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Ensuring United Families at the Border Act
To amend the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 to clarify the standards for family detention, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill amends federal immigration law to clarify detention standards for alien children traveling with parents or guardians. The bill removes the presumption against detaining accompanied minors and requires the Department of Homeland Security to detain together an alien charged with unlawful entry and their child under age 18 while immigration charges are pending. The bill states that these provisions are intended to comply with the Flores v. Meese settlement agreement regarding accompanied minors. Additionally, the bill preempts state licensing requirements for immigration detention facilities that house children or families, meaning states cannot impose their own licensing standards on these federal facilities.
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)
- Rep. Biggs, Andy [R-AZ-5] (R-AZ)
3 cosponsors
- Rep. Burlison, Eric [R-MO-7] (R-MO)
- Rep. Crane, Elijah [R-AZ-2] (R-AZ)
- Rep. Nehls, Troy E. [R-TX-22] (R-TX)
Money behind the sponsor
Top reported contributors to Andy Biggs’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.
- SAULSBURY INDUSTRIES $9,900
- 21ST CENTURY HEALTHCARE $7,500
- ULINE $6,600
- TW LEWIS COMPANY $6,600
- LEE BENSON $6,600
Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for Andy Biggs → · Outside spending →
Actions (2)
- Jan 3, 2025 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary. · house
- Jan 3, 2025 Introduced in House
More bills on these subjects (8)
Other bills that carry the most legislative subjects in common with this one (topical discovery — distinct from the procedural related bills above).
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)
Bills are re-published as they move (Introduced → Reported → Engrossed → Enrolled …). Each stage below is a separate text; pick two to see what changed. Data from Congress.gov.
Full text
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.
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 “Ensuring United Families at the Border Act”.
SEC. 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. <all>
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