The U.S. House of Representatives advanced a bill Monday that would bar anyone involved in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel from entering the United States, Breitbart reports. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA), argued that new laws are needed to prevent a future “Joe Biden” scenario that could echo a loss of sovereignty and open borders to violent criminals and terrorists, according to a JNS report. The legislation, called the No Immigration Benefits for Hamas Terrorists Act of 2025, and which is cosponsored exclusively by Republicans—including Reps. Joe Wilson (R-SC), Claudia Tenney (R-NY), and Ann Wagner (R-MO)—passed “overwhelmingly” in the House.
According to Breitbart, the bill would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to prohibit “‘any alien who carried out, participated in, planned, financed, afforded material support to or otherwise facilitated’ the attacks against Israel, beginning on October 7.” It explicitly includes Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members.
While Democrats voiced support for the legislation, they criticized naming a specific attack in the statute, with Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) noting that all Foreign Terrorist Organizations are already barred from entry. Raskin claimed that Congress has historically avoided citing individual attacks, such as September 11, 2001, in immigration law.
McClintock countered that there is precedent for targeting specific organizations by recalling the Nazi Party and the Palestine Liberation Organization. He argued Hamas should be added to the list of organizations explicitly barred from immigration. As an illustration, he cited Mahmoud Amin Ya’qub al-Muhtadi, a Gaza-born migrant who entered the United States in 2024 and was charged by the Department of Justice for involvement in the October 7 attacks.
The bill cleared the House by voice vote without objections and now proceeds to the Senate, where an earlier version had stalled.