Congress·In Committee·H.R. 1312

No Asylum for Criminals Act of 2025

Congress Proposes Ban on Asylum for Anyone Convicted of a Felony or Misdemeanor

Feb 13, 2025·View on Congress.gov·Read full text

This bill is one vehicle in a longer effort. See the full story across every version.View effort →

StalledNext up: A house committeeNo action in 17 months

A house committee must act next: committee consideration.

Legislative Progress

House

No action since February 2025

Senate

President

Law

How we got here

This bill’s path across every version that has carried it.

Reintroduced
Reintroduced from H.R. 921 (118th), which died when its Congress ended.
H.R. 921 (118th) →

Key Points

This bill would change the rules for who can ask for asylum in the United States. Currently, only certain serious crimes prevent someone from getting asylum, but this plan would expand that to include almost any criminal conviction.
Under the new rules, any person convicted of a felony or a misdemeanor would be automatically disqualified from receiving asylum. This includes crimes handled by federal, state, local, or tribal courts.
The bill defines a felony as any crime punishable by more than one year in prison, and a misdemeanor as any crime punishable by one year or less. This means even minor offenses could lead to a person being denied protection.
There is one small exception: the Secretary of Homeland Security could decide that certain "political offenses" committed in other countries do not count against a person's asylum application.
The goal of the bill is to prevent people with criminal records from staying in the U.S. through the asylum process. If passed, it would likely lead to more people being deported or turned away at the border.

ImmigrationCriminal Justice

Impact Analysis

Personal Impact

Scores run from -100 (strongly harmful) to +100 (strongly beneficial) for each group, combining impact, certainty, scope, and duration ratings of 1-5. How impact scoring works

This bill specifically targets people with any criminal record — felony or misdemeanor — making them categorically ineligible for asylum. Under current law, only people convicted of "particularly serious crimes" (generally aggravated felonies) are barred. This change would sweep in people with convictions for extremely minor offenses, such as petty theft or trespassing, permanently denying them protection even if they face torture or persecution abroad.

-4

ImpactCertaintyScopeDurationSentiment

-4

ImpactCertaintyScopeDurationSentiment

Milestones

2 milestones2 actions

Feb 13, 2025House

Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

Feb 13, 2025

Introduced in House

The bill was officially filed and given a number. It now enters the legislative queue.

Related News

1 article

Carolina Journal·Feb 13, 2025

Harris Introduces 'No Asylum for Criminals Act'

North Carolina Representative Mark Harris introduced legislation that would disqualify any individual with a criminal conviction—including misdemeanors—from receiving asylum in the U.S., arguing the current system is being abused by 'foreign criminals.'

Right

No votes or related bills recorded for this bill yet.