Congress moves to freeze assets of Muslim civil-rights group without trial
H.R. 8236 — Designating Hamas Affiliates in America Act of 2026 · Filed by Chip Roy (R-TX) · 16 cosponsors · Introduced Apr 9, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill directs the Treasury Secretary to designate the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and all its chapters and affiliates as Specially Designated Global Terrorists under Executive Order 13224. Upon designation, all CAIR assets in the U.S. would be frozen, Americans would be prohibited from transacting with CAIR, and CAIR's tax-exempt status would be revoked. The bill cites historical legal proceedings, criminal convictions of some CAIR-affiliated individuals, and statements by CAIR leaders as justification.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is a unilateral executive-branch designation of a domestic civil-rights organization as a terrorist entity, bypassing judicial process and freezing assets. While framed as national security, the functional effect is to restrict the legal rights and operations of a U.S.-based advocacy group.
What the text implies
- Designation as SDGT under EO 13224 does not require criminal conviction or judicial finding—only executive determination. CAIR would have no statutory right to judicial review or due process before asset freeze.
- Tax-exempt revocation under IRC 501(c)(3) would eliminate CAIR's ability to receive tax-deductible donations, effectively defunding the organization without criminal prosecution.
The full analysis lists 5 implications of this text.
Who it affects
The bill restricts the legal rights and operational capacity of a domestic civil-rights organization without a judicial determination of terrorist activity, potentially chilling free speech and association rights for Muslim Americans and civil-rights advocates. While the bill frames CAIR as a terrorist entity, the operative mechanism—asset freezes and transaction prohibitions—targets an organization that operates openly in the U.S.