Sponsors (20)
The bill improves detainee-family communication and privacy by requiring notification, translation support, and limits on enforcement use of contact data, at the cost of modest administrative burdens and with limits in reach for short (<12 hour) detentions and cases where contact info is inaccurate.
Immigrants detained by CBP or ICE (and their families) can designate a contact who will be notified before the detainee's release, helping families arrange pickup/support and reducing anxiety.
Detainees and their designated contacts are offered translation and interpretation in their chosen language, improving communication and reducing misunderstandings during processing and notification.
Detainees' collected contact information cannot be used for immigration enforcement, protecting privacy and reducing fear that seeking help or providing contacts will lead to enforcement actions.
Parents, families, and detained immigrants may still go uninformed if the designated contact information is incorrect or unreachable despite two notification attempts.
Travelers or migrants subject to short port-of-entry detentions (under 12 hours) are excluded from the notification requirement, so those processed quickly may not benefit.
CBP/ICE and local government entities will incur modest administrative costs and staff time to collect contact data, provide translation services, and carry out notification procedures.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires DHS to let people in CBP/ICE custody designate a contact and notify that contact before release, with language access and a prohibition on using that info for enforcement.
Official title: To require the Secretary of Homeland Security to notify a designated point of contact of release of a detained individual, and for other purposes.
Introduced June 2, 2026 by Timothy M. Kennedy · Last progress June 2, 2026
Requires the Department of Homeland Security to offer every person taken into CBP or ICE custody the option to name a point of contact and to collect that contact's name and information. The department must try to notify that designated contact before the person is released (except very short port-of-entry holds), provide translation and interpretation when offering the designation and when notifying the contact, attempt notification at least twice, and bar use of the collected contact information for enforcement purposes. The rule applies to custody encounters with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and focuses on communication and language access rather than changes to detention or enforcement authority.