Sponsors (18)
The bill funds and expands federally supported legal representation and capacity-building to reduce wrongful deportations and geographic/racial disparities, while imposing meaningful new federal costs, administrative complexity, and compliance burdens that may disadvantage smaller providers and prompt political opposition.
Low-income immigrants — including children and families — would gain federally funded access to high-quality legal counsel in removal proceedings, increasing chances of bond release, avoiding wrongful removals, and reducing family separation.
Community legal-services organizations, nonprofits, and state/local public defense programs would receive grants and capacity-building support to recruit, train, and retain staff and to build physical and tech infrastructure, improving availability of immigration defense services—especially in underserved rural and urban areas.
The program targets underserved geographies and populations, which should reduce geographic and racial disparities in immigration outcomes and improve fairness in deportation proceedings.
Taxpayers would face new federal costs (roughly $200 million over two years under the authorization) to fund grants and program administration, increasing federal spending or deficits.
Implementation could require substantial hiring, administrative expansion, and coordination across agencies and grantees, creating short-term staffing challenges, delays in service delivery, and additional government workload.
Nonprofits and local providers may face increased administrative and compliance burdens (application, certification, annual reporting, audit response), uncertain multi-year funding continuity, and competitive grant processes that favor established organizations — risking exclusion of smaller or newer local providers and service disruptions.
Based on analysis of 7 sections of legislative text.
Creates a DOJ grant program to grow legal defense capacity for people facing deportation, with reporting, audits, and $100M/year authorized for FY2026–2027.
Provides competitive Department of Justice grants to build legal defense capacity and grow the workforce that represents people facing deportation. Grants may fund recruitment, training, technical assistance, retention, diversity efforts, infrastructure, and coordination; recipients must report on services, staffing, expenditures, outcomes, and unmet needs. The Attorney General (through the Office of Access to Justice) will run the program, set priorities, require audits and annual evaluations, limit certain conference spending, and must certify audit completion. The bill authorizes $100 million per year for fiscal years 2026 and 2027 and requires federal funds to supplement, not supplant, other funding. The program targets state/local governments and nonprofit, community-based, and educational entities that provide or support deportation defense services. It includes eligibility rules, application and reporting requirements, competitive award procedures, audit and disclosure provisions for nonprofits, and priorities to expand services in underserved areas and support jurisdictions that already fund defense programs.
Introduced April 30, 2025 by Robert Garcia · Last progress April 30, 2025