Sponsors (2)
The bill centralizes and clarifies mandatory detention for immigrants charged with assaults on a wide set of public safety personnel to improve short-term officer and community safety, but it does so by expanding federal detention authority and reducing individualized liberty protections—raising risks of wrongful detention and higher federal costs.
Immigrants charged with assaulting covered law enforcement or first responders will be detained promptly, which reduces short-term risks to officers and public safety.
Responsibility for custody decisions shifts to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which could streamline and centralize detention decisions tied to immigration enforcement.
The bill defines which assaults and which officers are 'covered,' providing clearer statutory criteria that may reduce legal ambiguity about when mandatory detention applies.
People inadmissible under INA §212(a)(6)(A),(C), or (a)(7) who admit or are merely charged with qualifying assaults can be held under mandatory detention without individualized release hearings, reducing procedural protections for noncitizens.
Mandatory detention based on charges or admissions rather than convictions risks detaining individuals who are later found not guilty, increasing wrongful-detention concerns.
Shifting custody responsibility to DHS may increase federal detention workloads and costs, raising taxpayer expenses and straining DHS resources and local partners.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Transfers detention authority to DHS and mandates detention of inadmissible aliens who assault defined law enforcement officers, requiring issuance of detainers and custody transfer.
Introduced January 21, 2025 by Jefferson Van Drew · Last progress January 21, 2025
Amends the immigration detention rules to move certain detention authority from the Attorney General to the Secretary of Homeland Security and to create a new mandatory detention category for inadmissible aliens who are charged with, arrested for, convicted of, or admit to the essential elements of an offense that involves assaulting a law enforcement officer. It defines covered assaults and broadens the definition of "law enforcement officer" to include firefighters and other first responders, and requires DHS to issue a detainer and take custody of such aliens if they are not already detained by federal, state, or local authorities.