Congress threatens to strip all federal funding from states that limit police immigration detention
H.R. 1821 — HELD Act · Filed by Ken Calvert (R-CA) · Introduced Mar 4, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill withholds all federal funding from any state or local government that has laws or policies preventing police from holding immigrants in custody for up to 48 hours based on federal immigration detainers, or from providing information about immigrants in their custody to federal immigration authorities. It allows local jurisdictions within non-compliant states to apply directly for federal funds they would normally receive through the state.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is a federal funding cutoff—a conditional-spending threat—designed to force state and local compliance with federal immigration detention practices. It is not a direct regulation of immigration but a fiscal penalty imposed on jurisdictions that exercise local control over police cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
What the text implies
- The bill applies to ALL federal funding, not just law-enforcement grants—schools, transportation, healthcare, and infrastructure in non-compliant jurisdictions would lose federal support, creating collateral damage to citizens unrelated to immigration policy.
- The 'notwithstanding' clause allowing direct federal funding to local subdivisions within non-compliant states may fragment state governance and create fiscal chaos, as local governments compete for federal dollars while the state loses revenue.
- The bill does not define 'prevents or impedes'—vague language may capture neutral policies (e.g., data-privacy rules, resource constraints, or liability concerns) as violations, expanding the scope of coercion beyond explicit sanctuary policies.
- By conditioning federal funds on immigration detention cooperation, the bill effectively nationalizes local police resources for federal immigration enforcement without federal compensation or local democratic input.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill coerces state and local governments to participate in federal immigration detention by threatening to strip all federal funding—a form of conditional spending that overrides local democratic choices about police resources and priorities. Citizens in non-compliant jurisdictions lose federal support for schools, infrastructure, and services unrelated to immigration enforcement, while the bill expands local police involvement in immigration detention without local consent or oversight.
Who stands to gain
- Immigration detention contractors (private prison operators, transport services)
- Federal law enforcement agencies (DHS, ICE) gain expanded local cooperation without additional feder
Named in the bill
Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), State governments, Local law enforcement, Political subdivisions
Where it stands
- Mar 4, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Mar 4, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $40,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 30 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Ken Calvert, the sponsor, reported $1,368,100 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- International Union of Police Associations AFL-CIO — $40,000 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 10, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,860 characters) on Aug 18, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 10, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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