Chip Roy introduces bill to designate CAIR as Hamas affiliate

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL — A new House bill would designate the Council on American Islamic Relations and its affiliates as specially designated global terrorists (SDGTs).

The Designating Hamas Affiliates in America Act of 2026, introduced Thursday by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, aims to block CAIR’s assets and prohibit Americans from dealing with the organization.

“CAIR is not some innocent 501(c)(3) organization—they facilitate terrorism while operating under the guise of a nonprofit,” Roy told The Daily Signal.

If enacted, the bill would also revoke CAIR’s 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status and require the secretaries of state and treasury to submit a report on why the organization possibly meets the SDGT criteria.

“This bill makes it clear: their assets must be frozen, their tax-exempt status revoked, and all Americans should be prohibited from supporting them. No organization that aids terrorism should financially benefit from it, especially on U.S. soil,” Roy added.

A bill summary provided to The Daily Signal by Roy’s office added that “the civil rights organization dedicated to protecting the rights of American Muslims has harbored ties to terrorist organizations including Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and other extremist groups while operating under the guise of a non-profit, reaping the benefits of having a 501(c)(3) tax status.”

Roy, a co-founder of the Sharia-Free America Caucus, added in the bill summary that the legislation builds on findings from the federal government’s terrorism financing case against Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development in 2008.

The Holy Land Foundation, the largest American Islamic charity at the time, was convicted of funneling over $12 million to Hamas front groups.

During that investigation, the FBI identified CAIR as an unindicted co-conspirator, and Roy’s bill summary claims that CAIR’s “30-year history is replete with associating with terrorist groups and individuals who want to undermine the security and values of the U.S. and its allies.”

Roy’s office alleged that CAIR honored convicted terrorist and alleged Palestinian Islamic Jihad financier Sami Al-Arian in 2014, and that in 2020, CAIR-Florida featured Al-Arian in its livestream interview series.

In 2006, Al-Arian, a former professor at the University of South Florida, was convicted of providing material support for Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a designated terrorist organization, and was eventually deported after serving his prison sentence, his office added.

When contacted by The Daily Signal, CAIR did not issue a reply on the representative’s bill, but directed the request to their past comments on Roy.

“This rhetoric follows a history of exclusionary policy proposals from the Congressman, including his recent calls to halt all U.S. immigration based on what he described as ‘Muslim immigrant violence,’” CAIR said in March in response to a social media post from Roy. “Representative Chip Roy’s public demand for the exclusion of an entire faith group is a shameful betrayal of his oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution.”

[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]