To amend the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 to clarify the standards for family detention, and for other purposes.
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
IntroducedMr. Biggs of Arizona (for himself, Mr. Burlison, Mr. Crane, …
Summary
What This Bill Does
This bill changes federal law to allow the government to detain immigrant children who arrive at the border with their parents. The bill overrides the Flores settlement agreement, a decades-old court settlement that set standards for how long children can be held in immigration detention. It eliminates the legal presumption that accompanied children should not be detained and requires the Department of Homeland Security to keep families together in detention facilities while their immigration cases are pending.
Who Benefits and How
The Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) benefit by gaining expanded authority to detain families without the legal restrictions that previously applied under the Flores agreement. Private detention facility operators like CoreCivic and GEO Group benefit financially from an expanded detention population, and they also benefit from the bill's prohibition on state licensing requirements for family detention facilities, which reduces their compliance costs and regulatory oversight.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Immigrant families with children at the border bear the most significant burden, as they face indefinite detention together while their immigration cases are processed, which can take months or years. State governments lose their authority to require licensing of immigration detention facilities within their borders, preventing them from enforcing health, safety, and welfare standards. Immigration legal advocacy organizations and children's rights groups face increased workload as they attempt to provide legal representation and advocacy for detained families under these new, more restrictive rules.
Key Provisions
- Declares that detention of accompanied alien children shall be governed by general immigration detention statutes rather than the Flores settlement agreement, eliminating special protections for children in families
- Eliminates the legal presumption against detaining accompanied children, giving immigration authorities broad discretion to hold families indefinitely
- Mandates that parents charged with misdemeanor illegal entry who arrived with their children must be detained together with their children during immigration proceedings
- Prohibits states from requiring immigration detention facilities that hold children or families to obtain state licenses, blocking state-level regulation and oversight
- Applies retroactively to all actions occurring before, on, or after enactment, affecting existing detention cases and legal challenges
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
This bill amends the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 to allow detention of accompanied alien children and their families, overriding the Flores settlement agreement.
Policy Domains
Legislative Strategy
"Override the Flores settlement agreement to enable indefinite family detention at the border, eliminate state licensing requirements for family detention facilities, and remove presumption against detaining accompanied children"
Likely Beneficiaries
- Department of Homeland Security (expanded detention authority)
- Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) (operational flexibility)
- Private detention facility operators (expanded detention population without state licensing requirements)
Likely Burden Bearers
- Immigrant families with children (subject to detention)
- Accompanied alien children under 18 (subject to detention)
- State governments (prohibited from licensing detention facilities)
- Immigration advocacy organizations (legal protections reduced)
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of Homeland Security
Note: No scope conflicts - 'The Secretary' consistently refers to the Secretary of Homeland Security throughout the bill
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Referenced from 8 U.S.C. 1232 - an alien child who has no lawful immigration status, has not attained 18 years of age, and with respect to whom there is no parent or legal guardian in the United States or no parent or legal guardian available to provide care and physical custody
An alien child under 18 years of age who entered the United States with a parent or legal guardian (accompanied minor)
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