The House voted to crack down on high-speed chases near the southern border, marking the latest immigration-focused bill to be prioritized in the new GOP majority.
The Agent Raul Gonzalez Officer Safety Act, named after a Border Patrol officer who died in the line of duty, passed the House in a 264-155 vote on Thursday. Gonzalez had been pursuing migrants on his all-terrain vehicle at the time of his death in 2022.
Under the bill, anyone who leads federal, state, or local police on a vehicle chase within 100 miles of the U.S. border would face up to two years in prison, a fine, or both.
The legislation is meant to deal with the regular occurrence of high-speed chases up and down the 1,950-mile southern border as human smugglers try to evade police while moving illegal immigrants or drugs into the country.
The penalty is five to 20 years in prison if serious bodily injury is inflicted on the officer, a bystander, or those in the vehicle, while 10 years to life is mandated if someone dies in the incident.
In addition, any person involved in a chase would be ineligible to seek asylum in the United States and deemed “deportable.”
Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ), who represents a border district, introduced the bill after hearing from community leaders in Arizona who urged him to make the chases a top legislative priority in Congress.
“They unanimously said high-speed chases,” Ciscomani told the Washington Examiner in a phone call this week. “These drivers are going 100 miles per hour, endangering law enforcement, but also all the innocent bystanders.”
“There have been incidents where innocent bystanders have been struck and killed, not to mention Raul Gonzalez,” he added.
The legislation passed the House last January with bipartisan support but died in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
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Republicans, now in unified control of Washington, have had more success this year with immigration-related legislation, sending the Laken Riley Act to President Donald Trump’s desk in January.
But the border-chase bill must still clear the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to become law.
In the House, 50 Democrats joined with Republicans to pass the legislation on Thursday.
