I
103D CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 4120
To require the Federal Government to incarcerate, or to reimburse State
and local governments for the cost of incarcerating, criminal aliens,
and to expedite the deportation and exclusion of criminal aliens.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH 23, 1994
Mr. POMBO introduced the following bill; which was referred jointly to the
Committees on the Judiciary and Foreign Affairs
A BILL
To require the Federal Government to incarcerate, or to
reimburse State and local governments for the cost of
incarcerating, criminal aliens, and to expedite the depor-
tation and exclusion of criminal aliens.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Criminal Alien Depor-
tation and Native Country Confinement Act of 1994’’.
SEC. 2. INCARCERATION OF OR PAYMENT FOR CRIMINAL
ALIENS BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.
(a) DEFINITION.—In this section, ‘‘criminal alien
who has been convicted of a felony and is incarcerated in
a State or local correctional facility’’ means an alien
who—
(1)(A) is in the United States in violation of the
immigration laws; or
(B) is deportable or excludable under the Immi-
gration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.);
and
(2) has been convicted of a felony under State
or local law and incarcerated in a correctional facil-
ity of the State or a subdivision of the State.
(b) FEDERAL CUSTODY.—At the request of a State
or political subdivision of a State, the Attorney General
shall—
(1)(A) take custody of a criminal alien who has
been convicted of a felony and is incarcerated in a
State or local correctional facility; and
(B) provide for the imprisonment of the crimi-
nal alien in a Federal prison in accordance with the
sentence of the State court; or
(2) enter into a contractual arrangement with
the State or local government to compensate the
State or local government for incarcerating alien
criminals for the duration of their sentences.
SEC. 3. EXPEDITING CRIMINAL ALIEN DEPORTATION AND
EXCLUSION.
(a) CONVICTED DEFINED.—Section 241(a)(2) of the
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1251(a)(2))
is amended by adding at the end the following new sub-
paragraph:
‘‘(E) CONVICTED DEFINED.—In this para-
graph, the term ‘convicted’ means a judge or
jury has found the alien guilty or the alien has
entered a plea of guilty or nolo contendere,
whether or not the alien appeals therefrom.’’.
(b) DEPORTATION OF CONVICTED ALIENS.—
(1) IMMEDIATE DEPORTATION.—Section 242(h)
of such Act (8 U.S.C. 1252(h)) is amended—
(A) by striking ‘‘(h) An alien’’ and insert-
ing ‘‘(h)(1) Subject to paragraph (2), an alien’’;
and
(B) by adding at the end the following new
paragraph:
‘‘(2) An alien sentenced to imprisonment may be de-
ported prior to the termination of such imprisonment by
the release of the alien from confinement, if the Service
petitions the appropriate court or other entity with author-
ity concerning the alien to release the alien into the
custody of the Service for execution of an order of
deportation.’’.
(2) PROHIBITION
OF
REENTRY
INTO
THE
UNITED STATES.—Section 212(a)(2) of such Act (8
U.S.C. 1182(a)(2)) is amended—
(A) by redesignating subparagraph (F) as
subparagraph (G); and
(B) by inserting after subparagraph (E)
the following new subparagraph:
‘‘(F) ALIENS DEPORTED BEFORE SERVING
MINIMUM PERIOD OF CONFINEMENT.—An alien
deported pursuant to section 242(h)(2) is ex-
cludable during the minimum period of confine-
ment to which the alien was sentenced.’’.
(c) EXECUTION OF DEPORTATION ORDERS.—Section
242(i) of such Act (8 U.S.C. 1252(i)) is amended by add-
ing at the end the following: ‘‘An order of deportation may
not be executed until all direct appeals relating to the con-
viction which is the basis of the deportation order have
been exhausted.’’.
(d) NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENT.—The Attorney
General shall notify each alien incarcerated in a State or
Federal prison of any available option for voluntary depor-
tation and prisoner transfer where the alien would be in-
carcerated for the remainder of the sentence of confine-
ment in the country to which deported.
SEC. 4. CONGRESSIONAL STATEMENT CONCERNING INCAR-
CERATION IN COUNTRY TO WHICH CRIMINAL
ALIENS ARE DEPORTED.
(a) 
CONGRESSIONAL
FINDINGS.—The 
Congress
makes the following findings:
(1) Aliens entering the United States without
the knowledge or permission of the Federal Govern-
ment have become a major economic and social
problem in many States.
(2) The number of undocumented aliens com-
mitting felony crimes has reached staggering propor-
tions in California and in other States.
(3) In 1988, 5,500 undocumented aliens were
incarcerated in California prisons; in 1994 there are
16,000.
(4) In 1993 incarcerated undocumented aliens
represented approximately 15 percent of the total
California State prison population.
(5) The cost of incarcerating each State pris-
oner in California ranges between $15,000 to
$30,000 and the cost to the taxpayers of California
for the incarceration of undocumented criminal
aliens in the State is approximately $402,000,000.
(6) The State of California has spent over a bil-
lion dollars in the past 5 years to incarcerate un-
documented criminal aliens.
(7) The Immigration and Naturalization Serv-
ice (INS) estimates that the average cost to deport
an undocumented criminal alien is $600.
(8) The United States has bilateral treaties
concerning prisoner transfers with several countries.
The treaties have strict criteria requiring that all
parties, the United States Department of Justice,
the United States Department of State, the foreign
government, and the prisoner, consent to the trans-
fer. The prisoner must voluntarily request such a
transfer.
(b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of the
Congress that—
(1) the President should direct the Secretary of
State to enter into negotiations with other countries
in order to conclude bilateral or multilateral agree-
ments to provide for incarceration in the country to
which an alien is deported when an alien is deported
while subject to a term of imprisonment in the
United States;
(2) all existing agreements regarding prisoner
transfer should be renegotiated to remove the re-
quirement of prisoner approval and all other barriers
to prisoner transfer; and
(3) any prisoner transfer agreement should in-
clude the assurance that prisoners will complete the
full term of any sentence upon transfer to another
country.
Æ