The Protect RAIL Act makes non-citizens inadmissible to the U.S. and deportable if they commit or conspire to commit crimes involving theft or tampering with goods shipped across state or international lines.
Paul Gosar
Representative
AZ-9
The Protect RAIL Act amends immigration law to prevent non-citizens convicted of or admitting to crimes involving the theft or tampering of goods shipped across state or international lines from entering the United States. Furthermore, this bill makes non-citizens already in the U.S. deportable if they have committed such offenses related to interstate or foreign shipments.
Protect RAIL Act Adds Cargo Theft Crimes to List of Deportable Offenses for Non-Citizens
The Protect Railroads Against Illegal Looters Act, or the Protect RAIL Act, is short and punchy. It doesn’t create new federal crimes, but it makes a significant change to immigration law by linking specific existing crimes to the grounds for removing people from the U.S. and barring their entry.
The Fine Print: What Counts as a Deportable Offense Now
This bill targets crimes related to stealing or tampering with goods being shipped across state lines or internationally by a carrier. If you look up Section 659 of Title 18 of the U.S. Code, it covers everything from theft of goods worth over $1,000 from interstate shipments to embezzlement by a carrier employee. The Protect RAIL Act takes these specific federal crimes and adds them straight to the list of offenses that make a non-citizen inadmissible to the U.S. or deportable if they are already here (Section 212(a)(2) and Section 237(a)(2) of the Immigration and Nationality Act).
Real-World Fallout: Who This Hits Hardest
For a U.S. citizen, a conviction under 18 U.S.C. 659 might mean jail time and a fine. For a non-citizen—and this includes legal permanent residents (Green Card holders)—this bill means that same conviction could now lead to deportation. The bill even lowers the bar for inadmissibility: a non-citizen doesn't even need a formal conviction if they "admitted to committing" the basic acts that make up the crime, or if they conspired to commit it. This is a big deal because it means that even a historical, relatively minor offense related to property theft from a shipment could trigger the most severe immigration consequence: permanent removal.
Security vs. Severity: Weighing the Impact
The stated goal of the bill is clearly to increase security around the national supply chain, specifically rail freight, by deterring theft and tampering. If you’re a logistics manager or a small business waiting on a shipment, the idea of better cargo security sounds great. However, the mechanism used here—expanding the grounds for deportation—is a severe response. Immigration law often uses a sledgehammer where criminal law might use a scalpel. By making these specific property crimes a direct path to deportation, the bill disproportionately affects non-citizens compared to citizens for the same underlying offense, potentially upending the lives of long-term residents and their families over crimes that might otherwise be considered standard property offenses.