Rep. Calvert Reintroduces Bill to Prevent Criminal Illegal Immigrants from Being Released

Today, Congressman Ken Calvert (CA-42) reintroduced legislation aimed at preventing criminal illegal immigrants from being released from custody. The Help Ensure Legal Detainers (HELD) Act, H.R. 514, would require localities to adhere to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers.

"Keeping American families safe is my top priority in Congress, which is why I believe deporting criminal illegal immigrants is so important," said Rep. Calvert. "There are a lot of complicated issues involved in fixing our broken immigration system, but deporting illegal immigrants who have committed serious crimes should not be controversial. Congress should enact the HELD Act because we need local law enforcement to work hand-in-hand with our immigration agencies to better protect our communities."

The HELD Act would deny all federal funding – including transportation funding – if a locality has a law, policy or procedure in place that prevents local law enforcement from maintaining the custody of an alien pursuant to an ICE detainer. Specifically the bill:

· Would require local municipalities to promptly respond to an ICE Detainer notice issued by the Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) that requests information about alien in custody in order for the Secretary to arrange for custody of the alien.

· Would require local municipalities to maintain custody of an alien for up to 48 hours pursuant to an immigration Detainer so that the alien can be transferred to the custody of DHS.

The HELD Act includes an exception in the bill in cases where counties may have a policy in place that prevents local law enforcement from working with ICE while cities within that county may have no such policy. In these cases, the flow of federal funding that would normally go through the county would go directly to the city.

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