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Project 2025Chapter 5 › Proposal

Change detention in law from may to shall

Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, chapter 5, p. 150. Written by Ken Cuccinelli.

Change detention in law from may to shall

The document says “shouldWho acts: CongressHow: legislationp. 150 in the PDF
What the document says

“Congress should eliminate ambiguous discretionary language in Title 8 that aliens “may” be detained and clarify that aliens “shall” be detained.”

Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, p. 150

The chapter says the word may creates ambiguity that lets the executive branch ignore the will of Congress, and asks for it to be replaced with shall so that detention is mandatory rather than discretionary.

What the document actually says

“Congress should eliminate ambiguous discretionary language in Title 8 that aliens “may” be detained and clarify that aliens “shall” be detained.”

Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, p. 150
That sentence, in plain words

The law says people may be held. The book says change it to must be held.

What this is about

One word in the law matters here. It says people may be held. That leaves a choice. The book says it should say must.

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The quotation is the document's own words, exactly as printed, and we check the page number against the book itself before publishing. The paragraph underneath is our summary, not the document's words. So is the plain English version, which is why it sits beside the quotation rather than replacing it.

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