Stop ICE Intimidation Act of 2026
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Stop ICE Intimidation Act restricts DHS obligations beginning no later than 30 days after enactment. Until DHS submits a required report, the Secretary may not obligate funds to operate an ICE biometric or other surveillance system, continue or enter a contract for such a system, or hire additional ICE officers, agents, or employees. The hiring freeze is agency-wide in its text, not limited to surveillance positions.
The report must go to six appropriations, judiciary, and homeland-security committees and set an ICE surveillance policy. The policy must prohibit accessing or storing information collected because a person exercised a constitutional right or privilege. It must address permitted uses and users, storage security, retention and deletion, notice and an opportunity to review or contest records, protection of First Amendment activity, credible-threat criteria, database and contract costs, compliance with local privacy law, and training where facial recognition is prohibited.
All information collected by an immigration officer for use in, inclusion in, or derivation from a biometric or other surveillance system between January 1, 2026 and enactment must be deleted within 30 days after enactment unless the Secretary establishes the required policy by rule, including an interim final rule. That deletion language is broader than records known to involve constitutional activity.
Separately, no DHS funds may be used to restrict an individual's ability to record or document immigration enforcement or removal operations when the recording does not interfere with or obstruct the operation. The bill does not define interference, require an officer to facilitate recording, prevent neutral safety perimeters, or regulate privately funded conduct.
Who Benefits and How
Protesters, journalists, legal observers, immigrants, and other people recorded during protected activity gain limits on surveillance use, notice and challenge rules, and possible deletion. Congress receives cost and policy detail. Members of the public gain protection for nonobstructive recording, while local privacy regimes gain an express compliance requirement.
Who Bears the Burden and How
ICE surveillance programs and technology contractors face a temporary funding cutoff and possible data loss. ICE hiring plans pause until the report. DHS privacy, legal, IT, training, procurement, and congressional-affairs staff must create and document a detailed policy quickly. Officers must accommodate nonobstructive recording, and enforcement programs may lose intelligence that was lawfully gathered during the deletion window.
Key Provisions
- Freezes ICE biometric-surveillance operating funds.
- Freezes covered surveillance contracts.
- Freezes additional ICE hiring until report submission.
- Requires policy reports to six congressional committees.
- Prohibits surveillance of constitutionally protected activity.
- Requires use, access, security, retention, and deletion rules.
- Requires notice and record-challenge procedures.
- Requires local privacy-law compliance and training.
- Deletes covered 2026 surveillance data absent a rule.
- Protects nonobstructive recording of immigration operations.
- Leaves interference and obstruction undefined.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Freezes ICE surveillance-system spending, related contracts, and additional hiring until DHS submits a biometric-surveillance policy protecting constitutional activity, requires deletion of immigration-officer surveillance data collected from January 1, 2026 through enactment unless the policy is established by rule, and bars DHS funds from restricting nonobstructive recording of immigration operations.
Key Policy Areas
Immigration Surveillance, Biometric Privacy, First Amendment Activity, ICE Funding, Public Recording Rights
Primary Purpose
Freezes ICE surveillance-system spending, related contracts, and additional hiring until DHS submits a biometric-surveillance policy protecting constitutional activity, requires deletion of immigration-officer surveillance data collected from January 1, 2026 through enactment unless the policy is established by rule, and bars DHS funds from restricting nonobstructive recording of immigration operations.
Policy Domains
Sections 2 and 3 funding freeze, required surveillance policy, interim deletion, and recording protection
Identified Gains
- People exercising constitutional rights near ICE
- Immigrants recorded in surveillance systems
- Journalists documenting immigration operations
- Legal observers monitoring ICE activity
- Protesters subject to biometric surveillance
- Civil-liberties advocacy organizations
- Local privacy regulators
- Congressional ICE oversight committees
Identified Costs
- ICE surveillance-program officials
- Biometric technology contractors serving ICE
- Applicants for new ICE employment
- DHS privacy-policy staff
- DHS information-security staff
- ICE officers managing public recording
- Federal immigration investigations losing stored data
- DHS congressional-reporting staff
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability.
Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition …
Introduced in House
Ms. Pingree introduced the following bill; which was referred to …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Applicants for new ICE employment, Congressional ICE oversight committees, Courts defining interference or obstruction
Positive-direction: Congressional ICE oversight committees
Negative-direction: Applicants for new ICE employment, Courts defining interference or obstruction, DHS congressional-reporting staff, DHS information-security staff, DHS legal-training staff, DHS privacy-policy staff, Federal immigration investigations losing stored data, ICE officers managing public recording, ICE operations dependent on additional hiring, ICE surveillance-program officials
Immigrants incidentally shown in recordings, Immigrants recorded in surveillance systems, People exercising constitutional rights near ICE
Journalists documented by ICE systems, Journalists documenting immigration operations
Civil-rights litigators using video evidence, Legal observers monitoring ICE activity
Bystanders recording immigration arrests, Families documenting removal operations
Civil-liberties advocacy organizations, Public-accountability organizations
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "agency"
- → ICE office operating a surveillance system
- "observer"
- → Individual recording an immigration operation
- "secretary"
- → DHS Secretary submitting or establishing the policy
- "contractor"
- → Vendor operating or maintaining an ICE surveillance system
- "recorded_person"
- → Person whose information enters an ICE surveillance system
Note: {'scope_ids': ['ice_surveillance_policy_and_recording'], 'description': 'The funding freeze lifts upon report submission, but the separate deletion rule reaches all immigration-officer surveillance-system information collected during the stated 2026 window unless a policy is established by rule; recording protection ends when conduct interferes or obstructs, terms the bill does not define.'}
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
The temporary prohibition on obligating surveillance operating or contract funds and funds for additional ICE hiring until the required report is submitted.
Recording or documenting an immigration enforcement or removal operation without interfering with or obstructing the operation.
Information collected because a person exercised a right or privilege protected by the United States Constitution, which the required policy must bar from system access or storage.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology