Senator Schmitt Cosponsors the Keep Our Communities Safe Act

WASHINGTON – Today, Senator Eric Schmitt cosponsored Senator Britt’s (R-AL) Keep Our Communities Safe Act, to keep Americans safe and hold President Biden accountable for the disaster at the Southern border:

“While Biden refuses to take decisive action to secure America’s Southern border, drug traffickers, smugglers, and known terrorists are flooding into our interior. The Keep Our Communities Safe Act is a vital step in curtailing the flow of dangerous drugs and deadly fentanyl currently flowing unchecked over our border,” said Senator Eric Schmitt. “I’m proud to partner with Senator Britt and my colleagues on this important piece of legislation. Dangerous individuals who have illegally crossed our border should find no sanctuary in the United States, and if Biden refuses to take action in keeping Americans safe, Republicans will.”

Background

• The Biden administration has released over 1 million illegal immigrants into the U.S. and, pending the outcome of ongoing litigation, chose to release more than 1,100 illegal immigrants with criminal records from detention facilities.
• This legislation would close the Obama / Biden “catch-and-release” policy that requires the government to release illegal aliens into the United States’ interior after detaining them for six months, if no other country accepts them for deportation.

The Keep Our Communities Safe Act closes the loophole that prevents the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from detaining illegal immigrants for more than six months when:

• Their release would threaten the safety of the community and the alien either is an aggravated felon or has committed a crime of violence; 
• They would be removed in the reasonably foreseeable future;
• They would have been removed if not for the alien’s refusal to make all reasonable efforts to comply and cooperate with DHS efforts to remove them;
• They have a highly contagious disease;
• Their release would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences; or
• Their release would threaten national security.

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