Us Congress House Bill HB2 Introduced / Bill

                    II 
Calendar No. 71 
118THCONGRESS 
1
STSESSION H. R. 2 
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 
MAY15, 2023 
Received; read the first time 
M
AY16, 2023 
Read the second time and placed on the calendar 
AN ACT 
To secure the borders of the United States, 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; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 3
(a) S
HORTTITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 4
‘‘Secure the Border Act of 2023’’. 5
(b) T
ABLE OFCONTENTS.—The table of contents for 6
this Act is as follows: 7
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
DIVISION A—BORDER SECURITY 
Sec. 101. Definitions. 
Sec. 102. Border wall construction. 
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Sec. 103. Strengthening the requirements for barriers along the southern bor-
der. 
Sec. 104. Border and port security technology investment plan. 
Sec. 105. Border security technology program management. 
Sec. 106. U.S. Customs and Border Protection technology upgrades. 
Sec. 107. U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel. 
Sec. 108. Anti-Border Corruption Act reauthorization. 
Sec. 109. Establishment of workload staffing models for U.S. Border Patrol 
and Air and Marine Operations of CBP. 
Sec. 110. Operation Stonegarden. 
Sec. 111. Air and Marine Operations flight hours. 
Sec. 112. Eradication of carrizo cane and salt cedar. 
Sec. 113. Border patrol strategic plan. 
Sec. 114. U.S. Customs and Border Protection spiritual readiness. 
Sec. 115. Restrictions on funding. 
Sec. 116. Collection of DNA and biometric information at the border. 
Sec. 117. Eradication of narcotic drugs and formulating effective new tools to 
address yearly losses of life; ensuring timely updates to U.S. 
Customs and Border Protection field manuals. 
Sec. 118. Publication by U.S. Customs and Border Protection of operational 
statistics. 
Sec. 119. Alien criminal background checks. 
Sec. 120. Prohibited identification documents at airport security checkpoints; 
notification to immigration agencies. 
Sec. 121. Prohibition against any COVID–19 vaccine mandate or adverse ac-
tion against DHS employees. 
Sec. 122. CBP One app limitation. 
Sec. 123. Report on Mexican drug cartels. 
Sec. 124. GAO study on costs incurred by States to secure the southwest bor-
der. 
Sec. 125. Report by Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Secu-
rity. 
Sec. 126. Offsetting authorizations of appropriations. 
Sec. 127. Report to Congress on foreign terrorist organizations. 
Sec. 128. Assessment by Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Se-
curity on the mitigation of unmanned aircraft systems at the 
southwest border. 
DIVISION B—IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT AND FOREIGN 
AFFAIRS 
TITLE I—ASYLUM REFORM AND BORDER PROTECTION 
Sec. 101. Safe third country. 
Sec. 102. Credible fear interviews. 
Sec. 103. Clarification of asylum eligibility. 
Sec. 104. Exceptions. 
Sec. 105. Employment authorization. 
Sec. 106. Asylum fees. 
Sec. 107. Rules for determining asylum eligibility. 
Sec. 108. Firm resettlement. 
Sec. 109. Notice concerning frivolous asylum applications. 
Sec. 110. Technical amendments. 
Sec. 111. Requirement for procedures relating to certain asylum applications. 
TITLE II—BORDER SAFETY AND MIGRANT PROTECTION 
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Sec. 201. Inspection of applicants for admission. 
Sec. 202. Operational detention facilities. 
TITLE III—PREVENTING UNCONTROLLED MIGRATION FLOWS IN 
THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE 
Sec. 301. United States policy regarding Western Hemisphere cooperation on 
immigration and asylum. 
Sec. 302. Negotiations by Secretary of State. 
Sec. 303. Mandatory briefings on United States efforts to address the border 
crisis. 
TITLE IV—ENSURING UNITED FAMILIES AT THE BORDER 
Sec. 401. Clarification of standards for family detention. 
TITLE V—PROTECTION OF CHILDREN 
Sec. 501. Findings. 
Sec. 502. Repatriation of unaccompanied alien children. 
Sec. 503. Special immigrant juvenile status for immigrants unable to reunite 
with either parent. 
Sec. 504. Rule of construction. 
TITLE VI—VISA OVERSTAYS PENALTIES 
Sec. 601. Expanded penalties for illegal entry or presence. 
TITLE VII—IMMIGRATION PAROLE REFORM 
Sec. 701. Immigration parole reform. 
