New Hampshire state Rep. John Hunt said comments he made that people of “olive skin” tone should carry identification when near the border during a hearing earlier this month were general to anybody, though he went on to say that in hindsight, he should have worded it differently.

“If you are hiking around the border, you probably should bring some identification. If you are hiking in that area, if you chose to hike up there, you should have ID, whether you’re the whitest person in the world,” Hunt, a Rindge Republican, said in an interview with the Ledger-Transcript.

The comments were made during a Committee of Conference discussion June 6 regarding new trespassing laws on current-use land. The COC meets when members of the House and Senate differ on bills. In the case of House Bill 1018, the Senate had amended the bill, which originally dealt with laws relative to liquor and hookah products licenses. The amendment added new language which updated the rules around land in current use and designated as open space. Specifically, the amendment added language to allow the owner of land in current use to post “No Trespassing” signs, as long as the sign makes exceptions for “skiing, snowshoeing, fishing, hunting, hiking or nature observation.”

The language was pulled from Senate Bill 504 and attached to HB 1018. During the conference, Republican state Sen. Jeb Bradley, who sponsored the Senate bill, said though the bill makes no mention of it, one of the intents of the bill was to allow local law enforcement an option to detain potential border-crossers on New Hampshire’s northern border with Canada.

In the video from the state House’s YouTube channel, Democratic state Rep. Anita Burroughs questioned whether the law could be used to profile American citizens, particularly people of color.

“So, I’m still trying to point my finger how this bill is going to work to prevent illegal crossings. How do you determine someone might be illegal?” Burroughs said. “For example, I live on the National Forest, I live in the north, I have a stepson; he’s born and bred in New Hampshire, he’s very dark-skinned – just how he is. Why would he maybe not possibly be detained if he was hiking in the North Country because he was dark-skinned?”

Burroughs said her stepson could pass as anything from Mexican to Saudi Arabian, and she feared this change could be “used as an excuse to potentially harass people who look like they might be from another country.”

Hunt, in response to Burroughs’ comments, asked, “But does he go hiking without his wallet? Without his driver’s license?”

“Yeah. Oh, yeah. Particularly where we live, he absolutely goes without his license and all that,” Burroughs replied.

Hunt asked if he drove in a car to get to hiking spots, to which Burroughs replied that he sometimes will leave directly from her home to hike.

“I guess if he’s of a certain olive skin, maybe that’s a good idea to have a wallet with him,” Hunt replied.

Hunt later added that “If he happened to be walking around the National Forest, in our state, on the capital, on the U.S. line, you don’t think maybe it’s a good idea? I’m not expecting you to have your passport with you, but wouldn’t you have your wallet on you, in case you want to stop at a store and buy a beer?”

Hunt also questioned the likelihood of someone being stopped who was clearly in the midst of allowed activities on current-use land.

“I guess this could be the curse of having things on YouTube, but if you watch it, I’m not saying that only people with olive skin should have ID when they hike. I clearly state anyone,” Hunt said.

Referring to a Granite Post TikTok video of the hearing, he said, “I don’t think anyone thinks that’s who I am. To me, this is the curse of these things, trying to make a story when there wasn’t one. But I guess I have to be more conscious of that, that anyone can take what I say and distort it.”

Hunt said that the conversation around using the bill in the context of border control was a “red herring” to the core of what it does, which is preserve the rights of landholders with property in current use, while maintaining the public’s right to access it for passive recreation. He said the bill explicitly allows activities such as hiking or observing nature.

“How this had anything to do with requiring people to have IDs, or about profiling, was a red herring and a reason to be opposed to the bill,” Hunt said. “If you’re hiking in the woods, this law is a good thing, because it explicitly states you can hike. No one’s going to have a reason to check to see if you have an ID, if you’re hiking.”