Vacationing in NH's White Mountains this summer? Stay away unless you want to be treated like a criminal (Updated)

image credit: Concord Monitor

Since last year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) have been conducting immigration checkpoints in Hew Hampshire's White Mountains.

NH's motto 'Live Free or Die' is fast becoming a joke to all who visit.

Why would I say that?

Because this past Memorial Day weekend, State Police with DHS funding, conducted a two-day DWI 'saturation patrol' in Conway from 9 PM-3 AM stopping ninety motorists. Anyone familiar with North Conway knows that most bars and restaurants close at 1AM and stopping ninety Conway residents would have caused a public outcry.

So who were the police targeting? Could it be vacationers? You be the judge.

While this was happening in Conway, State Police and the CBP also set up a three-day 'immigration' checkpoint in the White Mountains, stopping thousands of motorists along Route 93.

image credit: WMUR

Not to be outdone, NH's Forest Rangers conducted 'Firewood Quarantine' checkpoints, stopping and questioning vacationers about out of state firewood.

That's a total of three different police checkpoints in the White Mountains! (Click here to find out how police conduct thirty-three different checkpoints.)

Updated 6/8:

NH begins using license plate readers to spy on tourists
After ten years NH's law enforcement has finally succeeded in convincing law makers to allow them to use license plate readers to spy on everyone (tourists).

“We’re very excited about this and it’s been quite a while in coming,” said Lincoln Police Chief Ted Smith, standing just outside the vehicle on display at the New Hampshire Chiefs of Police Public Safety Expo in the Manchester Downtown Hotel on Thursday.

“I find the use of these license plate scanners for any purpose to be abhorrent and not in our New Hampshire tradition,” said state Rep. J.R. Hoell, R-Dunbarton. “There’s no other way to describe what this is other than an intrusion into someone’s privacy.”

Last year, I warned everyone that police use checkpoints as a pretext to look inside vehicles and intimidate tourists into letting them search their cars.

Changing the name from 'Firewood' checkpoints to 'Firewood Quarantine' checkpoints does not change the fact that they are being used as an end run around our Constitution.

Why don't newspapers like the Conway Daily Sun, the Union Leader and the Concord Monitor sound the alarm? It's not like this is a new thing, they've been reporting on it for nearly two years now.

Why are they giving DHS a free pass to turn one of the ten best adventure towns in the country? Into one of the ten most checkpointed towns in America?  (Yes, I made that word up.)

For tourists asking what to do in NH's White Mountains this summer?

I bet none of them thought it would entail having your family being questioned by law enforcement.

Unfortunately I have some more bad news, it appears things are going to get worse.

CBP plans to conduct five more checkpoints
Yesterday, the Union Leader reported that DHS plans to conduct five more immigration checkpoints.

"Federal border patrol officials plan to conduct another five checkpoints in New Hampshire in 2018. The agency has previously said that checkpoints are “a critical enforcement tool for the enforcement of our immigration laws.”

It appears that 'Firewood Quarantine' checkpoints will also become a regular thing in the White Mountains.

An article in today's Laconia Daily Sun reminds tourists to expect more checkpoints.

"The Division of Forests and Lands, Forest Rangers will be enforcing the firewood quarantine this weekend with roadside checkpoints."

Don't forget in much of New England the CBP responds to domestic 911 calls and has the power to ticket tourists for speeding and much more.

How much business will be lost as vacationers from Canada, Massachusetts and beyond, stop coming to North Conway because DHS is turning it into an excuse to stop, question and search everyone?
My advice to anyone thinking of vacationing in the White Mountains this summer. Stay away unless you want to be treated like a criminal.