Sponsors (26)
The bill prevents use of large-scale improvised detention sites and redirects funds toward social services and public-health protections for immigrants and communities, but it constrains DHS operational flexibility, may disrupt contracts and enforcement resources, and could prompt legal challenges.
Immigrants facing detention will not be housed in newly converted large-scale facilities like warehouses or tents, reducing use of such mass-congregate detention models.
Funds that would have operated new large-scale detention models must be redirected to services such as affordable health care and housing, benefiting low-income individuals and immigrants.
Detainees and nearby communities face lower risk of poor sanitation, overcrowding, and related public‑health hazards because improvised detention sites (e.g., tents, converted warehouses) are barred.
DHS/ICE will have fewer options to process or house migrants during surges or at ports of entry, potentially creating short-term operational and border-management challenges.
Restrictions on using pre-enactment appropriations for detention construction or operations could force contract terminations or internal reallocation disputes within DHS, disrupting agency operations and affecting federal employees and contractors.
Redirecting funds away from detention operations toward health care and housing could reduce resources for immigration enforcement activities that some communities view as essential for public safety.
Based on analysis of 1 section of legislative text.
Bars DHS/ICE from creating or converting warehouses, tents, modular units, or similar structures for civil immigration detention and prevents spending to build or operate them, redirecting obligated funds to services.
Official title: To prohibit the Department of Homeland Security from entering into, modifying, extending, or renewing, any contract or intergovernmental service agreement to establish or operate any new immigration detention model, including the use of warehouses, modular facilities, soft-sided structures, tent systems, and processing centers.
Introduced April 23, 2026 by Rashida Tlaib · Last progress April 23, 2026
Bans DHS (including ICE) from creating or using new “immigration detention models” or converting warehouses, tents, soft-sided structures, modular units, or similar non-traditional buildings for civil immigration detention, processing, or housing. It prevents obligation, expenditure, reprogramming, or transfer of funds available before enactment to build, expand, renovate, or operate such facilities and requires amounts already obligated for those new models to be redirected to community services like affordable health care and housing. The ban and funding restrictions take effect on enactment.