LEBANON, N.H. — Federal immigration officials are conducting a Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 89 southbound in Lebanon between exits 19 and 18 this morning.
Lebanon police are not involved, Lebanon Police Chief Richard Mello said, but Border Patrol agents notified his agency within the last week that a checkpoint would take place.
Mello said he had no details about the checkpoint, but that he was “assuming” agents were stopping vehicles to ask for people’s immigration status.
“I don’t know their procedure,” Mello said.
Each car in both lanes on the southbound side of the interstate was being stopped by one of 20 or so agents. A reporter and photographer who went through the checkpoint said an agent asked: “Are you a U.S. citizen?” After they answered in the affirmative, the agent waved them through.
At least three cars had been pulled to the side around 10:50 a.m.
A message left for U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Steven Cribby about the operation wasn’t returned on Thursday morning.
A checkpoint hasn’t been held in Lebanon in Mello’s four-year tenure; federal immigration officials held such stops in the past along Interstate 91 in Hartford several years ago, and Border Patrol agents also boarded a Greyhound bus in White River Junction two years ago.
The checkpoint also comes as the town of Hartford since early June has been discussing ways to provide increased protections for undocumented immigrants in town.
