GOP legislators push ‘Defense Against Criminal Illegals Act’ and other anti-immigrant bills – Arkansas Times

A top Republican in the Arkansas Senate has introduced a bill that would require state prison system officials and county sheriffs across Arkansas to work more closely with federal immigration authorities just as the Trump administration looks to ramp up its promised mass deportation efforts. 

Senate Bill 426, the “Defense Against Criminal Illegals Act,” is sponsored by Sen. Bart Hester (R-Cave Springs) and Rep. Fran Cavenaugh (R-Walnut Ridge). It requires any sheriff who’s in charge of a county jail to apply to participate in the Warrant Service Officer Program, which is run by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Participating sheriffs are essentially deputized to act as ICE agents for purposes of serving warrants on people held in their jails, according to the immigration agency’s website.

In other words, the program would make it easier for a sheriff to hand over an unauthorized immigrant to ICE if that person were already held in the county jail. (Here’s more on the Warrant Service Officer Program in a 2019 announcement by ICE and a recent fact sheet.) SB426 would also require the state Division of Correction to apply to participate in the program.

The bill would also enhance criminal penalties for unauthorized immigrants convicted of certain “serious felonies involving violence,” such as murder, battery or aggravated assault. And it would build on an existing state-level ban on so-called “sanctuary cities” to forbid such policies in counties and unincorporated areas.

The “Defense Against Criminal Illegals Act” was one of the pieces of legislation promised by Gov. Sarah Sanders in her address at the start of the 2025 session. The bill would “slap enhanced penalties on violent illegal immigrants and remove them from our state,” she said at the time. 

To be clear, though, those are two different things. The enhanced penalties under the bill would take place within the state criminal justice system; they would apply to people convicted of violent crimes who also happen to be unauthorized immigrants. The “removals” referenced by Sanders, which would presumably be expedited under the ICE program, could apply to an unauthorized immigrant held in jail for any crime, violent or not. A person who was arrested for public intoxication or shoplifting, for example, could still be handed over to ICE.

Would enhanced penalties based on immigration status even be legal here? It’s possible, Little Rock attorney Jeff Rosenzweig said. “It is saber rattling but it has a good chance of getting upheld by the courts,” he said.

SB426 isn’t the only bill in the state Legislature that aims to further Trump’s immigration crackdown. House Bill 1789, sponsored by Rep. Rebecca Burkes (R-Lowell), would ban cities and counties from issuing ID cards to any person who “does not provide proof of lawful presence in the United States.” Little Rock is one such city with a municipal ID program that provides an alternative to drivers licenses or state-issued IDs. 

Then there’s House Bill 1655 by Rep. Wayne Long (R-Bradford), a fringe figure in the Legislature. The bill would establish two new felony offenses under state criminal law, “human smuggling” and “harboring illegal aliens.” If passed, anyone who “knowingly conceals, harbors, or shields from detection” any person who is in the U.S. unlawfully could be convicted of a Class D felony.