Sponsors (10)
Stops sharing Title IV student aid personally identifiable information with immigration-enforcement agencies except for court-ordered criminal cases or voluntary informed consent.
Official title: To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to ensure that personally identifiable information provided in the Free Application for Federal Student Aid is not used for immigration enforcement, and for other purposes.
Introduced June 3, 2026 by Emily Randall · Last progress June 3, 2026
The bill strengthens privacy and limits sharing of FAFSA/Title IV data to protect students and families (especially immigrants) while creating modest compliance costs for institutions and restricting some law‑enforcement access, with a narrow court‑ordered exception remaining.
Students, immigrants, and their families are protected from having FAFSA and Title IV application data shared with immigration-enforcement agencies, reducing the risk that federal student-aid information will trigger immigration action.
Students and families gain stronger privacy safeguards for sensitive financial and identity data used for Title IV eligibility determinations, lowering the chance of inappropriate disclosures and misuse of that information.
Colleges and universities can rely on a clear federal rule that supersedes conflicting state or local laws, reducing legal uncertainty and helping institutions adopt consistent records‑protection practices.
State and federal immigration- and some law-enforcement agencies may be hindered in accessing student-aid records that could be relevant to investigations, potentially complicating immigration enforcement or other probes.
Colleges and universities (and some state governments) may incur administrative and legal costs to implement the protections, train staff, and respond to disputes or litigation over withheld records.
Students and immigrants could still have records disclosed under a narrow court-ordered exception for alleged criminal offenses, which may allow some immigration‑related uses tied to criminal proceedings.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Prohibits using or sharing personally identifiable Federal student aid information for immigration-enforcement purposes. It forbids disclosure of Title IV application and related contributor data to DHS, other federal immigration-enforcement agencies, or state/local agencies operating under INA 287(g), with two narrow exceptions for court-ordered criminal investigations and voluntary, informed consent by the student or contributor (consent coerced or obtained after an enforcement request is invalid). The Secretary must report any unlawful disclosure to Congress and the law overrides any federal, state, or local law to the extent that law would permit such disclosures.