The U.S. House of Representatives has overwhelmingly approved a bill that would bar members of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Palestine Liberation Organization and individuals involved in the October 7, 2023, attacks against Israel from entering the United States or receiving immigration benefits. The measure, authored by Rep. Tom McClintock, now heads to the Senate.
Lawmakers in the House advanced the "No Immigration Benefits for Hamas Terrorists Act of 2025" under a motion to suspend the rules. According to the official House record and Congress.gov, the bill was agreed to by voice vote, with a later motion to reconsider laid on the table without objection, indicating broad bipartisan support.
H.R. 176, sponsored by Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA-5) and backed by 19 Republican co-sponsors, including Reps. Joe Wilson (R-SC), Claudia Tenney (R-NY), and Ann Wagner (R-MO), amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to create specific grounds of inadmissibility and removability. The bill makes members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, as well as individuals who "carried out, participated in, planned, financed, afforded material support to, or otherwise facilitated" the Hamas-led attacks beginning on October 7, 2023, ineligible for admission to the United States or for immigration relief such as asylum or protection from removal.
The measure also broadens existing restrictions on the Palestine Liberation Organization. Under current law, certain officers and representatives of the PLO are barred from admission; under H.R. 176, all PLO members would be inadmissible, according to the bill text and committee report. The legislation further directs the Department of Homeland Security to report annually to Congress on the number of people found inadmissible or removable under the new provisions.
Supporters in both parties framed the bill as a response to the October 7 attacks in southern Israel, in which militants killed more than 1,200 people, including civilians of all ages, and took hostages, according to Israeli authorities and widely cited international reports.
While Democrats largely backed the legislation, some raised procedural and legal concerns. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the House Judiciary Committee’s ranking member, argued in additional views appended to the committee report that existing sections of the Immigration and Nationality Act already bar members and supporters of designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations such as Hamas. He warned that writing specific attacks into statute departs from longstanding practice of using general terrorism-based criteria rather than event-specific language.
Republicans countered that the bill is consistent with other historically targeted immigration provisions. Citing the committee report and floor debate, backers likened the new provisions to existing statutory bars for individuals involved in Nazi persecution, genocide, torture and extrajudicial killings, arguing that the October 7 atrocities should be treated similarly in immigration law.
The bill’s House passage comes amid heightened scrutiny of U.S. border and visa policies following the Hamas attacks and the ensuing war in Gaza. An earlier version of similar legislation in the previous Congress did not advance in the Senate, but House Republicans say they intend to press for action in the upper chamber on the current measure.
