Sponsors (18)
The bill substantially expands federally funded legal representation and builds national capacity—benefiting immigrants, families, and service providers—while increasing federal costs and compliance burdens that may strain small organizations, exclude some actors through narrow definitions, and raise trade‑offs about how dollars are allocated.
Immigrants in removal proceedings (including detained people and families) will have substantially greater access to government‑funded counsel and representation, increasing odds of bond or relief, reducing deportations, and keeping families together.
Nonprofits, legal aid programs, and community organizations will receive federal grants, training, and workforce investments to build capacity nationwide, improving availability, quality, and geographic coverage of immigration legal services.
State, local governments, and U.S. territories (including DC) can leverage federal grants to expand immigration legal services without immediate additional state spending because the Act explicitly includes territories and provides matching/competitive grant support.
Taxpayers will face increased federal spending (approximately $200 million over FY2026–FY2027 and likely additional costs to stand up and sustain universal representation programs).
Nonprofits and small legal aid providers will face significant new administrative, reporting, and audit compliance burdens (annual effectiveness reports, public disclosures, OIG audits) that can raise overhead and divert funds from direct services.
Immigrants, local governments, and some service providers may be excluded or face confusion because narrow statutory definitions and reliance on incorporated INA/local‑government definitions could leave certain people or providers ineligible and create administrative complexity.
Based on analysis of 7 sections of legislative text.
Creates a DOJ grant program to build legal workforce and capacity for representation in deportation proceedings and authorizes $100M/year for FY2026–2027.
Introduced April 30, 2025 by Robert Garcia · Last progress April 30, 2025
Creates a competitive federal grant program run by the Justice Department to expand legal representation for people in immigration removal (deportation) proceedings. Grants (4-year, renewable) would fund recruitment, training, language services, specialized legal support, infrastructure, and coordination for states, localities, nonprofits, community groups, and educational institutions to increase workforce capacity and access to counsel for detained and nondetained respondents. Requires annual reporting and audits, limits certain uses of funds (including offshore tax-avoidance restrictions for nonprofits), directs the DOJ to set rules and award priorities to expand high-quality independent representation regardless of ability to pay or criminal history, and authorizes $100 million per year for fiscal years 2026 and 2027 to carry out the program.