Sponsors (45)
This bill shifts the balance toward stronger legal protections, fee relief, and data protections for unaccompanied children and immigrants (improving access to services and public-health trust) while increasing costs, creating administrative and legal complexity, and limiting some enforcement and screening flexibility for federal agencies.
Immigrant children and other affected immigrants will no longer face required fees for asylum, work authorization, certain court and border processing, and SIJ filings, and eligible people will receive refunds within 180 days — lowering financial barriers and returning money to families.
Unaccompanied children and their sponsors will gain stronger child-sensitive legal protections, expanded trafficking screening, reduced reliance on detention, and fewer invasive search requirements — reducing risk of exploitation, protecting physical/mental health, and supporting family unity.
Patients, providers, and public-health programs will be better protected from having personal health or program data used for immigration enforcement, increasing trust, encouraging participation in health services, and improving public-health surveillance and care access.
Expanded safeguards, fee eliminations, and mandated refunds will reduce fee revenue and create additional costs for ORR/DHS and DOJ, likely shifting costs to taxpayers, requiring new appropriations, and potentially lengthening processing times if agencies lack offsetting resources.
Restrictions on information-sharing and repeal of certain examination authorities could limit agencies' ability to detect security concerns, contraband, or public-health risks at the border and in custody, modestly raising national-security and public-safety risks in some situations.
New narrow prohibitions and statutory repeals introduce legal ambiguity about what data or procedures may be used 'for the purpose of enforcing the immigration laws' and what screening practices are acceptable, creating administrative complexity and potential inconsistencies across agencies and locations.
Based on analysis of 7 sections of legislative text.
Exempts unaccompanied children and SIJ applicants from multiple immigration fees, repeals provisions authorizing body exams, bans sharing certain HHS program data for immigration enforcement, and orders fee refunds.
Official title: To amend Public Law 119-21 (commonly known as the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act") to repeal or amend certain provisions that undermine protections and heighten dangers for unaccompanied children, and for other purposes.
Introduced December 3, 2025 by Daniel Goldman · Last progress December 3, 2025
Creates new protections for children who arrive in the United States without a parent or guardian by removing certain fee requirements, repealing provisions that authorized intrusive body examinations, and banning the use of health-program information for immigration enforcement. It also requires refunds of fees charged under laws the bill repeals or amends within 180 days of enactment. The bill exempts current and former unaccompanied children and Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) applicants (and their parents/guardians) from multiple immigration-related fees, repeals specific provisions of a prior law that authorized body examinations and other measures, and adds a categorical prohibition on sharing information from specified HHS programs with DHS or other agencies for immigration-enforcement purposes.