{"id":22886,"date":"2020-04-30T14:18:36","date_gmt":"2020-04-30T18:18:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=22886"},"modified":"2020-04-30T14:18:38","modified_gmt":"2020-04-30T18:18:38","slug":"ice-detention-safe-release-bill-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2020\/04\/30\/ice-detention-safe-release-bill-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Gaetz Introduces PANDEMIC Act"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to rattle American society. One particular area of concern is our federal, state, and local jails. These are confined spaces where individuals live in close proximity with others – the perfect place for a virus to spread rapidly. Some jails began releasing low-risk or elderly inmates to prevent unnecessary coronavirus deaths. Officials continue to debate the pros and cons of releasing inmates<\/a>, weighing the health of convicts versus the safety of the general public. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Immigration detention is no different. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency responsible for alien detention, stated on April 29 that 425 detainees tested positive<\/a> for coronavirus while in custody. ICE\u2019s current detained population is over 30,000. Legislators on both sides of the aisle see this as a problem, and rightfully so. But the suggestions from each group could not be more different. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) introduced companion legislation that would release scores of detained criminal aliens<\/a>, citing the coronavirus as justification. Further, the FIRST Act calls for a total cessation of all immigration enforcement in the United States. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compare this to the PANDEMIC Act, introduced by Florida Repubican Rep. Matt Gaetz. Representative Gaetz\u2019s bill<\/a> calls for the immediate removal of all detained illegal aliens during a national emergency issued in response to a communicable disease. This accomplishes two important things. First, it reduces the number of people held in detention, a professed goal of Representative Jayapal and Senator Booker. Second, it removes illegal aliens from the United States and sends them back to their homes. This is not a radical move in the slightest. Mexico deported<\/a> almost its entire illegal alien population in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opening jails and letting free potentially dangerous criminal\naliens is completely devoid of common sense. The PANDEMIC Act presents a safer\nalternative. This bill protects aliens by removing them from the close confines\nof detention. It also protects the American public by simply returning these\npeople to their homes, instead of giving them a de facto <\/em>coronavirus amnesty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although this bill will not move in the Democrat-controlled\nHouse of Representatives, it is an important message to lawmakers in both\nparties that simply releasing criminals and stopping the enforcement of\nimmigration law is not a serious proposal. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to rattle American society. One particular area of concern is our federal, state, and local jails. These are confined spaces where individuals live in close proximity with others – the perfect place for a virus to spread rapidly. Some jails began releasing low-risk or elderly inmates to prevent unnecessary coronavirus deaths.<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":15931,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[74],"tags":[1524,135,8372,71],"yst_prominent_words":[1985,2019,2464,6299,7568,8011,4743,2118,1995,2013,2008,1963,8528,8529,8177,8527,8020,4802,2217,1933],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22886"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22886"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22887,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22886\/revisions\/22887"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22886"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=22886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}