Honoring ICE Detainers (H 5663)

We strongly opposed legislation which would require all state law enforcement agencies to honor federal detainer requests. A detainer, as issued by the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is a written request that local law enforcement detain an individual for an additional 48 hours after they would otherwise be released, and is often used to provide additional time to examine an individual's immigration status. These detainers are usually issued without a judicial warrant, which would be supported by probable cause. Consequently, once the basis for criminal detention has ended, Rhode Island's continued detainment of an individual solely based on an ICE request violates the Fourth Amendment's bar on unlawful seizures.