You voted no to give a license when I said the city of Ware says no, we're not going to be bullied by a bunch of basically criminals. We said, no, OK. And then we sent out the signal that Keene was not safe. That had a big effect on the population. It had a big effect on our school enrollment and a big effect on the college. So right now, We may be looking at the small stuff. What are we going to do for ICE? Our goal is, what are we going to do to tell people of color that Keene is a welcome and safe place? We can go in here and say, we can't do this because this rule says no. We can't do this because this is what the law says. We can walk a fine line and make sure we don't upset any law while we give the death note to the future of Keene. We have to ensure that the people say, hey, I want to move to Keene because it's a safe place, it's a welcoming place, it's a place I want my children to grow up. Okay? We talk about the individual that was just taken. He came to Keene because it was a welcoming place. He created a business. He helped his neighbors. He has American children, citizen children. Okay? If it's not welcoming, no one is coming, and the few that are here are going to book. Okay? And then what is Keene going to be? It's going to be an older white city quicker than anybody planned, and without young people of every color to replace them, guess what? No businesses. We need young people of all colors to come here to buy the houses, to sell, to buy upbringings. Our community is based on youth. And hey, for the last one, for example, oh, the building right down in West Street was bought. We want to make that into senior housing. So we're not telling young people it's a nice place, and now we're in a position we may be telling people of color Keene is not a place to come through. I just laid it straight on the line, part of being a social scientist and leading out the demographics. Demographics means whether a city survives, a city just goes along, a city goes downhill, or a city thrives and moves ahead. That is us 15 people. That is our responsibility, and like the lady had stated, What are your grandkids and what are your kids going to say? Papa, what did you do during war? Councilor Haas.

Thank you, Your Honor. Those of you who know me, I get into specifics. Let's get to something that we can do here. First of all, the contact for Congressman Goodlander for finding out information. Can the city publicize that on the city website, on Facebook page, as well as perhaps produce a video on it, the wonderful thing that Ms. Whitaker does? to put that information out there and make it very real and available to people, number one. Number two, Councillor Tobin alluded to this a bit. When ice activity comes into the city, the information that flows around from that are from the people who turn out to object to it, from all due respect from sentinel coverage from media coverage i would look to king police department to supervise those situations to respond when that's happening and not an engagement not to do anything that is inappropriate unless something's called for, but at least to observe and give a solid report from Keene Police Department to say this is what was happening and what happened, when, where, and how. That could be some information we could rely on rather than the social media storm that erupts. Um, number three, three, I got four, three, two threes. Um, we could entertain an ordinance that prohibits mass law enforcement. Without specifying anything, our law enforcement is not masked. State police is not masked. County is not masked. Just a statement of prohibiting masked law enforcement. And also, I'm not sure how much this covers what we can do now or what we have. requiring body cameras of law enforcement agents. And we don't have to say who it's pointed at just to make that statement that that's what you should expect when you live in Keene. That goes to what Councillor Robertson said, that would produce more confidence in our city as trying to say something. And it doesn't have to be pointed that anything that's going to get us in other kind of trouble, although I kind of hope that it does raise those issues. sorry that was three a three b four and it's really on all of us to reach out um the the project home the other groups that are doing uh council williams groups uh it's on all of us to become involved with them and push them forward the city has to do things in the city's names but we can all do things in our own name so let's get out there but there's there's what one two three i think four actionable items thank you

No. Councillor Ruddell-Miller.

Thank you, Mayor. I will take the rare opportunity to not stand while speaking, since the precedent has been set this evening. Yeah. I have some bullet points here that are kind of a little all over the place, but I'll try to keep myself on task. First of all, I just want to echo the gratitude of my fellow councillors for everybody who came tonight it's always nice it's kind of a double-edged sword when we have meetings like this to see both how many people really do care and show up and I encourage you some of you to show up to other meetings too sometimes um so um It's really, it's always felt in the last few years very hypocritical to me to live in a state where all of our signs when entering say bienvenue on them because we have a history of being a state of a large amount of immigrants. I grew up in Colas County where the population is significantly French Canadian. It was not rare to walk around grocery stores or go to restaurants, a hair salon, and have somebody having a full French conversation in the chair next to you. And many, many people speak French at home with their parents, and I can guarantee there are probably varying immigration statuses of many of those people that grew up in that area. And yet somehow it feels like people, even from that background, have forgotten that they were very recently immigrants. I studied history, so I understand that there are constant changes in historic trends in immigration, but with that always comes xenophobia and racism and scapegoating. And I feel like right now what's happening is we are definitely seeing a lot of that pointed towards a community that is right now the... sorry the larger trend as far as immigration goes and we should be welcoming people into our communities as new parts of our country and not looking to scapegoat them as a problem when we are unable to find something else to rally against, because that's kind of what is happening is it's just let's all point at somebody who we feel like is different, who is less protected. And I'm just, again, to the people that came today, I was very nervous coming in tonight that I was going to hear a lot of hate and upsetting things. And I am just so proud of people and keen for standing up for their neighbors. So anyways, that's it. I'll leave it at that. I just really want us to do better.

