Oppose H.R. 3486, the Stop Illegal Entry Act of 2025

Immigrant Rights Resources, Justice Reform Resources 09.16.25

View A PDF of this Advocacy Letter here

September 10, 2025

Dear Representative,

On behalf of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition of more than 240 national civil and human rights advocacy organizations, we write to express our strong opposition to H.R. 3486, the Stop Illegal Entry Act of 2025. The Leadership Conference intends to record your vote on H.R. 3486 in our voting record for the 119th Congress. Our organization is categorically opposed to mandatory minimums, and we urge you to reject this bill and its expansion of wrongheaded and punitive policies that drive mass incarceration and racial disparities in our criminal-legal system.

Over the past five decades, U.S. criminal-legal policies have driven an increase in incarceration rates that is unprecedented in this country’s history and unmatched globally. The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world, with nearly 2 million people currently incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails.[1] Over-criminalization and over-incarceration have devastating impacts on those ensnared in the criminal-legal system and on their families, do not produce any proportional increase in public safety, and disproportionately harm low-income communities and communities of color. In particular, mandatory minimum penalties are a key driver of the burgeoning prison population, and Congress should be looking to roll these penalties back and repairing the damage they have wrought rather than extending them.

The proliferation of mandatory minimum sentences has fueled skyrocketing prison populations.[2] The federal prison population has increased from approximately 25,000 in FY1980 to more than 155,000 today.[3] As of 2016, 55 percent of the federal prison population was comprised of those who had been sentenced under a mandatory minimum provision.[4] Yet, despite the dramatic uptick in incarceration, increasing the severity of punishment by lengthening sentences has had little impact on crime deterrence.[5]

Mandatory minimums also eliminate judicial discretion, preventing judges from tailoring punishment to a particular defendant by taking into account an individual’s background and the circumstances of their offenses when determining the sentence. Mass incarceration as a whole has also had a markedly disproportionate impact on communities of color. Today, the Bureau of Prisons reports that 38.3 percent of its current prison population is Black and 29.8 percent is Hispanic, an enormous disparity given that both groups represent only about one third of the nation’s population combined.[6] These disparities are also reflected in mandatory minimum penalties, wherein people of color are subject to more and harsher penalties.[7] These concerns are not lessened simply because a particular sentence only targets certain noncitizens.

Mandatory minimum penalties have incurred devastating economic, societal, and human costs, destroying families and irreparably damaging communities of color. We call on you to reject an expansion of mandatory minimums and vote NO on H.R. 3486. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Rob Randhava, Senior Counsel, at [email protected].

 

Sincerely,

Maya Wiley
President and CEO

 

[1] Nellis, Ashley. “Mass Incarceration Trends.” The Sentencing Project. May 21, 2024. https://www.sentencingproject.org/reports/mass-incarceration-trends/.

[2] See, e.g., Samuels, Julie, & La Vigne, Nancy, & Thomson, Chelsea. “Next Steps in Federal Corrections Reform: Implementing and Building on the First Step Act.” Urban Institute. May 2019. https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/100230/next_steps_in_federal_corrections_reform_1.pdf; Travis, Jeremy, & Western, Bruce, & Redburn, Steve. “The Growth of Incarceration in the United States: Exploring Causes and Consequences.” Nat’l Research Council. 2014. Pg. 336. http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/praxis1313/files/2019/04/Chapter-13-NAS.pdf.

[3] “Statistics: Total Federal Inmates.” Federal Bureau of Prisons. Last updated July 17, 2025 https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/population_statistics.jsp.

[4] “An Overview of Mandatory Minimum Penalties in the Federal Criminal Justice System.” U.S. Sentencing Comm’n. Jul. 2017. Pg. 49. https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/research-and-publications/research-publications/2017/20170711_Mand-Min.pdf (hereinafter “Overview”).

[5] See, e.g., Ghandnoosh, Nazgol, & Budd, Kristen M. “Incarceration and Crime: A Weak Relationship.” The Sentencing Project. June 13, 2024. https://www.sentencingproject.org/reports/incarceration-and-crime-a-weak-relationship/; “A New Paradigm for Sentencing in the United States.” The Vera Institute for Justice. Feb. 2023. https://www.vera.org/publications/a-new-paradigm-for-sentencing-in-the-united-states; Luna, Erik. “Mandatory Minimums.” The Academy for Justice. 2017. Pgs. 127-130. https://law.asu.edu/sites/default/files/pdf/academy_for_justice/7_Criminal_Justice_Reform_Vol_4_Mandatory-Minimums.pdf; Nat’l Inst. of Justice. “Five Things about Deterrence.” May 2016. https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/247350.pdf.

[6] “Inmate Statistics.” Federal Bureau of Prisons. Last updated July 8, 2025. https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_race.jsp. Hispanic or Latino people make up 19.5% of the U.S. population, while Black people make up 13.7%. “United States QuickFacts.” U.S. Census Bureau. Last updated July 1, 2024. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045224.

[7] See, e.g., “Mandatory Minimum Penalties for Drug Offenses in the Federal Criminal Justice System.” U.S. Sentencing Comm’n. Oct. 2017. Pg. 57. https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/research-and-publications/research-publications/2017/20170711_Mand-Min.pdf; “Overview,” supra note 4.