Duckworth is listed as sponsor of S.3144, the Veterans Visa and Protection Act of 2025, which would require DHS to establish a veterans visa program allowing removed veterans to return as immigrants.
Support and work to pass legislation requiring DHS to establish a veterans visa program allowing removed veterans to return to the United States as immigrants.
Occurrences
Congress.gov lists Sen. Tammy Duckworth as sponsor of S.3280, introduced 11/09/2023 and referred to Senate Judiciary. The bill would create return/status procedures for removed noncitizen veterans and state that a noncitizen veteran or service member may not be removed except after a qualifying violent-crime conviction.
SEC. 203. RETURN OF ELIGIBLE VETERANS REMOVED FROM THE UNITED STATES; ADJUSTMENT OF STATUS. (a) Program for Admission and Adjustment of Status.--Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall establish a program and an application procedure that allows-- (1) eligible veterans outside the United States to be admitted to the United States as aliens lawfully admitted for permanent residence ...
Evidence
AP reported that a 2025 bill would give green cards to parents of service members and let already-deported people apply for a visa, and that Tammy Duckworth sponsored some of that legislation.
A federal immigration judge granted asylum to a veteran-adopted woman who had faced deportation threats, showing that veteran-connected immigration cases are still being handled one-off rather than through a standing veterans visa program.
The Guardian reported that Trump signed a roughly $70 billion DHS law focused on ICE and CBP enforcement, which points to continued emphasis on deportation infrastructure rather than a new program to let removed veterans return as immigrants.
AP reported that a May bill would give green cards to parents of service members and let already deported people apply for a visa; Duckworth sponsored some of that legislation.
Congress.gov lists H.R. 3529 as introduced on 2025-05-21 and referred to the House Judiciary Committee; its status remains Introduced, with no enactment shown.
Assessments
Duckworth appears to have taken later-term legislative action on closely related immigration relief for veterans and military families, including sponsoring related 2025 legislation, so there is meaningful effort and candidate credit. But the specific promised outcome—a federal law requiring DHS to create a veterans visa program for removed veterans to return as immigrants—was not enacted, and the cited measures remained only proposed or introduced. That makes this a failed delivery with clear effort rather than a delivered or merely unresolved promise.
There is no evidence that the promised outcome was delivered: no legislation requiring DHS to create a standing veterans visa program for removed veterans is shown as having passed. The strongest evidence is that Duckworth sponsored closely related 2025 legislation offering immigration relief to some deported people connected to military service, which demonstrates a serious legislative effort and partial policy alignment. Under the scoring rule, a serious attempt that did not achieve the promised enacted outcome counts as never, with effort credit. The documented effort appears in a later term rather than as a completed same-term delivery.