- Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández introduced H.R. 10826 on October 15, 2026, to let citizens sue over qualifying immigration detentions.
- The bill proposes $500,000 in damages, plus $100,000 for each additional day detained after the first.
- It would waive immunity defenses and allow five years to file claims for covered detentions dating back to January 20, 2025.
Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández introduced legislation that would let U.S. citizens sue over qualifying immigration detentions and seek $500,000, plus $100,000 for each additional day held after the first. The bill, the Justice for Citizens Wrongfully Detained by ICE Act, would also block immunity defenses in those cases.
The New Mexico Democrat introduced H.R. 10826 on October 15, 2026. Its provisions would cover citizens arrested or detained without a warrant or without probable cause, and would apply to detentions after January 20, 2025.
A plaintiff would have five years after a claim arises to file in federal court. The suit could name both the officers involved and the United States government.
Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey is an original cosponsor. The bill text lists one cosponsor.
Leger Fernández says the damages aim to overcome barriers to suing
The proposal would bar officers from asserting absolute or qualified immunity and waive the federal government’s sovereign immunity for these claims. Leger Fernández said the bill would make officers and the government answer for constitutional violations.
“ICE does not get to trample on your rights and walk away without consequence. They cannot hide behind their masks and act like they have a license to break the Constitution”
She also described citizens detained and deported by immigration agents, including Brian Garcia Morales, who she said spent four months trying to return home.
“Our government has handcuffed, hauled away, and locked up more than 500 American citizens. Citizens have been deported — including Brian Garcia Morales, who spent four months trying to get home. ICE is proving that nobody is safe from their handcuffs — and that is the purpose, to terrorize our Latino and immigrant communities. My bill is about justice for those Americans and accountability for the officers and a government who violate Americans' rights”
Leger Fernández said she chose the $500,000 figure to establish a meaningful route to damages when immunity otherwise makes lawsuits difficult. She linked the amount to compensation sought by Republican senators over telephone records.
“Right now, it is actually hard, there's something called sovereign immunity, it is hard to sue law enforcement, and so we want to make it clear, when ice violates your constitutional rights, stops you as citizen for no reason whatsoever, you're going to be able to bring a civil suit, and you're going to get damages.”
“We said lets set the damages at 500,000 because that's what those republican senators wanted to pay themselves because the department of justice looked at just a telephone record right?”
A ProPublica investigation cited by the bill’s backers documented 506 U.S. citizens detained by immigration agents since the start of the second Trump administration. The findings included citizens detained during enforcement operations and people held after agents questioned their citizenship.
The investigation also found roughly 12 of the 506 people were deported. More than 300 Americans were detained for assaulting or obstructing agents, but fewer than half were charged; 63 were detained while recording ICE activity, and more than 100 were held after agents questioned their citizenship.
The proposal would waive immunity and add damages to other remedies
The bill’s damages would not replace other compensation a plaintiff could pursue under existing law. Successful plaintiffs could also recover attorney’s fees and court costs, while a judge could order injunctive or declaratory relief.
The legislation would give citizens five years to bring a claim. The press release contrasted that period with the two-year deadline for a case under the Federal Tort Claims Act.
A separate funding provision would permanently cancel unobligated funds made available under an immigration-related section of Public Law 119-21. The office described the provision as rescinding remaining unobligated ICE funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
The League of United Latin American Citizens and the Center for Law and Social Policy endorsed the proposal. The office included a statement from LULAC, but the published text of that statement ends mid-sentence.
A separate Duckworth measure has a different damages formula
A different proposal, the Citizens Are as Important as Senators Act, came from Sen. Tammy Duckworth as amendment SA 4045 to the FY2026 Defense appropriations bill, H.R. 4016. The amendment was ordered to lie on the table.
Duckworth’s amendment covered U.S. citizens or nationals detained in federal law enforcement operations in Illinois under Operation Midway Blitz, or in North Carolina under Operation Charlotte’s Web. It also covered certain operations in metropolitan areas where DHS deployed a large number of ICE or Customs and Border Protection officers or agents.
Those individuals had to be released without charges and never formally accused of wrongdoing. The amendment would have awarded the greater of $500,000 or actual damages, plus reasonable attorney’s fees and litigation costs. Courts could also grant injunctive or declaratory relief, including preliminary injunctive relief.
The amendment also waived sovereign immunity and barred officers, employees or agents from asserting absolute or qualified immunity. It allowed five years to file, measured from when the covered individual first received actual notice of the violation.
The government could defend against a claim by showing the person had an outstanding federal arrest warrant or was detained in connection with an investigation outside the amendment’s coverage. Its retroactive dates varied: Operation Midway Blitz claims had to stem from detentions on or after September 8, 2025; Operation Charlotte’s Web claims, on or after November 15, 2025; and other covered operations, on or after January 20, 2025.
The Leger Fernández bill instead sets a per-day amount after the first day of detention and covers qualifying detentions dating back to January 20, 2025. Its five-year filing period begins when the claim arises.
