Rep. Jayapal’s Orlin’s Law Demands Clear and Convincing Evidence for Office of Detained Parent Coordination

Rep. Pramila Jayapal introduced legislation Thursday that would restrict when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement can detain or deport immigrant parents and primary caregivers. The proposal responds to the death of a 3-year-old boy whose mother had been deported from the United States.

The Washington Democrat introduced Orlin’s Law on July 16, 2026. It would prevent ICE from detaining or deporting a parent or primary caregiver unless the Department of Homeland Security could show, by clear and convincing evidence, a specific public-safety risk that supervised release could not address.

Jayapal, a U.S. Representative for Washington’s WA-07 district, serves as Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Immigration, Integrity, Security, and Enforcement. She described the proposal as an emergency response to family-separation harms.

“Orlin was violently assaulted and killed after ICE took him from his mother — an immigrant with no criminal record who was picked up on her way to work. There are no words to express the outrage and heartbreak that we should all feel for this three-year-old boy. We can, though, in his memory demand that this never happen again.”

The bill would also create an Office of Detained Parent Coordination. Detained parents would receive a real opportunity to make custody decisions and participate in proceedings involving their children.

The proposal would tie detention to a specific safety showing

The bill would cover parents and primary caregivers of children under 18. Its central restriction would apply when DHS seeks to hold or remove a caregiver from the child’s life.

Officials would have to identify a specific public-safety risk. They would also have to show that supervised release could not address it.

That standard would place the burden on the government to produce clear and convincing evidence before detention or deportation. The proposal separately would prevent the government from deporting a parent without the parent’s child when the parent wants to keep the family together.

The coordination office would address what happens after a parent enters immigration custody. Its responsibilities would include helping the parent make custody decisions and participate in child-related proceedings while detained.

Orlin’s death gave the bill its name

The legislation honors Orlin Hernandez Reyes, a U.S. citizen who was 3 years old when he died in March 2026. ICE detained his mother, Wendy Hernandez Reyes, in January 2026 and deported her to Honduras.

Hernandez Reyes pleaded to remain with her son or take him with her. Orlin instead remained in the Florida Panhandle with a relative, Samuel Maldonado.

Authorities later found that the child had suffered multiple broken bones and blunt force trauma. Maldonado has been charged with murder and has pleaded not guilty.

Hernandez Reyes described her requests in a statement supporting the legislation.

“I begged them not to take me without my son. I told the officers Orlin was just a baby, that I would go wherever they sent me, as long as he came too. They didn't listen. I'm supporting Orlin's Law because I don't want another parent to endure the pain I have suffered.”

Shalyn Fluharty, an attorney with Lee & Godshall-Bennett, LLP, said Hernandez Reyes did what she could to remain with her child.

“Wendy did the one thing a mother in that moment could do: she begged ICE officers to keep her with her son.”

Then-Acting ICE Director Todd M. Lyons later issued a statement alleging that Hernandez Reyes had “abandoned” Orlin to a “violent murderer.” In late May 2026, DHS allowed her to return to the United States temporarily to bury her son.

Lawmakers have demanded answers about the case

Jayapal joined Representatives Ro Khanna and Delia C. Ramirez in demanding answers from DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin and ICE Acting Director David Venturella.

The lawmakers questioned how the agencies handled the case and why welfare checks did not occur. Their inquiries followed the mother’s detention and deportation and the child’s subsequent death.

Advocacy organizations have cited the case while seeking statutory protections. OneAmerica and the American Immigration Council have pointed to sensitive-location protections and parental rights as issues that should be written into federal law.

The National Association of Counsel for Children issued reports on July 13, 2026, calling for increased legal representation for children in immigration proceedings.

A separate legislative context cited approximately 26,000 children affected by the termination of legal service contracts for unaccompanied minors in 2025. Those children were part of a different immigration setting, but the figure has appeared alongside wider debates about legal representation and child protection.

The bill enters a difficult House environment

Jayapal has acknowledged that the proposal faces a difficult path in the Republican-controlled House. She described it as an emergency measure intended to establish a “special rule” for caregivers.

Public attitudes toward ICE also feature in the legislative context. A January 2026 Economist/YouGov poll found that 47% of Americans believed ICE made the country “less safe.”

On July 16, Jayapal joined a coalition of 99 lawmakers supporting the LIFT the BAR Act. That separate bill seeks to restore federal benefit eligibility for lawfully present immigrants.

The two measures address different issues. LIFT the BAR Act concerns access to federal benefits, while Jayapal’s proposal focuses on detention, deportation and family unity.

Orlin’s Law would not take effect unless Congress passes the legislation and it becomes law. Until then, the proposal would remain a measure before a House controlled by Republicans.

This article provides general information and is not legal advice. Consult a qualified immigration attorney about your specific case.