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HR 578
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Sarah’s Law

To require U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to take into custody certain aliens who have been charged in the United States with a crime that resulted in the death or serious bodily injury of another person, and for other purposes.

Introduced Jan 21, 2025

Latest action (Jan 21, 2025) Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

Policy area

Summary

This bill, titled Sarah's Law, expands mandatory detention requirements for certain non-citizens in immigration proceedings. It requires Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain aliens who are deportable or inadmissible under specified grounds and who are charged with, arrested for, or convicted of crimes that resulted in death or serious bodily injury. The bill also establishes a victim notification requirement, directing the Department of Homeland Security to inform crime victims or their families of the alien's identity, immigration status, criminal history, custody status, and removal efforts. The bill requires DHS to issue a detainer and take custody of such aliens if they are not already held by other authorities.

AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.

Sponsor (1)

53 cosponsors

Money behind the sponsor

Top reported contributors to Randy Feenstra’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.

  • NULL $38,384
  • MARQUIS MANAGEMENT INC. $21,800
  • BGR GROUP $15,800
  • DOLL DISTRIBUTING $13,700
  • FRONTIER BANK $13,450

Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for Randy Feenstra → · Outside spending →

Actions (2)

  1. Jan 21, 2025 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary. · house
  2. Jan 21, 2025 Introduced in House

Similar bills (6)

Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.

Text versions (1)

  • Introduced in House · Jan 21, 2025

Only one text version is on file, so there’s no earlier version to compare against yet.

Full text

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

January 21, 2025

Mr. Feenstra (for himself, Ms. Tenney, Mr. Ciscomani, Mr. Estes, Mr. Bost, Mr. Rouzer, Mr. Nehls, Mr. DesJarlais, Mr. Finstad, Mr. Bacon, Ms. Salazar, Mr. Aderholt, Mrs. Miller of Illinois, Mr. Garbarino, Mr. McClintock, Ms. Mace, Mr. Bergman, Mr. Meuser, Mrs. Miller-Meeks, Mr. Balderson, Mr. Higgins of Louisiana, Mrs. Hinson, Mr. Babin, Mr. Edwards, Mr. Schmidt, Mr. Tiffany, Mr. Weber of Texas, Mr. Hamadeh of Arizona, Mr. Evans of Colorado, Mr. Timmons, Mr. Moolenaar, Mr. LaMalfa, Mr. Crenshaw, Mr. Wied, Mr. Ogles, Mr. Brecheen, Mr. Nunn of Iowa, Mr. Ellzey, Mr. Rulli, Mr. Downing, Mr. Thompson of Pennsylvania, Mr. Sessions, Mr. McDowell, Mr. Johnson of South Dakota, Mrs. Biggs of South Carolina, and Mr. McCormick) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

A BILL

To require U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to take into custody certain aliens who have been charged in the United States with a crime that resulted in the death or serious bodily injury of another person, 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 “Sarah’s Law”.

SEC. 2. MANDATORY DETENTION OF CERTAIN ALIENS CHARGED WITH A CRIME RESULTING IN DEATH OR SERIOUS BODILY INJURY.

Section 236(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1226(c)) is amended—

(1) in paragraph (1)—

(A) in subparagraph (C)—

(i) by striking “sentence” and inserting “sentenced”; and

(ii) by striking “or”;

(B) in subparagraph (D), by striking the comma at the end and inserting “, or”; and

(C) by inserting after subparagraph (D) the following:

“(E)(i)(I) is inadmissible under paragraph (6)(A),

(6)(C), or (7) of section 212(a),

“(II) is deportable under section 237(a)(1)(B) as an alien whose nonimmigrant visa (or other documentation authorizing admission into the United States as a nonimmigrant) has been revoked under section 221(i), or

“(III) is deportable under section 237(a)(1)(C)(i), and

“(ii) is charged with, is arrested for, is convicted of, admits having committed, or admits committing acts which constitute the essential elements of any offense that resulted in the death or serious bodily injury (as defined in section 1365(h)(3) of title 18, United States Code) of another person,”; and

(2) by adding at the end the following:

“(3) Notification requirement.—Upon encountering or gaining knowledge of an alien described in paragraph (1), the Secretary of Homeland Security shall—

“(A) obtain information from law enforcement agencies and from other available sources regarding the identity of any victims of the crimes for which such alien was charged, arrested, or convicted; and

“(B) provide the victim or, if the victim is deceased, a parent, guardian, spouse, or closest living relative of such victim, with information, on a timely and ongoing basis, including—

“(i) the alien’s full name, aliases, date of birth, and country of nationality;

“(ii) the alien’s immigration status and criminal history;

“(iii) the alien’s custody status and any changes related to the alien’s custody; and

“(iv) a description of any efforts by the United States Government to remove the alien from the United States.

“(4) Detainer.—The Secretary of Homeland Security shall issue a detainer for an alien described in paragraph (1)(E) and, if the alien is not otherwise detained by Federal, State, or local officials, shall effectively and expeditiously take custody of the alien.”.

SEC. 3. SAVINGS PROVISION.

Nothing in this Act, or the amendments made by this Act, may be construed to limit the rights of crime victims under any other provision of law, including section 3771 of title 18, United States Code. <all>

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