Dem House candidate says GOP rival’s bill restricting Palestinian immigration will spread hate

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Monica Tranel, a Democrat seeking to unseat Montana Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke in the state's election next year, said she would not support her GOP opponent's bill to halt Palestinian immigration into the U.S. amid the war in Israel because it would contribute to the spread of hate and bias. 

"Israelis have the absolute right to live safely and securely. I stand with them in their efforts to fully dismantle Hamas and I urge Congress to pass an aid package for Israel," Tranel told Fox News Digital. 

"With an alarming rise in hate since October 7th, we need to challenge Antisemitism and Islamophobia at every opportunity. Ryan Zinke is contributing to the hate as he plays to people’s worst fears," she continued. 

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"I think this is the most stringent anti-Gaza anti-Hamas immigration refugee bill ever, and I can tell you this administration is deserving of it, because, to date, I haven't seen them screen anybody," Zinke said of the bill. (Al Drago)

Tranel argued that voters will "see through" Zinke's efforts to distract "from his failure to ensure passage of an aid package for Israel, fund the government, or deal with Northwestern Energy’s 28% rate hike on Montanans as winter hits."

A Tranel campaign spokesperson said they did not receive Fox News Digital's initial media inquiry regarding the bill before providing a statement on Sunday. 

Zinke's measure, the Safeguarding Americans from Extremism (SAFE) Act, would deem any foreign national with a Palestinian Authority (PA) passport or PA-granted travel document inadmissible to the United States. The legislation would also block DHS from granting Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and asylum or refugee status to PA passport holders.

"BREAKING: Ryan Zinke, in a disgusting display of Islamophobia, just introduced a bill to expel Palestinians from the US who are here legally. We don’t have a choice — we must defeat him in November," Tranel wrote in a post last week on X, formerly Twitter.

The Montana Democrat previously said she believes the bill is a "disgusting" move. 

Zinke defended the bill as "harsh," but needed due to Biden administration policies.  

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"This bill looks and is a very, very hard and harsh bill. Absolutely. And I said from the very, very beginning," Zinke told Fox of the bill. "I don't think you'll find a more stringent bill on the Gaza region than this. What has drawn us to this is that this administration has failed in every previous account or two that has come in this country."

Tranel is running in the race for Montana's First Congressional District, the same seat she ran for and lost in the 2022 midterms against now-incumbent Zinke.

Montana Tranel, a Democrat, is seeking to unseat incumbent Montana GOP Rep. Ryan Zinke. (William Campbell)

A record-breaking 169 individuals on the FBI terror watch list were encountered at the southern border over the last 12 months, up from 98 in Fiscal Year 2022, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) statistics.

In September alone, border officials arrested 18 people on the FBI’s terror watch list.

Lora Ries, director of the Border Security and Immigration Center at The Heritage Foundation, sounded the alarm after Hamas' initial attack on Israel.

"So, when you combine 1.7 million with the 7.4 million CBP has encountered, we have to assume that the sleeper cells of terrorists are here inside the U.S., and Congress needs to wake up and pre-empt," Ries said.

With FY 23 seeing 2.48 million migrant encounters at the southern border alone and the ongoing terrorist attacks on Israel, members of Congress and presidential candidates have also sounded the alarm on potential threats at U.S. borders and called for a halt on Palestinians' entry into the U.S.

Smoke rises after a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit a house in Ashkelon, southern Israel, Saturday, October 7. (AP)

Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., has also sounded off on potential terror threats crossing our southern border. 

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"The idea of a potential terror attack occurring in the United States is no longer just a what-if — it is a when," Daines said at the weekly Republican Senate Leadership press conference. "With a war in the Middle East emboldening violent extremists and a wide-open southern border, we are more and more vulnerable for attacks on our soil right here at home."

Editor's note: This article was updated from its original version with a statement from Tranel.

Fox News' Adam Shaw, Bill Melugin, and Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.