The Jan. 8 Town Council meeting was filled to capacity as residents spoke out against the possibility of an ICE detention facility in Merrimack. Courtesy photo/Merrimack TV

MERRIMACK – Just the mere possibility of a federal immigration detention center drew 1,200 residents to Town Hall insisting that local officials quash the proposal.

According to documents obtained by The Washington Post, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would use a former industrial warehouse to hold up to 1,500 detainees. It would be used as a temporary holding facility before detainees are sent to larger detention centers where they would ultimately be deported.

Another 15 smaller detention centers are planned elsewhere across the country as part of an effort to revamp the country’s immigration detention system.

The protest was held the day after ICE agents killed Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother, in Minneapolis, when she joined an effort to prevent agents from infiltrating a neighborhood.

With Town Hall filled to capacity, hundreds of protesters assembled in the parking lot and along Baboosic Lake Road during the Jan. 8 Town Council meeting.

Residents outside Town Hall on Jan. 8 protesting the possibility of an ICE detention facility in Merrimack. Cabinet photo by CHRISTOPHER ROBERSON

Inside, Karla Gutierrez of Burt Street said she was born in Mexico and has lived in Merrimack since 2018.

“I lived in the shadows for so long, until I was 22,” she said, her voice trembling with emotion. “We’re not here to do anything besides work, we’re here to pick your food for very little money. We’re neighbors, we’re friends, this is not what we want.”

Gutierrez said she is hoping for new federal legislation similar to the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the legislation required an “electronic system for verifying the immigration status of alien applicants for and recipients of certain types of federally funded benefits.”

Bridget Boyle of Greatstone Drive, an Irish-American, said the U.S. was built on the backs of immigrants.

“We were your pickers 100 years ago, we were your farmers, we were your maids,” she said.

Residents outside Town Hall on Jan. 8 protesting the possibility of an ICE detention facility in Merrimack. Cabinet photo by CHRISTOPHER ROBERSON

Boyle also said that by allowing a detention center, Merrimack would open itself up to legal action that would linger long after President Donald Trump has left office.

“The lawsuits that will be put against our town because of a detention center will be enormous,” she said.

Timothy Fischer of Greatstone Drive said he is a descendant of illegal immigrants who sailed from Ireland to Canada before crossing the border into the U.S.

“They came in through the back door,” he said. “That means when it was dark enough at night, they walked into Maine and kept going until they got to Boston.”

Fischer also said Merrimack is not the place for a detention holding facility.

Residents lined Baboosic Lake Road in front of Town Hall on Jan. 8 protesting the possibility of an ICE detention facility in Merrimack. Cabinet photo by CHRISTOPHER ROBERSON

“It is the ghetto people are being sent to before being sent to the concentration camps that we call detention centers,” he said.

Karen Hewes of Powderhouse Road said 70 percent of the current ICE detainees have no criminal convictions.

“ICE tactics are callous, inhumane and violent,” she said. “Merrimack is a town where we support and welcome immigrants, we do not and should not house them in warehouses.”

In a statement, Democrat Karishma Manzur, a candidate for U.S. Senate, said immigrants are the very definition of the American Dream.

“While millions of Americans go hungry and lose healthcare, Donald Trump is spending billions of our tax dollars violating the Constitution. Masked ICE agents are ripping people from their communities without warrants, due process or the rule of law. Secret removals and fear-driven policies threaten all our freedoms,” she said. “Immigrants aren’t strangers. They are our coworkers, neighbors and small business owners. They aren’t just a part of the American story, they are the American story. Immigration is our strength and it’s time our laws reflected that.”

Residents outside Town Hall on Jan. 8 protesting the possibility of an ICE detention facility in Merrimack. Cabinet photo by CHRISTOPHER ROBERSON