I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2643
To require the Secretary of State to submit an annual report to Congress
regarding the ties between criminal gangs and political and economic
elites in Haiti and impose sanctions on political and economic elites
involved in such criminal activities.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL3, 2025
Mr. M
EEKS(for himself, Mr. MCCAUL, and Mrs. CHERFILUS-MCCORMICK) in-
troduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on For-
eign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a
period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for
consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the com-
mittee concerned
A BILL
To require the Secretary of State to submit an annual report
to Congress regarding the ties between criminal gangs
and political and economic elites in Haiti and impose
sanctions on political and economic elites involved in
such criminal activities.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Haiti Criminal Collu-4
sion Transparency Act of 2025’’. 5
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SEC. 2. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS. 1
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 2
date of the enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter 3
for the following 5 years, the Secretary of State, in coordi-4
nation with other Federal agencies as appropriate, shall 5
submit a report to the appropriate congressional commit-6
tees regarding the ties between criminal gangs and polit-7
ical and economic elites in Haiti. The report shall— 8
(1) identify and list prominent criminal gangs 9
in Haiti as well as the leaders thereof, and describe 10
their criminal activities including coercive recruit-11
ment, and identify their primary geographic areas of 12
operations; 13
(2) list Haitian political and economic elites 14
who have direct links to criminal gangs and any or-15
ganizations or entities controlled by these elites; 16
(3) describe in detail the relationship between 17
the individuals listed pursuant to paragraph (2) and 18
the criminal gangs identified pursuant to paragraph 19
(1); 20
(4) describe in detail how Haitian political and 21
economic elites use their relationships with criminal 22
gangs to advance their political and economic inter-23
ests and agenda; 24
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(5) include a list of each criminal organization 1
assessed to be trafficking Haitians and other indi-2
viduals to the United States border; 3
(6) include an assessment of ties between polit-4
ical and economic elites, criminal gangs in Haiti, 5
and transnational criminal organizations; 6
(7) include an assessment of how the nature 7
and extent of collusion between political and eco-8
nomic elites and criminal gangs threatens the Hai-9
tian people and United States national interests and 10
activities in the country; and 11
(8) include an assessment of potential actions 12
that the Government of the United States could take 13
to address the findings made pursuant to paragraph 14
(6). 15
(b) F
ORM OFREPORT.—The report required under 16
subsection (a) shall be submitted in unclassified form, but 17
may include a classified annex. 18
SEC. 3. SANCTIONS. 19
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after the 20
submission of the report to the appropriate committees, 21
the President shall impose the sanctions described in sub-22
section (b) with respect to each foreign person identified 23
pursuant to sections 2(a)(1) and 2(a)(2). 24
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(b) SANCTIONSDESCRIBED.—The sanctions de-1
scribed in this subsection are the following: 2
(1) P
ROPERTY BLOCKING .—Notwithstanding 3
the requirements of section 202 of the International 4
Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701), 5
the President may exercise of all powers granted to 6
the President by that Act to the extent necessary to 7
block and prohibit all transactions in all property 8
and interests in property of the foreign person if 9
such property and interests in property are in the 10
United States, come within the United States, or are 11
or come within the possession or control of a United 12
States person. 13
(2) V
ISAS, ADMISSION, OR PAROLE.— 14
(A) I
N GENERAL.—An alien who the Sec-15
retary of State or the Secretary of Homeland 16
Security (or a designee of one of such Secre-17
taries) knows, or has reason to believe, is de-18
scribed in subsection (a) is— 19
(i) inadmissible to the United States; 20
(ii) ineligible for a visa or other docu-21
mentation to enter the United States; and 22
(iii) otherwise ineligible to be admitted 23
or paroled into the United States or to re-24
ceive any other benefit under the Immigra-25
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tion and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et 1
seq.). 2
(B) C
URRENT VISAS REVOKED .— 3
(i) I
N GENERAL.—The issuing con-4
sular officer, the Secretary of State, or the 5
