Congress Moves to Let Crime Victims Sue Officials Over Illegal Immigration
A bill allowing victims to sue officials who release illegal immigrants is advancing in Congress.
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A House bill that would let crime victims sue state and local officials who release illegal immigrants under federal detainers is advancing in Congress. The measure, the Shut Down Sanctuary Policies Act of 2026 (H.R. 7640), was introduced by Republican Rep. Tom McClintock of California on Feb. 23 and placed on the Union Calendar on March 12 as Calendar No. 465. It recently cleared committee with little notice, according to Just the News.
Congress can stop sanctuary policies.
The bill’s sharpest tool, as described by Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio, is a private right of action. Victims and families of victims could sue cities, states, and officials who released criminal illegal immigrants who harmed them. The Congressional Research Service summary notes that the suit can be brought against a state or local government that released someone who was later convicted of the crime despite a detainer.
House GOP crafts nuclear option for sanctuary cities, letting victims sue local officials https://t.co/aLUN5I0Gr3 via @JustTheNews The bill’s most poignant weapon creates a right of private action for victims and families of victims to sue the municipalities and officials who released violent offenders, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told Just the News.
Jordan told Just the News the language would strip some of the civil immunity those officials currently have. In some cases, that protection is absolute immunity, the broadest form of the doctrine. “It allows people who’ve been harmed, where local political leaders tell the local law enforcement they can’t work with federal law enforcement, detainers aren’t honored … to go take that city, take that state to court,” he said. “So we got a good deal that we worked long and hard on. We just got to try to get it passed in the lame duck.”
The rest of the bill focuses on cooperation and funding. It would bar state and local governments from blocking employees from enforcing immigration law, working with federal agents, or asking about a person’s status. It also requires the Department of Homeland Security to issue a detainer when someone is arrested for a criminal or motor-vehicle offense and DHS has probable cause that the person is inadmissible or deportable. Local authorities would have to honor those detainers.
Jurisdictions found non-compliant with DHS would lose certain law-enforcement and immigration funding, which would be redirected to compliant areas. The bill also grants federal immunity to officials and agencies that follow the law and allows related prosecutions to be moved to federal court. DHS could refuse to hand someone over to a jurisdiction that is not in compliance and could not transfer a person who already has a final order of removal.
ENOUGH 😡😡 BREAKING: NEW: DHS confirms that a murder suspect who killed a woman in Sacramento, CA on Tuesday by chasing her down with a gun, shooting her, then shooting her again in the head on the ground, is an Indian illegal alien who was caught & released at the border by the Biden administration.
Just the News tied the bill’s push to recent cases, citing a September DHS account of Rohit Rohit, an illegal immigrant from India, who was released during the Biden years and is accused of stalking Shalini Thakur for months before killing her in a Panera Bread parking lot in Sacramento. DHS said sanctuary politicians had to end policies that “play Russian roulette with American lives.”
The bill has not yet had a floor vote. Congress.gov lists it as reported to the House and waiting on the calendar. Jordan’s timeline for a vote is the period after the election.
Source: The Gateway Pundit
