HR7190-119

What This Bill Does

This bill replaces immigration detention and electronic monitoring with community-based services. DHS must release every noncitizen detained by DHS on recognizance within six months. It repeals or rewrites multiple Immigration and Nationality Act detention and enforcement authorities, including sections 235, 236, 241, and 287, repeals certain state and local immigration-enforcement information-sharing provisions, and requires DHS to terminate detention and monitoring contracts within two years. After two years, federal funds may not be used for immigration detention or monitoring programs. DHS must submit a plan within one month to remove ankle monitors, remove every ankle monitor within six months, and stop funding ankle monitors after six months. After two years, federal funds may not support DHS information-sharing partnerships with State or local law enforcement to identify or target noncitizens for immigration enforcement. ICE Operations and Support funds may not be used for civil immigration enforcement activities such as arrests, detention, removal, charging-document processing, or status-based criminal enforcement. Separately, HHS must establish grants within 90 days for community-based nonprofits not involved in immigration or law enforcement activity to provide voluntary housing assistance, mental health services, healthcare access help, financial empowerment, employment assistance, English classes, education assistance, and immigration legal assistance to people affected by immigration enforcement. Services cannot be contingent on monitoring or compliance, cannot involve surveillance, and grantees may not submit personal identifying information to federal entities.

Who Benefits and How

Detained noncitizens, monitored noncitizens, immigrant families, special immigrant juvenile applicants, immigrant communities, community-based nonprofits, immigration legal service providers, mental health providers, housing assistance providers, and English-language programs benefit from release, ankle-monitor removal, funding shifts, and voluntary wrap-around service grants. Privacy and civil-liberties advocates benefit from prohibitions on surveillance, monitoring, federal personal-data submission, and certain State-local information-sharing partnerships.

Who Bears the Burden and How

DHS, ICE, immigration officers, detention contractors, private prison operators, electronic monitoring vendors, ankle-monitoring contractors, and State or local law-enforcement partners lose detention, monitoring, enforcement, or information-sharing authorities and funding streams. DHS must release detainees, rewrite enforcement operations, terminate contracts, remove ankle monitors, and track funding prohibitions. HHS must build and oversee a new grant program while ensuring grantees have no immigration or law-enforcement role and do not report personal identifying information. Federal agencies face large transition and oversight burdens.

Key Provisions

• Requires DHS to release detained noncitizens on recognizance within six months.
• Repeals or rewrites major INA detention and enforcement authorities and selected State-local immigration information-sharing provisions.
• Requires DHS to terminate immigration detention and monitoring contracts within two years and bars later federal funding for those programs.
• Requires a one-month ankle-monitor removal plan, removal of all ankle monitors within six months, and no ankle-monitor funding after six months.
• Bars ICE Operations and Support funds for civil immigration enforcement activities and status-based criminal enforcement support.
• Creates HHS grants for voluntary community-based housing, mental health, healthcare access, employment, English, education, and immigration legal services with no surveillance or federal personal-data reporting.