- H.R. 875 passed the House 246-160 on June 26, 2025 and is still awaiting a Senate floor vote as of April 2026.
- The bill makes any DUI conviction a deportation trigger, including pleas from decades ago, with no misdemeanor exception and no waiver.
- Rep. Young Kim introduced a narrower companion bill on April 16, 2026 targeting undocumented drivers in fatal or serious-injury crashes.
Ten months after the U.S. House passed the Jeremy and Angel Seay and Sergeant Brandon Mendoza Protect Our Communities from DUIs Act on a 246-160 vote, the bill still sits in the Senate as of April 2026, waiting on a floor schedule. The legislation, better known as H.R. 875, would make any DUI or DWI conviction grounds for automatic deportation of green card holders, visa workers, students, and undocumented immigrants, regardless of when the offense occurred or how serious the charge.
The White House publicly backed the bill in late 2025, and Senate Republicans have privately told Politico that a vote could come before the August 2026 recess. In the meantime, a second deportation bill from Rep. Young Kim (R-CA), the Stop Illegal Aliens Drunk Driving Act, was introduced on April 16, 2026, targeting undocumented drivers whose DUI results in death or serious bodily injury with a permanent bar on reentry.
Green card and H-1B holders are the groups with the most at risk. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, a single DUI is generally not deportable today. That changes if H.R. 875 becomes law. Decades-old pleas, misdemeanor convictions, and even admissions made during a naturalization interview would all trigger removal proceedings with limited appeal rights, according to an analysis from the USC Equity Research Institute.
The Senate’s hesitation is partly strategic: the Laken Riley Act, signed by President Trump on January 29, 2025, already mandates detention without bond for any noncitizen arrested for a crime “that results in death or serious bodily injury,” including drunk driving. Critics of H.R. 875 argue the Laken Riley Act already covers the worst cases and that expanding the trigger to any DUI sweeps in people with decades of clean records since a single plea.
Where H.R. 875 Stands in April 2026
H.R. 875 passed the House on June 26, 2025 with all 209 Republicans and 37 Democrats voting yes. It was introduced by Rep. Barry Moore (R-AL) and named after three people killed in DUI crashes caused by undocumented drivers. The official bill text is on the Congress.gov House bill 875 page.
Since July 2025 the bill has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Chair John Cornyn (R-TX) has signaled support but has not scheduled a markup. As reported by VisaVerge.com, the White House issued a formal Statement of Administration Policy endorsing the bill in October 2025, making a presidential signature likely if the Senate clears it.
Two procedural hurdles remain. First, the Senate filibuster requires 60 votes to end debate, and Republicans currently hold 53 seats. Second, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has flagged the bill as a possible candidate for an amendment limiting retroactive application, which would remove the “decades-old conviction” trigger that civil rights groups oppose most strongly.
What the Bill Actually Does
H.R. 875 amends section 237(a)(2) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to add DUI and DWI convictions to the list of deportable offenses. The text does not set a minimum blood alcohol level, does not exclude misdemeanors, and does not create a statute of limitations. Any non-citizen convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol or any controlled substance, at any time, under federal, state, tribal, or local law, becomes removable.
The bill also amends section 212(a) to add DUI as a ground of inadmissibility, which blocks noncitizens with DUI convictions from receiving visas or adjusting status at a consulate or USCIS interview. A third provision in section 3 adds any admission of the offense, even without a formal conviction, as a deportation trigger. That provision is the one immigration attorneys have raised most consistently, because applicants regularly admit to prior arrests on Form N-400 naturalization paperwork.
- No misdemeanor exception. A first-offense DUI at 0.09 BAC triggers removal the same as a felony aggravated DUI.
- No age-of-conviction exception. A 1998 plea still qualifies in 2026.
- No waiver. Cancellation of removal, asylum, and the INA 212(h) waiver are all unavailable.
- No judicial review of the merits. Immigration judges retain only a narrow procedural review.
Who Is at Risk
The American Immigration Council estimates that 1.4 million lawful permanent residents have at least one DUI conviction on their record, based on 2019-2023 ICE enforcement data. USCIS processing data shows DUI is one of the top five reasons naturalization applications are denied on “good moral character” grounds, and the agency’s 2025 Policy Manual update already lets officers weigh a single DUI heavily against applicants seeking citizenship.
