The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is promulgating two changes that apply to surety companies certified by the Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service (Treasury), to underwrite bonds on behalf of the Federal Government. First, this final rule requires Treasury-certified sureties seeking to overturn a surety immigration bond breach determination to exhaust administrative remedies by filing an administrative appeal raising all legal and factual defenses. This requirement to exhaust administrative remedies and present all issues to the administrative tribunal will allow Federal district courts to review a written decision addressing all of the surety's defenses, thereby streamlining litigation over the breach determination's validity. Second, this rule sets forth "for cause" standards and due process protections so that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a component of DHS, may decline bonds from companies that do not cure their deficient performance. Treasury administers the Federal corporate surety bond program and, in its regulations, allows agencies to prescribe in their regulations for cause standards and procedures for declining to accept bonds from a Treasury-certified surety company. ICE adopts the for cause standards contained in this rule because certain surety companies have failed to pay amounts due on administratively final bond breach determinations or have had in the past unacceptably high breach rates.
Read the full text on the Federal Register
This page is a structured index entry, not a substitute for reading the rule. This is not legal advice.