US House of Representatives passes bill to bar participants of Oct 7 attacks from entry to country

The U.S. House of Representatives on Monday unanimously passed a bill that would bar anyone linked to the carrying out of the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacres from immigrating to the United States. 

The Republican-proposed bill, called the "No Immigration Benefits for Hamas Terrorists Act of 2025,” was introduced by Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif. It modifies the existing Immigration and Nationality Act by barring “any alien who carried out, participated in, planned, financed, afforded material support to or otherwise facilitated any of the attacks against Israel initiated by Hamas beginning on Oct. 7” from entering the United States. 

While some Democratic lawmakers, such as Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), voiced opposition to modifying the Immigration and Nationality Act to address specific terror attacks, noting that members of foreign terror organizations are already barred by U.S. law from entering the country, the bill passed the vote in the House. 

Raskin further noted that, even following the September 11, 2001 attacks, Congress did not “specifically reference” that attack when changing immigration law. 

“To put into perspective just how anomalous this approach is, consider our response to the 9/11 attacks and the aftermath of that catastrophe,” Raskin said. “We revised our immigration laws to overhaul significant parts of our immigration system, and we created the Department of Homeland Security.” 

Raskin said that despite the horrific nature of the September 11 attacks, “Even then, we did not amend the Immigration and Naturalization Act to specifically reference the events of Sept. 11, or to bar the individuals involved in the planning or commission of those outrageous terror attacks from entering or remaining in the United States.” 

However, McClintock claimed that the laws needed to be strengthened, noting that at least one participant of the October 7 attacks had entered the U.S. 

“New laws would be helpful to prevent a future Joe Biden from making a mockery of our sovereignty and reopening our borders to the most violent criminal gangs and cartels and criminals and terrorists on the planet,” McClintock said. 

He also noted that specific sanctions were made against people who aided the Nazis in World War II, asking, “Does anyone seriously argue that we should repeal the sanctions against persons who aided and abetted the Nazis’ Holocaust?” 

“If not, then why would they oppose extending the same sanctions to the Nazis’ would-be modern-day successors, who just two years ago slaughtered more than 1,200 innocent civilians, including children and infants and the elderly, because they were Jewish?” he continued. 

The bill was passed with a voice vote, a method often used when majority support for a vote is assumed, allowing for a quick vote. The method also does not record the individual votes of the House members, and if a minority is opposed to a bill, but chooses not to voice a “nay” vote, the bill can be passed as “unanimous.” 

Following the vote, McClintock told Fox News Digital, “There are still some things we can come together on in this body, and one of them is opposition to Hamas and the terrorism they unleashed on civilians in Israel more than two years ago.” 

“What this [bill] does is place them in the same category as Nazi collaborators in the Holocaust, which are also referenced in the Immigration Nationality Act,” McClintock said. 

The bill will now head to the Senate, where a similar bill was introduced by Republican senators earlier this year. In the U.S., for a bill to become law, it must be passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate, before being signed into law by the president. 

The Senate failed to pass a similar bill last year, after it was passed by the House. McClintock said he hopes repeated passing of the bill by the House will “inspire the Senate” to pass it this year. 

"The repeated actions of the House in passing this bill, I think, will hopefully inspire the Senate to take it up this year and send it to the president,” he told Fox.