The state must pay for lawyers for people facing deportation.
S. 5324 — Fairness to Freedom Act of 2026 · Filed by Adam Schiff (D-CA) · 8 cosponsors · Introduced Aug 6, 2026 · 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
People who cannot pay for a lawyer get one for free. The lawyer helps when the state tries to deport them. A new office will hire and manage these lawyers. Lawyers help from the start all the way through appeals.
Who it affects
People facing deportation who cannot afford lawyers will get free help. Taxpayers will pay for the program. Lawyers and legal groups may get hired or paid by the new office.
One thing to notice
The state cannot use the fact that someone got a free lawyer against them later. Lawyers must be assigned within 24 hours of arrest, or the person's words cannot be used in court.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
8 cosponsors: 7 Democrats, 1 Independents.
- Aug 6, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Aug 6, 2026 — 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.
Words to know
- deport — To force someone to leave the country.
- appeals — A request to a higher court to review a lower court's decision.
- arrest — When police take someone into custody.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (50,012 characters) on Aug 20, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 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.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-23.
“The state must pay for lawyers for people facing deportation.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s5324/simple Report an error