Bill Text: NJ A3841 | 2024-2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Prohibits release of illegal immigrants from correctional facilities.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 5-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-02-22 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Oversight, Reform and Federal Relations Committee [A3841 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2024-A3841-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman DAWN FANTASIA
District 24 (Morris, Sussex and Warren)
Assemblyman MICHAEL INGANAMORT
District 24 (Morris, Sussex and Warren)
SYNOPSIS
Prohibits release of illegal immigrants from correctional facilities.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning certain inmates in correctional facilities and supplementing Title 30 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. The administrator, superintendent, warden or other person responsible for the operation of a prison, jail, youth detention or other correctional facility shall identify by documentary evidence the nationality of every inmate incarcerated in the facility.
b. If an inmate is not a United States citizen as determined pursuant to subsection a. of this section, the administrator, superintendent, warden or other person responsible for the operation of the prison, jail, youth detention or other correctional facility shall identify by documentary evidence whether the inmate is lawfully present in the United States.
c. An administrator, superintendent, warden or other person responsible for the operation of the prison, jail, youth detention or other correctional facility who cannot determine by documentary evidence, after due diligence, whether the inmate is a United States citizen as required by subsection a. of this section or cannot determine whether the inmate is lawfully present in the United States as required by subsection b. of this act, shall deem the inmate to be unlawfully present in the United States.
d. An inmate shall not be released from incarceration if the inmate is not a United States citizen or is not lawfully present in the United States except to the custody of officials of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.
e. An administrator, superintendent, warden or other person responsible for the operation of a prison, jail, youth detention, or other correctional facility who releases an inmate from incarceration in violation of this section shall be subject to a civil penalty as set forth by the Commissioner of Corrections.
2. The Commissioner of Corrections shall promulgate rules and regulations in accordance with the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.) necessary to effectuate the purposes of this act, and which shall include a schedule of civil penalties to be imposed for a violation of the act as provided in subsection e. of section 1 of P.L. , c. (C. ).
3. This act shall take
effect on the first day of the fourth month after enactment and shall not apply
to any release from incarceration prior to the effective date of the act.
STATEMENT
This bill is intended to ensure that persons who are unlawfully present in the United States and have been incarcerated in prisons, jails, youth detention, or other correctional facilities in this State are not released back into the general population upon their release, but rather are remanded solely to the custody of federal immigration officials.
The bill requires the administrator, superintendent, warden or other person responsible for the operation of a prison, jail, youth detention or other correctional facility to determine the nationality of every inmate incarcerated in the facility. If an inmate is not a United States citizen, the facility's administrator is required to determine whether the inmate is lawfully present in the United States. When this cannot be determined, the inmate is to be deemed not lawfully present in the United States.
The bill prohibits the release of an inmate if the inmate is not a United States citizen or is not lawfully present in the United States except to the custody of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services officials.
Administrators, superintendents, wardens or other operators of correctional facilities who violate the bill's provisions are liable to a civil fine as specified by the Commissioner of Corrections.
