Senate bill would deport noncitizens with protest-related criminal offenses

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., submitted a bill Wednesday to deport any noncitizen who commits a criminal offense during a demonstration. Anyone convicted of obstructing a thoroughfare or defacing public property without full U.S. citizenship must be deported within 60 days under the bill. Offenses related to an individual’s conduct during a protest at a college, university, or religious institution would also merit deportation, according to Cotton’s press release. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., cosponsored the measure with Cotton. Rep. Jim Banks, R–Ind., also introduced a companion version of the measure in the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

Cotton submitted the legislation the same day pro-Palestinian demonstrators swarmed the capital to protest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s congressional address. Protesters defaced monuments with spray paint and lowered an American flag to burn it, then flying a Palestinian flag in its place. A green card does not give individuals the right to break American laws in support of anti-Semitic views, Cotton wrote after submitting the No Visas for Violent Criminals Act.

Dig deeper: Read my report on Netanyahu’s congressional address.