Sponsors (4)
The bill increases accountability and compensation for wrongful deaths in private immigration detention by removing immunity and imposing vicarious liability, but it raises costs for taxpayers and insurers and risks staffing shortages and reduced detention capacity.
Immigrants detained in private facilities and their families gain the ability to sue in federal court and recover at least $5,000,000 plus economic and punitive damages for wrongful deaths caused by private detention staff.
Private detention contractors are held vicariously liable for staff actions, creating stronger legal and financial incentives for facilities to improve safety, oversight, and training to prevent fatal incidents.
Families retain access to state-court remedies, preserving existing legal avenues and allowing plaintiffs to choose the forum that best suits their case.
Taxpayers, state and local governments, and insurers may face much higher liability costs because private detention centers and their insurers could pay large damage awards or face higher premiums, which can increase government contract costs or require more public funding.
Individual detention officers and employees lose defenses of absolute or qualified immunity, exposing often low-wage staff to personal civil liability and deterrent effects that could reduce willingness to work or lead to staffing shortages.
Large statutory damage awards and increased liability risk could prompt private contractors to exit or decline to renew federal detention contracts, reducing available bed capacity and disrupting detention operations, which may force governments to find costlier alternatives.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Creates a federal cause of action allowing $5M+ statutory damages and other relief for wrongful deaths caused by staff at private federal detention centers, bars immunity, and makes facilities vicariously liable.
Official title: To create a private right of action to hold private detention centers liable for the wrongful death of any person being held in such private detention center, and for other purposes.
Introduced July 22, 2026 by Derek Tran · Last progress July 22, 2026
Creates a federal civil cause of action for wrongful deaths caused by officers or employees of private detention centers that contract with the federal government. It authorizes decedents’ successors to sue in federal court for at least $5,000,000 in statutory damages plus economic and, where appropriate, punitive damages, makes the private detention center vicariously liable, and bars assertions of absolute or qualified immunity by those officers or employees. The bill preserves state-law remedies, allows concurrent state-court suits, defines "private detention center," and directs federal courts to hear these claims. It is focused on increasing accountability and monetary remedies for deaths occurring in privately run facilities holding people for civil, criminal, or immigration purposes.