Sponsors (29)
The bill prioritizes keeping immigrant parents and children together and increases transparency, legal access, and community‑based supports — but does so at meaningful fiscal and administrative cost, with privacy risks, potential enforcement constraints, and some public‑safety and implementation tradeoffs.
Parents and children: the bill makes it far more likely families stay together or are quickly reunified by (a) presuming parental status and release for parents in DHS custody, (b) requiring frequent parental-status screening and least-restrictive placements, and (c) directing agencies to weigh family unity when considering parole.
Parents and children: the bill funds and streamlines reunification supports — government-paid assistance to participate in family/custody proceedings, help obtaining passports/records, travel support, and procedures to return with dependent children — making reunification and lawful travel more feasible.
Noncitizens in removal proceedings: the bill creates community‑based alternatives to detention with case management and coordinated services (medical, mental‑health, housing, transportation, legal help), improving health and legal outcomes and reducing reliance on locked detention.
Taxpayers and agencies: the bill meaningfully increases federal, state, and local costs (new staff and office, training, free communications, case management, legal representation, travel and reunification expenses, housing and services), likely raising budgetary and administrative burdens.
DHS and state/local agencies: the bill creates substantial operational and administrative workload (tight screening timelines, monthly inquiries, document production, in‑person participation, new program administration), which can delay enforcement actions and strain capacity during implementation.
Parents and children: public reporting, an expanded detainee locator, and broader sharing of DHS‑held identity documents raise privacy and reidentification risks for detained parents and their children if protections fail or data are mismanaged.
Based on analysis of 13 sections of legislative text.
Requires DHS/ICE to identify covered parents, expand release and participation rights, fund reunification or care arrangements, create an ICE parent-coordination office, and start community-based alternatives to detention.
Official title: To require certain protections for any dependent child whose parent is a detained alien, and for other purposes.
Introduced July 16, 2026 by Pramila Jayapal · Last progress July 16, 2026
Requires DHS and ICE to identify parents in immigration custody and treat them as "covered parents," create an ICE Office of Detained Parent Coordination, and provide government-funded help to reunify or ensure care for dependent children left in the U.S. after a parent's removal. It mandates expanded access: phone/video calls, in-person visits, participation in family-court proceedings, document assistance, presumptions preserving parental rights, monthly custody checks, and quarterly public reporting of data on detained parents and outcomes. Also establishes procedural protections (release presumption unless clear-and-convincing risk), a community-based alternatives-to-detention program outside ICE oversight, training requirements, and reporting/training accountability for DHS, with privacy protections for personally identifiable information.