Sponsors (4)
Introduced January 21, 2026 by Jasmine Crockett · Last progress January 21, 2026
The bill increases public transparency and oversight of federal immigration air transport by publishing operator, flight, and detainee data quickly — trading greater accountability for elevated privacy, safety, operational-security risks, and added costs.
Immigrants, taxpayers, journalists, advocates, and oversight bodies gain timely, consolidated transparency into DHS/ICE/CBP air-transport operations — including operator identities, flight dates/routes, detainee counts, and restraint types — improving public accountability.
Journalists, advocates, and oversight bodies can more easily monitor detainee treatment (restraint types and counts per leg), increasing the ability to detect abuse or unlawful practices.
Publishing detainee nationality, age group, sex, and family composition enables detection of patterns like family separations or disproportionate targeting, supporting civil‑rights and humanitarian oversight.
Detailed public disclosure of aircraft identifiers, routes, and operator identities could create operational security and safety risks for DHS air operations and nearby communities.
Publishing detainee nationality and demographic details risks privacy and safety for vulnerable noncitizens, potentially exposing them to harm, stigmatization, or targeting.
Requiring disclosure of private aircraft operators reduces contractor privacy and proprietary protections (and can expose crews); that loss of confidentiality may deter some contractors, shrinking provider capacity and raising costs for taxpayers.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Requires the Department of Homeland Security to publish, within 72 hours, detailed flight data for any DHS component aircraft operation used to detain, deport, or transport people in DHS custody for immigration enforcement. It also prevents private aircraft owners or operators from keeping flight information confidential under FAA rules when they operate such federally funded flights for ICE or CBP. The public flight data must include departure/arrival times and airports, aircraft identifiers, detainee counts by leg, basic demographic categories for each detainee, family-composition categories, and the type/quantity of restraints used during flights. The bill creates new transparency and reporting duties but does not appropriate funds or create new authorizations beyond these reporting and non-disclosure changes.