Secretary of Homeland Security (or a des-6
ignee of one of such Secretaries) shall, in 7
accordance with section 221(i) of the Im-8
migration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 9
1201(i)), revoke any visa or other entry 10
documentation issued to an alien described 11
in subsection (a) regardless of when the 12
visa or other entry documentation is 13
issued. 14
(ii) E
FFECT OF REVOCATION .—A rev-15
ocation under clause (i) shall take effect 16
immediately and shall automatically cancel 17
any other valid visa or entry documenta-18
tion that is in the alien’s possession. 19
(c) E
XCEPTIONS.— 20
(1) E
XCEPTION TO COMPLY WITH INTER -21
NATIONAL OBLIGATIONS .—Sanctions under this sec-22
tion shall not apply with respect to the admission of 23
an alien if admitting or paroling the alien into the 24
United States is necessary to permit the United 25
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States to comply with the Agreement regarding the 1
Headquarters of the United Nations, signed at Lake 2
Success June 26, 1947, and entered into force No-3
vember 21, 1947, between the United Nations and 4
the United States, or other applicable international 5
obligations. 6
(2) E
XCEPTION RELATING TO THE PROVISION 7
OF HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE .—Sanctions under 8
this section may not be imposed with respect to 9
transactions or the facilitation of transactions for— 10
(A) the sale of agricultural commodities, 11
food, medicine, or medical devices to Haiti; 12
(B) the provision of humanitarian assist-13
ance to the people of Haiti; 14
(C) financial transactions relating to hu-15
manitarian assistance or for humanitarian pur-16
poses in Haiti; or 17
(D) transporting goods or services that are 18
necessary to carry out operations relating to 19
humanitarian assistance or humanitarian pur-20
poses in Haiti. 21
(d) I
MPLEMENTATION; PENALTIES.— 22
(1) I
MPLEMENTATION.—The President may ex-23
ercise all authorities provided to the President under 24
sections 203 and 205 of the International Emer-25
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gency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1702 and 1
1704) to carry out this subtitle. 2
(2) P
ENALTIES.—The penalties provided for in 3
of section 206(b) and (c) of the International Emer-4
gency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1705) shall 5
apply to a person that violates, attempts to violate, 6
conspires to violate, or causes a violation of regula-7
tions promulgated to carry out this section to the 8
same extent that such penalties apply to a person 9
that commits an unlawful act described in section 10
206(a) of that Act. 11
(e) W
AIVER.—The President may waive the applica-12
tion of sanctions or restrictions imposed with respect to 13
a foreign person under this section if the President cer-14
tifies to the appropriate congressional committees that the 15
waiver is important to the national interests of the United 16
States. 17
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS. 18
In this Act: 19
(1) A
PPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -20
TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-21
mittees’’ means— 22
(A) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of 23
the House of Representatives; 24
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(B) the Committee on Foreign Relations of 1
the Senate; 2
(C) the Committee on Financial Services of 3
the House of Representatives; 4
(D) the Committee on Banking, Housing, 5
and Urban Affairs of the Senate; 6
(E) the House Permanent Select Com-7
mittee on Intelligence; 8
(F) the Senate Select Committee on Intel-9
ligence; 10
(G) the Committee on Appropriations of 11
the House of Representatives; and 12
(H) the Committee on Appropriations of 13
the Senate. 14
(1) F
OREIGN PERSON.—The term ‘‘foreign per-15
son’’ means an individual or entity that is not a 16
United States person. 17
(2) U
NITED STATES PERSON .—The term 18
‘‘United States person’’ means— 19
(A) a United States citizen; 20
(B) a permanent resident alien of the 21
United States; or 22
(C) an entity organized under the laws of 23
the United States or of any jurisdiction within 24
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the United States, including a foreign branch of 1
such an entity. 2
(3) E
CONOMIC ELITES.—The term ‘‘economic 3
elites’’ means board members, officers, and execu-4
tives of groups, committees, corporations, or other 5
entities that exert substantial influence or control 6
over Haiti’s economy, infrastructure, or particular 7
industries. 8
(4) P
OLITICAL ELITES.—The term ‘‘political 9
elites’’ means current and former government offi-10
cials and their high-level staff, political party lead-11
ers, and political committee leaders. 12
SEC. 5. SUNSET. 13
The authorities provided by this Act shall cease to 14
have effect on the date that is 5 years after the date of 15
the enactment of this Act. 16
Æ
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