II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 50
To prohibit the intentional hindering of immigration, border, and customs
controls, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY9, 2025
Ms. E
RNSTintroduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred
to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To prohibit the intentional hindering of immigration, border,
and customs controls, and for other purposes.
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 ‘‘Transnational Crimi-4
nal Organization Illicit Spotter Prevention and Elimi-5
nation Act’’. 6
SEC. 2. UNLAWFULLY HINDERING IMMIGRATION, BORDER, 7
AND CUSTOMS CONTROLS. 8
(a) E
NHANCEDPENALTIES.— 9
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(1) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 9 of title II of the 1
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1351 et 2
seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following: 3
‘‘SEC. 295. UNLAWFULLY HINDERING IMMIGRATION, BOR-4
DER, AND CUSTOMS CONTROLS. 5
‘‘(a) I
LLICITSPOTTING.—Any person who knowingly 6
transmits, by any means, to another person the location, 7
movement, or activities of any Federal, State, local, or 8
tribal law enforcement agency with the intent to further 9
a Federal crime relating to United States immigration, 10
customs, controlled substances, agriculture, monetary in-11
struments, or other border controls shall be fined under 12
title 18, United States Code, imprisoned not more than 13
10 years, or both. 14
‘‘(b) D
ESTRUCTION OF UNITEDSTATESBORDER 15
C
ONTROLS.—Any person who knowingly and without law-16
ful authorization destroys, alters, or damages any fence, 17
barrier, sensor, camera, or other physical or electronic de-18
vice deployed by the Federal Government to control the 19
border or a port of entry or otherwise seeks to construct, 20
excavate, or make any structure intended to defeat, cir-21
cumvent, or evade any such fence, barrier, sensor camera, 22
or other physical or electronic device deployed by the Fed-23
eral Government to control the border or a port of entry— 24
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‘‘(1) shall be fined under title 18, United States 1
Code, imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both; 2
or 3
‘‘(2) if, at the time of the offense, the person 4
uses or carries a firearm or who, in furtherance of 5
any such crime, possesses a firearm, shall be fined 6
under such title 18, imprisoned not more than 20 7
years, or both. 8
‘‘(c) C
ONSPIRACY ANDATTEMPT.—Any person who 9
attempts or conspires to violate subsection (a) or (b) shall 10
be punished in the same manner as a person who com-11
pletes a violation of such subsection.’’. 12
(2) C
LERICAL AMENDMENT .—The table of con-13
tents in the first section of the Immigration and Na-14
tionality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.) is amended by 15
inserting after the item relating to section 294 the 16
following: 17
‘‘Sec. 295. Unlawfully hindering immigration, border, and customs controls.’’.
(b) PROHIBITINGCARRYING ORUSE OF AFIREARM 18
D
URING AND IN RELATION TO AN ALIENSMUGGLING 19
C
RIME.—Section 924(c) of title 18, United States Code, 20
is amended— 21
(1) in paragraph (1)— 22
(A) in subparagraph (A), in the matter 23
preceding clause (i), by inserting ‘‘, alien smug-24
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gling crime,’’ after ‘‘crime of violence’’ each 1
place that term appears; and 2
(B) in subparagraph (D)(ii), by inserting 3
‘‘, alien smuggling crime,’’ after ‘‘crime of vio-4
lence’’; 5
(2) by striking paragraphs (2) through (4); 6
(3) by redesignating paragraph (5) as para-7
graph (2); and 8
(4) by adding at the end the following: 9
‘‘(3) In this subsection— 10
‘‘(A) the term ‘alien smuggling crime’ means 11
any felony punishable under section 274(a), 277, or 12
278 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 13
U.S.C. 1324(a), 1327, and 1328); 14
‘‘(B) the term ‘brandish’ means, with respect to 15
a firearm, to display all or part of the firearm, or 16
otherwise make the presence of the firearm known 17
to another person, in order to intimidate that per-18
son, regardless of whether the firearm is directly 19
visible to such person; 20
‘‘(C) the term ‘crime of violence’ means an of-21
fense that— 22
‘‘(i) is a felony; and 23
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‘‘(ii)(I) has, as an element, the use, at-1
tempted use, or threatened use of physical force 2
against the person or property of another; or 3
‘‘(II) by its nature, involves a substantial 4
risk that physical force against the person or 5
property of another may be used in the course 6
of committing the offense. 7
‘‘(D) the term ‘drug trafficking crime’ means 8
any felony punishable under the Controlled Sub-9
stances Act (21 U.S.C. 801 et seq.), the Controlled 10
Substances Import and Export Act (21 U.S.C. 951 11
et seq.), or chapter 705 of title 46.’’. 12
(c) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENTS.— 13
(1) B
ANKRUPTCY CODE.—Section 707(c)(1)(B) 14
of title 11, United States Code, is amended by strik-15
ing ‘‘section 924(c)(2)’’ and inserting ‘‘section 16
924(c)(3)(D)’’. 17
(2) C
RIMINAL CODE.—Title 18, United States 18
Code, is amended— 19
(A) in section 844(o)— 20
(i) by striking ‘‘section 924(c)(3)’’ 21
and inserting ‘‘section 924(c)(3)(C)’’; and 22
(ii) by striking ‘‘section 924(c)(2)’’ 23
and inserting ‘‘section 924(c)(3)(D)’’; 24
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(B) in section 1028(b)(3)(B), by striking 1
‘‘section 924(c)(3)’’ and inserting ‘‘section 2
924(c)(3)(C)’’; and 3
(C) in section 4042(b)(3)— 4
(i) in subparagraph (A), by striking 5
‘‘section 924(c)(2)’’ and inserting ‘‘section 6
924(c)(3)(D)’’; and 7
(ii) in subparagraph (B), by striking 8
‘‘section 924(c)(3)’’ and inserting ‘‘section 9
924(c)(3)(C)’’. 10
(3) P
RISONS.—Section 3(1) of the Interstate 11
Transportation of Dangerous Criminals Act of 2000 12
(34 U.S.C. 60102(1)) is amended by striking ‘‘sec-13
tion 924(c)(3)’’ and inserting ‘‘section 14
924(c)(3)(C)’’. 15
(d) S
TATUTE OFLIMITATIONS.—Section 3298 of title 16
18, United States Code, is amended— 17
(1) by inserting ‘‘or 295’’ after ‘‘274(a)’’; and 18
(2) by inserting ‘‘(8 U.S.C. 1324(a) and 19
1363b)’’ after ‘‘Immigration and Nationality Act’’. 20
Æ
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