Bill Description

This amendment, offered by Rep. Deutch (D-FL) and Rep. Foster (D-IL), would have stricken language in the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill that requires U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to maintain a set immigration detention level regardless of actual need.

Liberty for All's Position

The detention mandate removes discretion from those individuals closest to the situation and represents arbitrary and unnecessary federal regulation. More importantly, the detention mandate is a crony-backed program that has helped turn private prisons into a billion dollar industry while costing taxpayers up to $2 billion per year. In introducing the amendment, Rep. Deutch noted that "a single detention bed is approximately $122 per day; and with additional administrative costs, it can rise to $164 a day. Meanwhile, alternatives such as ankle bracelets, parole, telephonic, and in-person reporting, curfews, and home visits can run from 30 cents to $14 per day." Liberty For All supports common sense solutions that save the American taxpayer money and return discretion to local communities and officials. By allowing ICE to pursue cost-effective alternatives as it sees fit, this bill ended another form of corporate welfare and opened up the potential for substantial cost savings and a better prioritization of priorities.