Sponsors (3)
The bill greatly strengthens families' ability to receive timely, standardized notification and increases oversight and legal accountability for deaths and serious medical events in ICE/DHS custody, but it imposes significant administrative costs, privacy risks, and large liability exposures that could raise taxpayer expense and complicate contractor availability and operations.
People in ICE custody and their families (emergency contacts/next-of-kin) will be notified quickly and with standardized, detailed information when a detainee dies or experiences a serious medical event, improving family awareness and ability to respond.
Contractors and DHS will face stronger accountability (immediate reporting requirements, contract material-terms, debarment for repeat failures, and ability to sue federal actors/contractors) that increases deterrence and potential compensation for harmed families.
Congress, oversight bodies, and the public gain more regular oversight and transparency via 90-day investigations, IG audits, semiannual/annual reports, public notices, and 10-year records retention, enabling policy review and corrective action.
Taxpayers and DHS may face sizeable new costs and resource strains to meet strict, fast notification deadlines, maintain long records, perform audits, and staff 24/7 responsiveness, potentially diverting resources from other operations.
The bill exposes contractors and the federal government to very large liabilities (minimum statutory damages like $100,000 per violation/day and waiver of sovereign immunity), which could raise contract costs, reduce vendor availability, and prompt defensive litigation.
Collecting detailed contact, faith, and advance directive information plus fast public disclosures risks breaches of privacy and could expose sensitive medical or investigative details about deceased detainees unless carefully limited and redacted.
Based on analysis of 8 sections of legislative text.
Mandates ICE collection of emergency contacts and timely notification to next-of-kin for deaths/serious illness in custody, requires public reporting, penalties for contractors, and a private right of action.
Official title: To establish Federal policies and procedures to notify the next-of-kin or other emergency contact upon the death, serious illness, serious injury, or hospitalization of an individual in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and for other purposes.
Introduced August 13, 2026 by Ritchie Torres · Last progress August 13, 2026
Requires U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to collect and maintain emergency contact information at intake and to notify next-of-kin or emergency contacts promptly when a person in ICE custody dies or suffers a serious illness or injury. Sets deadlines for notification, requires language access, mandates reporting and public disclosure about covered deaths, creates civil penalties for contractors who fail to notify, and creates a private right of action with statutory damages for violations. Sets compliance, oversight, recordkeeping, and audit requirements across all ICE detention facilities and contractors, requires contract terms and penalties for noncompliance, directs DHS to report publicly and to Congress about each covered death, and authorizes audits and complaint procedures by DHS oversight offices. The Act does not authorize additional appropriations and must be implemented using amounts otherwise available to DHS.