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S. 1297119th CongressImmigration
Fair Day in Court for Kids Act of 2025
Sponsored by Sen. Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI) · 28 active : 27 Democrats, 1 Independent
Latest action: Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Where it standsBefore the Senate9 senators score as swing votes
Hasn’t passed either chamber
- Senate: next
- House: not yet
- President: not yet
Summary
, via Congress.govFair Day in Court for Kids Act of 2025
This bill provides legal protections for a
non-U.S. national (alien under federal law) who is detained or subject to immigration-related proceedings.
The Department of Justice (DOJ), or the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in a case involving an unaccompanied child, may appoint or provide counsel at the government's expense to non-U.S. nationals in removal proceedings and related appeals.
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An unaccompanied child must be represented by counsel paid for and appointed by the government at every stage of such proceedings unless the child has obtained counsel at their own expense. If HHS fails to provide counsel to an unaccompanied child, the child's deadline for filing a motion to reopen a removal proceeding shall not apply, and the filing of such a motion shall stay the child's removal from the United States.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) must provide a complete copy of a non-U.S. national's immigration file to the non-U.S. national (or the non-U.S. national's counsel) within seven days of a notice to appear for an immigration proceeding, and failure to provide the file shall result in a delay in the proceeding.
DHS must provide access to counsel for all detained non-U.S. nationals.
The Office of Refugee Resettlement must develop model guidelines for representing non-U.S. national children in immigration proceedings.
HHS must annually report on the extent to which it has provided counsel for unaccompanied children under this bill.
Committees and subjects
Committees
- Senate Committee on the Judiciary · SenateReferred to
Subjects
No legislative subjects recorded yet. Similar-vote matching falls back to the policy area.
Model
Directional: count only breaks toward the other partyWhy do scores change?v3default (selected)v2 model swing-v2
How the Senate breaks down
- 9Swing 70–100
- 45Middle 30–70
- 46Entrenched 0–30
Members fall into . All 100 senators have enough data to score.
Key players in the Senate
Ranked by swing score, 0–100 · swing-v3, directional: only movement toward the other party counts, so members who sit further from the center than their party no longer score as swing votes.
Bars show each input from 0 to 100: ideology gap, scorecard gap, , and the . is the seat’s partisan lean, and shows how much of the input data a score has.
Similar past votes, Senate
Earlier behind swing-v3’s inputLoading similar votes
Cosponsors
28 activeShow all 28 cosponsors
- Adam B. Schiff (D-CA)
- Alex Padilla (D-CA)
- Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
- Andy Kim (D-NJ)
- Bernard Sanders (I-VT)
- Brian Schatz (D-HI)
- Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV)
- Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)
- Christopher A. Coons (D-DE)
- Christopher Murphy (D-CT)
- Cory A. Booker (D-NJ)
- Edward J. Markey (D-MA)
- Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)
- Jeff Merkley (D-OR)
- John Fetterman (D-PA)
- John W. Hickenlooper (D-CO)
- Jon Ossoff (D-GA)
- Martin Heinrich (D-NM)
- Michael F. Bennet (D-CO)
- Peter Welch
How the swing score works
Ideology gapHow far a member’s DW-NOMINATE voting score sits from their party’s median in the same chamber.
Scorecard gapHow far their Heritage Action and LCV ratings stray from their party’s average, using the groups’ votes on similar bills where available.
Cross-pressureHow strongly their district or state leans toward the other party, from our own computed partisan lean.
Similar votesHow often they voted against their own party on earlier roll calls about this bill or similar ones.
Committee bonusMembers of the committees handling the bill decide whether it moves, so they get a boost.
Cosponsor checkThe sponsor and active cosponsors have already committed, so they drop toward entrenched.
