Congress mandates real-time public access to immigration detention records
H.R. 9374 — Find Our Families Act of 2026 · Filed by Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) · 48 cosponsors · Introduced Jun 18, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
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What it does
This bill requires the Department of Homeland Security to create and maintain a publicly searchable online system where families and legal representatives can locate people detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection or Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The system must be updated within 8 hours of detention or transfer, display information in multiple languages, and include medical transfer notifications sent to families within 5 hours. The bill also mandates public reporting of CBP arrest operations every 90 days, with enforcement penalties for agencies that fail to provide timely or accurate data.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is a mandatory public detainee locator system with strict reporting timelines, family notification requirements, and enforcement penalties for non-compliance. It is fundamentally a transparency and accountability measure, not a substantive change to immigration law or detention authority.
What the text implies
- The 8-hour update requirement and 60-day data retention may create operational burden on CBP/ICE facilities, potentially affecting detention processing workflows and requiring new IT infrastructure investment.
- Public accessibility of arrest operation reports (Section 4) creates a detailed record of CBP enforcement patterns, including warrantless arrests and protest-related arrests, enabling civil-rights organizations and researchers to identify potential enforcement disparities.
- Medical transfer notification within 5 hours and visitation-access protections (Section 3(b)) may constrain facility operations and require coordination with external medical providers, particularly in remote border locations.
- The bill does not specify data security or privacy protections beyond the minor-protection carve-out, raising questions about how personally identifiable information (names, DOB, facility locations) will be protected from misuse.
- Contractor non-renewal penalty (Section 2(f)(3)) may incentivize private detention facilities to invest in compliance infrastructure, potentially increasing operational costs that could be passed to government or affect facility viability.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill creates enforceable transparency and accountability mechanisms for immigration detention, enabling families to locate detained relatives and monitor their welfare. Citizens gain access to previously unavailable information about government custody practices, medical transfers, and enforcement operations, reducing the risk of disappearance or abuse in detention and strengthening democratic oversight of executive immigration enforcement.
Who stands to gain
- IT contractors developing and maintaining the detainee locator system
- Legal services providers assisting families in locating detained relatives
- Civil-rights organizations conducting enforcement operation analysis
Named in the bill
Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (DHS), Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security, Committee on Homeland Security (House), Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (Senate), Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Section 287(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act
Where it stands
48 cosponsors: 48 Democrats.
- Jun 18, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jun 18, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Homeland Security and House Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Homeland Security, for a…”
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 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $10,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 5 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.
Rashida Tlaib, the sponsor, reported $42,050 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Casa, Inc. — $10,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 16, 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 (9,885 characters) on Sep 26, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 15,166 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 Jun 2026 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 16, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-26.
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