AILA Endorses the 2025 Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act
AILA endorses the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act, which Representatives Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) and Adam Smith (WA-09) re-introduced on December 3, 2025. AILA applauds efforts to bring dignity, justice, oversight, and accountability to the detention system. This bill will accomplish important reforms to immigration detention for which AILA has long advocated. This includes provisions to:
- Repeal mandatory detention
- Prohibit detention of families and children in family detention
- Phase out private detention facilities and jails
- Require DHS to establish civil detention standards
- Create a presumption of release
- Impose a higher burden of proof to detain primary caregivers and vulnerable populations
AILA encourages stakeholders to contact their representatives to express their support for the bill’s advancement through the House.
On December 3, AILA member Sarah Owings joined Congresswoman Jayapal and other bill sponsors at a press conference introducing the bill. Owings said:
“The Trump Administration has massively expanded detention to far more people than any previous administration and has stripped away oversight and accountability mechanisms to prevent abuses and harm to people who are detained. The current system rewards profit and prejudice over justice and common sense. The administration is blocking access to legal counsel and family at detention facilities and is effectively denying people their fair day in court. To safeguard health, protect safety, and uphold due process, Congress must act now to reform this broken system and honor our nation’s commitments.”
Immigration detention facilities are sites of serious and repeated allegations of abuse, including allegations of sexual assault, violations of religious freedom, medical neglect, and the punitive use of solitary confinement. Conditions in detention, including a lack of adequate medical care, can be deadly. In 2025, more people have died in ICE adult detention than in any year since 2004.