Sponsors (5)
The bill improves support and detection of transnational repression for vulnerable communities and local governments through multilingual outreach and DHS testing, but raises trade‑offs around privacy/civil liberties, potential chilling effects in immigrant communities, and additional DHS costs.
Victims of transnational repression (including immigrants and other U.S. persons, especially non‑English speakers) will receive multilingual public service announcements and clear anonymous contact options for the FBI, increasing awareness of resources and likelihood of reporting and getting support.
State, local, Tribal, and territorial officials (and the communities they serve) may get improved tools and operationally tested techniques through DHS research and testing to detect and counter transnational repression, strengthening local response capacity.
Immigrants and other community members (including people with disabilities) face increased privacy and civil‑liberty risks because DHS research and operational testing of surveillance or countermeasures could expand intrusive monitoring if not tightly constrained.
Immigrant and diaspora communities may experience greater fear and reduced willingness to speak freely because the PSA campaign and expanded DHS presence could be perceived as increased government scrutiny.
Taxpayers and federal programs could face added costs because implementing R&D, testing, and multilingual outreach will require DHS resources or reallocation from other programs.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Directs DHS to run multilingual PSAs on transnational repression and to research and test technologies and techniques to support officials countering those threats.
Introduced March 14, 2025 by Gabe Evans · Last progress March 14, 2025
Directs the Department of Homeland Security to run a multilingual public service announcement campaign about transnational repression and related terrorism threats, including instructions for how to anonymously contact the FBI. It also requires DHS, in coordination with the Under Secretary for Science and Technology, to research and operationally test technologies and techniques to help federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial officials counter transnational repression, while adhering to constitutional, privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties protections. The work is to be done to the extent practicable within one year of enactment.