[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 61 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 H. R. 61

    To amend the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection 
    Reauthorization Act of 2008 to clarify the standards for family 
                   detention, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    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.
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