[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6361 Introduced in House (IH)]
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115th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 6361
To establish a Commission tasked with establishing a humane immigration
enforcement system, terminate Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and
for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 12, 2018
Mr. Pocan (for himself, Ms. Jayapal, Mr. Espaillat, Mr. Serrano, Mr.
Blumenauer, Mr. McGovern, Mr. Smith of Washington, Ms. Velazquez, and
Ms. Clarke of New York) introduced the following bill; which was
referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the
Committees on Ways and Means, and Homeland Security, for a period to be
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration
of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee
concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To establish a Commission tasked with establishing a humane immigration
enforcement system, terminate Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 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. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Establishing a Humane Immigration
Enforcement System Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) In 2003, under the Bush Administration, critical
immigration enforcement functions were transferred away from
the Department of Justice to the newly created U.S. Immigration
Customs and Enforcement (ICE) under the guise of national
security. At the same time, a separate agency, Customs and
Border Patrol, was also established with prime responsibility
for border security activities.
(2) In 2004, the Department of Justice stated, ``The
primary mission of ICE is to prevent acts of terrorism by
targeting the people, money, and materials that support
terrorist and criminal activities''.
(3) Only a fraction of ICE resources and personnel are
dedicated to ICE's original mission of tracking terrorism and
transnational crime syndicates domestically and
internationally, creating serious challenges for national
security. The Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) division
of ICE, which fights human trafficking, drug smuggling and
trade fraud and is critical to national security, has been
deprioritized.
(4) In June 2018, 19 ICE Homeland Security Investigations
Division (HSI) employees, including a majority of special
agents in charge of HSI, called on DHS Secretary Nielsen to
remove HSI from ICE to improve HSI's ability to function
effectively and to stop ICE's reprogramming of HSI funds for
Enforcement and Removal Operations. The letter also stated that
HSI's work is compromised by the reluctance among State and
local law enforcement to collaborate with HSI given ICE's civil
immigration enforcement focus.
(5) ICE's work has radically shifted from its ``primary
mission'' of preventing acts of terrorism, as articulated by
the Department of Justice in 2004, to carrying out detention
and deportation activities as its core focus. Nearly 60 percent
of ICE's $7.1 billion budget goes to detention and removal
operations. Such removal operations tend to focus on
individuals who are being prosecuted simply for illegal entry
or re-entry, have no other criminal history and pose no threat
to national security. These removal operations have torn apart
families and communities and disrupted businesses throughout
the country.
(6) ICE contracts out billions of taxpayer dollars every
year to private, for-profit prison companies that have eschewed
transparency and accountability, and operate at significantly
higher expense to taxpayers than lower-cost alternatives to
detention. As of August 2016, nearly three-quarters of the
average daily population in immigration detention were held in
facilities operated by private prison companies.
(7) Numerous Federal oversight bodies, including the
Government Accountability Office and the DHS Office of the
Inspector General, have documented a disregard for
congressional oversight and substandard conditions and inhumane
treatment of those in ICE detention, which contravene ICE's own
standards and Federal and international legal protections. In
addition, other credible reports indicate violations of due
process, and noncompliance with international and domestic
legal protections. ICE detention facilities fail to meet ICE's
own standards and have no meaningful oversight.
(8) The Department of Homeland Security's Office of
Inspector General issued a December 2017 report cataloguing
violations of compliance with ICE detention standards regarding
conditions for detainees ``that undermine the protection of
detainees' rights, their humane treatment, and the provision of
a safe and healthy environment.''
(9) A June 2018 report by the DHS OIG titled, ``ICE's
Inspections and Monitoring of Detention Facilities Do Not Lead
to Sustained Compliance or Systemic Improvements'' found that
``neither the inspections nor the onsite monitoring ensure
consistent compliance with detention standards, nor do they
promote comprehensive deficiency corrections'' and that ``ICE
does not adequately follow up on identified deficiencies or
consistently hold facilities accountable for correcting them,
which further diminishes the usefulness of inspections''.
(10) According to an independent analysis by medical
experts, more than half of the ``detainee death reviews''
published by ICE from December 2015 to April 2017 show that
inadequate medical care contributed or led to the person's
death in ICE detention.
(11) Sexual and physical abuse is rampant in ICE custody.
Independent analysis of 1,224 complaints of sexual and physical
abuse in ICE custody filed between 2010 and September 2017
found that over half reported an officer or private detention
contractor as the perpetrator of alleged abuses and that the
Office of Inspector General investigated only 30 of these
complaints. Data on sexual assault in ICE detention found that
LGBT people were 97 times more likely to be sexually victimized
than the general population.
(12) ICE has taken measures to destroy records of immigrant
abuse in its custody. In July 2017, ICE requested that the
National Archives and Records Administration approve its
timetable for destroying records related to sexual assaults,
solitary confinement and deaths of people in its custody.
(13) ICE subjects asylum seekers to cruel and inhumane
conditions. In a November 2014 report, the United Nations
Committee Against Torture expressed concern over United States
practices of ``mandatory detention to automatically hold asylum
seekers and other immigrants on arrival in prison-like
detention facilities'', and reports of ``substandard conditions
of detention in immigration facilities and use of solitary
confinement'', as well as ``sexual violence by staff and other
detainees''.
