[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1493 Introduced in House (IH)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1493

To require the Attorney General to establish a program in local prisons 
 to identify, prior to arraignment, criminal aliens and aliens who are 
    unlawfully present in the United States, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 30, 1997

     Mr. Gallegly (for himself, Mr. Royce, Mr. Packard, Mr. Cox of 
 California, Mr. Rohrabacher, Mr. Cunningham, Mr. Riggs, Mr. Calvert, 
  Mr. Kim, and Mr. Bilbray) introduced the following bill; which was 
               referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To require the Attorney General to establish a program in local prisons 
 to identify, prior to arraignment, criminal aliens and aliens who are 
    unlawfully present in the United States, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. PROGRAM OF IDENTIFICATION OF CERTAIN DEPORTABLE ALIENS 
              AWAITING ARRAIGNMENT.

    (a) Establishment of Program.--Not later than 6 months after the 
date of the enactment of this Act, the Attorney General shall establish 
and implement a program to identify, from among the individuals who are 
incarcerated in local governmental incarceration facilities prior to 
arraignment on criminal charges, those individuals who are within 1 or 
more of the following classes of deportable aliens:
            (1) Aliens unlawfully present in the United States.
            (2) Aliens described in paragraph (2) or (4) of section 
        237(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (as redesigned by 
        section 305(a)(2) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and 
        Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996).
    (b) Description of Program.--The program authorized by subsection 
(a) shall include--
            (1) the detail, to each incarceration facility selected 
        under subsection (c), of at least one employee of the 
        Immigration and Naturalization Service who has expertise in the 
        identification of aliens described in such subsection; and
            (2) provision of funds sufficient to provide for--
                    (A) the detail of such employees to each selected 
                facility on a full-time basis, including the portions 
                of the day or night when the greatest number of 
                individuals are incarcerated prior to arraignment;
                    (B) access for such employees to records of the 
                Service and other Federal law enforcement agencies that 
                are necessary to identify such aliens; and
                    (C) in the case of an individual identified as such 
                an alien, pre-arraignment reporting to the court 
                regarding the Service's intention to remove the alien 
                from the United States.
    (c) Selection of Facilities.--
            (1) In general.--The Attorney General shall select for 
        participation in the program each incarceration facility that 
        satisfies the following requirements:
                    (A) The facility is owned by the government of a 
                local political subdivision described in clause (i) or 
                (ii) of subparagraph (C).
                    (B) Such government has submitted a request for 
                such selection to the Attorney General.
                    (C) The facility is located--
                            (i) in a county that is determined by the 
                        Attorney General to have a high concentration 
                        of aliens described in subsection (a); or
                            (ii) in a city, town, or other analogous 
                        local political subdivision, that is determined 
                        by the Attorney General to have a high 
                        concentration of such aliens (but only in the 
                        case of a facility that is not located in a 
                        county).
            (2) Number of qualifying subdivisions.--The total number of 
        local political subdivisions determined under clauses (i) and 
        (ii) of paragraph (1)(C) to meet the standard in such clauses 
        shall not be less than 100.
            (3) Treatment of certain facilities.--All of the 
        incarceration facilities within the county of Orange, 
        California, and the county of Ventura, California, shall be 
        selected for participation in the program.

SEC. 2. STUDY AND REPORT.

    Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, 
the Attorney General shall complete a study, and submit a report to the 
Congress, concerning the logistical and technological feasibility of 
implementing the program under section 1 in a greater number of 
locations than those selected under such section through--
            (1) the assignment of a single Immigration and 
        Naturalization Service employee to more than 1 incarceration 
        facility; and
            (2) the development of a system to permit the Attorney 
        General to conduct off-site verification, by computer or other 
        electronic means, of the immigration status of individuals who 
        are incarcerated in local governmental incarceration facilities 
        prior to arraignment on criminal charges.
                                 <all>