[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1823 Introduced in Senate (IS)]








109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1823

To empower States and local governments to prosecute illegal aliens and 
 to authorize the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish a pilot 
                   Volunteer Border Marshal Program.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            October 5, 2005

Mrs. Hutchison introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
               referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To empower States and local governments to prosecute illegal aliens and 
 to authorize the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish a pilot 
                   Volunteer Border Marshal Program.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Illegal Immigration Enforcement and 
Empowerment Act''.

SEC. 2. STATE ENFORCEMENT AND EMPOWERMENT.

    (a) In General.--A State or unit of local government may 
investigate, identify, apprehend, arrest, detain, prosecute, and impose 
criminal or civil penalties upon any individual who violates--
            (1) a Federal immigration law; or
            (2) a State law that is based, in part, upon the violation 
        of Federal immigration law.
    (b) Limitation.--Criminal penalties imposed under subsection (a) 
may not exceed the penalties authorized under section 275(a) of the 
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1325(a)).
    (c) Federal Determination of Immigration Status.--No penalty may be 
imposed upon an individual under this section unless the individual has 
been identified by the Federal Government as having violated a Federal 
immigration law.

SEC. 3. VOLUNTEER BORDER MARSHAL PROGRAM.

    (a) Establishment.--Not later than 90 days after the date of 
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security may establish 
a pilot Volunteer Border Marshal Program (referred to in this section 
as the ``Program'').
    (b) Purpose.--The purpose of the Program is to assist the 
Department of Homeland Security in securing the borders of the United 
States in a safe and orderly manner by using volunteer, State-licensed 
peace officers who are already well trained.
    (c) Assignments.--Upon deployment, the volunteer peace officers 
shall be sworn in as Special United States Border Marshals and shall be 
assigned to the Office of Border Patrol, which shall act as the lead 
agency of the Program.
    (d) Rotations.--The volunteer peace officers shall rotate on 
temporary missions along the international borders of the United States 
to assist the Office of Border Patrol in identifying and controlling 
illegal immigration and human and drug trafficking.
    (e) Definition.--In this section, the term ``peace officer'' means 
any law enforcement agent, whether currently employed or retired, who 
is licensed by a State authority to enforce State or local penal 
offenses.
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