Title: No More Phones Act
Policy area: Immigration

Summary:
No More Phones Act
This bill prohibits federal agencies from using taxpayer funding to provide cellular devices to individuals who cross the southern border without lawful authorization.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 7741 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>






117th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 7741

    To prevent the Federal Government from using taxpayer funds to 
  distribute cellular devices to individuals who unlawfully cross the 
                southern border, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 12, 2022

Mr. Donalds (for himself, Ms. Herrell, Mr. Tiffany, Mr. Van Drew, Mrs. 
  Boebert, Mr. Clyde, Mr. Lamborn, Mr. Norman, Mr. Biggs, Mr. Hice of 
 Georgia, Mrs. Fischbach, and Mr. Bishop of North Carolina) introduced 
    the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the 
                               Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To prevent the Federal Government from using taxpayer funds to 
  distribute cellular devices to individuals who unlawfully cross the 
                southern border, 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 ``No More Phones Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS; STATEMENT OF CONGRESS .

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
            (1) U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is charged 
        with securing the United States borders at and between ports of 
        entry by stopping inadmissible people and illicit goods.
            (2) In fiscal year 2020, the U.S. Border Patrol experienced 
        405,036 total encounters with illegal immigrants. 
        Comparatively, the U.S. Border Patrol encountered 1,662,167 
        illegal immigrants in fiscal year 2021--nearly 4 times the 
        amount from the previous fiscal year.
            (3) Upon apprehending illegal immigrants at the southern 
        border, which often occurs voluntarily, the individuals are 
        then processed and detained by CBP agents in holding facilities 
        for approximately 52 hours, where they are provided 3 meals a 
        day and a constant supply of water and snacks, and then 
        subsequently placed into legal proceedings to determine the 
        individual's immigration eligibility.
            (4) If the undocumented individual requests asylum based on 
        credible fear of persecution, the U.S. Citizenship and 
        Immigration Services will make a determination if the 
        individual does in fact have credible fear of persecution, and 
        if so, the alien will then be placed in a standard removal 
        process according to section 240 of the Immigration and 
        Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1229a) and may then pursue a hearing 
        before an immigration judge.
            (5) During these hearings, immigration judges within the 
        Department of Justice's Executive Office for Immigration Review 
        determines whether an individual is subject to removal or if 
        the individual is eligible for relief, although U.S. 
        Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) makes the initial 
        decision immediately after the alien was processed at CBP 
        detention facilities, to detain the individual or release them 
        into the several communities of the United States pending their 
        immigration hearing.
            (6) Aliens will then be considered for detention at ICE 
        holding facilities or other detention plans coordinated with 
        nongovernmental organizations; however, due to limited space 
        and other legal considerations that relate to family units and 
        immigration shelter licensing, many individuals that cross the 
        southern border illegally are usually released into the several 
        communities of the United States after leaving CBP detention 
        facilities.
            (7) All aliens released from ICE custody into the several 
        communities of the United States are then assigned to a 
        nondetained docket and must report to ICE's Enforcement and 
        Removal Operations (ERO) at least once a year while they await 
        a decision on whether they should be removed from the United 
        States--which, as of August 2020, consisted of over 3,300,000 
        outstanding cases waiting to be heard.
            (8) Some individuals in the nondetained docket are enrolled 
        in Alternatives to Detention (ATD) programs, through which ERO 
        ATD officers determine case management and supervision methods 
        on a case-by-case basis, and if the alien complies with the 
        terms of their plan within 30 days, the level of supervision 
        may be lowered.
            (9) One main method to ensure ATD compliance is to provide 
        the alien with technology services, which may include 
        telephonic reporting, GPS monitoring via ankle bracelets, or a 
        smartphone application that allows for facial recognition 
        scanning and GPS monitoring.
            (10) Before the individual's immigration hearing, many 
        individuals simply dispose of their ATD compliance cell phone 
        immediately upon release, or after their initial 30-day 
        compliance meeting with EOR ATD, to abscond and avoid further 
        detection from immigration enforcement agencies.
            (11) Another prevalent reason for an alien's falling out of 
        contact with EOR ATD and thereby avoiding further detection 
        includes instances where the alien moves within the United 
        States and fails to provide updated contact information to EOR 
        ATD.
            (12) Ninety-five to ninety-seven percent of aliens that are 
        released into the several communities of the United States 
        don't show up for their removal hearings, resulting in many 
        cases of undetected illegal immigrants taking abode in the 
        United States until they are subsequently, if ever, identified 
        by immigration enforcement agencies.
    (b) Statement of Congress.--Congress--
            (1) recognizes the unprecedented immigration crisis 
        currently occurring at the southern border;
            (2) condemns the Biden Administration's prioritization of 
        faster illegal immigrant processing time instead of 
        implementing policies that actually deter illegal immigration 
        from occurring in the first place;
            (3) deplores the use of any Federal funding under ATD plans 
        to provide cell phones to illegal immigrants who are released 
        into the several communities of the United States;
            (4) demands that President Joseph Biden resume and finish 
        construction of the southern border wall to diminish the 
        opportunity for unlawful border crossings;
            (5) encourages the allocation of increased Federal funding 
        towards additional CBP agents and monitoring technology at the 
        southern border;
            (6) emphasizes and denounces the immense waste of United 
        States taxpayer funding that is currently used to provide cell 
        phones to immigrants who unlawfully enter the United States; 
        and
            (7) stresses the national security concerns of releasing 
        illegal immigrants into the several communities of the United 
        States based on the unlikely premise that such individuals will 
        maintain the cell phone while awaiting their hearing date in 
        United States immigration court.

SEC. 3. PREVENTING TAXPAYER FUNDING FROM BEING USED TO PROVIDE ILLEGAL 
              IMMIGRANTS WITH CELLULAR DEVICES.

    The Secretary of Homeland Security (including any delegate of the 
Secretary) or any other Federal Government official may not use 
American taxpayer funding to provide cellular devices to individuals 
who cross the southern border illegally.

SEC. 4. AMERICAN TAXPAYER WASTE REPORT.

    Not later than 150 days after the date of the enactment of this 
Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security, in conjunction with the 
Commissioner of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, shall submit a 
report to the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of 
Representatives and the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 
Affairs of the Senate outlining the total number of cellular devices 
allocated to illegal immigrants since the beginning of Joe Biden's 
presidency, the total monetary cost of each cellular device, the 
economic impact on each American citizen resulting from the decision to 
distribute cellular devices to illegal immigrants, a detailed overview 
of the stipulations and process when providing cellular devices to 
illegal immigrants, the number of cellular devices that were returned 
after an immigration hearing decision in comparison to those that were 
not returned, details about the cellular device return process after 
the immigration hearing concludes, and any other information relating 
to the illegal immigrant cellular device distribution process that the 
Secretary determines necessary.
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