Representatives Joe Wilson (R-SC), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Claudia Tenney (R-NY), and Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX) have introduced the bipartisan “Revoking Entry Granted to Iranian Mullahs and Elites Act of 2022” (REGIME Act), which aims to bring pressure on Iranian officials and their family members by denying them entry to the United States.
“Iranian officials and their families may be banned from entering the U.S. on human rights grounds under a new bill proposed in Congress. The legislation targets a wide cross-section of senior Iranian officials, including those in the supreme leader’s office, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and law enforcement.
The Revoking Entry Granted to Iranian Mullahs and Elites (REGIME) Act would require the Secretary of State to review whether any Iranian officials who can be credibly linked to a ‘gross violation of human rights’ or ‘significant corruption’ have secured or applied for U.S. visas.
Those found to be in possession of such visas, along with their family members, will have them revoked, and any applications in process will be spiked.
The bill comes after protests erupted in September over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the custody of Iran’s so-called 'morality police'.
‘In light of the actions of the regime it is particularly unbelievable that Iranian officials and family members are being given visas to come to the U.S. to enjoy the very liberties their own citizens can only imagine’, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-South Carolina) told al-Monitor, which first reported on the bill.
However, critics of the legislation have questioned whether it is fair to punish the children of officials, while others have pointed out that it is not known how many Iranian officials and their offspring are even seeking entry to the U.S. in the first place, according to al-Monitor.
The legislation uses the State Department’s Section 7031(c) sanction authority to blacklist Iranian targets. Those criteria require ‘credible evidence’ linking the individual to an egregious rights violation like ordering a killing or participating in torture, an unnamed official told al-Monitor.
Washington already has a policy in place restricting entry by high-ranking Iranians and their families, whose applications are reviewed on a case-by-case basis according to a State Department spokesperson.
The U.S. led the charge to remove Iran from the UN Commission on the Status of Women earlier this month, citing alleged abuses against protesters. Tehran countered that its removal was ‘entirely illegal’ and has accused Washington and its allies of attempting to destabilize the country by fomenting riots and unrest in the guise of legitimate protests”. -RT
Per usual, there’s no proof required to be "deemed guilty of gross human rights abuse". It’s merely another baseless accusation by the United States government.
The U.S. seems to be taking a page out of Kiev-based website, Myrotvorets, by targeting children in a bizarre human rights irony over the suspicion of a death that gives off every indication of being a CIA-orchestrated staged fabricated event.
It’s also significant to note that the very members of congress seeking to revoke entry granted to Iranian officials and their families on account of denigratory allegations were part of the same establishment who supposedly regarded Donald Trump’s November 2017 so-called “Muslim ban” as unconstitutional and un-American.