In response to a recent move by the Trump administration, democratic lawmakers have introduced a bill to block Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from raiding so-called sensitive locations. Trump rolled back an Obama-era policy blocking officers from making arrests at locations such as schools, daycares, and churches. Rep. Jesús García of Illinois, Rep. Adriano Espaillat of New York, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut introduced the bill.
“An enforcement action may not take place, be focused on a location, or occur, within 1,000 feet of a sensitive location, except under exigent circumstances,” the bill reads. If an immigration enforcement action is taking place under exigent circumstances, and the exigent circumstances permitting the enforcement action cease, the enforcement action shall be discontinued until such exigent circumstances reemerge.”
The proposed bill also says that ICE must abandon a chase if it leads to a sensitive location. ” If, in the course of an enforcement action that is not initiated at or focused on a sensitive location, individuals … are led to or near a sensitive location, and no clear exigent circumstance with respect to the sensitive location exists, such individuals shall… cease before taking any further enforcement action.”
“This subsection shall not apply to a rare pre15 meditated arrest operation, undertaken with the prior
written approval of an appropriate authorizing official, in volving the targeted arrest of a terrorist suspect, an individual who poses a clear threat to national security, or an individual who poses an extraordinary danger to public safety,” the bill clarifies.
In their original statement, the DHS said,” Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman issued two directives essential to ending the invasion of the US southern border and empower law enforcement to protect Americans. ” The release elaborated on the specifics of each change: “The first directive rescinds the Biden Administration’s guidelines for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) enforcement actions that thwart law enforcement in or near so-called “sensitive” areas.”
“The second directive ends the broad abuse of humanitarian parole and returns the program to a case-by-case basis. ICE and CBP will phase out any parole programs that are not in accordance with the law,” the report added. It included direct quotes from the acting secretary. “This action empowers the brave men and women in CBP and ICE to enforce our immigration laws and catch criminal aliens—including murderers and [assaulters]—who have illegally come into our country.”
She added, “Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest. The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.” The report continued to blast the Biden admin and their lax border policy. The report concluded, “The Biden-Harris Administration abused the humanitarian parole program to indiscriminately allow 1.5 million migrants to enter our country. This was all stopped on day one of the Trump Administration.”
“This action will return the humanitarian parole program to its original purpose of looking at migrants on a case-by-case basis,” the press release concluded. While the bill has gathered significant support from Democrats, no Republican has supported the bill. This would mean an uphill battle for this piece of proposed legislation to ever come into effect.
