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Jayapal backs bill on dignity of detained immigrants
The legislation focuses on ensuring the civil and human rights of detained immigrants are protected.
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Rwittika Chakraborty
- Thu, 04, Dec 2025
- 02:48 EST
- 19
US Representative Pramila Jayapal. / Instagram/@repjayapal
US Representatives Pramila Jayapal and Adam Smith are introducing the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act, a legislation to enact guardrails and oversight on immigration detention.
The legislation focuses on ensuring the civil and human rights of detained immigrants are protected.
Since US President Donald Trump resumed his office, the use of immigration detention has significantly increased, with over 66,000 people detained.
During that period of time, 23 people have died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, while about 73 percent of those detained have no criminal convictions, and many of those with convictions have only minor offenses, including traffic violations.
Speaking on the issue, Jayapal said,
“Under the Trump Administration, we have seen a shocking surge in the detention of people who have committed no crimes being locked up in increasingly horrifying conditions. People are being held in squalor, largely in private, for-profit detention facilities, all to pad the bottom lines of prison corporations that donate to Donald Trump and Republicans.”
“As Trump has struck down legal pathways and made it nearly impossible to come to or stay in this country, even for those who have been here for decades, this will only continue to get worse. We must pass this legislation to protect dignity and civil rights in America,” she added.
With reports suggesting that detained people in these facilities are being held in inhumane living conditions, the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act would revoke mandatory detention and bar the detention of families and children in family detention.
The legislation would create a presumption of release and impose a higher burden of proof to detain primary caregivers and vulnerable populations, and discontinue the use of private detention facilities and jails over a three-year period.
The act will also require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to establish civil detention standards and mandate the DHS Inspector General to conduct unannounced inspections with meaningful penalties for failure to comply with standards.
It will also require DHS to admit Members of Congress to detention facilities for unannounced inspections.
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