Title 18, Crimes and Criminal ProcedureRelease 119-102

§3042 Extraterritorial Jurisdiction

Title 18 › PART II — CRIMINAL PROCEDURE › CHAPTER 203 — ARREST AND COMMITMENT › § 3042

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

Makes the existing arrest-and-removal rules apply in any country where the United States can act to arrest people abroad and send them back to the United States. It covers U.S. citizens or nationals who are accused or convicted of U.S. crimes and who are fugitives. Allows a U.S. officer abroad to arrest and hold, or release under usual conditions, such a fugitive while waiting for a removal warrant. The top U.S. officer in that country must issue the warrant, and the U.S. marshal will carry it out. Marshals and their deputies acting outside their normal court area have the powers needed to keep the prisoner safe and enforce the warrant.

Full Legal Text

Title 18, §3042

Crimes and Criminal Procedure, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

section 3041 of this title shall apply in any country where the United States exercises extraterritorial jurisdiction for the arrest and removal therefrom to the United States of any citizen or national of the United States who is a fugitive from justice charged with or convicted of the commission of any offense against the United States, and shall also apply throughout the United States for the arrest and removal therefrom to the jurisdiction of any officer or representative of the United States vested with judicial authority in any country in which the United States exercises extraterritorial jurisdiction, of any citizen or national of the United States who is a fugitive from justice charged with or convicted of the commission of any offense against the United States in any country where it exercises extraterritorial jurisdiction. Such fugitive first mentioned may, by any officer or representative of the United States vested with judicial authority in any country in which the United States exercises extraterritorial jurisdiction and agreeably to the usual mode of process against offenders subject to such jurisdiction, be arrested and detained or conditionally released pursuant to section 3142 of this title, as the case may be, pending the issuance of a warrant for his removal, which warrant the principal officer or representative of the United States vested with judicial authority in the country where the fugitive shall be found shall seasonably issue, and the United States marshal or corresponding officer shall execute. Such marshal or other officer, or the deputies of such marshal or officer, when engaged in executing such warrant without the jurisdiction of the court to which they are attached, shall have all the powers of a marshal of the United States so far as such powers are requisite for the prisoner’s safekeeping and the execution of the warrant.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Historical and Revision Notes

Based on title 18, U.S.C., 1940 ed., § 662b (Mar. 22, 1934, ch. 73, § 1, 48 Stat. 454). Words “crime or” before “offense” were omitted as unnecessary. Words “and the Philippine Islands” were deleted in two places as obsolete in view of the independence of the Commonwealth of the Philippines effective July 4, 1946. Words “its Territories, Districts, or possessions, including the Panama Canal Zone or any other territory governed, occupied, or controlled by it” were omitted as covered by section 5 of this title defining the term “United States”. Minor changes were made in phraseology.

Editorial Notes

Amendments

1984—Pub. L. 98–473 substituted “detained or conditionally released pursuant to section 3142 of this title” for “imprisoned or admitted to bail”.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

18 U.S.C. § 3042

Title 18, Crimes and Criminal Procedure

Last Updated

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102