Sponsors
The bill strengthens legal remedies and agency accountability for victims of unlawful immigration enforcement, but creates large mandatory financial liabilities and liability risks that could materially increase federal costs and change how immigration enforcement is carried out.
Immigrants subjected to unlawful or unconstitutional immigration enforcement can sue the United States directly, obtain damages (including a mandatory $2,000,000 punitive award), and do so without first exhausting administrative FTCA claims, speeding access to court and relief.
Federal agencies (and thus taxpayers and local governments) will be financially accountable for misconduct by their immigration-enforcement officers, creating stronger incentives for agency-level accountability and oversight.
Victims retain the ability to pursue remedies against individual officers, preserving existing criminal and civil liability paths alongside the new government-liability option.
Taxpayers and the federal budget could face large, mandatory payouts (including $2,000,000 per judgment), materially increasing federal costs.
Federal agencies may face significantly increased liability exposure—even where officers acted pursuant to official policy—raising defense and insurance costs and potentially diverting funds from other programs.
Large mandatory punitive damages and heightened liability risk could deter law-enforcement from performing immigration enforcement, push agencies toward defensive policies (reduced enforcement) or increased use of contractors, and thereby alter enforcement operations and public-safety outcomes.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Creates a federal private cause of action for harms during federal immigration enforcement, makes the U.S. and the employing agency liable, waives administrative exhaustion, and mandates $2,000,000 punitive damages.
Introduced April 16, 2026 by Ben Ray Luján · Last progress April 16, 2026
Creates a new federal private civil cause of action for people who suffer constitutional or statutory harms during immigration-related enforcement by a Federal law enforcement officer or someone acting under that officer’s direction. The United States is made liable in law or equity for those harms (regardless of whether the conduct followed official policy), the employing Federal agency must pay any monetary damages awarded, plaintiffs are not required to exhaust administrative FTCA claims first, and a mandatory $2,000,000 punitive damages award is prescribed when the United States is found liable. The measure also preserves existing remedies against individual officers or persons.