Sponsors (3)
The bill strengthens federal immigration enforcement by requiring timely notice and imposing criminal penalties for obstruction—potentially improving public safety—at the cost of imposing severe federal liabilities that may criminalize routine local practices, raise local costs, and chill local autonomy.
State and local officials must provide at least 48 hours' notice to DHS before releasing criminal aliens, enabling DHS to take custody sooner and reducing the chance that dangerous individuals reenter communities.
The bill creates federal criminal penalties for officials who knowingly obstruct DHS notification requests and calibrates harsher penalties when the release involves murder, rape, or sex offenses against minors, increasing accountability and prioritizing public safety for severe crimes.
State and local chief executives and other officials could face lengthy federal prison terms (up to 25 years) for policy decisions or failures to meet notice requirements, which risks criminalizing routine or resource-constrained practices and chilling local public-safety and public-health policymaking.
Targeting actions tied to immigration enforcement could escalate tensions between federal and local authorities and undermine local autonomy over criminal-justice priorities, potentially eroding community trust (including with immigrant communities) and complicating local policing and public-health strategies.
The measure could increase costs for local jurisdictions and taxpayers (legal defense, potential settlements, administrative compliance and training) if officials are prosecuted or face litigation over notification practices.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Creates a federal crime with tiered prison terms for state or local executives who knowingly bar compliance with DHS requests for advance notice of a criminal alien's scheduled release.
Creates a new federal crime that makes it illegal for a state or local chief executive (acting under color of law) to knowingly prohibit or limit compliance with a Department of Homeland Security request for "reasonable advance notice" of a "criminal alien's" scheduled release. The law defines key terms and sets tiered criminal penalties depending on the seriousness of the prior offense that led to the alien's custody, ranging from 30 days–6 months up to 10–25 years (or fines).
Introduced February 20, 2026 by Lance Gooden · Last progress February 20, 2026