Deportation Acceleration Act

Key Points

• This bill, introduced by Senator Cotton, would make it much easier and faster for the government to deport non-citizens who are convicted of crimes. It expands the list of crimes that lead to deportation to include any single felony or any two misdemeanors.
• The policy affects all non-citizens, including legal permanent residents with green cards. Under these rules, the government could skip certain court hearings and use an "expedited" process to remove people from the country more quickly after a conviction.
• State and local courts would be required to report any criminal conviction of a non-citizen to federal immigration authorities within 24 hours. This is designed to help the Department of Homeland Security start the deportation process almost immediately after a person is found guilty.
• Cities or states that refuse to share immigration information or follow federal requests would be labeled "sanctuary jurisdictions." These areas could lose 15% of their federal highway funding as a penalty, while cities that do cooperate could share $150 million in federal grants.
• The bill significantly shortens the time people have to appeal a deportation order. In many cases, the window to ask a court to reconsider a case would drop from 180 days down to just 30 days to speed up the legal process.
• These rules would apply to everyone currently in the country, even if their crimes or convictions happened years before this bill was written or passed into law.