# 119-s-5138: Fairness for Immigrant Families Act of 2026

119-s-5138, Fairness for Immigrant Families Act of 2026, is a 119th Congress bill sponsored by Sen. Cortez Masto, Catherine [D-NV] (D-NV); status introduced; PRIA reads it as touching household money (as of 2026-08-12).

- Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-5138
- As of: 2026-08-12
- Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts.

## Facts
- Bill: 119-s-5138
- Congress: 119
- Title: Fairness for Immigrant Families Act of 2026
- Status: introduced
- Introduced: 2026-07-27
- Sponsor: Sen. Cortez Masto, Catherine [D-NV] (D-NV)
- Cosponsors: 0
- Policy area: Immigration
- Touches household money: yes
- Last recorded action: 2026-08-12

## Summary

**Expands protections and legal paths for immigrant families.** The bill restructures reentry and misrepresentation rules, creates new waivers and cancellation pathways, adds oversight and reporting for removals and detentions, and funds anti-fraud enforcement and consumer help programs. - Families and children: Reworks the 3‑year and 10‑year reentry bars and adds exceptions for minors, asylees, family‑unity beneficiaries, trafficking victims, and certain childhood arrivals. It creates VAWA and extreme‑hardship waivers and extends a window to seek adjustment of status by up to 5 years. - Removal oversight and relief seekers: Lowers the hardship threshold for cancellation of removal from 10 years to 7 years and establishes an affirmative application route without numerical limits for qualifying relatives. It also limits detention for many petitioners, requires ICE director approval for removing parents or guardians of children under 21, and mandates quarterly enforcement reporting. - Anti‑fraud, grants, and fee transparency: Creates criminal penalties for fraudulent immigration services, authorizes grants for hotlines and outreach ($15 million and $10 million annually) and enforcement grants ($10 million annually), restricts sharing of personally identifiable information, and requires detailed fee and backlog reporting by USCIS.

## Provisions PRIA read

- Limits and reports for immigration fees: benefit, medium. If enacted, the bill would require most immigration fees to be deposited into the federal Immigration Examinations Fee Account. The Secretary could not raise any immigration service fee above its January 1, 2026 level until 60 days after sending a detailed cost-and-fee report to Congress. Fees from…
- Limits on detention and parent removals: benefit, medium. If enacted, the bill would generally bar ICE from removing or detaining people who are victims of trafficking or serious crimes, witnesses, certain civil-rights plaintiffs, and people with specified pending immigration petitions or DACA renewals. Covered people would have a rebuttable presumption a…
- Fight immigration fraud and scams: benefit, low. If enacted, the bill would make major fraud schemes and pretending to be an immigration attorney federal crimes and require convicted fraudsters to repay clients. The Federal Trade Commission would write rules for immigration consultants within 180 days, including clear disclosures, written contrac…
- New reports on removals and children: benefit, low. If enacted, DHS would give Congress an initial report within 90 days listing covered aliens removed since January 20, 2025 and then send quarterly reports on arrests, detentions, final orders, removals by destination country, and use of partnership programs. DHS must also send semiannual reports on…
- More legal relief for immigrant families: mixed, high. If enacted, the bill would let some noncitizens seek cancellation of removal after 7 years in the U.S. instead of 10. The bill would create a new affirmative application path to request cancellation and adjustment that would not count against visa limits and would require final regulations within 9…

## Related bills

- 119-s-5283: Momnibus Act
- 119-s-3990: PrEP Access and Coverage Act of 2026
- 119-s-2022: Tribal Tax and Investment Reform Act of 2025
- 119-s-2234: Reducing Homelessness Through Program Reform Act
- 119-s-5215: Cleaner Transportation Access for All Act
- 119-s-2231: GLOBE Act of 2025

## Sources
- [119-s-5138 on Congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/5138)

## Related
- [119-s-5283: Momnibus Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-5283)
- [119-s-3990: PrEP Access and Coverage Act of 2026](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-3990)
- [119-s-2022: Tribal Tax and Investment Reform Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-2022)
- [119-s-2234: Reducing Homelessness Through Program Reform Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-2234)
- [119-s-5215: Cleaner Transportation Access for All Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-5215)
- [119-s-2231: GLOBE Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-2231)
- [All bills in Congress](https://policyrisk.com/legislation)

Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-5138 (as of 2026-08-12).