Limit Immigration Detention of Children and Disabled

The KIDS Act, S. 4590, introduced by Senator Bennet and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, does two things. First, it prohibits the Department of Homeland Security from detaining a child, an individual with a cognitive disability, or the primary caregiver of either, except where a court-issued criminal arrest or search warrant authorizes the action. Second, it bars DHS from conducting any immigration enforcement action at, focused on, or within 1,000 feet of a sensitive location, with the same criminal-warrant exception. The bill extends that 1,000-foot protection to individuals who are traveling to, attending, or returning from a sensitive location.

The bill's definition of sensitive location is extensive and grounded in the text. It includes medical and mental health care facilities, schools from preschool through university, school buses and bus stops when children are present, child care centers, foster care facilities, places of worship, disaster relief and emergency shelter sites, domestic violence shelters, rape crisis centers, food banks, courthouses, congressional district offices, Social Security Administration offices, public libraries, polling places, and labor union halls, among others. Any physical space within 1,000 feet of these sites falls within the definition. The Secretary of Homeland Security retains authority to designate additional locations.

The detention provisions include procedural requirements that go beyond a simple prohibition. If detention is permitted under the criminal-warrant exception, DHS must provide confirmed notification to a parent or legal guardian before detaining a child or individual with a cognitive disability, and must report the detention to Congress within 24 hours. For primary caregivers, there is a rebuttable presumption against detention: DHS must document, by clear and convincing evidence provided to the caregiver, that release is unreasonable or impracticable. Where detention occurs in violation of the statute, the bill requires DHS to prioritize prompt release to a parent, a caregiver designated by a parent, a state or local child or adult protective services agency, or HHS's Office of Refugee Resettlement. The bill expressly requires DHS to honor written instruments delegating parental authority, including powers of attorney recognized under state law.

The bill establishes enforceable remedies for violations of the sensitive-locations provision. Evidence obtained through an unlawful enforcement action may not be entered into the record or used to effectuate removal. The noncitizen subject to removal proceedings may move to terminate those proceedings. Any individual detained in violation of the statute must be released, and any person wrongfully detained is placed into section 240 proceedings in which DHS bears the burden of rebutting a presumption of the individual's eligibility for release by clear and convincing evidence.

The American Council supports this bill because it encodes a principle that American law has long recognized: the state must answer to an independent judicial officer before it acts against the most vulnerable, and institutions that serve people in crisis must remain accessible to everyone. Requiring a court-issued criminal warrant before enforcement proceeds is not a barrier to legitimate law enforcement; it is the ordinary constitutional check that applies across virtually every other domain of American policing. Extending that check to sensitive locations and to the detention of children and people with cognitive disabilities is a measured and principled step.