Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress Senate Bill SB398 Latest Draft

Bill / Introduced Version Filed 03/06/2025

                            II 
119THCONGRESS 
1
STSESSION S. 398 
To transfer and limit Executive Branch authority to suspend or restrict 
the entry of a class of aliens. 
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 
FEBRUARY4, 2025 
Mr. C
OONS(for himself, Mr. WHITEHOUSE, Mr. KING, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, 
Mr. B
OOKER, Mr. VANHOLLEN, Mrs. SHAHEEN, Ms. DUCKWORTH, Mr. 
K
AINE, Ms. CORTEZMASTO, Mr. SCHIFF, Mr. HICKENLOOPER, Mrs. 
M
URRAY, Mr. WYDEN, Ms. BALDWIN, Mr. SANDERS, Mr. DURBIN, Mr. 
P
ADILLA, Mr. SCHATZ, Mr. MARKEY, Ms. HIRONO, Mr. WARNER, Mr. 
W
ELCH, Mr. LUJA´N, Ms. CANTWELL, Mr. PETERS, Ms. WARREN, Ms. 
K
LOBUCHAR, Mr. BENNET, Ms. SMITH, and Mr. KIM) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the 
Judiciary 
A BILL 
To transfer and limit Executive Branch authority to suspend 
or restrict the entry of a class of aliens. 
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 TITLES. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘National Origin-Based 4
Antidiscrimination for Nonimmigrants Act’’ or the ‘‘NO 5
BAN Act’’. 6
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•S 398 IS
SEC. 2. EXPANSION OF NONDISCRIMINATION PROVISION. 1
Section 202(a)(1)(A) of the Immigration and Nation-2
ality Act (8 U.S.C. 1152(a)(1)(A)) is amended— 3
(1) by striking ‘‘Except as specifically provided 4
in paragraph (2) and in sections 101(a)(27), 5
201(b)(2)(A)(i), and 203, no’’ and inserting ‘‘No’’; 6
(2) by inserting ‘‘or a nonimmigrant visa, ad-7
mission or other entry into the United States, or the 8
approval or revocation of any immigration benefit’’ 9
after ‘‘immigrant visa’’; 10
(3) by inserting ‘‘religion,’’ after ‘‘sex,’’; and 11
(4) by inserting before the period at the end the 12
following: ‘‘, except as specifically provided in para-13
graph (2) and sections 101(a)(27), 201(b)(2)(A)(i), 14
and 203, if otherwise expressly required by statute, 15
or if a statutorily authorized benefit takes into con-16
sideration such factors’’. 17
SEC. 3. TRANSFER AND LIMITATIONS ON AUTHORITY TO 18
SUSPEND OR RESTRICT THE ENTRY OF A 19
CLASS OF ALIENS. 20
Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality 21
Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(f)) is amended to read as follows: 22
‘‘(f) A
UTHORITYTOSUSPEND ORRESTRICT THE 23
E
NTRY OF ACLASS OFALIENS.— 24
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Subject to paragraph (2), 25
if the Secretary of State, in consultation with the 26
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•S 398 IS
Secretary of Homeland Security, determines, based 1
on specific and credible facts, that the entry of any 2
aliens or class of aliens into the United States would 3
undermine the security or public safety of the 4
United States or the preservation of human rights, 5
democratic processes or institutions, or international 6
stability, the President may temporarily— 7
‘‘(A) suspend the entry of such aliens or 8
class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants; 9
or 10
‘‘(B) impose any restrictions on the entry 11
of such aliens that the President deems appro-12
priate. 13
‘‘(2) L
IMITATIONS.—In carrying out paragraph 14
(1), the President, the Secretary of State, and the 15
Secretary of Homeland Security shall— 16
‘‘(A) only issue a suspension or restriction 17
when required to address specific acts impli-18
cating a compelling government interest in a 19
factor identified under paragraph (1); 20
‘‘(B) narrowly tailor such suspension or re-21
striction, using the least restrictive means, to 22
achieve such compelling government interest; 23
‘‘(C) specify the duration of such suspen-24
sion or restriction; 25
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•S 398 IS
‘‘(D) consider waivers to any class-based 1
restriction or suspension and apply a rebuttable 2
presumption in favor of granting family-based 3
and humanitarian waivers; and 4
‘‘(E) comply with all provisions of this Act. 5
‘‘(3) C
ONGRESSIONAL NOTIFICATION .— 6
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Before the President 7
