II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 572
To enhance the effectiveness of the Shadow Wolves Program, and for other
purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY13, 2025
Mr. G
ALLEGO(for himself, Mr. KELLY, Mr. HOEVEN, and Mr. LANKFORD)
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
A BILL
To enhance the effectiveness of the Shadow Wolves Program,
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 ‘‘Shadow Wolves Im-4
provement Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. ENHANCING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE SHADOW 6
WOLVES PROGRAM. 7
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subtitle D of title IV of the 8
Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 251 et seq.) 9
is amended by adding at the end the following: 10
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‘‘SEC. 448. SHADOW WOLVES PROGRAM. 1
‘‘(a) M
ISSION ANDGOALS.—The Director of U.S. 2
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (referred to in 3
this section as the ‘Director’), in coordination with appro-4
priate representatives of partnering Tribal governments, 5
including the Tohono O’odham Nation, shall specify the 6
mission and goals of the Shadow Wolves Program. 7
‘‘(b) S
TAFFING.—The Director shall determine— 8
‘‘(1) the number of special agents needed to 9
staff the Shadow Wolves Program nationally; and 10
‘‘(2) the knowledge, skills, and abilities that 11
such special agents shall be required to possess. 12
‘‘(c) S
TRATEGY.—Not later than 180 days after the 13
date of the enactment of the Shadow Wolves Improvement 14
Act, the Director, in consultation with appropriate rep-15
resentatives of partnering Tribal governments, including 16
the Tohono O’odham Nation, shall update the strategy re-17
quired under section 3 of the Shadow Wolves Enhance-18
ment Act (Public Law 117–113) by adding— 19
‘‘(1) measurable objectives to achieve the reten-20
tion and recruitment of law enforcement officers, 21
and the expansion goals set forth in the strategy; 22
‘‘(2) a timeline for achieving such goals; and 23
‘‘(3) milestones for recruiting qualified special 24
agents for the Shadow Wolves Program to meet the 25
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target identified in the staffing needs assessment re-1
quired under subsection (b)(1). 2
‘‘(d) P
ROVISION OFINFORMATION.—The Director 3
shall provide, to all GS–1801 Tactical Officers who are 4
employed as Shadow Wolves by Homeland Security Inves-5
tigations as of the date of the enactment of the Shadow 6
Wolves Improvement Act, written information that will 7
help them make an informed decision about reclassifying 8
as special agents, including— 9
‘‘(1) individualized information regarding how 10
reclassification would affect pay, including changes 11
to overtime pay, and retirement compensation; 12
‘‘(2) steps such officers are required to com-13
plete to be reclassified as special agents, including— 14
‘‘(A) whether they must meet training re-15
quirements; 16
‘‘(B) a description of those requirements; 17
‘‘(C) whether they are exempt from phys-18
ical fitness, medical, or polygraph examinations; 19
and 20
‘‘(D) whether they are eligible for overtime 21
pay during such training; and 22
‘‘(3) any other relevant information that the 23
Director believes would help such officers make an 24
informed decision regarding such reclassification. 25
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‘‘(e) SUCCESSIONPLAN.—The Director shall develop 1
a plan for the timely recruitment of qualified individuals 2
to fill vacant special agent positions in the Shadow Wolves 3
Program that will result from anticipated retirements. 4
‘‘(f) P
ROGRAMEXPANSION.—The Director shall— 5
‘‘(1) develop criteria for evaluating and select-6
ing additional tribal lands on which additional Shad-7
ow Wolves units may be located, including the 8
amount of additional funding necessary and poten-9
tial sources for such funding; and 10
‘‘(2) in developing such criteria, give consider-11
ation to tribal lands located in proximity to existing 12
facilities that provide Federal law enforcement train-13
ing.’’. 14
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of contents 15
for the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 101 et 16
seq.) is amended by inserting after the item relating to 17
section 447 the following: 18
‘‘Sec. 448. Shadow Wolves Program.’’.
SEC. 3. REPORT TO CONGRESS ON IMPLEMENTATION OF
19
SHADOW WOLVES PROGRAM ENHANCE-20
MENTS. 21
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 22
(1) D
IRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 23
the Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs En-24
forcement. 25
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(2) RELEVANT CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -1
TEES.—The term ‘‘relevant congressional commit-2
tees’’ means— 3
(A) the Committee on Homeland Security 4
and Governmental Affairs of the Senate; 5
(B) the Committee on the Judiciary of the 6
Senate; 7
(C) the Committee on Homeland Security 8
of the House of Representatives; and 9
(D) the Committee on the Judiciary of the 10
House of Representatives. 11
(b) R
EPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the date 12
of the enactment of this Act, the Director shall submit 13
a report to the relevant congressional committees that de-14
scribes the progress that has been made towards the full 15
implementation of— 16
(1) section 448 of the Homeland Security Act 17
of 2002, as added by section 2(a), including the re-18
quired coordination with appropriate representatives 19
of the Tohono O’odham Nation and other partnering 20
Tribal governments, to specify the mission and goals 21
of the Shadow Wolves Program, which shall include 22
tracking, interdiction, and investigation; and 23
(2) section 2(4) of the Shadow Wolves En-24
hancement Act, as added by section 4. 25
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SEC. 4. CONVERSION OF EXPERIENCED SHADOW WOLVES 1
TO CAREER APPOINTMENT IN THE COMPETI-2
TIVE SERVICE. 3
Section 2 of the Shadow Wolves Enhancement Act 4
(Public Law 117–113) is amended— 5
(1) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the 6
end; 7
(2) in paragraph (3), by striking the period at 8
the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 9
(3) by adding at the end the following: 10
‘‘(4) to noncompetitively convert Shadow 11
Wolves, after their successful completion of three 12
years as Shadow Wolves, regardless of location as-13
signed, from the excepted service to career or career 14
conditional appointments in the competitive serv-15
ice.’’. 16
Æ
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