Ensuring United Families at the Border Act

Bill: 119-hr-61
Sponsor: full_name: Rep. Biggs, Andy [R-AZ-5]
Introduced: 2025-01-03
Policy area: Immigration
Subjects: Border security and unlawful immigration

Child safety and welfare

Detention of persons

Family relationships

Immigrant health and welfare

Immigration status and procedures

Licensing and registrations

State and local government operations
Latest action: action_date: 2025-01-03
text: Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

Summaries:
action_date: 2025-01-03
action_desc: Introduced in House
text: <p><strong>Ensuring United Families at the Border Act</strong></p><p>This bill addresses the treatment of children who are non-U.S. nationals (<em>aliens</em> under federal law), including by statutorily establishing that there is no presumption that such a child (other than an unaccompanied child) should not be detained for immigration purposes.</p><p>Specifically, the bill states that the detention of such minors shall be governed by specified sections of the Immigration and Nationality Act and not any other provision of law, judicial ruling, or settlement agreement.</p><p>(A 1997 settlement agreement, commonly known as the <em>Flores</em> agreement, imposes requirements relating to the treatment of detained alien minors, including requiring such minors to be released or placed in a nonsecure facility after a certain amount of time in detention.)</p><p>If an adult enters the United States unlawfully with their child, the Department of Homeland Security must detain the adult and child together if the only criminal charge against the adult is a misdemeanor for unlawful entry.</p><p>This bill also prohibits states from imposing licensing requirements on immigration detention facilities used to detain minors or families with minors.</p>

tv_txt: I 119th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 61 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES January 3, 2025 Mr. Biggs of Arizona (for himself, Mr. Burlison , Mr. Crane , and Mr. Nehls ) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary A BILL To amend the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 to clarify the standards for family detention, and for other purposes.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Ensuring United Families at the Border Act . 2. Clarification of standards for family detention (a) In general Section 235 of the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 ( 8 U.S.C. 1232 ) is amended by adding at the end the following: (j) Construction (1) In general Notwithstanding any other provision of law, judicial determination, consent decree, or settlement agreement, the detention of any alien child who is not an unaccompanied alien child shall be governed by sections 217, 235, 236, and 241 of the Immigration and Nationality Act ( 8 U.S.C. 1187 , 1225, 1226, and 1231). There is no presumption that an alien child who is not an unaccompanied alien child should not be detained. (2) Family detention The Secretary of Homeland Security shall— (A) maintain the care and custody of an alien, during the period during which the charges described in clause (i) are pending, who— (i) is charged only with a misdemeanor offense under section 275(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act ( 8 U.S.C. 1325(a) ); and (ii) entered the United States with the alien’s child who has not attained 18 years of age; and (B) detain the alien with the alien’s child. . (b) Sense of Congress It is the sense of Congress that the amendments in this section to section 235 of the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 ( 8 U.S.C. 1232 ) are intended to satisfy the requirements of the Settlement Agreement in Flores v. Meese, No. 85–4544 (C.D. Cal) as approved by the court on January 28, 1997, with respect to its interpretation in Flores v. Johnson, 212 F. Supp. 3d 864 (C.D. Cal. 2015), that the agreement applies to accompanied minors. (c) Effective date The amendment made by subsection (a) shall take effect on the date of the enactment of this Act and shall apply to all actions that occur before, on, or after the date of the enactment of this Act. (d) Preemption of State licensing requirements Notwithstanding any other provision of law, judicial determination, consent decree, or settlement agreement, no State may require that an immigration detention facility used to detain children who have not attained 18 years of age, or families consisting of one or more of such children and the parents or legal guardians of such children, that is located in that State, be licensed by the State or any political subdivision thereof.