Sponsors (5)
The bill shifts location and surveillance controls away from private contractors to protect immigrants' privacy and increase oversight, at the expense of contractor-assisted enforcement capacity and transition costs — with a residual risk that a narrow analytics exception could be abused.
Immigrants, people with disabilities, and other individuals at risk of immigration enforcement will be less likely to be located by contractor-run skip tracing or field surveillance because the bill bans contractor-led location activities, per-person/bonus payments for locating people, and use of address/employment/social-media and other personal data for that purpose.
Federal oversight and accountability of contractor use in location activities will increase due to a required DHS Inspector General audit of relevant contracts within 30 days, improving prospects for rapid compliance and transparency.
The bill preserves some administrative capability by allowing limited use of publicly available analytics under strict federal supervision, enabling certain non-surveillance data-management activities without field operations.
DHS may lose contractor capabilities used to locate individuals for immigration enforcement, potentially delaying civil enforcement actions and complicating case processing.
Terminating or amending existing contracts and shifting location work from contractors to DHS personnel will impose transition costs, administrative burdens, and likely hiring/training expenses borne by government contractors, DHS, and taxpayers.
The bill’s narrow exception allowing supervised analytics could be exploited as a workaround if supervision or limits are weak, risking continued privacy-invasive practices and undermining the intended protections.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Bars DHS from using contractors/subcontractors for skip tracing, surveillance, or per-person bounty arrangements to locate people for civil immigration enforcement, with a narrow data-tool exception.
Introduced January 20, 2026 by S. Raja Krishnamoorthi · Last progress January 20, 2026
Prohibits the Department of Homeland Security from using private contractors or subcontractors to perform skip tracing, surveillance, or location verification to support civil immigration enforcement and bars using federal funds to pay private entities on a per-person or bonus basis for locating individuals for civil immigration detainers. It requires DHS to end or modify existing contracts and directs the DHS Inspector General to audit DHS contracts for compliance within 30 days of enactment, while allowing a narrow exception for certain government‑supervised administrative data tools that do not involve field surveillance or personal contact.