ICE Protection Bill Doubles Maximum Prison Time and Fines for Interfering with Agents

The Protect and Respect ICE Act, or the PRICE Act, is a one-section bill that makes a major change to federal sentencing guidelines. Specifically, the bill targets anyone who is found guilty of assaulting, resisting, or impeding an officer or employee of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). If you commit one of these offenses against an ICE staff member, the maximum jail time and the maximum fine you face for that crime will be doubled compared to the standard penalty.

The Double Penalty Rule

Existing federal law already has penalties for interfering with or assaulting a federal officer—that’s a given. What the PRICE Act does is carve out a special, harsher penalty structure only for offenses committed against ICE personnel. Say the current maximum penalty for resisting a federal officer is five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Under this bill, if that officer works for ICE, the new maximum penalty immediately jumps to ten years in prison and a $20,000 fine. This is a significant increase in potential exposure for the accused.

Who Feels the Impact?

This change primarily affects two groups. First, it offers heightened legal protection to ICE officers, signaling that interference during their duties will carry extremely severe consequences. Second, and more critically, it impacts anyone who interacts with ICE enforcement actions. This includes immigrants, advocates, or even bystanders and protestors documenting an operation. For these individuals, the risk associated with being accused of ‘resisting’ or ‘impeding’ just shot up dramatically.

Consider someone documenting an arrest on their phone who is told to move back. If an officer perceives that person’s refusal to immediately comply as ‘impeding’ or ‘resisting,’ and that person is convicted, they now face double the maximum prison time. When penalties are doubled, it can create a strong chilling effect, making people far less likely to speak up, protest, or even document what they see happening during enforcement actions, simply because the risk of a severe criminal sentence is now much higher. The bill is clear about increasing the penalty, but it relies entirely on existing, sometimes broad, definitions of what constitutes assault, resistance, or impedance.