may exercise the authority under paragraph 8
(1), the Secretary of State and the Secretary of 9
Homeland Security shall consult with Congress 10
and provide Congress with specific evidence 11
supporting the need for the proposed suspen-12
sion or restriction and its proposed duration. 13
‘‘(B) B
RIEFING AND REPORT .—Not later 14
than 48 hours after the President exercises the 15
authority under paragraph (1), the Secretary of 16
State and the Secretary of Homeland Security 17
shall provide a briefing and submit a written re-18
port to Congress that describes— 19
‘‘(i) the action taken pursuant to 20
paragraph (1) and the specified objective 21
of such action; 22
‘‘(ii) the estimated number of individ-23
uals who will be impacted by such action; 24
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•S 398 IS
‘‘(iii) the constitutional and legislative 1
authority under which such action took 2
place; and 3
‘‘(iv) the circumstances necessitating 4
such action, including how such action 5
complies with paragraph (2) and any intel-6
ligence informing such actions. 7
‘‘(C) T
ERMINATION.—If the briefing and 8
report described in subparagraph (B) are not 9
provided to Congress during the 48-hour period 10
beginning when the President exercises the au-11
thority under paragraph (1), the suspension or 12
restriction shall immediately terminate absent 13
intervening congressional action. 14
‘‘(D) D
EFINED TERM.—In this paragraph, 15
the term ‘Congress’ means— 16
‘‘(i) the Select Committee on Intel-17
ligence of the Senate; 18
‘‘(ii) the Committee on Foreign Rela-19
tions of the Senate; 20
‘‘(iii) the Committee on the Judiciary 21
of the Senate; 22
‘‘(iv) the Committee on Homeland Se-23
curity and Governmental Affairs of the 24
Senate; 25
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‘‘(v) the Permanent Select Committee 1
on Intelligence of the House of Represent-2
atives; 3
‘‘(vi) the Committee on Foreign Af-4
fairs of the House of Representatives; 5
‘‘(vii) the Committee on the Judiciary 6
of the House of Representatives; and 7
‘‘(viii) the Committee on Homeland 8
Security of the House of Representatives. 9
‘‘(4) P
UBLICATION.—The Secretary of State 10
and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall pub-11
licly announce and publish an unclassified version of 12
the report described in paragraph (3)(B) in the Fed-13
eral Register. 14
‘‘(5) J
UDICIAL REVIEW.— 15
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any 16
other provision of law, an individual or entity 17
who is present in the United States and has 18
been harmed by a violation of this subsection 19
may file an action in an appropriate district 20
court of the United States to seek declaratory 21
or injunctive relief. 22
‘‘(B) C
LASS ACTION.—Nothing in this Act 23
may be construed to preclude an action filed 24
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•S 398 IS
pursuant to subparagraph (A) from proceeding 1
as a class action. 2
‘‘(6) T
REATMENT OF COMMERCIAL AIRLINES .— 3
Whenever the Secretary of Homeland Security deter-4
mines that a commercial airline has failed to comply 5
with regulations of the Secretary of Homeland Secu-6
rity relating to requirements of airlines for the de-7
tection of fraudulent documents used by passengers 8
traveling to the United States (including the train-9
ing of personnel in such detection), the Secretary of 10
Homeland Security may suspend the entry of some 11
or all aliens transported to the United States by 12
such airline. 13
‘‘(7) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—Nothing in 14
this subsection may be construed as authorizing the 15
President, the Secretary of State, or the Secretary 16
of Homeland Security to act in a manner incon-17
sistent with the policy decisions expressed in the im-18
migration laws.’’. 19
SEC. 4. VISA APPLICANTS REPORT. 20
(a) I
NITIALREPORTS.— 21
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after 22
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary 23
of State, in coordination with the Secretary of 24
Homeland Security and the heads of other relevant 25
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Federal agencies, shall submit a report to the con-1
gressional committees referred to in section 2
