H.R. 4638: Federal Working Animal Protection Act

The Federal Working Animal Protection Act is two sentences long. It takes an existing federal crime — willfully and maliciously harming a police animal — and writes it into immigration law as its own ground for keeping someone out and for sending someone home.

That underlying crime is narrower than it sounds. Federal law defines a police animal as a dog or horse employed by a federal agency to detect crime, enforce laws, or catch offenders. A local sheriff's K-9 is generally covered by state law instead, not by this federal offense.

A criminal conviction is not required: admitting the offense, or admitting the acts that make it up, would be enough to make a non-citizen inadmissible or deportable. That admission language mirrors how immigration law already treats drug offenses and crimes involving moral turpitude.

The bill applies at both doors. Someone applying for a visa or arriving at the border could be found inadmissible, and someone already living here — including a lawful permanent resident — could be found deportable, based on the same conduct.

Under current law, the federal offense carries up to 1 year in prison, or up to 10 years if the animal is permanently disabled, disfigured, seriously injured, or killed. The bill attaches removal to the entire range, including the lower-level version. It creates no new crime and no new spending.