PANDEMIC vs. FIRST: A Legislative Tit for Tat

Y’all know that I love a good legislative exercise. I use fashion model legislation in my podium immigration course and marijuana legislation in my crimmigration course.

Recent legislative proposals from Rep. Matt Gaetz (PANDEMIC) and Sen. Booker (FIRST) offer another exciting opportunity for legislative analysis in the classroom.

Sen. Booker’s proposal came first (pun originally unintended, but I’m thoughtfully keeping it in). It’s FIRST or the Federal Immigrant Release for Safety and Security Together Act. What’s he hoping to accomplish? “To require the release of most aliens detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during a national emergency related to a communicable disease.”

As for Rep. Gaetz, he’s got a different agenda. PANDEMIC stands for Protect American Nationals During Emergencies by Mitigating the Immigration Crisis Act. His goal? He wants to remove all noncitizens in detention during a “national emergency related to a communicable disease,” except for any “alien against whom charges for a crime of violence are pending.”

The two proposals work nicely read together. You could assign them both to get students used to reading proposed legislation. You could assign just one (say PANDEMIC which is only 3 pages compared to FIRST’s 14) and utilize it to discuss policy or to review law (what would it mean to allow removal of all noncitizens during a pandemic “Notwithstanding any other provision of law”?). Lots of exciting possibilities here.

-KitJ