[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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