H. R. 1493
One Hundred Fifth Congress
of the
United States of America
AT THE FIRST SESSION
Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday,
the seventh day of January, one thousand nine hundred and ninety-seven
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 Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. PROGRAM OF IDENTIFICATION OF CERTAIN DEPORTABLE
ALIENS AWAITING ARRAIGNMENT.
(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 Gen-
eral shall establish and implement a program to identify, from
among the individuals who are incarcerated in local governmental
incarceration facilities prior to arraignment on criminal charges,
those individuals 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 Illegal Immigration Reform and
Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996).
(b) DESCRIPTION
OF PROGRAM.—The program authorized by
subsection (a) shall include—
(1) the detail, to each incarceration facility selected under
subsection (c), of at least one employee of the Immigration
and Naturalization Service who has expertise in the identifica-
tion 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 greatest number of individuals are incar-
cerated prior to arraignment;
(B) access for such employees to records of the Service
and other Federal law enforcement agencies that are nec-
essary 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 incarceration facility that
satisfies the following requirements:
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(A) The facility is owned by the government of a local
political subdivision described in clause (i) or (ii) of subpara-
graph (C).
(B) Such government has submitted a request for such
selection to the Attorney General.
(C) The facility is located—
(i) in a county that is determined by the Attorney
General to have a high concentration of aliens
described in subsection (a); or
(ii) in a city, town, or other analogous local political
subdivision, that is determined by the Attorney Gen-
eral 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 criminal charges.
(2) NUMBER OF QUALIFYING SUBDIVISIONS.—For any fiscal
year, the total number of local political subdivisions determined
under clauses (i) and (ii) of paragraph (1)(C) to meet the stand-
ard 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 political subdivisions as may
be specified in appropriations Acts.
(3) FACILITIES IN INTERIOR STATES.—For any fiscal year,
of the local political subdivisions determined 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 incarcer-
ation facilities within the county of Orange, California, and
the county of Ventura, California, that are owned by the govern-
ment of a local political subdivision, and satisfy the require-
ments 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 Naturaliza-
tion Service employee to more than 1 incarceration facility;
and
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(2) the development of a system to permit the Attorney
General to conduct off-site verification, by computer or other
electronic means, of the immigration status of individuals who
are incarcerated in local governmental incarceration facilities
prior to arraignment on criminal charges.
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Vice President of the United States and
President of the Senate.