Title: POD Act of 2019
Policy area: Immigration

Summary:
Public Oversight of Detention Centers Act of 2019 or the POD Act of 2019
This bill prohibits certain limitations on the ability of a Member of Congress to access any facility for detaining aliens operated by the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Health and Human Services, or affiliated private contractors. Specifically, the Member must be allowed to enter such a facility within 48 hours of a request to do so, and the facility may not be temporarily modified in a way that alters what the Member would otherwise observe.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2842 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2842

To prohibit any limitation on the entry of a Member of Congress to any 
     facility for the detention of aliens, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 20, 2019

Mr. Crow (for himself, Ms. Garcia of Texas, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, and 
 Ms. DeLauro) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
    Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on 
 Homeland Security, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 
  Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall 
           within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To prohibit any limitation on the entry of a Member of Congress to any 
     facility for the detention of aliens, 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. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Public Oversight of Detention 
Centers Act of 2019'' or as the ``POD Act of 2019''.

SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT OF DETENTION FACILITIES.

    (a) Prohibition on Limitations on Oversight of Detention 
Facilities.--Chapter 4 of title II of the Immigration and Nationality 
Act (8 U.S.C. et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:

``SEC. 244A. PROHIBITION ON LIMITATIONS ON OVERSIGHT OF DETENTION 
              FACILITIES.

    ``(a) In General.--A Member of Congress may not be prevented from 
entering by not later than 48 hours after making a request to do so, 
for the purpose of conducting oversight, any facility operated by or 
for the Department of Homeland Security (including any facility 
operated by a private contractor with the Department) used to detain or 
otherwise house aliens, or nor may any temporary modification be made 
at any such facility that in any way alters what is observed by a 
visiting Member of Congress, compared to what would be observed in the 
absence of such modification.
    ``(b) Facilities Housing Alien Minors.--A Member of Congress may 
not be prevented from entering by not later than 48 hours after making 
a request to do so, for the purpose of conducting oversight, any 
facility operated by or for the Department of Homeland Security or the 
Department of Health and Human Services (including any facility 
operated by a private contractor with either Department) used to detain 
or otherwise house alien minors, or to make any temporary modification 
at any such facility that in any way alters what is observed by a 
visiting Member of Congress, compared to what would be observed in the 
absence of such modification.''.
    (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of contents for such Act is 
amended by inserting after the item relating to section 244 the 
following:

``244A. Prohibition on limitations on oversight of detention 
                            facilities.''.
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