Sponsors (19)
The bill seeks to strengthen removal and public reporting for assaults on law enforcement to improve safety and oversight, but it raises significant risks of uneven or overly harsh deportations, greater administrative costs, chilled police cooperation in immigrant communities, and community stigmatization.
Police officers and the public: individuals convicted of assaulting law enforcement can be removed, potentially reducing repeat assaults on officers and improving community safety.
Immigration adjudicators and immigrants: the bill clarifies who counts as a 'law enforcement officer' and what constitutes an 'assault,' giving adjudicators clearer standards for removal decisions and reducing legal ambiguity.
Congress, researchers, and the public: DHS must publish annual, aggregate deportation counts for assaults on law enforcement, increasing transparency and providing data for oversight and policy analysis.
Immigrants and their families: people may be deported based on varying local definitions of 'assault' — including relatively minor or nonviolent conduct in some jurisdictions — increasing risk of removal, family separation, and uneven treatment across states.
Immigration courts, DHS, and taxpayers: the bill will increase enforcement and reporting workload (more removal cases to adjudicate and an annual reporting requirement), likely raising administrative costs and worsening case backlogs.
Immigrant communities and law enforcement: fear that admissions or minor confrontations could trigger removal may chill cooperation with police, harming public safety and access to services.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Makes assaulting a law enforcement officer a specific deportable offense and requires DHS to publish an annual report of deportations under that ground.
Introduced January 3, 2025 by Andrew R. Garbarino · Last progress January 3, 2025
Adds a specific immigration deportation ground for anyone convicted of, or admitting to, assaulting a law enforcement officer when the officer is performing official duties, because of their performance, or because of their status as an officer. Also requires the Department of Homeland Security to publish an annual public report listing the number of deportations under this new deportable-offense provision for the prior year.