Sponsors (15)
Official title: To require the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish a veterans visa program to permit veterans who have been removed from the United States to return as immigrants, and for other purposes.
Introduced May 21, 2026 by Adelita S. Grijalva · Last progress May 21, 2026
The bill greatly expands protections, immigration relief, and benefit access for noncitizen veterans and service members—stabilizing families and recognizing service—while imposing substantial administrative burdens, added taxpayer costs, and some public-safety, privacy, and legal risks.
Noncitizen veterans and service members (including some removed or currently abroad) can obtain lawful permanent resident status, avoid deportation, and access pathways to naturalization, stabilizing their immigration status.
Veterans and service members who become LPRs regain or gain eligibility for VA and DoD benefits (disability, pension, health care), improving financial and health support for them and their families.
Eligible veterans (including those abroad) can be admitted or have status adjusted, promoting family reunification and community stability for service members and their families.
DHS, DOJ, VA, and DoD will face substantial administrative burden and case-processing strain to reopen, adjudicate, and implement relief for large numbers of veterans, risking backlogs and diversion of agency resources.
Taxpayers may incur increased costs from expanded eligibility for immigration-adjusted veterans and service-member benefits and from additional adjudication and enforcement work.
Narrowing removal grounds and allowing waivers could let some noncitizen applicants with serious convictions or prior removals remain in the U.S., raising public-safety and national-security concerns for some communities.
Based on analysis of 8 sections of legislative text.
Allows eligible noncitizen veterans and service members to gain lawful permanent residence, restricts deportation absent specified violent convictions, and streamlines naturalization and benefit access.
Creates a new program letting eligible noncitizen veterans and certain service members obtain lawful permanent resident status and streamlines naturalization and benefit access for them. It bars deportation of veterans and service members except when they have been convicted of a qualifying violent or national-security-related offense, requires agencies to identify and track service-related immigration cases, and directs rapid rulemaking to implement the policy. The measure requires the Department of Homeland Security to set up an application process and the Attorney General to reopen and adjudicate removal cases for veterans within set deadlines, waives certain immigration bars for humanitarian or public-interest reasons, and ensures veterans who receive status can access military and veterans benefits and naturalize under existing statute with special evidentiary rules that disregard removal-related disruptions.