Referred to the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims.
Congressional Research Service
Official summary
Version 00 · Introduced in House · Oct 28, 2005
Keep Americans Safe Act of 2005 - Affirms state and local authority to investigate, apprehend, arrest, detain, or transfer to federal custody aliens in the United States in the course of carrying out routine duties in order to assist in the enforcement of U.S. immigration laws.
Directs the Under Secretary for Border and Transportation Security of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to provide the National Crime Information Center with information on aliens: (1) against whom a final order of removal has been issued; (2) who have signed a voluntary departure agreement; and (3) whose visas have been revoked.
Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to direct, upon state or appropriate local request, the Secretary of DHS to: (1) take an illegal alien into federal custody, or request that the relevant state or local law enforcement agency temporarily incarcerate or transport the alien for transfer to federal custody; and (2) designate at least one federal, state, or local prison, or a private contracted prison or detention facility within each state as the central facility for that state to transfer custody of aliens to DHS.
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Provides for DHS reimbursement of state and local costs incurred in the incarceration and transportation of illegal aliens.
Amends federal criminal law to provide that: (1) an illegal alien who commits a felony shall be fined and sentenced to not less than five years in prison; (2) if the defendant was previously ordered removed under INA on the grounds of having committed a crime, he or she shall be sentenced to not less than 15 years in prison; and (3) a sentence of imprisonment imposed under this section shall run consecutively to any other sentence of imprisonment imposed for any other crime.
No related bills are listed in this snapshot. This does not establish whether the proposal has appeared in earlier Congresses.
Source last updated: Aug 15, 2025. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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