HR 8628
End U Visa Abuse Act
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Bill overview
This bill, the End U Visa Abuse Act, seeks to eliminate a specific provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) that allows certain undocumented immigrants to apply for U visas. The bill highlights concerns about widespread fraud and abuse within the U visa program, where individuals have allegedly staged crimes and falsely claimed victim status to obtain immigration benefits, work permits, and potential pathways to permanent residency. It aims to address issues like rubber-stamped certifications, lack of oversight, and the potential for illegal aliens to exploit the system, ultimately reducing opportunities for fraudulent applications and prioritizing appropriate visa categories for genuine victims of crime.
Key provisions
- Repeals subparagraph (U) of section 101(a)(15) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
- Makes changes to section 204 of the INA to remove the U nonimmigrant category.
- Modifies section 212 of the INA to remove the provision related to U visas.
- Removes section 214(p) relating to U visas.
- Eliminates section 237(d)(1) regarding U visas.
- Removes section 239(e)(2)(B) relating to U visas.
- Modifies section 245 to remove the U nonimmigrant category.
- Removes section 248(b) relating to U visas.
Who is affected
- Undocumented immigrants
- Law enforcement officials
- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
- Sanctuary jurisdictions
- Individuals alleging crime victimization
Notable changes
- Eliminates the U visa program entirely.
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119th CONGRESS — 2d Session
H. R. 8628
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
A BILL
To repeal section 101(a)(15)(U) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, and for other purposes.
This Act may be cited as the End U Visa Abuse Act
.
Congress finds the following:
In 2000, Congress established the U visa program with the intention of facilitating cooperation from alleged alien crime victims who might otherwise be reluctant to report crimes by deferring removal for foreign nationals, including illegal aliens, and providing work authorization and a pathway to lawful permanent status for U visa beneficiaries. Nearly all grounds of inadmissibility are waived for U visa applicants.
Congress imposed a cap of 10,000 U visas per year. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services created a waitlist that confers immigration benefits without any formal adjudication. Once waitlisted, aliens receive deferred action from removal and other immigration benefits. Additionally, there is no limit to derivative visas issued to qualifying family members.
As of June 2025, there are over 400,000 U visa applications currently pending.
The U visa program is rife with fraud and abuse and has demonstrated a record of illegal aliens using it to obtain lawful status and work permits to skirt deportation and removal, such as staging fake crimes and making false allegations to remain in the United States and possibly sponsor relatives who may also have unlawful status.
According to testimony submitted to the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration, Integrity, Security, and Enforcement on June 25, 2025, U visa certifications are routinely rubberstamped, especially in sanctuary jurisdictions like California, where State laws like SB 674 pressure law enforcement agencies to certify U visas unless they affirmatively justify denial
.
The same testimony found The program allows any illegal alien to secretly accuse a U.S. citizen of a crime and apply for a visa after securing a law enforcement certification. No arrest. No charges. No conviction. Just an allegation—often with no notice to the accused. The process is entirely ex parte, and there is no mechanism for rebuttal
.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services does not track the number of crimes solved through the issuance of a U visa.
As an example of sweeping U visa fraud, on July 17, 2025, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced the indictment of 5 individuals, including 4 active and former law enforcement officers who were charged for bribery, conspiracy to commit visa fraud, and mail fraud, where charged individuals were accused of operating a 9-year scheme of fabricating fake crimes and police reports so aliens who were supposed victims could apply for U visas.
On May 17, 2024, the Department of Justice announced the indictment of 6 individuals who allegedly conspired to stage armed robberies in Chicago and the suburbs so that purported victims could apply for U visas.
Local law enforcement in Houston, Texas, uncovered a scheme that staged fake robberies at gunpoint for aliens to obtain U visas after a bystander reportedly shot and killed an individual who was pretending to be an armed robber who took the belongings of a couple at a gas station in January 2024, only to discover the purported thief and victims were staging a crime to garner a U visa.
In March 2020, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services released a report examining U visa applications filed between 2012 and 2018, which found that only 5 percent of U visa petitioners reported having lawful immigration status at the time of application. 79 percent reported never having lawful status, and 14 percent said they were visa overstays.
The March 2020 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services report also found that 10 percent of U visa recipients had committed immigration fraud, 8 percent reentered the United States illegally after removal, and 6 percent of those approved for the U visa had been ordered removed.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ U Visa Program Is Not Managed Effectively and Is Susceptible to Fraud. The report found that as part of the U visa process, applicants must submit the Form I–918 Supplement B, U Nonimmigrant Status Certification, which includes a signature from an authorized agency or law enforcement official certifying the crime happened and attesting to the victim’s cooperation. One of Office of Inspector General’s findings was that it
asked 125 law enforcement offices to confirm whether the signature on Supplement B forms certified by their office was that of an authorized signer. The Office of Inspector General found that at least 10 of the 125 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services-approved petitions had
forged, unauthorized, altered, or suspicious law enforcement certifications.
Victimization should not be a basis for an immigration benefit. If an alien is a crime victim and is actively cooperating with law enforcement as a witness, the S visa is already available and should be utilized if needed, alternatively, the Department of Homeland Security Secretary can grant humanitarian immigration parole to purported alien crime victims or witnesses on a case-by-case basis if they are needed by law enforcement or are required to testify.
Congress should repeal the U visa program in full, as it no longer serves a valid purpose and encourages fraud, rewarding illegal aliens who commit it with the likelihood of a green card and work permit, further enabling lawlessness and illegal immigration, leaving law-abiding American citizens and legal immigrants to deal with the consequences.
in subsection (a)(1)(L), by striking or (U)
; and
or in;Unonimmigrant status as described in section 101(a)(15)(U)(ii)
in subsection (a)(4)(E)—
by striking clause (ii); and
redesignating clause (iii) as clause (ii); and
or (U)each place it appears;
or (U);
in section 245—
in subsection (l)(7), by striking 101(a)(15)(U),
; and
by striking subsection (m); and
or (U).