212(f)(3)(D) of the Immigration and Nationality 3
Act, as amended by section 3, that describes the im-4
plementation of Presidential Proclamations 9645, 5
9822, and 9983 and Executive Order Nos. 13769, 6
13780, and 13815, during the effective period of 7
each such proclamation and order. 8
(2) P
RESIDENTIAL PROCLAMATIONS 9645 AND 9
9983.—In addition to the content described in para-10
graph (1), the report submitted with respect to Pres-11
idential Proclamation 9645, issued on September 24, 12
2017, and Presidential Proclamation 9983, issued 13
on January 31, 2020, shall include, for each country 14
listed in such proclamation— 15
(A) the total number of individuals who 16
applied for a visa during the period the procla-17
mation was in effect, disaggregated by country 18
and visa category; 19
(B) the total number of visa applicants de-20
scribed in subparagraph (A) who were ap-21
proved, disaggregated by country and visa cat-22
egory; 23
(C) the total number of visa applicants de-24
scribed in subparagraph (A) whose applications 25
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were denied, disaggregated by country and visa 1
category, and the reasons for such denials; 2
(D) the total number of visa applicants de-3
scribed in subparagraph (A) whose applications 4
remain pending, disaggregated by country and 5
visa category; 6
(E) the total number of visa applicants de-7
scribed in subparagraph (A) who were granted 8
a waiver, disaggregated by country and visa 9
category; 10
(F) the total number of visa applicants de-11
scribed in subparagraph (A) who were denied a 12
waiver, disaggregated by country and visa cat-13
egory, and the reasons such waiver requests 14
were denied; 15
(G) the total number of refugees admitted, 16
disaggregated by country; and 17
(H) the complete reports that were sub-18
mitted to the President every 180 days in ac-19
cordance with section 4 of Presidential Procla-20
mation 9645 in its original form, and as 21
amended by Presidential Proclamation 9983. 22
(b) A
DDITIONALREPORTS.— 23
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 30 days after 24
the date on which the President exercises the au-25
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thority under section 212(f) of the Immigration and 1
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(f)), as amended by 2
section 3, and every 30 days thereafter, the Sec-3
retary of State, in coordination with the Secretary of 4
Homeland Security and heads of other relevant Fed-5
eral agencies, shall submit a report to the congres-6
sional committees referred to in paragraph (3)(D) of 7
such section 212(f) that identifies, with respect to 8
countries affected by a suspension or restriction— 9
(A) the information described in subpara-10
graphs (A) through (G) of subsection (a)(2); 11
and 12
(B) the specific evidence supporting the 13
need for the continued exercise of presidential 14
authority under such section 212(f), including 15
the information described in paragraph (3)(B) 16
of such section 212(f). 17
(2) F
AILURE TO SUBMIT TIMELY REPORT .—If 18
the Secretary of State fails to provide any report re-19
quired under paragraph (1) to the appropriate con-20
gressional committees by the specified deadline, the 21
suspension or restriction of any aliens or class of 22
aliens pursuant to such section 212(f) shall imme-23
diately terminate absent intervening congressional 24
action. 25
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(3) FINAL REPORT.—Not later than 30 days 1
after the termination of a suspension or restriction 2
of any aliens or class of aliens pursuant to such sec-3
tion 212(f), the Secretary of State, in coordination 4
with the Secretary of Homeland Security and the 5
heads of other relevant Federal agencies, shall pre-6
pare and submit a final report to the congressional 7
committees referred to in paragraph (3)(D) of such 8
section containing the information and evidence de-9
scribed in subparagraphs (A) and (B) of paragraph 10
(1). 11
(c) F
ORM; AVAILABILITY.—The reports required 12
under subsections (a) and (b) shall be made publicly avail-13
able online in unclassified form. 14
Æ 
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