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Committee adopts amendment to modernize jail reporting law, sends House File 772 to Human Services panel
Summary
House File 772, a statutory update that changes how state and local correctional facilities report certain noncitizen inmates to federal authorities, had its author's A1 amendment adopted and was re‑referred to the Human Services Finance and Policy Committee. Testimony included opposition from immigrant legal services and concerns from county
Chair Swazinski presented House File 772 to the Minnesota House Public Safety Committee on March 12 as an update to an older statute that governs reporting by correctional facilities. The bill’s A1 author’s amendment removed the word "undocumented" from specified lines and modernized references to which facilities are covered; the committee adopted the A1 amendment and re‑referred the bill to the Human Services Finance and Policy Committee.
Representative Swazinski said the law dated from 1927 and the amended bill expands coverage from two named state prisons to all 11 state correctional facilities and separates language that previously grouped persons convicted of felonies with persons committed for mental illness. "One of the main reasons this bill is before you is because we just don't actually know if state and local correctional facilities are complying with current state law," Swazinski said; the bill’s language requires verification of compliance.
Julia Decker, policy director for the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, testified in opposition. She said the bill risks creating erroneous or discriminatory notifications to federal immigration authorities and noted that immigration status and authorizations are legally complex. "We are concerned that the amended language of HF 772 creates real possibilities for erroneous and potentially discriminatory notifications about people in state custody," Decker said, and urged the committee to vote no.
Edder Castillo, a senior assistant county attorney at the Hennepin County Attorney's Office, said HF 772 could make it harder for prosecutors to negotiate guilty pleas. Castillo testified that by forcing jail and prison reporting to ICE, the bill could encourage noncitizen defendants to go to trial rather than accept plea terms that include jail or prison time, which would increase trial loads and require more victim and officer testimony. "By making it more difficult to obtain plea agreements on jail or prison time, HF 772 will increase trial loads for prosecutors ... and it would increase the risk that violent and dangerous offenders will be acquitted at trial," Castillo said.
The committee adopted the A1 amendment by voice vote and then voted to re‑refer House File 772, as amended, to the Human Services Finance and Policy Committee. Testimony and member remarks raised federalism concerns, administrative burdens for local officials asked to assess immigration status, and the impact on prosecutorial practice; sponsors said the measure mainly seeks to confirm compliance with existing law rather than create new immigration enforcement duties.