Sec. 702. Implementation. 
Sec. 703. Cause of action. 
Sec. 704. Severability. 
TITLE VIII—LEGAL WORKFORCE 
Sec. 801. Employment eligibility verification process. 
Sec. 802. Employment eligibility verification system. 
Sec. 803. Recruitment, referral, and continuation of employment. 
Sec. 804. Good faith defense. 
Sec. 805. Preemption and States’ rights. 
Sec. 806. Repeal. 
Sec. 807. Penalties. 
Sec. 808. Fraud and misuse of documents. 
Sec. 809. Protection of Social Security Administration programs. 
Sec. 810. Fraud prevention. 
Sec. 811. Use of employment eligibility verification photo tool. 
Sec. 812. Identity authentication employment eligibility verification pilot pro-
grams. 
Sec. 813. Inspector General audits. 
Sec. 814. Agriculture workforce study. 
Sec. 815. Sense of Congress on further implementation. 
Sec. 816. Repealing regulations. 
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DIVISION A—BORDER SECURITY 1
SEC. 101. DEFINITIONS. 2
In this division: 3
(1) CBP.—The term ‘‘CBP’’ means U.S. Cus-4
toms and Border Protection. 5
(2) C
OMMISSIONER.—The term ‘‘Commis-6
sioner’’ means the Commissioner of U.S. Customs 7
and Border Protection. 8
(3) D
EPARTMENT.—The term ‘‘Department’’ 9
means the Department of Homeland Security. 10
(4) O
PERATIONAL CONTROL .—The term ‘‘oper-11
ational control’’ has the meaning given such term in 12
section 2(b) of the Secure Fence Act of 2006 (Public 13
Law 109–367; 8 U.S.C. 1701 note). 14
(5) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 15
the Secretary of Homeland Security. 16
(6) S
ITUATIONAL AWARENESS .—The term ‘‘sit-17
uational awareness’’ has the meaning given such 18
term in section 1092(a)(7) of the National Defense 19
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 (Public Law 20
114–328; 6 U.S.C. 223(a)(7)). 21
(7) U
NMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEM .—The term 22
‘‘unmanned aircraft system’’ has the meaning given 23
such term in section 44801 of title 49, United 24
States Code. 25
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SEC. 102. BORDER WALL CONSTRUCTION. 1
(a) I
NGENERAL.— 2
(1) I
MMEDIATE RESUMPTION OF BORDER WALL 3
CONSTRUCTION.—Not later than seven days after 4
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary 5
shall resume all activities related to the construction 6
of the border wall along the border between the 7
United States and Mexico that were underway or 8
being planned for prior to January 20, 2021. 9
(2) U
SE OF FUNDS.—To carry out this section, 10
the Secretary shall expend all unexpired funds ap-11
propriated or explicitly obligated for the construction 12
of the border wall that were appropriated or obli-13
gated, as the case may be, for use beginning on Oc-14
tober 1, 2019. 15
(3) U
SE OF MATERIALS.—Any unused materials 16
purchased before the date of the enactment of this 17
Act for construction of the border wall may be used 18
for activities related to the construction of the bor-19
der wall in accordance with paragraph (1). 20
(b) P
LANTOCOMPLETETACTICALINFRASTRUC-21
TURE ANDTECHNOLOGY.—Not later than 90 days after 22
the date of the enactment of this Act and annually there-23
after until construction of the border wall has been com-24
pleted, the Secretary shall submit to the appropriate con-25
gressional committees an implementation plan, including 26
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annual benchmarks for the construction of 200 miles of 1
such wall and associated cost estimates for satisfying all 2
requirements of the construction of the border wall, in-3
cluding installation and deployment of tactical infrastruc-4
ture, technology, and other elements as identified by the 5
Department prior to January 20, 2021, through the ex-6
penditure of funds appropriated or explicitly obligated, as 7
the case may be, for use, as well as any future funds ap-8
propriated or otherwise made available by Congress. 9
(c) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 10
(1) A
PPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -11
TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-12
mittees’’ means the Committee on Homeland Secu-13
rity and the Committee on Appropriations of the 14
House of Representatives and the Committee on 15
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and 16
the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate. 17
(2) T
ACTICAL INFRASTRUCTURE .—The term 18
‘‘tactical infrastructure’’ includes boat ramps, access 19
gates, checkpoints, lighting, and roads associated 20
with a border wall. 21
(3) T
ECHNOLOGY.—The term ‘‘technology’’ in-22
cludes border surveillance and detection technology, 23
