Federal Working Animal Protection Act
Key claim: The Federal Working Animal Protection Act (BOWOW Act / HR4638) makes non-U.S. nationals who are convicted of or admit to harming animals used in law enforcement inadmissible to and deportable from the United States.
Abstract
(HR4638 · 119th Congress) Bill to Outlaw Wounding of Official Working Animals Act or the BOWOW Act This bill establishes that a non-U.S. national ( alien under federal law) convicted of, or who admits to having committed, an offense related to harming animals used in law enforcement is inadmissible and deportable. Latest action (2026-03-19): Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Why this matters
The bill would create a narrow new immigration consequence — inadmissibility and deportability — tied specifically to harming law-enforcement working animals, expanding the list of conduct-based grounds that can bar entry or trigger removal for non-citizens. While affecting a small population in practice, it illustrates the ongoing pattern of adding discrete offense categories to the Immigration and Nationality Act rather than reforming existing grounds, and may interact with plea bargaining and criminal-immigration overlap for noncitizen defendants.