H.R. 7335: Humanitarian Standards for Individuals in ICE and CBP Custody Act

The heart of H.R. 7335 is a clock. Every person taken into ICE or CBP custody would have to get an in-person screening by a licensed medical professional within 12 hours of arriving. If you're pregnant, a child, elderly, visibly ill, or you tell them you have a condition that needs prompt attention, that window shrinks to 6 hours.

The screening isn't a glance. It would cover vital signs — pulse, temperature, blood pressure, oxygen, breathing — plus a blood-sugar check for known or suspected diabetics, a weight check for kids under 12, a physical exam, and a written care plan when one is needed. If your numbers come back badly off, you'd get a consultation with an emergency care professional and a re-check within 24 hours. The bill also says you can't be denied necessary medication, and staff have to review whatever prescriptions you brought with you.

Daily basics get hard floors too. At least 1 gallon of drinking water per person per day. Three meals, with at least 2,000 calories for anyone 12 or older and age-appropriate nutrition for younger children. Daily showers, soap, a toothbrush and toothpaste, adult diapers, menstrual products, and set ratios for toilet access.

Shelter gets numbers as well: rooms kept between 68 and 74 degrees, sleep-friendly light and noise from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., and at least an hour outdoors every 24 hours for anyone held longer than 48 hours. Children who arrive with a relative or guardian generally stay with them unless there's a safety concern; unaccompanied minors must be housed away from adults in age-appropriate settings.

Then there's the watching. DHS would have 60 days to send Congress an implementation plan and 6 months to comply. The DHS inspector general would run unannounced inspections, members of Congress couldn't be turned away at the door, video would be kept for 90 days, and ICE and CBP would have to publish quarterly totals of sexual-abuse complaints.

One line in the bill matters as much as the standards: nothing in it authorizes holding anyone beyond 72 hours. It sets a floor for conditions in custody — it does not hand the agencies a new power to detain people longer.