Fairness for Immigrant Families Act of 2026

Key Points

• The bill eliminates the 3-year and 10-year reentry bars that currently block many immigrants from returning legally if they lived in the U.S. without permission and then left. It also adds exceptions and hardship waivers for spouses, parents, and children of citizens and permanent residents.
• It expands cancellation of removal by lowering the required residency from 10 years to 7 years and easing the hardship test. It also lets relatives of citizens who were removed on or after January 20, 2025 reopen their cases at any time.
• The bill creates new federal crimes for immigration services fraud, with up to 10 years in prison for fraud schemes and up to 15 years for falsely claiming to be an attorney, plus new FTC rules for immigration consultants and a private right of action for victims.
• It funds anti-fraud hotlines, websites, outreach, and enforcement with $35 million a year in grants, and bars grant recipients from sharing personal data with immigration enforcement or referring people to ICE or CBP.
• The bill blocks removal and detention of crime victims, trafficking survivors, witnesses, and workers defending civil rights or union activity, and requires ICE to review before removing parents of citizen children.
• It increases government transparency by requiring annual fee reports, quarterly backlog and processing-time reports, and reports on U.S. citizens detained or deported, including a report within 24 hours of any such incident.