Sponsors (12)
Introduced January 27, 2026 by Cory Anthony Booker · Last progress January 27, 2026
The bill substantially expands detainee protections, transparency, and legal rights—ending solitary, limiting child detention, raising standards, and presuming release—while transferring costs and operational burdens to DHS, courts, taxpayers, and local facilities and raising concerns about security, privacy, and implementation strain.
Immigrants in DHS custody will face a presumption of release with faster custody hearings and periodic reviews, increasing chances of release pending proceedings and expanding community-based alternatives instead of detention.
People detained by DHS will be protected from prolonged solitary/isolation practices, reducing risk of suicide, self-harm, and psychiatric deterioration and improving overall detainee health and safety.
For-profit immigration detention will be phased out and DHS ownership/operation plus advance public notices for new facilities will increase public oversight and may improve conditions and accountability.
Taxpayers and federal/local agencies will face substantial new costs to implement standards, alternatives to detention, facility upgrades, staffing for escorts and inspections, and to transition away from for-profit operators.
DHS, detention facilities, and immigration courts will face major operational strain from expedited hearings, frequent reviews, staffing escorts, more inspections, and rapid rulemaking deadlines, risking implementation bottlenecks or reduced service quality.
Public safety and security officials may have fewer tools to manage dangerous individuals—higher evidentiary standards for detention, limits on isolation, and prohibitions on electronic monitoring could make it harder to detain or supervise high-risk people quickly.
Based on analysis of 13 sections of legislative text.
Bans solitary confinement for people held by the Department of Homeland Security, requires legal orientation and meaningful access to counsel, and creates new detention standards, oversight, and public reporting. It phases out for-profit detention, mandates prompt custody hearings and limits DHS detention authority by replacing current detention rules with a framework that favors release and community-based alternatives, while expanding inspection, data collection, and the right to sue for violations.