Introduced February 20, 2026 by Judy Chu · Last progress February 20, 2026
The bill provides broad, concrete relief and legal pathways for many long-resident Southeast Asian nationals—stabilizing work and immigration status and improving access to courts—while imposing notable administrative costs, increasing litigation and federal-court burdens, and raising enforcement and equity trade-offs.
Noncitizens from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam who entered by Jan 1, 2008 (and their families) gain immediate stability: many cannot be detained or removed, can reopen prior removal orders, and may have prior removals treated as vacated, restoring immigration status for INA purposes.
Qualifying noncitizens can work lawfully long-term: eligible people receive 5-year work authorization renewable without limit, improving household income stability and ability to support families.
People with final removal orders get clearer, faster avenues to challenge them: statutory instructions and timelines, ability to file motions to reopen or reconsider (with constrained procedural barriers), and de novo federal district-court review improve access to judicial relief.
Taxpayers and federal agencies will face substantial administrative and fiscal costs: implementing work authorizations and renewals, processing motions and reopened cases, producing travel documents/transportation, and conducting outreach/notice within short timelines will increase DHS/DOJ workloads and federal spending.
The legislation will increase litigation and federal-court burdens: reopening many long-closed cases, new private rights of action and class suits, and expanded judicial review are likely to produce more lawsuits and added pressure on federal courts.
Limits on detention and removal for the covered group, plus long-term unlimited renewals, reduce DHS enforcement discretion and may complicate enforcement priorities or create sustained processing workloads for the agency.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Bars removal of Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese nationals who entered by Jan 1, 2008 and continuously resided here; grants renewable work authorization and reopens many past removal cases.
Prohibits the detention or removal of nationals of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam who entered the United States on or before January 1, 2008 and have continuously lived here since then, and gives them indefinite work authorization. It also requires the government to reopen many prior removal orders for those nationalities, vacate earlier deportation orders, provide travel documents and transportation for return if requested, and lets affected people sue to enforce the law. The bill directs DHS and DOJ to notify eligible people, allow virtual check-ins instead of frequent in-person reporting, and create a process for judicial review of denials of reopening. It is focused on long-term Southeast Asian residents who arrived largely as refugees and addresses longstanding harms from wartime trauma and past immigration rules that increased deportability.