Sponsors (4)
The bill ends mandatory federal detainers to protect immigrant liberty and let local police prioritize local public-safety, but in doing so it reduces federal ability to remove criminal noncitizens and shifts cost, custody, and coordination burdens onto state and local governments.
State and local law enforcement agencies can stop holding people on federal immigration detainers, allowing them to prioritize local criminal public-safety duties instead of mandatory immigration holds.
Immigrants will no longer be subject to federal detainers or mandatory DHS holds, reducing transfers into federal immigration custody and lowering the risk of prolonged or constitutionally vulnerable detention.
Local and state governments will face reduced legal liability and litigation costs from lawsuits tied to honoring federal detainers (e.g., Fourth Amendment or due process claims).
Federal immigration authorities will lose a tool used to identify and take custody of noncitizens charged with or convicted of crimes, likely reducing the number of criminal noncitizens removed.
Local communities and law enforcement may face increased perceived public-safety risks because some criminal noncitizens could remain in local custody instead of being transferred to federal immigration custody.
Local jurisdictions and taxpayers may incur higher detention, court, and operational costs as responsibility for processing and holding individuals shifts away from federal transfers.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Outlaws issuance and enforcement of federal immigration detainers/holds and removes related statutory detention authority, forbidding DHS from conditioning agreements on detainer enforcement.
Official title: To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to eliminate immigration detainers.
Introduced May 11, 2026 by Maxwell Frost · Last progress May 11, 2026
Prohibits the federal government from issuing or enforcing immigration detainers or holds by any means, and removes the statutory authorities that currently allow mandatory detention based on certain immigration charges. It also bars the Department of Homeland Security from conditioning intergovernmental agreements on other jurisdictions’ cooperation with detainers or holds. The change eliminates the use of federal immigration detainers as an enforcement tool, affecting how federal, state, and local law enforcement interact with immigration authorities and how noncitizens in custody may be transferred or held for immigration processing.