New DHS Tracking System Mandated to Report Wrongful Detention or Removal of U.S. Citizens and LPRs

If you’ve ever had that nagging fear of being mistakenly pulled over or hassled by the wrong authority, this bill is designed to address a version of that fear, but on a much larger scale. This legislation mandates the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to establish a formal system to track, record, and report every instance where a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident (LPR) is detained or removed by immigration enforcement.

The Accountability Scoreboard

Within 180 days of this bill becoming law, DHS must roll out a standardized tracking system. The core requirement is simple: every time a U.S. citizen or LPR is detained for 24 hours or longer, or is removed from the country for immigration enforcement purposes, it needs to be logged. This system also needs to capture cases where local or state law enforcement first picked up the person before handing them over to DHS, highlighting the often-blurred lines of enforcement authority.

This isn’t just internal record-keeping; the Secretary of Homeland Security must report these specific incidents—at least once every three months—to key Congressional committees, including the House and Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees. Think of it as a mandatory, quarterly audit of DHS’s operational mistakes involving people who legally belong here. This transparency is a big deal because it creates an explicit accountability trail, making it much harder for these errors to happen quietly in the dark.

Clearing Up the Confusion

One of the most practical aspects of this bill addresses the nightmare scenario: being detained and struggling to prove your status from behind bars. The bill requires DHS, in conjunction with the State Department, to create a formal rule within 180 days that establishes a clear process for detained or removed citizens and LPRs to submit information proving their status. This is crucial because, currently, proving status from detention can be a bureaucratic nightmare, often leading to prolonged, wrongful detention.

For example, say an LPR is mistakenly flagged in a database and detained. This new rule should mean they have a standardized, official way to present their Green Card or proof of citizenship that DHS is mandated to follow. This formal mechanism should significantly reduce the time it takes to correct these costly errors, both for the individual and the taxpayer.

The Focus on Families

The bill specifically flags cases involving minors. The tracking system must include instances where a U.S. citizen or LPR child under 18 is removed alongside a parent or guardian who does not have legal status. This provision acknowledges the complex reality of mixed-status families, ensuring that the government is fully aware when its enforcement actions inadvertently lead to the removal of American children.

While the bill is a clear win for government accountability and civil rights—the beneficiaries are every citizen and LPR—it does place a significant new administrative burden on DHS. The effectiveness of this whole system hinges entirely on how well DHS and the State Department implement the tracking system and, more importantly, how effective and accessible the new rule for proving status turns out to be. If the process is slow or complicated, the benefit to the detained individual is minimized. But overall, this legislation is a straightforward push to ensure that the government’s enforcement machinery is running accurately and that the people who legally belong here are not being mistakenly caught in the gears.