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Committee narrows and advances bill requiring officers to report suspected undocumented immigrants to ICE or Border Patrol
Summary
House Bill 15 85 was amended to require, when a peace officer has probable cause to believe an immigrant is in the country illegally, that the officer report the person to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or the U.S. Border Patrol; the committee removed a penalty provision and the tip-line phone number and advanced the bill.
The House Judiciary Committee amended House Bill 15 85 to require a peace officer who has probable cause to believe an immigrant is in the United States illegally to report that person to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or the U.S. Border Patrol. The committee deleted a separate section referencing a tip line phone number and removed an infraction penalty provision during amendment debate.
Representative Vetter and other members proposed changes to add a probable‑cause standard, to allow reporting directly to Border Patrol as well as ICE, and to delete the hard-coded tip line reference so agencies can use their existing contacts. Representative Vetter said the change reflected how officers in some districts would contact Border Patrol directly rather than a central tip line.
An amendment adopting those changes passed on roll call (committee recorded the amendment adopted 13–1). After further discussion about penalties and enforcement, the committee voted to advance the bill as amended; the reported committee vote for do-pass-as-amended was 11 yes, 3 no. Several members said they would have preferred added provisions (for example, a knowledge or intentionality element), while others opposed imposing criminal penalties on officers for failing to report.
Representative Johnston moved the do-pass-as-amended motion; the committee named a bill carrier to carry House Bill 15 85 following the vote. Committee discussion included questions about whether requiring officers to make the report duplicates existing practice and whether imposing penalties was appropriate; some members said departments already report to federal immigration authorities in many cases.
The bill, as amended, requires reporting to ICE or U.S. Border Patrol when a peace officer has probable cause to believe someone is present unlawfully; the measure no longer includes the tip-line phone-number reference or a specified penalty for failing to report.