Indian H-1B workers and green card holders face outsized exposure. USC’s Equity Research Institute found that Indian visa recipients, who make up roughly 72% of the active H-1B workforce, often have DUI convictions from their student years that they disclosed during adjustment of status. Chinese, Mexican, and Filipino green card holders are also disproportionately represented in the pool of immigrants with old DUI records, according to the ERI’s state-level enforcement projections.
DACA recipients, TPS holders, asylum seekers, and people with pending I-485 adjustment applications would also become removable. The bill contains no carve-out for humanitarian status or for immigrants with U.S. citizen children.
How This Differs From Current Law
Under current federal law, a simple DUI is not a deportable offense by itself. The Board of Immigration Appeals ruled in Matter of Ramos (2002) that a basic DUI is not a “crime involving moral turpitude,” and the Supreme Court in Leocal v. Ashcroft (2004) held that ordinary DUI is not a “crime of violence” under the aggravated felony definition. A conviction becomes deportable today only when it involves death, serious bodily injury, driving on a suspended license in some circuits, or a pattern of multiple offenses.
The Laken Riley Act, signed January 29, 2025, does not make DUI itself deportable, but it does require mandatory detention without bond for any noncitizen arrested for a crime “that results in death or serious bodily injury.” ICE has used that authority in at least 4,200 DUI-related detentions since February 2025, per DHS enforcement statistics. The Enforcement and Removal Operations numbers show a sharp increase in DUI-triggered detentions compared to 2024.
Young Kim’s Companion Bill
On April 16, 2026, Rep. Young Kim (R-CA) introduced the Stop Illegal Aliens Drunk Driving Act, a narrower companion measure targeting only undocumented drivers whose DUI results in death or serious bodily injury. The bill would impose a permanent bar on reentry, mirroring language already in the Laken Riley Act but adding a lifetime statutory exclusion rather than a detention requirement.
Kim’s bill has 14 House cosponsors as of April 2026 and a Senate companion from Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). Unlike H.R. 875, it does not touch green card holders or visa workers, so the Congressional Hispanic Caucus has not opposed it. Kim’s office has said she views the bill as “the floor, not the ceiling” of what Congress should pass on DUI deportation.
State-Level Moves While Congress Waits
States have not waited for federal action. Nebraska enacted LB 502 in March 2026, requiring every DUI booking to be checked against ICE’s Law Enforcement Support Center within 24 hours and automatically triggering an ICE detainer for any noncitizen match. Similar bills have passed in Florida, Texas, Tennessee, and Oklahoma.
As reported by VisaVerge.com, the Nebraska policy doubled DUI-related ICE detainers in its first 30 days compared to the state’s 2024 average. Guatemala’s consulate in Los Angeles says it has handled roughly 340 DUI-related removal cases from the California, Arizona, and Nevada corridor since January 2026, per the country’s consular reporting.
What Immigration Lawyers Recommend Right Now
Immigration attorneys tell clients to assume H.R. 875 or a similar measure will eventually pass. That shapes how they advise noncitizens with past DUIs or current charges. The American Immigration Lawyers Association issued a March 2026 practice advisory with four action items for any noncitizen worried about DUI exposure.
- Pull your criminal record now. Order a certified copy of every court disposition, not just a state police background check. Many old pleas are missing or mislabeled in state databases.
- Never sign a plea or an N-400 admission without an immigration attorney. Criminal defense attorneys who are not immigration-certified routinely accept pleas that become deportable under retroactive legislation.
- File for naturalization now if you are eligible. Citizenship is the only permanent protection against DUI-triggered removal. The USCIS backlog is currently 12 months, so any filing after H.R. 875 becomes law risks being caught mid-process.
- Avoid international travel. Any noncitizen with a past DUI who leaves the United States can be denied reentry under the new inadmissibility ground once H.R. 875 passes, even if they never had a removal hearing.
Legal Challenges If the Bill Passes
Civil rights groups have already drafted the constitutional challenges they will file the day H.R. 875 is signed. The ACLU, the National Immigration Law Center, and the American Immigration Council have said they will argue the bill violates the Ex Post Facto Clause for retroactive convictions, and that the “admission without conviction” trigger violates Fifth Amendment due process.
