Govwatch

Introduced

In Committee

3

Passed One Chamber

4

Passed Both

5

Signed into Law

Sponsor

Alex Padilla

Democrat · CA · Senator

Votes with party: 84.2% (857 recorded votes)

Full profile: /officials/P000145

Source: Congress.gov · FEC

Cosponsors (11)

Members who have signed on to support this bill since introduction. Source: Congress.gov.

Latest Action

The most recent step in the bill's legislative path. Committee Activity below shows referrals and reports; the full action-by-action history including floor proceedings lives at Congress.gov →

Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

2026-06-16

Source: Congress.gov

Committee Activity

Currently in

Senate Committee on the JudiciaryReferred To · 2026-06-16

Plain-English Summary

This bill would remove a rule that allows the government to deport immigrants whose presence in the U.S. is believed to harm American foreign policy interests. The change would protect immigrants from being deported based on their speech or political activities, even if those activities might complicate the country's relationships with other nations. The bill aims to prevent the government from using foreign policy concerns as a reason to remove people from the country.

AI-assisted summary generated from the official bill metadata (title, subjects, actions) sourced from Congress.gov. Cached and reviewed. Always verify against the official text linked below.

Subjects

Immigration

Full Bill Text

Verbatim text published on Congress.gov via GovInfo. Use Cmd+F / Ctrl+F to search within this excerpt.

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] [S. 4800 Introduced in Senate (IS)] <DOC> 119th CONGRESS 2d Session S. 4800 To protect free speech by repealing the ground for deportability under section 237(a)(4)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act relating to aliens whose presence or activities in the United States are reasonably believed to have serious adverse foreign policy consequences. _______________________________________________________________________ IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES June 16, 2026 Mr. Padilla (for himself, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Coons, Ms. Hirono, Mr. Markey, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Schiff, Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. Booker, Ms. Blunt Rochester, and Ms. Warren) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary _______________________________________________________________________ A BILL To protect free speech by repealing the ground for deportability under section 237(a)(4)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act relating to aliens whose presence or activities in the United States are reasonably believed to have serious adverse foreign policy consequences. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ``Land of the Free Act of 2026''. SEC. 2. EXCEPTION TO GROUND FOR DEPORTABILITY FOR PROTECTED SPEECH ACTIVITIES. Section 237(a)(4) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1227(a)(4)) is amended by striking subparagraph (C). <all>

Open clean-text view Read on Congress.gov →

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