Former U.S. Sen. Gordon Humphrey, a New Hampshire Republican, wants Portsmouth International Airport at Pease to become a “sanctuary airport.”

Humphrey and several opponents of the deportations and transfers in and out of New Hampshire by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) pleaded with the board that runs the airport to stand up to the federal government Tuesday morning. A volunteer group has tallied more than 400 flights from Pease and 55 buses full of detainees coming in and out of the airport since August.

“Your employees and their services, at the expense of the taxpayers, are being commandeered to do what I may call the dirty work of ICE, and that’s simply intolerable,” Humphrey told Pease Development Authority board members.

Humphrey cited the anti-commandeering doctrin

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