Padilla and Durbin introduce bill to prevent unlawful immigration arrests and detentions

Democratic Senators Alex Padilla and Dick Durbin introduced the Immigration Warrant Reform Act on September 25, 2026, aiming to curb warrantless ICE arrests and indefinite detentions. The bill requires supervisory administrative warrants based on probable cause, mandates bond hearings within 24 hours of warrantless arrests, and requires custody reviews every 60 days. While sponsors argue the bill prevents civil rights abuses, immigration advocates express concern that its 'imminent danger' exception still leaves immigrants vulnerable to arbitrary detention.

Introduction of the Immigration Warrant Reform Act

• ▪Democratic Senators Alex Padilla and Dick Durbin introduced the Immigration Warrant Reform Act on September 25, 2026, to prevent unlawful immigration arrests and detentions.
• ▪The Immigration Warrant Reform Act is cosponsored by Senators Richard Blumenthal, Cory Booker, Mazie Hirono, Tim Kaine, Angus King, and Patty Murray.

Warrant requirements under the proposed law

• ▪The Immigration Warrant Reform Act, introduced by Senators Alex Padilla and Dick Durbin, would require immigration officers to obtain an administrative warrant from a supervisor outlining probable cause of an individual's inadmissibility and removability
• ▪The Immigration Warrant Reform Act, introduced by Senators Alex Padilla and Dick Durbin, requires that an administrative warrant be presented to each detained person alongside a notice of when they must appear in immigration court

Provisions and concerns regarding warrantless arrests

• ▪The Immigration Warrant Reform Act limits warrantless civil immigration arrests in the interior U.S. to cases where a noncitizen presents an imminent danger and is likely to escape before a warrant is obtained.
• ▪The Immigration Warrant Reform Act, introduced by Senators Alex Padilla and Dick Durbin, would require a bond hearing within 24 hours of any warrantless civil immigration arrest to determine if warrantless arrest criteria were met
• ▪Immigration advocates expressed concern that the Immigration Warrant Reform Act's warrantless arrest exception for 'imminent danger' is undefined and grants ICE officers broad leeway.

Detention and custody review reforms

• ▪The Immigration Warrant Reform Act, introduced by Senators Alex Padilla and Dick Durbin, would require a custody review of every noncitizen in immigration detention every 60 days by an immigration judge or U.S. district judge
• ▪The Immigration Warrant Reform Act clarifies that mandatory detention provisions applicable at the border should not apply to immigrants in the interior of the United States.

Unlawful arrests of citizens and lawful immigrants

• ▪Senators Alex Padilla and Dick Durbin introduced the Immigration Warrant Reform Act following reports that U.S. citizens and lawful immigrants were being apprehended by immigration enforcement.
• ▪U.S. citizens and immigrants with lawful status, including George Retes, Javier Ramirez, Andrea Velez, Wilmer Chavarria, and Dayanne Figueroa, have been arbitrarily arrested by immigration enforcement officers.

Interpretations of immigration laws

• ▪The Trump Administration has interpreted immigration laws to require immigration judges to deny bond to noncitizens who entered the United States without inspection, regardless of their length of residency
• ▪In a concurrence in Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo, Justice Kavanaugh found that immigration officers may make stops based on apparent race, ethnicity, or speaking with an accent.

Debatable claims

• ▪Applying mandatory border detention rules to interior immigrants does more harm than good
• ▪ICE's interior enforcement practices pose an unacceptable risk to U.S. citizens
• ▪Congress should pass the Immigration Warrant Reform Act
• ▪The Immigration Warrant Reform Act's 'imminent danger' exception gives ICE too much discretion