Durbin, Padilla Introduce New Legislation To Prevent Unlawful Immigration Arrests & Detentions
The Immigration Warrant Reform Act would establish criteria for warrantless arrests and require timely bond hearings.
WASHINGTON – After immigration enforcement agents have arbitrarily arrested countless U.S. citizens and immigrants with lawful status, U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Border Security and Immigration, introduced new legislation to clarify existing requirements for immigration arrests and codify statutory procedures to prevent unlawful arrests and detentions. U.S. Senators Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Angus King (I-ME), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Patty Murray (D-WA), and Cory Booker (D-NJ) joined as cosponsors.
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In a concurrence in Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo, Justice Kavanaugh relied on these gaps in immigration laws to find that immigration agents may makestops based solely on apparent race and ethnicity, speaking Spanish or English with an accent,and presence at certain worksites. The Trump Administration has gone beyond “stops” to arrest and even brutally attack U.S. citizens and immigrants without probable cause or a warrant for the arrest. The Trump Administration has further interpreted immigrationlaws to require immigration judges to deny bond to any noncitizen who entered the United States withoutinspection, regardless of how long they have been in the country, and severely limit theopportunities for an immigration judge to release noncitizens on bond.
“The disturbing reality today is that many American citizens and immigrants with lawful status have been caught in the Trump Administration’s indiscriminate and violent immigration enforcement dragnet across the country,” Durbin said. “As Justice Sotomayor stated in her dissent in Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo, referring to immigration agents: ‘United States citizens are … being seized, taken from their jobs, and prevented from working to support themselves and their families.’ This must stop. The Immigration Warrant Reform Act will help prevent these due process violations while ensuring noncitizens who present a threat to public safety are not released. It is commonsense, and I encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support it.”
“Republicans continued to write blank checks to ICE and CBP while serious concerns remain about officer and agent training, accountability, and the treatment of U.S. citizens,” said Padilla. “Every person in America has civil rights — in spite of this Administration’s total disregard for the Constitution. This bill would establish stronger accountability and oversight, restore due process, and ensure federal immigration enforcement respects the rights and safety of Americans and noncitizens alike.”
The Immigration Warrant Reform Act would bring immigration enforcement procedures in line with the standards that all law enforcement have to follow, by—
- Codifying specific criteria for warrantless civil immigration arrests in the interior of the United States—
- To limit the circumstances for warrantless arrest to those where a noncitizen presents an imminent danger to the community requiring immediate arrest, and is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained; and
- To require a bond hearing within 24 hours of any warrantless arrest to determine whether the conditions above were met, and release the individual if they do not present a danger to the community;
- Codifying in statute criteria for obtaining an administrative warrant to arrest a noncitizen for civil immigration enforcement purposes, including by requiring immigration officers to—
- Document probable cause of an individual’s inadmissibility and removability under the Immigration and Nationality Act; and
- Obtain approval for an administrative warrant from a supervisory immigration officer;
- Codifying in statute the requirement for periodic hearings in front of an immigration judge or federal judge for detained noncitizens; and
- Clarifying that mandatory detention provisions applicable at the border should not apply to immigrants in the interior of the United States.
These changes would not allow for release of noncitizens who present a threat to public safety.
Bill text is available here.
A section-by-section of the bill is available here.
In December, Durbin launched an investigation into the reported arrests of U.S. citizens under the Trump Administration’s violent immigration enforcement agenda. In a letter to then-DHS Secretary Noem, Durbin called out the dangerous and reckless enforcement actions, including arrests and detentions of U.S. citizens and targeting of minorities in cities like Chicago.
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