I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1690
To authorize the Secretary of State to negotiate regional immigration
agreements, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH22, 2023
Mr. M
CCAULintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on the Judi-
ciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each
case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of
the committee concerned
A BILL
To authorize the Secretary of State to negotiate regional
immigration agreements, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Regional Immigration 4
Diplomacy and Enforcement Act’’ or the ‘‘RIDE Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. UNITED STATES POLICY REGARDING WESTERN 1
HEMISPHERE COOPERATION ON IMMIGRA-2
TION AND ASYLUM. 3
It is the policy of the United States to enter into 4
agreements, accords, and memoranda of understanding 5
with sovereign countries in the Western Hemisphere, the 6
purposes of which are to advance the interests of the 7
United States by reducing costs associated with illegal im-8
migration and to protect the human capital, societal tradi-9
tions, and economic growth of other sovereign nations in 10
the Western Hemisphere. It is further the policy of the 11
United States to ensure that humanitarian and develop-12
ment assistance funding aimed at reducing illegal immi-13
gration is not expended on programs that have not proven 14
to reduce illegal immigrant flows in the aggregate. 15
SEC. 3. NEGOTIATIONS BY SECRETARY OF STATE. 16
(a) A
UTHORIZATIONTONEGOTIATE.—The Secretary 17
of State shall seek to negotiate agreements, accords, and 18
memoranda of understanding between the United States, 19
Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and other 20
countries in the Western Hemisphere with respect to co-21
operation and burden sharing required for effective re-22
gional immigration enforcement, expediting legal claims by 23
aliens for asylum, and the processing, detention, and repa-24
triation of foreign nationals seeking to enter the United 25
States unlawfully. Such agreements shall be designed to 26
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facilitate a regional approach to immigration enforcement 1
and shall, at a minimum, provide that— 2
(1) the Government of Mexico authorize and ac-3
cept the rapid entrance into Mexico of nationals of 4
countries other than Mexico who seek asylum in 5
Mexico, and process the asylum claims of such na-6
tionals inside Mexico, in accordance with both do-7
mestic law and international treaties and conven-8
tions governing the processing of asylum claims; 9
(2) the Government of Mexico authorize and ac-10
cept both the rapid entrance into Mexico of all na-11
tionals of countries other than Mexico who are ineli-12
gible for asylum in Mexico and wish to apply for 13
asylum in the United States, whether or not at a 14
port of entry, and the continued presence of such 15
nationals in Mexico while they wait for the adjudica-16
tion of their asylum claims to conclude in the United 17
States; 18
(3) the Government of Mexico commit to pro-19
vide the individuals described in paragraphs (1) and 20
(2) with appropriate humanitarian protections; 21
(4) the Government of Honduras, the Govern-22
ment of El Salvador, and the Government of Guate-23
mala each authorize and accept the entrance into 24
the respective countries of nationals of other coun-25
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tries seeking asylum in the applicable such country 1
and process such claims in accordance with applica-2
ble domestic law and international treaties and con-3
ventions governing the processing of asylum claims; 4
(5) the Government of the United States com-5
mit to work to accelerate the adjudication of asylum 6
claims and to conclude removal proceedings in the 7
wake of asylum adjudications as expeditiously as 8
possible; 9
(6) the Government of the United States com-10
mit to continue to assist the governments of coun-11
tries in the Western Hemisphere, such as the Gov-12
ernment of Honduras, the Government of El Sal-13
vador, and the Government of Guatemala, by sup-14
porting the enhancement of asylum capacity in those 15
countries; and 16
(7) the Government of United States commit to 17
monitoring developments in hemispheric immigration 18
trends and regional asylum capabilities to determine 19
whether additional asylum cooperation agreements 20
are warranted. 21
(b) N
OTIFICATION INACCORDANCEWITHCASE-ZA-22
BLOCKIACT.—The Secretary of State shall, in accordance 23
with section 112b of title 1, United States Code, promptly 24
inform the relevant congressional committees of all agree-25
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ments entered into pursuant to subsection (a). Such notifi-1
cations shall be submitted not later than 48 hours after 2
such agreements are signed. 3
SEC. 4. MANDATORY BRIEFING ON UNITED STATES EF-4
FORTS TO ADDRESS THE BORDER CRISIS. 5
The Secretary of State or the Secretary’s designee 6
shall, not less frequently than every 90 days, brief the rel-7
evant congressional committees in person on efforts under-8
taken pursuant to the negotiation authority provided by 9
section 4 to monitor, deter, and prevent illegal immigra-10
tion to the United States, including by entering into agree-11
ments, accords, and memoranda of understanding with 12
foreign countries and by using United States foreign as-13
sistance to allegedly stem the root causes of migration in 14
the Western Hemisphere. 15
SEC. 5. FEASIBILITY STUDY AND STRATEGY FOR OPENING 16
AN INTERNATIONAL LAW ENFORCEMENT 17
CENTER IN SOUTHERN MEXICO. 18
Not later than 180 days after the date of the enact-19
ment of this Act, the Secretary of State, acting through 20
the Director of the Bureau of Overseas Building Oper-21
ations in conjunction with the Assistant Secretary of State 22
for Western Hemisphere Affairs and the Ambassador to 23
Mexico, in consultation with interagency partners and ap-24
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propriate counterparts of the Government of Mexico, 1
shall— 2
(1) conduct a feasibility study of opening a 3
multi-purpose United States International Law En-4
forcement Center in southern Mexico to assist in 5
United States efforts to facilitate cooperation to 6
combat transnational organized crime and drug traf-7
ficking organizations, as well as to reduce illegal im-8
migration without processing any immigration re-9
lated benefits to the United States; and 10
(2) submit to the relevant congressional com-11
mittees a strategy, including a timeline and expected 12
costs, for opening such a Center, incorporating the 13
results of the feasibility study. 14
SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS. 15
In this Act: 16
(1) A
LIEN.—The term ‘‘alien’’ has the meaning 17
given such term in section 101 of the Immigration 18
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101). 19
(2) R
ELEVANT CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -20
TEES.—The term ‘‘relevant congressional commit-21
tees’’ means the Committee on Foreign Affairs of 22
the House of Representatives and the Committee on 23
Foreign Relations of the Senate. 24
Æ
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