Stop ICE from Kidnapping U.S. Citizens Act
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeMs. Jayapal (for herself, Ms. Ansari, Ms. Balint, Ms. Barragán, …
Summary
What This Bill Does
The "Stop ICE from Kidnapping U.S. Citizens Act" prohibits U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from using any federal funds to detain or deport American citizens. The bill addresses documented cases where U.S. citizens have been mistakenly caught up in immigration enforcement operations and either detained or transported out of the country.
Who Benefits and How
U.S. citizens benefit directly from this legislation by gaining legal protection against wrongful detention or deportation by ICE. The bill creates a hard funding restriction that prevents ICE from using taxpayer money to detain or transport anyone who is an American citizen, even if they're swept up during immigration enforcement activities. Civil rights organizations and immigrant advocacy groups also benefit by having less need to intervene legally when citizens are wrongly detained, though they will still monitor implementation.
Who Bears the Burden and How
ICE and the Department of Homeland Security face new compliance burdens from this legislation. ICE must implement additional verification procedures to confirm citizenship status before detaining or transporting anyone, adding administrative steps and operational constraints to their enforcement activities. The Department of Homeland Security must oversee compliance with this funding restriction and develop new protocols to ensure ICE doesn't violate the prohibition.
Key Provisions
- Creates an absolute prohibition on using federal funds for ICE to detain U.S. citizens during civil immigration enforcement
- Prohibits using federal funds for ICE to transport U.S. citizens outside the United States
- Applies the restriction to all civil immigration enforcement activities under federal immigration laws
- Overrides any other federal law that might conflict with these restrictions (using "notwithstanding any other provision of law" language)
- References the Immigration and Nationality Act's definition of "immigration laws" to define the scope of activities covered
Evidence Chain:
This summary is derived from the structured analysis below. See "Detailed Analysis" for per-title beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
Primary Purpose
Prohibits ICE from using federal funds to detain or deport U.S. citizens during civil immigration enforcement
Policy Domains
Legislative Strategy
"Use appropriations restrictions to prevent ICE from mistakenly detaining or deporting U.S. citizens"
Likely Beneficiaries
- U.S. citizens at risk of wrongful detention or deportation
- Civil rights organizations
- Communities affected by ICE enforcement
Likely Burden Bearers
- ICE enforcement operations (procedural compliance burden)
- Federal immigration enforcement agencies (operational constraints)
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "ice"
- → U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
As defined in section 101 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101)
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology