II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 842
To counter efforts by Hezbollah to conduct terrorist activities in Latin
America, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH4, 2025
Mr. C
URTIS(for himself and Ms. ROSEN) introduced the following bill; which
was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations
A BILL
To counter efforts by Hezbollah to conduct terrorist activities
in Latin America, and for other purposes.
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 ‘‘No Hezbollah In Our 4
Hemisphere Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6
Congress finds the following: 7
(1) Iran and Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy, have 8
been allowed to build their Latin American regional 9
networks with impunity. 10
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(2) Hezbollah is not considered a terrorist orga-1
nization in most countries south of the Rio Grande 2
River. 3
(3) In Latin America, the only countries that 4
have designated Hezbollah as a terrorist organiza-5
tion are Argentina, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, 6
and Paraguay. 7
(4) The ability of local authorities to monitor or 8
prosecute Hezbollah and its local operatives is lim-9
ited without such a designation. 10
(5) Hezbollah has support from local authori-11
tarian regimes aligned with the Islamic Republic of 12
Iran, such as the Nicola´s Maduro regime in Ven-13
ezuela, which has essentially become Iran’s forward 14
operating base in Latin America. 15
(6) Hezbollah’s infrastructure in Peru, Colom-16
bia, Chile, and the Tri-Border Area of Argentina, 17
Brazil, and Paraguay continues to grow. 18
(7) In recent years, Hezbollah’s focus in Latin 19
America has been on infiltrating criminal networks, 20
money laundering, and sophisticated smuggling op-21
erations. 22
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SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 1
It is the sense of Congress that the Secretary of State 2
should pursue aggressive efforts against Iranian proxy 3
networks in the Western Hemisphere, including by— 4
(1) demanding that governments put an end to 5
the impunity enjoyed by designated individuals and 6
entities or face the consequences described in this 7
Act for their inaction; 8
(2) working with allies, potentially through 9
international forums, such as the Financial Action 10
Task Force, to greylist government entities that co-11
operate with Hezbollah; 12
(3) engaging governments in Latin America to 13
ensure they have adequate legislative tools to inves-14
tigate terrorist activities and combat the financing of 15
terrorism; and 16
(4) persuading allies in the Latin America to 17
designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, 18
using Argentina’s model for designation as a blue-19
print. 20
SEC. 4. DEFINED TERM. 21
In this Act, the term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-22
mittees’’ means— 23
(1) the Committee on the Judiciary of the Sen-24
ate; 25
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(2) the Committee on Banking, Housing, and 1
Urban Affairs of the Senate; 2
(3) the Committee on Foreign Relations of the 3
Senate; 4
(4) the Committee on the Judiciary of the 5
House of Representatives; 6
(5) the Committee on Financial Services of the 7
House of Representatives; and 8
(6) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the 9
House of Representatives. 10
SEC. 5. DETERMINATION WITH RESPECT TO TERRORIST 11
SANCTUARIES. 12
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 13
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State, 14
in coordination with the Director of National Intelligence, 15
the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Homeland 16
Security, the Attorney General, and the heads of other rel-17
evant Federal agencies, shall— 18
(1) conduct an assessment to determine wheth-19
er any country, region, or jurisdiction in Latin 20
America meets the definition of ‘‘terrorist sanc-21
tuary’’ under section 140(d)(4) of the Foreign Rela-22
tions Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1988 and 23
1989 (22 U.S.C. 2656f(d)(4)); and 24
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(2) submit the results of such assessment to the 1
appropriate congressional committees. 2
(b) C
ONSIDERATIONS.—In making a determination 3
pursuant to subsection (a), the Secretary of State shall 4
consider— 5
(1) the extent to which Hezbollah or any other 6
foreign terrorist organization (as designated pursu-7
ant to section 219(a) of the Immigration and Na-8
tionality Act (8 U.S.C. 1189(a))) operates freely, 9
raises or transfers funds, recruits, or obtains safe 10
haven within a given country, region, or jurisdiction; 11
(2) whether the host government has knowingly 12
tolerated, or has failed to take action to address, ter-13
rorist activities after learning of their existence; and 14
(3) any other factors relevant to the definition 15
of ‘‘terrorist sanctuary’’ under section 140(d)(4) of 16
the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal 17
Years 1988 and 1989 (22 U.S.C. 2656f(d)(4)). 18
SEC. 6. REVOCATION OF VISAS. 19
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The President may impose the 20
sanctions described in subsection (b) with respect to any 21
foreign individual the President determines is a govern-22
ment official of any foreign state, subdivision, or munici-23
pality designated as a terrorist sanctuary under section 24
5 unless such official has taken significant, verifiable steps 25
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to stop such activity or the relevant jurisdiction no longer 1
meets the definition of terrorist sanctuary under section 2
140(d)(4) of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fis-3
cal Years 1988 and 1989 (22 U.S.C. 2656f(d)(4)). 4
(b) S
ANCTIONSDESCRIBED.— 5
(1) I
NELIGIBILITY FOR VISAS AND ADMISSIONS 6
TO THE UNITED STATES .—A foreign individual de-7
scribed in subsection (a) shall be— 8
(A) inadmissible to the United States; 9
(B) ineligible to receive a visa or other doc-10
umentation to enter the United States; and 11
(C) otherwise ineligible to be admitted or 12
paroled into the United States or to receive any 13
other benefit under the Immigration and Na-14
tionality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.). 15
(2) C
URRENT VISAS REVOKED .— 16
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The issuing consular 17
officer or the Secretary of State (or a designee 18
of the Secretary), in accordance with section 19
221(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act 20
(8 U.S.C. 1201(i)), shall revoke any visa or 21
other entry documentation issued to a foreign 22
individual described in subsection (a) regardless 23
of when the visa or other entry documentation 24
was issued. 25
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(B) EFFECT OF REVOCATION .—A revoca-1
tion under subparagraph (A) shall— 2
(i) take effect immediately; and 3
(ii) automatically cancel any other 4
valid visa or entry documentation that is in 5
the foreign individual’s possession. 6
(C) R
ULEMAKING.—Not later than 180 7
days after the date of the enactment of this 8
Act, the Secretary of State shall prescribe such 9
regulations as may be necessary to carry out 10
this subsection. 11
(c) E
XCEPTIONTOCOMPLYWITHLAWENFORCE-12
MENTOBJECTIVES AND AGREEMENTREGARDING THE 13
H
EADQUARTERS OF THE UNITEDNATIONS.—Sanctions 14
under subsection (b) shall not apply to a foreign person 15
if admitting the person into the United States— 16
(1) would further important law enforcement 17
objectives; or 18
(2) is necessary to permit the United States to 19
comply with the Agreement regarding the Head-20
quarters of the United Nations, signed at Lake Suc-21
cess June 26, 1947, and entered into force Novem-22
ber 21, 1947, between the United Nations and the 23
United States, or other applicable international obli-24
gations of the United States. 25
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(d) WAIVER.— 1
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The President may waive 2
the application of sanctions under subsection (b) 3
with respect to— 4
(A) an individual, on a case-by-case basis 5
for periods not to exceed 180 days, if the Presi-6
dent determines that such individual’s entry or 7
continued presence in the United States is vital 8
to the national security interests of the United 9
States; and 10
(B) a jurisdiction, including a foreign 11
country, or any subdivision of such country, 12
that is designated as a terrorist sanctuary pur-13
suant to section 5, for periods not to exceed 1 14
year, if the President determines that waiving 15
the application of sanctions with respect to offi-16
cials or other residents of such jurisdiction is in 17
the national interest of the United States. 18
(2) R
EPORT.—Not later than 15 days before 19
granting or renewing a waiver under paragraph (1), 20
the President shall submit a report to the appro-21
priate congressional committees that includes— 22
(A) the name of the individual or the spe-23
cific jurisdiction subject to the waiver; 24
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(B) a detailed justification explaining how 1
the waiver serves— 2
(i) the national security interests of 3
the United States (for individuals); or 4
(ii) the national interest of the United 5
States (for jurisdictions); and 6
(C) with respect to renewals— 7
(i) an assessment of the individual’s 8
or jurisdiction’s activities during the most 9
recent waiver period; and 10
(ii) any conditions imposed to ensure 11
compliance with United States interests. 12
(e) T
ERMINATION OF SANCTIONS.—The President 13
may terminate the application of sanctions under this sec-14
tion with respect to a foreign individual if the President 15
determines and reports to the appropriate congressional 16
committees not later than 15 days before the termination 17
of such sanctions that— 18
(1) the foreign individual is no longer engaged 19
in the activity that was the basis for such sanctions 20
or has taken significant verifiable steps toward stop-21
ping such activity; 22
(2) the President has received reliable assur-23
ances that such individual will not knowingly engage 24
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in any activity subject to sanctions under this sec-1
tion in the future; or 2
(3) the termination of such sanctions is in the 3
national security interests of the United States. 4
(f) R
ULEMAKING.—The President shall issue such 5
regulations, licenses, and orders as may be necessary to 6
carry out this section. 7
SEC. 7. SUNSET. 8
Any sanctions imposed pursuant to this Act shall ter-9
minate 5 years after the date of the enactment of this 10
Act. 11
Æ
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