Sponsor
Michael Baumgartner
Representative · R-WA
Representative · R-WA
This bill strengthens U.S. leverage to deter and punish foreign economic discrimination against Americans, but at the cost of potential diplomatic frictions, implementation uncertainty for immigration authorities, and added administrative and legal expenses.
U.S. persons and businesses are better protected because the bill makes foreign officials who engage in discriminatory economic enforcement against Americans ineligible for U.S. entry, creating a deterrent to abusive actions abroad.
Non‑citizens already present in the U.S. who have engaged in economic discrimination can be removed, giving affected Americans and businesses recourse and preventing those actors from remaining here.
The policy may chill diplomacy and cross‑border regulatory engagement because foreign officials could avoid interacting with U.S. businesses or refrain from certain regulatory measures out of fear of future immigration consequences.
Determining what counts as "economic discrimination" is fact‑intensive and subjective, which could create legal uncertainty for immigration officers, applicants, and courts and lead to inconsistent application.
Implementing and enforcing the standard will likely impose administrative burdens and litigation costs on DHS and DOJ, increasing taxpayer costs to investigate, document, and defend determinations of economic discrimination.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Adds inadmissibility and deportability grounds for foreign government officials who engage in defined "economic discrimination" against U.S. persons.
Official title: To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide for the inadmissibility and deportability of aliens who engage in economic discrimination against United States persons, and for other purposes.
Introduced July 22, 2026 by Michael Baumgartner · Last progress July 22, 2026
Makes foreign government officials who engage in defined "economic discrimination" against U.S. persons inadmissible to the United States and removable if already present. It defines economic discrimination to include investigations, enforcement actions, licensing determinations, fines, taxes, fees, or other regulatory or administrative burdens that are stricter, more frequent, or procedurally worse than actions taken against similarly situated non-U.S. persons. Applies those immigration bars and removal grounds to aliens who, while serving as foreign government officials, initiate, direct, conduct, engage in, or issue qualifying actions. The measure is enforcement-focused: it adds new grounds to the list of inadmissible and deportable conduct under current immigration law.