By By Ian Lenahan Portsmouth Herald,Ian Lenahan Portsmouth Herald

Copyright keenesentinel

PORTSMOUTH — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement flights in and out of Portsmouth International Airport at Pease have been paused, but the question remains whether they will resume.

“In the past 12 days, I don’t believe we’ve had any flights,” Paul Brean, executive director for the Pease Development Authority, said Tuesday. “We’re a publicly funded airport. Homeland Security dictates where they’re going to operate these flights. I’m not aware that there will be any other flights in the very near future, but Homeland Security will often for logistical reasons move flights around.”

Detainee flights have shifted back to Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts after being discontinued earlier in the summer, according to WBUR. The immigration flights began in Portsmouth in mid-July as they paused at Hanscom.

Since mid-summer, people in shackles had until very recently been spotted being brought onto planes on the Pease tarmac, including Sept. 2, when the Navy’s Blue Angels arrived in Portsmouth ahead of the Thunder Over New Hampshire Air Show. GlobalX, Eastern Air Express and Avelo Airlines are among the airliners that have been used for the flights, which began in Portsmouth in mid-July.

Watchdog residents and immigration advocates have counted more than 400 people brought onto local ICE flights since early August.

Pease board hears again from ICE flights opponents

ICE flight opponents and elected officials on Tuesday again implored the Pease Development Authority’s board of directors to take action.

“How much is the value of a human life?” asked Kline Dickens, a North Hampton resident.

Former U.S. Sen. Gordon Humphrey, who also made his case at the PDA’s August meeting, suggested the board designate Portsmouth International Airport at Pease as a sanctuary airport free from immigration enforcement.

The PDA’s counsel will review the pitch.

Humphrey, who served two terms in the U.S. Senate as a Republican before becoming an independent, said the board would be protected by the anti-commandeering doctrine in the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution.

“The state of New Hampshire is not a unit of the federal government. The departments of the state are not agents of the office of the president. The Pease Development Authority board members are not agents of the President of the United States or Secretary of Homeland Security, or any other federal agency … you are not,” he said.

Multiple meeting attendees, including Megan Chapman, a human rights lawyer from Albany, N.H., alleged PDA staff have covered their badges to avoid being identified during ICE flight operations at the airport.

“This is an abomination. We know that the Pease Development Authority is not pleased with what’s happening,” Chapman said.

Duprey asked attendees to share the alleged footage of staff covering their badges. He stated PDA and Port City Air staff need to check the identification of anyone attempting to get onto the tarmac.

“It’s time for moral courage. It’s time to stand up. I want everyone here to know that we — the citizens of this state and this country, your local residents — are here to support you when you take a stand and you do the right thing,” Chapman added.

Lisa Beaudoin, executive director of the N.H. Council of Churches, read aloud a letter encouraging the PDA board to note their concerns to the state’s congressional delegation and the Department of Homeland Security.

“You can affirm that Pease ought to not be a staging ground for secretive and unjust removals of our neighbors,” the council’s letter said in part. “Pease can be a model of transparency, fairness and hospitality to all.”

For the second straight month, attendees showed up in force to the PDA’s board of directors meetings to question officials on how to restrict or end ICE flights out of Pease altogether.

PDA leader says federal government is in charge

Brean prepared a memorandum outlining the deed covenants that the Federal Aviation Administration included in the no-cost transfer of Portsmouth International Airport to the Pease Development Authority after Pease Air Force Base closed.

Namely, the PDA must make the airport’s facilities available to all government aircraft without charge, according to Brean.

“The deed covenants noted above protect the right of the federal government to utilize (Portsmouth International Airport) in common with other aircraft, without discrimination,” Brean wrote. “PDA action to impede, limit, or prohibit these federal government flights would violate the transfer deed covenants, subjecting the PDA to liability under the deed and opening the door to the possibility of reverter of the property to the federal government.”

The PDA’s counsel noted the Constitution’s supremacy clause trumps all state regulations.

“Here, the federal government has chosen to utilize (Portsmouth International Airport) for certain immigration-related flights consistent with its rights as set forth herein — the PDA had and has no role in the decision to utilize (the airport) for that purpose or to cease utilizing (the airport) for it,” Brean’s memorandum adds.

Federal grants additionally prohibit the PDA from taking action, the memorandum states.

Stephen Duprey, the board’s chairperson, billed the deed covenants as “extraordinarily severe” limitations on the agency’s ability to act.

Protest preceded PDA meeting

A protest against ICE was held outside the PDA’s offices before the board of directors assembled Tuesday. Attendees held signs and led chants.

Dover residents Cynthia and Dennis Downs said they served in the Peace Corps and have relatives from Guatemala and Turkey who became American citizens.

Cynthia Downs, who said she is a former U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services staffer, wore a head-to-toe Statue of Liberty costume.

“It’s scary,” she said of recent immigration enforcement actions.

“It is crazy the way things are turning out now,” Dennis Downs said.