Those are powers.

Thank you, Your Honor. It's reflective of our community, everybody that was here downstairs. Everybody's concerned, very much concerned. We're all concerned about everyone who lives here. And in this case, one or two people were no longer with us but may be back. So the first thing I want to say is I think whatever way we know, well all these interactions we're having with folks so we can support that family we ought to do it and what maybe in a little tiny way one of us or a group or things like that the issue that we're facing I just echo the first two speakers on our council says vote I think that's what when that was first said it just kind of passed over I said I didn't think much about it but all of what we've talked about tonight and around this table as we cut to here so much of what's going on we have little control over other than to protect our community but those things need to be changed it's a hell of a lot different in this world two and a half years down this road than it was two and a half years ago we need to see changes that will help these things not to happen in the future so please I think the council will do what's right I don't know that tonight we're gonna know what's right but I think the community knows that we've heard everybody we know there's an issue and and we will address it and we'll address it in the right way rather than reactive so it'll come out with greater results than we've seen in the last last few months around the country what are the voting days thank you council greenwald

You all said it. So there really is not all that much. But just to repeat again, to thank the mayor, the city attorney, city clerk, city manager, police staff, a lot of thought and a lot of... hard work went into this evening and I'm really very very proud of you all and us all well 14 out of 15 for being present and the public for coming out lots of great ideas and lots of emotion and the unfortunate reality is that we do not have control of a federal organization and it really stinks you know we can say anything emotionally as we want, but we can't tell them what to do or how to do it. What I find really troubling is the lack of credible information. And I thank Councillor Williams. That's the first hard information I've heard about this. I will not listen to Facebook nonsense. It might be entertaining, but it's inaccurate and there's rumors and it gets worse and worse as the inaccuracy gets said over and it takes on the illusion of truth. I think the city manager basically has a great plan to distill what has been said and to come up with something. A couple of thoughts. I think back to the 1930s. Whoever would have believed. So as he said, vote, vote, vote. The only way that we're going to change things really is by voting for the state and federal people that will change the laws. There's a guy in office now that was elected with this kind of a platform. Wow, unfortunately the country brought this on ourselves. vote for the change. Thank you.

So I don't know where I've told the story and how many times, but if I bore you one more time. So I'm in this world because two victims of Nazi Germany met in Chicago, and I'm here. And this is why I don't tell this story. And there's this confrontation of a 15, 16-year-old son who in his, my parents don't know and I know better, mood when civil rights confrontations would take place in the 1960s. And It was the federal government that came in and prohibited fire hoses from being used on US citizens. And I said in some instance, This would not be a government action. Our government would not support this kind of thing. And my mom said, Don't be so certain. So here we are. And I'm not so certain. And I think the objections to masked and unnamed, without proper badges, authority present in our community or in any place in our country isn't something to be objected to. And I have no qualms about doing that personally or advocating that We make a statement in support of those who have made that statement before. We will not be original in making that statement. I am struck by the statute and the vagaries of it, and I take up Councillor Jones' offer to continue to peruse the statutes, but obstruct and impede investigations, it's without definition. And I think there is a role for our city manager and maybe the chief to begin to explore and help Councillor Jones or other legislators, some of whom we're going to meet with fairly soon, to push on our state authorities to clarify that, whether that's in statute or through the Attorney General. We run a risk, and we also are here to protect our taxpayers. That is the vice that they can put us in. We don't want to be the first and we don't want to be the example. So we need to proceed in unison with other cities and I hope that we can do that and part of that is a legislative role and part of that is in collaboration. I am in favor personally of using our resources to put the information out. I think a GoFundMe page is a harmless act on our part to try to help people in need. And it might even establish a fund for people who will be in need in the future. I really appreciate Project Home. I don't know how boldly the organization wants to be identified, but they are a resource for our community, and they are monitoring information that is no doubt going to change over time. I think there is a challenge to our police force and to our chief and city manager I think the goalposts on policing have moved and I think it puts us in a very unfair position and I think we need to figure out Are there tactics that improve the safety of our citizens? I don't know how we do that and adhere to the other guidance that we are provided but I trust I'm willing to trust and I'm willing to hear and I want to hear I think that's the first step I want to hear if these goalposts are moving can we move with them and and create some some guidance clarity so those are the things I think I I wanted to say I hope we find something positive from these from this session because I think that was our intent is to not just be passive but to find something positive to come from this incident counselor jealous