(14) ICE has not adopted recommendations made by its
Advisory Committee on Family Residential Centers, which
suggested in a 2016 report that ``immigration enforcement
practices should operationalize the presumption that detention
is generally neither appropriate nor necessary for families--
and that detention or the separation of families for purposes
of immigration enforcement or management are never in the best
interest of children'', further recommending that ``the general
use of family detention'' be discontinued.
(15) ICE's actions to force State and local law enforcement
to comply with immigration detainer requests to hold people in
custody without a warrant violate the Fourth Amendment, and
immigration enforcement actions at sensitive locations,
including courthouses, hospitals, churches and schools have
undermined public trust in the agency.
(16) A troubling pattern of ICE pursuing immigrant rights
advocates working within their First Amendment rights suggests
the improper targeting of political opponents and threatens
bedrock free speech and due process rights.
(17) The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found
``a number of inconsistencies and errors in ICE's calculations
for its congressional budget justifications . . . . While ICE
officials stated their budget documents undergo multiple
reviews to ensure accuracy, ICE was not able to provide
documentation of such reviews.'' The GAO concluded, ``ICE is
not positioned to ensure the credibility of its budget
requests''.
(18) Any essential functions carried out by ICE that do not
violate fundamental due process and human rights can be
executed with greater transparency, public accountability, and
adherence to domestic and international law by other Federal
agencies.
SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF COMMISSION TO ADMINISTER TRANSITION OF
FUNCTIONS.
(a) Establishment.--Within 30 days of the enactment of this Act,
Congress shall establish and convene the Commission to Study and
Establish a Fair and Humane System of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (hereinafter in this Act referred to as the
``Commission'').
(b) Duties.--The Commission shall perform the following duties:
(1) Identify all essential functions of ICE that uphold the
Constitution and maintain high human rights standards pursuant
to the Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees of 1967 and
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and
identify the appropriate Federal agencies that shall be tasked
with executing activities such as combatting financial crimes,
cybercrimes, trade fraud, human trafficking and drug smuggling,
as well as a plan to transition any such duties.
(2) Determine the most effective means of ensuring that all
immigration enforcement functions transferred to other Federal
agencies maintain strict compliance to the Constitution,
Federal laws, the Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees
of 1967 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, including article 7's prohibition of torture and cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
(3) Prior to presenting any recommendation for an existing
Federal agency to adopt an immigration-enforcement function
deemed essential pursuant to paragraph (1), the Commission
shall evaluate and approve the agency's suitability for that
function based on such agency's track record of transparency
and compliance with its own directives and policies, as well as
Federal laws, statutes, and treaty obligations outlined in
paragraph (2);
(4) Identify appropriate means of ensuring that total
Federal employment is not reduced with the abolition of ICE,
prioritizing the hiring of personnel to address the legal,
health, and social-service needs of detained individuals, those
seeking asylum, and those determined to be most vulnerable
within the Federal immigration system.
(5) Provide recommendations for ensuring that all
immigration enforcement carried out by Federal agencies
administer asylum requests in a prompt and timely manner, and
in full compliance with all relevant Federal statutes and
international laws, such as the Protocol Relating to the Status
of Refugees of 1967 and the Convention Against Torture.
(6) The Commission will work with the Department of
Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General to document
failures to comply with congressional oversight requirements,
violations of constitutional protections and Federal laws,
failures to comply with agency policies and directives,
violations of human rights, and any other longstanding patterns
of medical neglect, solitary confinement, wrongful death, and
other abuses for which ICE is wholly or partially responsible,
and recommend appropriate ways to prevent future violations and
educate the American public of the Commission's findings.
(c) Report to Congress.--The Commission shall submit a written
report of its findings and recommendations to the Congress no later
than 180 days after the date of the first meeting of the Commission
held.
(d) Congressional Consideration of Commission's Report.--The
Congress shall consider the Commission's findings and recommendations
in legislating the transfer of essential immigration-enforcement
functions to existing Federal agencies prior to the termination of ICE.
SEC. 4. MEMBERSHIP.
(a) Number and Appointment.--The Commission shall be composed of 17
members, who shall be appointed and convene within 30 days after the
date of enactment of this Act, as follows:
(1) Two members shall be appointed by the Speaker of the
House of Representatives.
(2) Two members shall be appointed by the House Minority
Leader.
(3) Two members shall be appointed by the Senate Majority
Leader.
(4) Two members shall be appointed by the Senate Minority
Leader.
(5) Nine members shall be selected from the major civil
society and immigrants' rights organizations and individuals
directly impacted by ICE practices.
(b) Qualifications.--All members of the Commission shall be persons
who are especially qualified to serve on the Commission by virtue of
their education, training, activism or experience, particularly in the
field of human rights, international law, and constitutional
protections.
SEC. 5. TERMINATION OF THE U.S. IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT.
On the date no later than 1 year after the enactment of this Act,
the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shall terminate.
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