Bill exempts migrant children from immigration fees, restores privacy protections
S. 3322 — Upholding Protections for Unaccompanied Children Act of 2025 · Filed by Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) · 21 cosponsors · Introduced Dec 3, 2025 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill amends Public Law 119-21 to exempt unaccompanied alien children from multiple immigration-related fees (asylum, employment authorization, court proceedings, border processing) and repeals a special immigrant juvenile status fee entirely. It also strikes provisions allowing body examinations of children in federal custody and prohibits the Department of Health and Human Services from sharing information about children's sponsors with immigration enforcement agencies. The bill requires refunds of fees already paid by or on behalf of affected children within 180 days.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is straightforward: it carves out unaccompanied children from immigration fees imposed by PL 119-21, repeals one fee category entirely, and removes invasive examination and information-sharing provisions. The functional effect is protective, not regulatory or fiscal.
What the text implies
- Refund provision (§6) may create administrative burden on DHS/DOJ to identify and locate fee-payers from prior years; scope and cost of refund obligation not quantified.
- Sponsor-information firewall (§5) may limit ORR's ability to verify sponsor suitability or detect trafficking; trade-off between child privacy and child safety in placement.
- Exemption scope tied to definition in Homeland Security Act §462(g)(2); any ambiguity in that definition could create disputes over who qualifies for fee relief.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Unaccompanied children—a vulnerable population with limited resources—gain direct relief from multiple fees that previously blocked access to asylum, employment authorization, and legal proceedings. Removal of body-examination authority and sponsor-information firewalls protects children from invasive procedures and reduces risk of family separation through enforcement.
Named in the bill
Department of Homeland Security, Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Refugee Resettlement, Public Law 119-21, Homeland Security Act of 2002, Immigration and Nationality Act
Where it stands
21 cosponsors: 19 Democrats, 2 Independents.
- Dec 3, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Dec 3, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the 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
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $530,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 91 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 41% of bills with at least one filing.
Catherine Cortez Masto, the sponsor, reported $298,634 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- American Federation of Teachers — $410,000 on 1 filing
- Kids in Need of Defense — $120,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 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 (5,269 characters) on Oct 21, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,388 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 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-21.
“Bill exempts migrant children from immigration fees, restores privacy protections” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s3322 Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.