McCarran-Walter Technical Corrections Act

This bill, titled the McCarran-Walter Technical Corrections Act, makes a targeted correction to the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). It revises Section 289 (8 U.S.C. 1359), which defines who qualifies for the “right to cross the borders of the United States” on the basis of Indian status. Rather than tying eligibility to a blood-quantum threshold, the amendment replaces the 50 percent American Indian blood requirement with status-based criteria: (1) being a member or eligible to become a member of a federally recognized Indian Tribe in the United States, or (2) having Indian status in Canada through registration under the Indian Act or holding membership in a self-governing First Nation in Canada. In short, the bill updates the definition to recognize tribal membership and Canadian Indigenous status as the basis for crossing rights, moving away from ancestry-only requirements. The bill’s purpose appears to align U.S. cross-border indigenous rights with contemporary forms of recognition and membership in Indigenous communities in both the United States and Canada. It is a technical correction rather than a broad immigration reform bill, aimed at clarifying and modernizing who is eligible under the statute.