DOJ SCAAP FY2026: $177.7M for Jails, Due December 15, as an ICE Data Field Turns Mandatory

For every dollar a county spent on correctional officer salaries to hold an eligible undocumented inmate in the FY2024 cycle, the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program paid back about 17.7 cents. That number, from the Bureau of Justice Assistance's payment calculation appendix, is the starting point for evaluating the FY2026 round.

On November 5, BJA released the FY 2026 SCAAP notice of funding opportunity (O-BJA-2026-172810, Assistance Listing 16.606). It offers up to $177,684,621 across about 500 awards, with a single-award ceiling of $59 million. The application has two steps: an SF-424 in Grants.gov by 11:59 p.m. ET on December 15, 2026, then the full application in JustGrants by 8:59 p.m. ET on December 22, 2026. BJA asks applicants to start SAM.gov registration or renewal by November 12, and no later than November 30.

SCAAP is a formula reimbursement, not a competitive grant, and many jurisdictions treat it as routine paperwork. This year, three things deserve attention from county budget officers and sheriffs' finance staff: the pot is smaller, the calendar is compressed, and DHS is moving toward requiring its own data channel for eligibility.

A Smaller Pot, Released Five Months After the Last One

The FY2025 SCAAP NOFO, which covered inmates held from July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2024, was released May 12, 2026, with JustGrants due June 30. It offered $199,129,251. The FY2026 NOFO covers July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025, and offers $177.7 million. That is $21.4 million less, a 10.8 percent cut, in a round released less than six months later.

Two consequences follow:

• Payments per eligible inmate-day will probably fall. SCAAP divides the appropriation pro rata across every applicant's "total eligible inmate costs." If the number of eligible records and salary costs stays about the same as last cycle, a smaller appropriation means a lower reimbursement rate than last time. Budget for SCAAP revenue below your FY2025 award unless your eligible inmate count rose.
• Two cycles of data work in one calendar year. Jurisdictions that filed in June now have to compile, validate, and upload a complete second year of inmate records by mid-December. Staff who handled the June filing should start now. The ASCII fixed-field file is not something to build in the last week.

The statutory authority cited is the Department of Justice Appropriations Act, 2026 (Pub. L. No. 119-74). Payments go to the jurisdiction's general fund and must be used "only for correctional purposes" under 8 U.S.C. § 1231(i)(6). Allowable uses include salaries of all staff working primarily in the correctional facility, not only officers, plus their benefits, and an allocable share of support staff such as medical and transport personnel.

Who Is Eligible, and What "Eligible Inmate" Means

Applicants can be state governments, county governments, and city or township governments that, during the reporting period, held individuals they "either (1) know[] were undocumented criminal aliens or (2) reasonably and in good faith believe[] were undocumented criminal aliens."

To count, an inmate must have:

• At least one felony or two misdemeanor convictions, typically under state or local law
• Been held under the applicant's own legal authority
• Been incarcerated for at least four consecutive days during the reporting period

Joint applications are prohibited. You also cannot report inmates or costs for people held on behalf of another jurisdiction. A county jail that boards state or other-county inmates under contract must exclude them. The jurisdiction holding legal authority files for those inmates.

Each record goes to DHS, which checks whether the person was actually undocumented at the time of incarceration rather than a U.S. citizen or lawfully present. Records DHS rejects drop out of the formula. Records with missing identifiers, such as A-numbers, FBI numbers, or dates of birth, are less likely to be confirmed. Record quality is the main thing a jurisdiction controls in its payment.

No Corrections After the Deadline

The NOFO says plainly that DHS's review is too large and complex to accept supplemental or corrected inmate data after the deadline: "no corrections may be made to data submitted on eligible inmates (or inmate records) after the application deadline has passed."

OJP may let applicants fix other errors, such as officer counts, facility bed counts, or salary expenditures, by a set date after notification. The inmate file is final when you submit. BJA also states that "absent highly unusual circumstances," it will not extend the deadline or accept late applications.

In practice, run the inmate file through your own validation, including duplicate checks, date-range checks, and identifier completeness, before December 15. Grants.gov is only step one, and the inmate data goes into JustGrants by December 22. Treat December 22 as a hard data deadline and finish a week early.

