House Republicans are looking at a plan that would hold officials accountable for the consequences of their sanctuary city policies by allowing victims to sue those jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
GOP Rep. Jim Jordan (OH-04), who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, says that his party wants to get the Shut Down Sanctuary Policies Act of 2026 passed during the upcoming lame duck session of Congress, which will convene after the midterm elections.
Don't Democrats have anything better to do than protecting illegal aliens guilty of crimes like assault, theft, and obstructing the police?
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) October 13, 2026
The sweeping piece of legislation was approved by the Judiciary Committee earlier this year and would significantly raise the legal stakes for states and cities that decline to honor federal immigration detainers.
Jordan described the private right of action this way:
“It allows people who've been harmed, where local political leaders tell the local law enforcement they can't work with federal law enforcement, detainers aren't honored … to go take that city, take that state to court.”
And, according to Jordan, Republicans are not planning to let the proposal wither away in the halls of Congress. “So we got a good deal that we worked long and hard on. We just got to try to get it passed in the lame duck [period],” he said.
House GOP crafts nuclear option for sanctuary cities, letting victims sue local officials over releases https://t.co/O4DdXIDaer
— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) October 13, 2026
It's the lawsuit provision of the bill that is likely to grab people's attention.
If the bill were to pass, victims (or their families) of certain aggravated felonies – including rape and murder – would be able to sue state and local governments and officials for compensatory damages if the offender had previously been released back into the community because the jurisdiction denied an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer or refused to cooperate with ICE.
Victims would have 10 years to sue, and attorney fees would be covered if the victims win in court.
Of note, however, is a provision in the bill that protects local jurisdictions from being held accountable for a detainer that was denied because state law required them to do so. In that case, victims could, instead, sue the state and the state officials whose sanctuary policies allowed the offender back on the streets.
Virginia is a great example of a state this bill would target. One of Democrat Gov. Abigail Spanberger's first official actions after taking office earlier this was to terminate the commonwealth's existing cooperation agreement with ICE. Since then, as RedState has repeatedly covered, Fairfax County, Virginia, and its commonwealth's attorney, Steve Descano, have become ground zero in the fight over sanctuary-style policies and illegal alien crime.
The effects of these policies have been deadly, and a bill like the one being pushed by House Republicans would give the victims and their families something they too often lack: a way to force the officials behind those policies to answer for the consequences in court.
If Republicans have their way, ignoring ICE will be a much more expensive proposition for sanctuary cities and states.
Editor’s Note: Democrats are fanning the flames and raising the rhetoric by comparing ICE to the Gestapo, fascists, and secret police.
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