Sponsors (18)
Official title: To authorize the Attorney General to provide grants to States, units of local government, and organizations to support the recruitment, training, and development of staff and infrastructure needed to support the due process rights of individuals facing deportation.
Introduced April 30, 2025 by Robert Garcia · Last progress April 30, 2025
The bill expands federally funded access to immigration legal representation and builds provider capacity—helping keep families together and reduce disparities—but does so at measurable federal cost and with administrative, implementation, and compliance risks that could strain providers and limit flexibility.
Immigrants in removal proceedings (including detained and low-income individuals) would gain substantially greater access to funded, high-quality legal representation, increasing chances of bond and relief and reducing racial disparities in outcomes.
Nonprofits, state and local governments, and legal service programs would receive federal support to build workforce capacity (recruitment, training, accreditation) and scale infrastructure, improving geographic coverage and culturally/linguistically appropriate services.
Families and communities (especially parents and dependents of people in removal proceedings) would face fewer deportation-induced disruptions because expanded legal representation helps keep more families together and reduces related social and economic costs.
Taxpayers would face increased federal spending (roughly $200 million authorized across FY2026–FY2027 plus expected additional costs to fund legal representation and capacity-building), raising budgetary costs for federally funded universal representation efforts.
Small nonprofits and local governments could face significant administrative and compliance burdens (reporting, certification, audit response, eligibility rules), and legal-service providers may be strained while scaling up to meet increased demand.
During implementation and rapid scale-up, existing providers may be overwhelmed and transitional gaps could leave some people without representation or consistent services.
Based on analysis of 7 sections of legislative text.
Authorizes DOJ grants to grow the deportation-defense legal workforce and infrastructure and appropriates $100M/year for FY2026–2027.
Creates a Department of Justice grant program to expand legal representation capacity for people in immigration removal proceedings by funding workforce recruitment, training, and infrastructure for community organizations, nonprofits, educational institutions, and state/local programs. The Attorney General, through the Office of Access to Justice, will run competitive 4-year grants, set rules and priorities, require annual reporting and audits, and receive appropriations of $100 million per year for fiscal years 2026 and 2027.