More than two dozen House Democrats have proposed legislation that aims to end the detention of immigrants at the border, and calls for “alternatives to detention.”
“Immigrants that pose no threat to U.S. security should not have to sit in detention facilities simply because they are too poor to pay bail,” Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., the lead sponsor of the bill, said in a statement. “The current immigrant detention and bail setting system is not only unfair and inhumane, but it also results in millions in taxpayer money wasted every year holding in detention individuals that don’t belong behind bars.”
Serrano said under current law, many immigrants, including those seeking asylum, are held in detention centers because they often can’t afford to post bond. But his statement said that process doesn’t protect “indigent immigrants who do not pose a danger to the community and who are not a flight risk.”
He said the federal government currently has no way to consider an immigrant’s ability to pay when it sets a bond amount.
His Immigration Courts Bail Reform Act would require the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security to “consider the financial ability to pay in setting any bond amount,” his statement said.
It would also eliminate minimal bond amounts, and stress the need for “alternatives to detention.” Specifically, it would “create a presumption that alternatives to detention are the preferred method of ensuring the appearance of an individual before an immigration judge.”
That idea goes against those put forward by Republicans, who have said for years that too many illegal immigrants are already allowed to promise to show up for an immigration court hearing, and then fail to show up.
But Serrano said the Obama administration has argued that it’s unconstitutional to detain someone because they can’t afford to post a bond. “These same concerns should apply to our nation’s immigration courts,” his statement said.
His bill is cosponsored by 28 other Democrats.
