I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 864
To clarify the Federal Government’s jurisdiction over immigration law and
policy.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY31, 2025
Mr. K
ILEYof California introduced the following bill; which was referred to
the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To clarify the Federal Government’s jurisdiction over
immigration law and policy.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Freedom to Cooperate 4
Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. NULLIFYING CONTRADICTORY STATE LAWS ON IM-6
MIGRATION AND SANCTUARY POLICIES THAT 7
LACK STANDING. 8
(a) C
ONGRESSIONALINTENT.—In as much as Fed-9
eral law takes precedence over State laws in the enact-10
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ment, implementation, and administration of immigration 1
policy, it is the intent of Congress that State laws, regula-2
tions, or executive directives regarding sanctuary policies 3
should not hinder the ability of local law enforcement to 4
comply with Federal immigration enforcement provisions, 5
including full cooperation with Federal agencies. 6
(b) I
NGENERAL.—Section 642 of the Illegal Immi-7
gration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 8
(8 U.S.C. 1373) is amended— 9
(1) by striking subsection (a) and inserting the 10
following: 11
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other pro-12
vision of Federal, State, or local law, no State may pro-13
hibit, or in any way restrict, a Federal, State, or local gov-14
ernment entity, official, or other personnel from complying 15
with the immigration laws (as defined in section 16
101(a)(17) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 17
U.S.C. 1101(a)(17))), or from assisting or cooperating 18
with Federal law enforcement entities, officials, or other 19
personnel regarding the enforcement of the immigration 20
laws.’’; 21
(2) by striking subsection (b) and inserting the 22
following: 23
‘‘(b) L
AWENFORCEMENT ACTIVITIES.—Notwith-24
standing any other provision of Federal, State, or local 25
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law, no State may prohibit, or in any way restrict, a Fed-1
eral, State, or local government entity, official, or other 2
personnel from undertaking any of the following law en-3
forcement activities as they relate to information regard-4
ing the immigration status, lawful or unlawful, the inad-5
missibility or deportability, or the custody status, of any 6
individual: 7
‘‘(1) Making inquiries to any individual in order 8
to obtain such information regarding such individual 9
or any other individual. 10
‘‘(2) Notifying the Federal Government regard-11
ing the presence of individuals who are encountered 12
by law enforcement officials or other personnel of a 13
State or local government. 14
‘‘(3) Complying with requests for such informa-15
tion from Federal law enforcement entities, officials, 16
or other personnel.’’; 17
(3) in subsection (c), by striking ‘‘Immigration 18
and Naturalization Service’’ and inserting ‘‘Depart-19
ment of Homeland Security’’; and 20
(4) by adding at the end the following: 21
‘‘(d) C
ONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this section shall 22
require law enforcement officials from States to report or 23
arrest victims or witnesses of a criminal offense.’’. 24
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SEC. 3. CLARIFYING THE AUTHORITY OF ICE DETAINERS. 1
Section 287(d) of the Immigration and Nationality 2
Act (8 U.S.C. 1357(d)) is amended to read as follows: 3
‘‘(d) D
ETAINER OFINADMISSIBLE ORDEPORTABLE 4
A
LIENS.— 5
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—In the case of an individual 6
who is arrested by any Federal, State, or local law 7
enforcement official or other personnel for the al-8
leged violation of any criminal or motor vehicle law, 9
the Secretary may issue a detainer regarding the in-10
dividual to any Federal, State, or local law enforce-11
ment entity, official, or other personnel if the Sec-12
retary of Homeland Security has probable cause to 13
believe that the individual is an inadmissible or de-14
portable alien. 15
‘‘(2) P
ROBABLE CAUSE .—Probable cause is 16
deemed to be established if— 17
‘‘(A) the individual who is the subject of 18
the detainer— 19
‘‘(i) matches, pursuant to biometric 20
confirmation or other Federal database 21
records, the identity of an alien who the 22
Secretary of Homeland Security has rea-23
sonable grounds to believe to be inadmis-24
sible or deportable; 25
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‘‘(ii) is the subject of ongoing removal 1
proceedings, including matters where a 2
charging document has already been 3
served; 4
‘‘(iii) has previously been ordered re-5
moved from the United States and such an 6
order is administratively final; or 7
‘‘(iv) has made voluntary statements 8
or provided reliable evidence that indicate 9
that the alien is an inadmissible or deport-10
able alien; or 11
‘‘(B) the Secretary of Homeland Security 12
otherwise has reasonable grounds to believe 13
that the individual who is the subject of the de-14
tainer is an inadmissible or deportable alien. 15
‘‘(3) T
RANSFER OF CUSTODY .—If the Federal, 16
State, or local law enforcement entity, official, or 17
other personnel to whom a detainer is issued com-18
plies with the detainer and detains for purposes of 19
transfer of custody to the Department of Homeland 20
Security the individual who is the subject of the de-21
tainer, the Department may take custody of the in-22
dividual within 48 hours (excluding weekends and 23
holidays), but in no instance more than 96 hours, 24
following the date that the individual is otherwise to 25
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be released from the custody of the relevant Federal, 1
State, or local law enforcement entity. 2
‘‘(4) I
MMUNITY.— 3
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—A State or a political 4
subdivision of a State (and the officials and 5
personnel of the State or subdivision acting in 6
their official capacities), and a nongovernmental 7
entity (and its personnel) contracted by the 8
State or political subdivision for the purpose of 9
providing detention, acting in compliance with a 10
Department of Homeland Security detainer 11
issued pursuant to this section who temporarily 12
holds an alien in its custody pursuant to the 13
terms of a detainer so that the alien may be 14
taken into the custody of the Department of 15
Homeland Security, shall be considered to be 16
acting under color of Federal authority for pur-17
poses of determining their liability and shall be 18
held harmless for their compliance with the de-19
tainer in any suit seeking any punitive, compen-20
satory, or other monetary damages. 21
‘‘(B) F
EDERAL GOVERNMENT AS DEFEND -22
ANT.—In any civil action arising out of the 23
compliance with a Department of Homeland Se-24
curity detainer by a State or a political subdivi-25
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sion of a State (and the officials and personnel 1
of the State or subdivision acting in their offi-2
cial capacities), or a nongovernmental entity 3
(and its personnel) contracted by the State or 4
political subdivision for the purpose of providing 5
detention, the United States Government shall 6
be the proper party named as the defendant in 7
the suit in regard to the detention resulting 8
from compliance with the detainer. 9
‘‘(C) B
AD FAITH EXCEPTION .—Subpara-10
graphs (A) and (B) shall not apply to any mis-11
treatment of an individual by a State or a polit-12
ical subdivision of a State (and the officials and 13
personnel of the State or subdivision acting in 14
their official capacities), or a nongovernmental 15
entity (and its personnel) contracted by the 16
State or political subdivision for the purpose of 17
providing detention.’’. 18
Æ
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