The LESC Field Becomes Mandatory in Two Cycles

The most important change is in the data specification. The NOFO adds an optional field to each inmate record: the Law Enforcement Support Center (LESC) Immigration Alien Query (IAQ). LESC is ICE's 24/7 national point of contact for immigration status checks. The NOFO notes that state and local agencies can use it to give DHS "an undocumented criminal alien's name, their release date, and their home and work addresses."

The FY2025 NOFO said the field would become mandatory "in future fiscal years." The FY2026 NOFO gives a date: the IAQ field "will be mandatory beginning with the FY 2028 NOFO for costs incurred during the July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027, reporting period."

That reporting period has already started. A jurisdiction that wants FY2028 SCAAP money will need an LESC query on file for each inmate it claims, covering people booked since July 1, 2026. Jurisdictions whose sheriffs do not run IAQs at booking, often because of state or local policy limiting cooperation with ICE, face a clear choice. They can change booking practice now, or they can accept that inmates booked under the current policy may not count when the FY2028 application opens.

Counties in states with laws limiting immigration cooperation, such as California, which received about $59 million in FY2024 SCAAP awards according to Congressional Research Service data, need to get legal and policy guidance soon. The data obligation is already accruing.

The Immigration-Enforcement Conditions

The FY2026 NOFO keeps language from FY2025 that puts any program or activity "at any tier" that "violates (or promotes or facilitates the violation of) federal immigration law (including 8 U.S.C. § 1373) or impedes or hinders the enforcement of federal immigration law" out of program scope. That includes "failing to comply with 8 U.S.C. § 1373, give access to DHS agents, or honor DHS requests and provide requested notice to DHS agents."

OJP's listed priorities now begin with "directly supporting law enforcement operations (including immigration law enforcement operations)." Legal services for removable aliens are unallowable costs, with narrow exceptions for victims seeking protection orders and services required by law or court order.

Because SCAAP is a reimbursement for past salary costs, it is not obvious how a "program or activity" exclusion applies to a general-fund payment. Jurisdictions with sanctuary-style policies should get counsel's view on that question before the submitting official signs. The certifications are made under penalty of perjury. The NOFO says DOJ treats each one as "a material representation in any decision to make a payment." It cites 18 U.S.C. §§ 1001 and 1621 and the civil False Claims Act (31 U.S.C. §§ 3729–3730) as potential exposure for false statements. These are significant certifications, so treat them carefully.

Procedural Traps

A few requirements often cause problems:

• One submitting government official. That person must be registered in JustGrants, must have legal authority to apply on behalf of the chief executive, must complete every section, and must submit. A finance analyst cannot submit on the official's behalf.
• All certifications or nothing. JustGrants rejects the application if any required certification is missing, and the application is not considered submitted, even for deadline purposes, until all are complete.
• E.O. 12372 applies. Check whether your state has a single point of contact review requirement.
• 45 days to accept. After the award email, the jurisdiction has 45 calendar days to accept in JustGrants before funds can move. Calendar it, because the notice may arrive months from now.
• Ignore the boilerplate. JustGrants award documents include standard post-award reporting language that does not apply to SCAAP. The SCAAP Help Desk sends separate instructions.

Is It Worth Filing?

For a large urban jail, yes, without question. SCAAP awards reach into the tens of millions for the biggest states. For a small county with a handful of eligible inmates, the calculation is closer. At about 17.7 cents on the dollar of officer-salary cost, an inmate held 30 days in a jail where the average daily salary cost is $90 might generate roughly $480. Multiply by your expected DHS-confirmed records and compare that with the staff hours needed to assemble the file.

Many small jurisdictions file anyway because the money goes to the general fund with few restrictions. That reasoning still holds, but the IAQ requirement in 2028 adds a cost going forward, and booking procedures may need to change to cover it.

If your jurisdiction is also looking for competitive public-safety and reentry funding beyond formula payments, Granted can help you find matching BJA, OJJDP, and state programs and draft applications well before their deadlines.