Justice for Victims of Sanctuary Cities Act of 2025
Latest action · Jan 22, 2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Progress
Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.
- IntroducedJan 22, 2025
- Passed SenateNot reached
- Passed HouseNot reached
- To the PresidentNot reached
- Became lawNot reached
Summary
Justice for Victims of Sanctuary Cities Act of 2025
This bill provides a private right of action against state and local jurisdictions with certain policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement efforts, and contains additional provisions related to such jurisdictions. Currently, such cooperation is generally not required.
An individual (or certain relatives of such an individual) who is the victim of any felony for which an alien has been arrested, convicted, or sentenced to a prison term of at least one year may sue a state or local jurisdiction if the jurisdiction failed to comply with (1) certain Department of Homeland Security (DHS) requests related to arresting and detaining aliens, and (2) a DHS request to detain the alien in question or provide a notification about the release of the alien. A jurisdiction that accepts certain federal grants may not assert immunity in such a civil action.
A jurisdiction (or employee of a jurisdiction) that complies with certain DHS detainer requests shall be deemed to be acting as an agent of DHS. A complying jurisdiction or employee of the jurisdiction shall not be liable in any lawsuit relating to compliance with such requests. In a lawsuit against an employee of the jurisdiction, the United States shall be substituted in as the defendant, and remedies shall be limited to provisions for bringing tort claims against the federal government.
Cosponsors 11
Members who signed on, in the order they did. Signatures ran from Jan 22, 2025 to Jul 23, 2026, with 10 there on the day it was introduced.
| Seat | Cosponsor | Signed on | |
|---|---|---|---|
| R-LA | Bill Cassidy | Original | Jan 22, 2025 |
| R-OK | James Lankford | Original | Jan 22, 2025 |
| R-AL | Katie Boyd Britt | Original | Jan 22, 2025 |
| R-ND | Kevin Cramer | Original | Jan 22, 2025 |
| R-SC | Lindsey Graham | Original | Jan 22, 2025 |
| R-SD | Mike Rounds | Original | Jan 22, 2025 |
| R-KS | Roger Marshall | Original | Jan 22, 2025 |
| R-NC | Ted Budd | Original | Jan 22, 2025 |
| R-TX | Ted Cruz | Original | Jan 22, 2025 |
| R-MT | Tim Sheehy | Original | Jan 22, 2025 |
| R-SC | Darline Graham | Jul 23, 2026 |
Actions 2
Everything that happened, newest first.
- Jan 22, 2025Introduced in Senate
- Jan 22, 2025Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Related bills 2
Companion bills and other measures the record links to this one.
| Bill | Title | Relationship | Latest action |
|---|---|---|---|
| HR 611 | Justice for Victims of Sanctuary Cities Act of 2025 | Identical bill | Jan 22, 2025 |
| S 3782 | Justice for Victims of Sanctuary Cities and Fallen Law Enforcement Act of 2026 | Related bill | Feb 5, 2026 |
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Immigration.
Text 1
Each version as it was printed, newest first.
- Jan 22, 2025Introduced in Senate
Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov.