5. Department of Homeland Security · Notable · Needs Congress
Codify a single nationwide immigration detention standard
Printed page 140 5. Department of Homeland Security
“A single nationwide detention standard should be codified that prevents individual states from mandating that federal government agencies adhere to widely expansive and ever-changing sets of standards. Such standards should allow the flexibility to use large numbers of temporary facilities such as tents.”
What has happened
- Partially done
Congress wrote a single federal detention standard into statute for the first time: section 90003(b) of Public Law 119-21 provides that "the detention standards for the single adult detention capacity described in subsection (a) shall be set in the discretion of the Secretary of Homeland Security, consistent with applicable law", and section 90003(b) also fixes how long families may be held at family residential centers. That is the flexibility the Quote wants and it displaces state-imposed standards for the capacity it funds. It is `partial` and not `done` because the provision reaches only the detention capacity bought with this appropriation, not a codified nationwide standard for all immigration detention, and it says nothing about tents or other temporary facilities.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
This ask sits on the same page as the detention appropriations and is answered by the same statute.
- Action
- create
- Object
- nationwide detention standard
- ID
- 304