Sponsors (22)
The bill reduces financial burdens and immigration-enforcement risks for unaccompanied children and other immigrants via fee exemptions, refunds, and limits on HHS data sharing, while transferring costs and operational burdens to federal agencies (and potentially taxpayers) and constraining interagency access to data that could be relevant to enforcement or public-safety responses.
Unaccompanied children, former UACs, and other immigrants will no longer have to pay certain immigration-related fees (asylum application, employment authorization/renewals, SIJ-related fees) and eligible payers will receive refunds within 180 days, improving financial access, reimbursement to sponsors/attorneys, and ability to work legally.
Immigrants and patients will face lower risk of immigration detention or deportation based on HHS-collected information because that data cannot be used for immigration enforcement, reducing fear of data-driven enforcement.
People (especially immigrants and patients with chronic conditions) are more likely to seek medical care and participate in HHS programs because collecting agencies are prohibited from sharing health-related data for immigration enforcement, which may improve public health outcomes.
DHS, HHS, EOIR and DOJ will face increased administrative workload and procedural complexity to implement fee exemptions, verify UAC status, process refunds, renumber/clean up statutes, and monitor prohibited data sharing, causing processing delays and potential for errors.
Reduced fee revenue plus potentially substantial refunds and new compliance costs could shift fiscal burdens onto department budgets or taxpayers, increasing net government costs.
Immigration enforcement agencies (DHS and partners) lose access to HHS-held data for immigration cases, which may limit evidence available for investigations and removals.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Removes many DHS/immigration fees for current or former unaccompanied alien children, restricts HHS-to-DHS sharing for enforcement purposes, and requires refunds within 180 days.
Official title: Amend or repeal certain provisions of Public Law 119-21 that undermine protections and heighten dangers for unaccompanied alien children, and for other purposes.
Introduced December 3, 2025 by Catherine Marie Cortez Masto · Last progress December 3, 2025
Removes many DHS and immigration-related application and court fees for any person who is or was determined to be an unaccompanied alien child, prohibits certain HHS-to-DHS data sharing for immigration-enforcement purposes, and requires refunds of fees that are repealed or exempted, to be completed within 180 days. It also makes targeted technical edits to previously enacted statutory provisions governing examinations and informational provisions tied to unaccompanied children programs. The bill primarily benefits current and former unaccompanied children by lowering cost barriers to asylum, work authorization, Special Immigrant Juvenile status, removal proceedings filings, and related immigration processes, and by limiting transfer of HHS-held information for immigration enforcement.