HAVERHILL — The Grafton County sheriff appears reluctant to provide information about her department’s collaboration with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Even other county officials say they’re in the dark.

“There’s no transparency at all,” Grafton County Commissioner Martha McLeod, D-Franconia, said in a phone interview Wednesday. “It’s very concerning.”

On March 7, Sheriff Jill Myers signed a “memorandum of agreement” with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, under a program known as 287(g).

The arrangement allows the department “to have at least one officer trained on the procedures and how they might deal with a situation if they were to encounter someone who was undocumented,” according to the minutes of a March meeting of the County Commissioners.

Myers, a Littleton Democrat elected in November, declined to comment for this story, other than to say that Deputy Sheriff Benjamin Adams has been trained by ICE.

“His time for the training was not funded through this office,” she said without stating the source of the money for his time.

Adams did not return messages seeking comment by deadline.

The money for the training matters because in an April letter to Myers, commissioners argued that since the ICE agreement could have budget implications, she should have consulted the commissioners before she entered into it.

“We would be interested in having her terminate the agreement,” McLeod said. “That’s the purpose of the letter we sent her.”

The letter requested a nonpublic meeting with her to discuss the commissioners’ “concerns” regarding the agreement’s “legality and potential exposure to the County.”

Two months later, commissioners said they have yet to receive a response from Myers and have not met with her.

This week, Myers was on the agenda for Tuesday’s commissioners meeting to provide a monthly report, including an update on any immigration enforcement actions that have been carried out. But Myers “had something else come up apparently,” McLeod said.

“In every other department, we have good communication and a good relationship with them,” McLeod said. “Sheriff Myers is an elected official. I’m sure she feels she can do what she wants in her department, and to some extent that is the case. But when you’re using county funds that’s the purview of the commissioners.”

The 287(g) agreement says that ICE is responsible for installing information technology infrastructure and for providing training, but the local agency must cover all other expenses, including salaries, benefits and local transportation.

“It’s using taxpayers’ dollars for something that’s the federal government’s responsibility,” McLeod said.

Wendy Piper, D-Enfield, was the only one of the three commissioners to vote against sending the letter to Myers in April.

Piper said she understands why the sheriff may not want to meet with the commissioners after a March 25 commission meeting that she characterized as “hostile.”

“I cannot imagine that the sheriff would want to undergo that again,” Piper said.

During the meeting, the three commissioners as well as a handful of Grafton County residents questioned Myers on her decision to enter into the agreement. In some cases, they made clear their opposition.

“I don’t support the letter because I don’t support the overall criticism of the sheriff,” Piper said. “The sheriff had the right to enter into this agreement.”

Piper’s district includes Lebanon and Hanover, two municipalities that have passed ordinances to discourage local law enforcement from partnering with ICE.

But on this issue, Piper supports Myers and the federal agents.

“I think there are a lot of people in Grafton County who support the sheriff, that do not condemn the work of ICE as others do,” Piper said. “ICE is being unfairly represented by the media. I agree with the sheriff on that. The ICE officials that I have heard speak are our brothers, sisters, neighbors, friends and Americans. That is not to say that I don’t think some policies or some practices should be looked at.”

Agents wearing masks to cover their faces is the one policy Piper pointed to that could be examined.

As of Thursday, Myers also had not responded to a petition, signed by over 700 Grafton County residents and sent to her on May 20, which calls on her to terminate the agreement with ICE.

“I don’t even know if she knows about the petition quite frankly, but if she does, it doesn’t seem like she’s very concerned,” Alix Olson, a Canaan resident who helped collect signatures on the petition, said in a phone interview Wednesday.

Olson, a retired law enforcement officer, declined to say whether she plans to take further action if the petition is ignored.

If Myers doesn’t terminate the agreement with ICE, McLeod would like the commissioners to pursue legal action and attempt to end the agreement themselves. However, two new state laws that go into effect in 2026, would stop the commissioners from going over the sheriff’s head.

On May 22, New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed two bills into law that ban municipalities from preventing local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities.

McLeod is hoping someone will sue the state over the new laws.

“I’m waiting to see how it plays out and to see if the sheriff reads our letter,” McLeod said.

Emma Roth-Wells can be reached at erothwells@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.