Commissioner resigns after records revealed her agency failed to communicate ICE facility plans

The head of the state agency that failed to communicate the federal government’s interest in a Merrimack property for an immigration enforcement facility has resigned.

Sarah Stewart, commissioner of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, said the information about the facility was not intentionally withheld from the governor’s office.

That didn’t stop Governor Kelly Ayotte from asking Stewart to step down. On Monday, Ayotte accepted Stewart’s resignation, effective immediately.

Last week, the ACLU of New Hampshire obtained records from Stewart’s department that revealed federal authorities’ plans to purchase a large warehouse in Merrimack for Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.

Ayotte called the state agency’s lapse a “serious loss of communication.”

“I find that unacceptable because we were trying to have an open dialogue with Merrimack about this facility — or potential facility, if it exists — because in my view, the local town of Merrimack should have an ability to know what is happening in their community, and they should be able to weigh in on what is happening in their community,” Ayotte said.

Stewart said she had no knowledge of the plans until the governor’s office contacted her after the ACLU released the records. An employee in the Division of Historical Resources had received an inquiry from ICE in January, she said.

Executive councilors questioned her at a meeting last week about why that information failed to make it up the chain of command. Stewart said the information was not intentionally withheld.

The federal government is required to assess the impact of projects on historic properties under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. New Hampshire receives more than a thousand of those consultations each year, Stewart said, and it’s considered a routine process.

“Receiving a Section 106 letter does not mean a project is approved, imminent or even certain to proceed,” Stewart told councilors last week. “Where the process failed is internal notification. Division leadership should have elevated this consultation to me because of its potential public sensitivity. That did not happen.”

Stewart did not respond to the Monitor‘s interview request.

Ayotte previously told reporters that the White House and Department of Homeland Security had not answered her questions about the plans after they were first reported by The Washington Post in December.

Ayotte plans to nominate Adam Crepeau, deputy commissioner of the Department of Environmental Services, to temporarily fill the role as she searches for a new agency head.

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