Senate Passes Bill To Deny Visas To Foreigners Accused Of Interfering In US Elections

The Senate has passed a new bill that would ban foreigners seeking to interfere in US elections from entering the United States, preventing them from obtaining entry visas, Senator Dick Durbin said in a press release on Tuesday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th June, 2019) The Senate has passed a new bill that would ban foreigners seeking to interfere in US elections from entering the United States, preventing them from obtaining entry visas, Senator Dick Durbin said in a press release on Tuesday.

"The US Senate passed the bipartisan 'Defending Elections against Trolls from Enemy Regimes (DETER) Act,'... in order to prevent foreign governments from exploiting our immigration laws to advance their efforts to undermine our democracy," the release said.

Durbin described the bill as the first Judiciary Committee legislation to pass the Senate in response to Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 US elections.

The Russian government has categorically denied all such allegations for which no solid evidence has ever been presented.

The bill was passed with strong bipartisan support and was cosponsored by Senators Lindsay Graham, Richard Blumenthal, Chuck Grassley and Patrick Leahy, the release noted.

The bill defines improper interference in US elections as conduct by an alien that violates Federal criminal, voting rights or campaign finance law or is under the direction of a foreign government; and that interferes with any general or Primary federal, state or local election or caucus, the release said.