Thank you, Mayor. I need to correct my statement and my imploring. When I say vote, I'd like everyone to be very clear that if I'm not mistaken, our representation right now at the federal level all voted for the Lake and Riley Act, which has highly exacerbated the horrors that are happening right now. So when you vote, please choose to vote Please make your own choice to vote, but please vote very clearly in mind with what the current people that we have in office have already voted for. You cannot tell me that they're going to change. So be very clear about who you vote for. Vote for change if you want to see something different. Thank you.

Councillor Tobin.

Thank you. Just a couple of other quick thoughts. I thought I had read something about a community having areas designated where a judicial warrant was required to go into those so I'm wondering if that is possible and if that is something that maybe places like the library or the rec center could require a judicial warrant to enter and Another thought, just in terms of how we are taking action, I think Elizabeth mentioned having sent the email to the fire chief about that. And I think that's great. And I think that steps like those are important for the community to see and to understand. I think that kind of helps people feel heard and to also understand the steps we were trying to take and listening.

Just to say that one of the real shortfalls of information we've had is the ability to find out who's been taken and I would I would love for city staff to come up with some system we could have whether it's going to the police chief or whether it's going to the New Hampshire Attorney General but I want to know so that the families of those have been taken the people who've been left behind can be contacted so that their employers can be contacted and so that support can be provided to these families but we don't even know who they are we think three people were taken from Keene that number could very well be more we don't know we we haven't been provided that information that's information we've had to track down on from the affected people, and it's quite possible we're undercounting. We don't believe anyone was taken on Monday, but we don't know for sure. We know that some people had interactions with ICE. We know that a father and son were walking along and had to provide ID so that they could They were very frightened by that. Fortunately, they had papers with them. We know that someone else was detained at a construction truck, but that they were later released. We had to follow up to find that information with the owner of the construction truck. This is not information that, it's information that's being kept from us, it's being hidden from us intentionally and we need to figure out how we can get that information and get that information to people who can help.

Councilor Riddle-Miller.

Thank you, Mayor. There were a couple more bullet points on my list that, so in regards to coming to a consensus on what type of work will need to be done. I just want to echo both what Councillor Williams said, what Councillor Greenwald said. I do feel like there have been so many things going on, and I understand this was kind of like a whiplash situation, but I do feel like we, if, God forbid, it happens, we need faster communication. I don't know, text calls, emails, immediately, just, it's not, it's not, It needs to be better. The other thing I do want, and I didn't write down names of who said things, but to the person who said that they've lost trust and transparency in your government, I'm so sorry that you feel that way. I hope you can see that we're all here to be as transparent and honest with you about the information that we have available to us as possible. I've written down as many of the questions that people asked as I could, and as well as I know all of my other co-counselors are always willing to take calls and emails and answer questions that you have. So please, please don't feel like you can't trust us. I understand it's so hard to trust government in general, but please, we are your neighbors. I've been a counselor since January 1st. I am very much still, this is not like, I don't feel like a politician. I am a member of this community and I ran for council because I care about Keene. So please just know that we stand with you.

If I can maybe move us towards where I think we can head. It is our break. We all deserve that. I know we'll all be communicating with people in our community. Let's hope we don't have more incidents that cause us to have to come together on an emergency basis and hold special meetings between now and September 17th. But the... What I also don't want to see is that we are dormant on following up with folks. and to that extent I want the city manager to follow through with your suggestion you meet with your staff and city staff our city attorney police chief and whoever else you feel is important to the conversation and when we get back together again on September 17th, that's an opportunity to hear back from you. And we see where we take it from there. And hopefully we have no further questions. incidents that bring us together. I'm sorry Mr. Hutchinson but I wanted this part to be the council's communication with each other and if I open it up to you I wind up opening it up to everybody else who is still here and I'm not really interested in doing that.

Yeah.

So what I'm going to do is offer to you and offer to anybody else. No, I'm not going to offer that. I'm going to offer that there's an opportunity for statements that need to go on the record People who aren't in attendance tonight or people who have follow up comments, please get them to the city clerk and we will share those with other members here. if there's no other comments from folks uh i want to wish you a good uh a good holiday break there's no holiday here we'll we'll we'll see you after labor day uh but do stay in touch i think it's been really valuable i think we know now that there's a network of people in the community that want to communicate with the council and let's share information with each other as best we can okay thank you very much for your attendance this evening meeting adjourned