H.R. 3003 Significantly Expands State and Local Involvement in Immigration Enforcement. The bill strips jurisdictions of the ability to enact common-sense trust policies that disentangle local law enforcement from federal immigration enforcement. It prohibits them from declining detainer requests even when compliance would put them in violation of binding court orders. And it likely violates the Tenth Amendment by “commandeering” states to comply with detainer requests that drain their resources.
H.R. 3003 Makes Communities Less Safe. The bill forces jurisdictions to choose between critical Federal law enforcement funding and common sense community trust policies designed to promote cooperation with law enforcement and ensure that victims of crime will seek protection and report crimes.
H.R. 3003’s Expansion of Detention Authority Raises Fourth Amendment Concerns. The bill’s changes to DHS’s detainer authority exacerbate the current Fourth Amendment concerns associated with immigration detainers. It does not require any particularized finding about the individual that may form the basis of a probable cause determination and fails to provide for a prompt judicial determination of probable cause, either in the form of a warrant or a prompt hearing post-arrest. Not only does the bill invite law enforcement to violate the Fourth Amendment, it provides them immunity for doing so.
H.R. 3003’s Authorization of Indefinite Detention is Constitutionally Suspect. The bill further compounds these constitutional concerns by eliminating the ability for a detained individual to obtain an independent, individualized review of his or her bond determination by a neutral decision maker.
H.R. 3004, Kate’s Law
H.R. 3004 is an anti-immigrant, enforcement-only proposal that represents another step in President Trump’s Mass Deportation plan. The bill significantly expands the federal government’s ability to prosecute individuals for illegal re-entry and attempted re-entry, creating a draconian enforcement scheme with no exceptions. A full fact sheet is available here.
H.R. 3004 Would Ensnare Non-Criminals: This bill does more than just enhance penalties for individuals with criminal records. It allows for the first time the prosecution of any previously removed individual who voluntarily presents herself at the border to seek asylum or other form of admission. This is true whether or not the individual has any criminal record.
H.R. 3004 Will Not Deter Illegal Re-entries: There is no evidence that increased criminal prosecutions for illegal entry and re-entry deter border crossings. A recent report by DHS’s Office of Inspector General on the 2015 Operation Streamline, which increased criminal prosecutions for illegal entry and re-entry, found that there was no clear evidence that criminal prosecutions lead to reduced recidivism.
H.R. 3004 Could Result in Mass Arrests in the Interior of the U.S.: Nothing in this bill limits prosecutions to the border region. Anyone with an applicable history of re-entries could be prosecuted in the interior of the country. An expansion of this illegal re-entry statute could have drastic consequences if it is applied widely within the interior of the country. Thousands of immigrants, many of them non-criminals, could be apprehended and jailed for decades.
H.R. 3004 Would Expand the Private Prison Industry: The expanded prison sentences under the bill will cost the American taxpayers millions of dollars with little benefit. The only constituencies that will benefit from this detention expansion are private prison companies.
H.R. 3004 is Part of a Larger Mass Deportation Plan: This bill is a portion of the mass deportation bill known as the “Davis Oliver Act” (H.R. 2431) which has been cited as a priority for the Trump Administration. Anti-immigrant groups such as Numbers USA and the Center for Immigration Studies support the Davis Oliver Act because it would lead to mass incarceration and deportation of millions of immigrants.
