105TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 1493
AN ACT
To require the Attorney General to establish a program
in local prisons to identify, prior to arraignment, criminal
aliens and aliens who are unlawfully present in the
United States, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. PROGRAM OF IDENTIFICATION OF CERTAIN
DEPORTABLE ALIENS AWAITING ARRAIGN-
MENT.
(a) ESTABLISHMENT OF PROGRAM.—Not later than
6 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, and
subject to such amounts as are provided in appropriations
Acts, the Attorney General shall establish and implement
a program to identify, from among the individuals who
are incarcerated in local governmental incarceration facili-
ties prior to arraignment on criminal charges, those indi-
viduals who are within 1 or more of the following classes
of deportable aliens:
(1) Aliens unlawfully present in the United
States.
(2) Aliens described in paragraph (2) or (4) of
section 237(a) of the Immigration and Nationality
Act (as redesignated by section 305(a)(2) of the Ille-
gal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibil-
ity Act of 1996).
(b) DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM.—The program au-
thorized by subsection (a) shall include—
(1) the detail, to each incarceration facility se-
lected under subsection (c), of at least one employee
of the Immigration and Naturalization Service who
has expertise in the identification of aliens described
in subsection (a); and
(2) provision of funds sufficient to provide
for—
(A) the detail of such employees to each
selected facility on a full-time basis, including
the portions of the day or night when the great-
est number of individuals are incarcerated prior
to arraignment;
(B) access for such employees to records of
the Service and other Federal law enforcement
agencies that are necessary to identify such
aliens; and
(C) in the case of an individual identified
as such an alien, pre-arraignment reporting to
the court regarding the Service’s intention to
remove the alien from the United States.
(c) SELECTION OF FACILITIES.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Attorney General shall
select for participation in the program each incarcer-
ation facility that satisfies the following require-
ments:
(A) The facility is owned by the govern-
ment of a local political subdivision described in
clause (i) or (ii) of subparagraph (C).
(B) Such government has submitted a re-
quest for such selection to the Attorney Gen-
eral.
(C) The facility is located—
(i) in a county that is determined by
the Attorney General to have a high con-
centration of aliens described in subsection
(a); or
(ii) in a city, town, or other analogous
local political subdivision, that is deter-
mined by the Attorney General to have a
high concentration of such aliens (but only
in the case of a facility that is not located
in a county).
(D) The facility incarcerates or processes
individuals prior to their arraignment on crimi-
nal charges.
(2) NUMBER OF QUALIFYING SUBDIVISIONS.—
For any fiscal year, the total number of local politi-
cal subdivisions determined under clauses (i) and (ii)
of paragraph (1)(C) to meet the standard in such
clauses shall be the following:
(A) For fiscal year 1999, not less than 10
and not more than 25.
(B) For fiscal year 2000, not less than 25
and not more than 50.
(C) For fiscal year 2001, not more than
75.
(D) For fiscal year 2002, not more than
100.
(E) For fiscal year 2003 and subsequent
fiscal years, 100, or such other number of polit-
ical subdivisions as may be specified in appro-
priations Acts.
(3) FACILITIES IN INTERIOR STATES.—For any
fiscal year, of the local political subdivisions deter-
mined under clauses (i) and (ii) of paragraph (1)(C)
to meet the standard in such clauses, not less than
20 percent shall be in States that are not contiguous
to a land border.
(4) TREATMENT OF CERTAIN FACILITIES.—All
of the incarceration facilities within the county of
Orange, California, and the county of Ventura, Cali-
fornia, that are owned by the government of a local
political subdivision, and satisfy the requirements of
paragraph (1)(D), shall be selected for participation
in the program.
SEC. 2. STUDY AND REPORT.
Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment
of this Act, the Attorney General shall complete a study,
and submit a report to the Congress, concerning the
logistical and technological feasibility of implementing the
program under section 1 in a greater number of locations
than those selected under such section through—
(1) the assignment of a single Immigration and
Naturalization Service employee to more than 1 in-
carceration facility; and
(2) the development of a system to permit the
Attorney General to conduct off-site verification, by
computer or other electronic means, of the immigra-
tion status of individuals who are incarcerated in
local governmental incarceration facilities prior to
arraignment on criminal charges.
Passed the House of Representatives November 4,
1997.
Attest:
Clerk.