Sponsors
The bill prioritizes faster, broader immigration enforcement and clearer federal-state reporting and funding incentives to remove criminally convicted noncitizens and reduce court backlogs, at the cost of accelerated deportations, greater risks of erroneous or retroactive removals, financial and administrative burdens on local jurisdictions, and potential harms to families and community policing.
Communities and the public: noncitizen convictions and criminal removal cases will be processed and reported faster, enabling quicker removals of people convicted of felonies or two misdemeanors and potentially reducing locally perceived public-safety risks.
The immigration system and taxpayers: the bill aims to reduce immigration court backlogs and speed DHS/EOIR case processing through clearer expedited-removal authority and deadlines, which could make enforcement more efficient and lower persistent administrative backlogs.
State, local, and federal law enforcement: a standardized, federally integrated 24-hour reporting process improves information sharing and consistency between courts, local agencies, and DHS.
Noncitizens and immigrant families: the expansion and faster use of expedited removal and 24-hour reporting means many more noncitizens (including those with older or lower-level convictions) may face rapid deportation with less time to contest charges, seek relief, or prepare appeals.
Immigrants and the justice system: faster, automated reporting and broadened expedited removal increase the risk of erroneous or wrongful removals when records, identity matches, or convictions are ambiguous or not final.
Families and communities: quicker deportations and retroactive application can separate families, remove long-term residents, and cause lost wages and other economic harms that ripple through local communities.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Introduced January 14, 2026 by Thomas Bryant Cotton · Last progress January 14, 2026
Requires state and local courts and law enforcement to report every criminal conviction of a non‑U.S. citizen to DHS within 24 hours (with a 180‑day setup period) and directs DHS to open removal proceedings when the conviction makes the person removable. Expands expedited removal authority to apply to anyone convicted of "a felony or two misdemeanors," speeds immigration court and appeal deadlines for criminal removal cases, and makes that expedited authority retroactive to past convictions. Defines "sanctuary jurisdiction" and creates incentives and penalties: awards $150 million per year in competitive grants to jurisdictions that fully cooperate with federal immigration detainers and information‑sharing (starting FY2026), while authorizing a withholding of 15% of Highway Trust Fund apportionments from jurisdictions that meet the sanctuary definition unless they certify compliance within a 180‑day cure period.