WRITTEN IN GRANITE: Former Budweiser plant may be put on ICE

“Hold your horses!” The Clydesdales, that is.

Merrimack, a vibrant community of about 30,000 residents, has been dominating headlines lately.

The famous Anheuser-Busch beer brewing facility, located near the Nashua line, which opened in 1970 and quickly became a major employer in Southern New Hampshire for several decades and the major Anheuser-Busch distribution hub for New England and the Northeast is on the chopping block.

“This Bud’s for You” no longer applies.

The news that the plant would suddenly cease operations by February has caught many by surprise. The massive facility sits on about 300 acres, and the company is taking steps to “update and modernize” its U.S. infrastructure. Unfortunately, 124 employees here would be impacted by the shutdown.

The other curious headline came from the Washington Post on Christmas Eve and has folks across Southern New Hampshire baffled: “ICE documents reveal plan to hold 80,000 immigrants in warehouses.” The article went on to state that “The Trump administration aims to build seven large-scale holding centers to speed up deportations, internal ICE documents show.”

Additionally, the article displayed a map, and “16 smaller warehouses would hold up to 1,500 people each.”

Merrimack was named to the smaller warehouse list, according to internal U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement documents.

Oddly, no one gave Merrimack the head’s-up, including its Town Manager Paul Micali. The phone continues to ring off the hook at Town Hall, but it’s a waiting game, and there’s little he can say. “We’ve had no prior knowledge of a warehouse for Merrimack.” Micali hopes for answers as Congress returns today from Christmas recess.

Social media has been abuzz with rumors that Merrimack’s ICE warehouse could end up in the Anheuser-Busch facility, and some think the sudden shutdown of the brewing company is suspicious.

That’s incredulous — a detention center at the former home of the Budweiser Clydesdales and company? Whichever industrial facility is chosen would have to be extensively modified to include housing units, showers, dining facilities, medical areas and recreation space.

Some people don’t want ICE hitching its wagon to the Granite State, especially the Nashua area, because the federal agency allegedly detains individuals unlawfully, denies due process, separates families and exhibits a lack of human decency.

New Hampshire state Rep. Rosemarie Rung has called Merrimack her home since 1983. She and her husband, John, chose to raise their family here because the town has a wonderful hometown feel.

“It’s a community that builds family; we take care of each other,” Rung tells me. “We’ve been at our wits’ end about plans for a human warehouse here. We’re not the kind of community that reflects that type of behavior.”

Rung says it’s time for Gov. Kelly Ayotte to stand up to the Trump administration and ICE and tell them, “Take New Hampshire off your map!”

I asked Town Manager Micali what would happen if ICE issued an order to make one of Merrimack’s former industrial warehouses an immigrant detention and processing site. He tells me that town officials would regroup.

“We would discuss with our legal team about what we can or cannot do,” Micali said.

Meantime, Micali said that the Anheuser-Busch facility is a huge loss. The site, located at 221 Daniel Webster Highway (Route 3), sits on a major road in Merrimack, near the Everett Turnpike and is a prime piece of property.

Whatever eventually takes over that industrial-zoned land, Micali hopes it’s something that allows Merrimack “to continue to succeed and prosper.”