Courts have generally rejected ex post facto challenges in the immigration context because removal is technically a civil, not criminal, penalty (INS v. Lopez-Mendoza, 1984). But the scale of retroactive reach in H.R. 875, covering pleas from the 1970s and 1980s, may push at least one circuit to revisit that doctrine. Legal scholars also expect challenges to INA 236(c) expansion similar to those still pending against the Laken Riley Act in the Second and Ninth Circuits.
The Bottom Line for Noncitizens in April 2026
H.R. 875 is not yet law, but the enforcement environment has already shifted. ICE detainers for DUI arrests have risen sharply under the Laken Riley Act, states are pre-positioning their own DUI-to-ICE pipelines, and the White House has committed to signing whatever the Senate sends. Any noncitizen with a past DUI, a pending DUI charge, or a family member in either situation should be reviewing options with an immigration attorney now.
The Senate could still slow the bill or amend it to exempt decades-old convictions. That would preserve current case law for most green card holders with clean recent records. Without that carve-out, the shift from “DUI is usually not deportable” to “DUI is automatically deportable” would be the largest expansion of INA 237(a)(2) since the 1996 IIRIRA reforms.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is H.R. 875, the DUI deportation bill, law yet in 2026?
No. H.R. 875, the Jeremy and Angel Seay and Sergeant Brandon Mendoza Protect Our Communities from DUIs Act, passed the U.S. House on June 26, 2025 by a 246-160 vote. As of April 2026, it remains in the Senate Judiciary Committee awaiting a floor schedule. The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy backing the bill in October 2025.
Can a green card holder be deported for a single DUI under current law?
Not usually. Under current federal law, a simple DUI is not deportable for lawful permanent residents. The Board of Immigration Appeals ruled in Matter of Ramos (2002) that basic DUI is not a crime involving moral turpitude, and the Supreme Court confirmed in Leocal v. Ashcroft (2004) that ordinary DUI is not a crime of violence. That changes if H.R. 875 becomes law.
Would H.R. 875 apply to DUIs from years or decades ago?
Yes. The bill contains no statute of limitations and no age-of-conviction cutoff, so a 1998 plea would trigger removal the same way a 2026 conviction does. Civil rights groups have already prepared Ex Post Facto Clause challenges, but courts historically reject such claims in the immigration context because removal is a civil, not criminal, penalty.
How is the Laken Riley Act different from H.R. 875?
The Laken Riley Act, signed January 29, 2025, requires mandatory detention without bond for any noncitizen arrested for a crime resulting in death or serious bodily injury, including drunk driving. It does not make ordinary DUI itself deportable. H.R. 875 is broader: it would make every DUI conviction a deportation trigger, regardless of injury or severity.
Who is most at risk if H.R. 875 passes?
Lawful permanent residents with old DUI convictions, H-1B workers, international students, DACA and TPS holders, and anyone with a pending I-485 adjustment application. USC’s Equity Research Institute estimates 1.4 million green card holders have at least one DUI on record. Indian, Chinese, Mexican, and Filipino green card holders are disproportionately represented in that pool.
What is Rep. Young Kim’s new DUI deportation bill?
The Stop Illegal Aliens Drunk Driving Act, introduced April 16, 2026, is a narrower companion to H.R. 875. It targets only undocumented drivers whose DUI results in death or serious bodily injury and imposes a permanent bar on reentry. Unlike H.R. 875, it does not affect green card holders or visa workers, and has 14 House cosponsors and a Senate companion from Sen. Marsha Blackburn.
Should I travel internationally if I have a past DUI?
Immigration attorneys advise noncitizens with past DUIs to avoid international travel until the Senate acts on H.R. 875. Once the bill passes, the DUI inadmissibility ground under INA 212(a) takes effect at ports of entry, and returning travelers could be denied reentry or placed in secondary inspection even without a prior removal hearing.
Can I still apply for U.S. citizenship with a past DUI?
Yes, but timing matters. Naturalization is the only permanent protection against DUI-triggered removal, since citizens cannot be deported. USCIS’s 2025 Policy Manual update lets officers weigh a single DUI heavily against a good moral character finding. With a 12-month naturalization backlog, filing before H.R. 875 becomes law gives the strongest protection.
