Bill makes border reentry a serious federal crime with long prison terms.
H.R. 3486 — Stop Illegal Entry Act · Filed by Stephanie Bice (R-OK) · 5 cosponsors · Introduced May 19, 2025 · Passed chamber
Your members of Congress
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What it does
The bill increases prison time for people who cross the border illegally. It also increases prison time for people who return after being removed. First-time illegal entry with a serious crime can mean 5 to 15 years in prison. Return after removal can mean 10 years to life in prison. Judges cannot give shorter sentences.
Who it affects
The bill affects people who cross the border illegally or return after removal. It affects their families, including U.S. born children. Federal prisons will hold more inmates.
One thing to notice
Judges cannot reduce prison time below the set minimums, even in single cases. The bill may apply to people removed under older laws.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
5 cosponsors: 5 Republicans.
- May 19, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- May 19, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary”
- May 21, 2025 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- May 21, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported in the Nature of a Substitute by the Yeas and Nays: 14 - 10”
- Sep 11, 2025 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On passage Passed by the Yeas and Nays: 226 - 197 (Roll no. 264).”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 3 reports from Dec 2025 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $50,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 29 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 41% of bills with any report.
Stephanie Bice, who sponsored the bill, received $1,042,750 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- International Union of Police Associations AFL-CIO — $40,000 in 2 reports
- Casa, Inc. — $10,000 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- reentry — Returning to the country after being removed or sent away.
- serious crime — A major crime, worse than a minor one.
- removal — Being forced to leave the country and go to another country.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
- sponsored — To sponsor a bill is to introduce it in Congress and put your name on it.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (4,140 characters) on Jul 9, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,522 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 2026-09-21.
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