including linear ground detection systems, associated 24
with a border wall. 25
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SEC. 103. STRENGTHENING THE REQUIREMENTS FOR BAR-1
RIERS ALONG THE SOUTHERN BORDER. 2
Section 102 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and 3
Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (Division C of Pub-4
lic Law 104–208; 8 U.S.C. 1103 note) is amended— 5
(1) by amending subsection (a) to read as fol-6
lows: 7
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary of Homeland Se-8
curity shall take such actions as may be necessary (includ-9
ing the removal of obstacles to detection of illegal en-10
trants) to design, test, construct, install, deploy, integrate, 11
and operate physical barriers, tactical infrastructure, and 12
technology in the vicinity of the southwest border to 13
achieve situational awareness and operational control of 14
the southwest border and deter, impede, and detect unlaw-15
ful activity.’’; 16
(2) in subsection (b)— 17
(A) in the subsection heading, by striking 18
‘‘F
ENCING ANDROADIMPROVEMENTS’’ and in-19
serting ‘‘P
HYSICALBARRIERS’’; 20
(B) in paragraph (1)— 21
(i) in the heading, by striking ‘‘
FENC-22
ING’’ and inserting ‘‘BARRIERS’’; 23
(ii) by amending subparagraph (A) to 24
read as follows: 25
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‘‘(A) REINFORCED BARRIERS.—In carrying 1
out this section, the Secretary of Homeland Se-2
curity shall construct a border wall, including 3
physical barriers, tactical infrastructure, and 4
technology, along not fewer than 900 miles of 5
the southwest border until situational aware-6
ness and operational control of the southwest 7
border is achieved.’’; 8
(iii) by amending subparagraph (B) to 9
read as follows: 10
‘‘(B) P
HYSICAL BARRIERS AND TACTICAL 11
INFRASTRUCTURE.—In carrying out this sec-12
tion, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall 13
deploy along the southwest border the most 14
practical and effective physical barriers, tactical 15
infrastructure, and technology available for 16
achieving situational awareness and operational 17
control of the southwest border.’’; 18
(iv) in subparagraph (C)— 19
(I) by amending clause (i) to 20
read as follows: 21
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—In carrying out 22
this section, the Secretary of Homeland 23
Security shall consult with the Secretary of 24
the Interior, the Secretary of Agriculture, 25
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appropriate representatives of State, Trib-1
al, and local governments, and appropriate 2
private property owners in the United 3
States to minimize the impact on natural 4
resources, commerce, and sites of historical 5
or cultural significance for the commu-6
nities and residents located near the sites 7
at which physical barriers, tactical infra-8
structure, and technology are to be con-9
structed. Such consultation may not delay 10
such construction for longer than seven 11
days.’’; and 12
(II) in clause (ii)— 13
(aa) in subclause (I), by 14
striking ‘‘or’’ after the semicolon 15
at the end; 16
(bb) by amending subclause 17
(II) to read as follows: 18
‘‘(II) delay the transfer to the 19
United States of the possession of 20
property or affect the validity of any 21
property acquisition by the United 22
States by purchase or eminent do-23
main, or to otherwise affect the emi-24
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nent domain laws of the United States 1
or of any State; or’’; and 2
(cc) by adding at the end 3
the following new subclause: 4
‘‘(III) create any right or liability 5
for any party.’’; and 6
(v) by striking subparagraph (D); 7
(C) in paragraph (2)— 8
(i) by striking ‘‘Attorney General’’ 9
and inserting ‘‘Secretary of Homeland Se-10
curity’’; 11
(ii) by striking ‘‘this subsection’’ and 12
inserting ‘‘this section’’; and 13
(iii) by striking ‘‘construction of 14
fences’’ and inserting ‘‘the construction of 15
physical barriers, tactical infrastructure, 16
and technology’’; 17
(D) by amending paragraph (3) to read as 18
follows: 19
‘‘(3) A
GENT SAFETY.—In carrying out this sec-20
tion, the Secretary of Homeland Security, when de-21
signing, testing, constructing, installing, deploying, 22
integrating, and operating physical barriers, tactical 23
infrastructure, or technology, shall incorporate such 24
safety features into such design, test, construction, 25
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installation, deployment, integration, or operation of 1
such physical barriers, tactical infrastructure, or 2
technology, as the case may be, that the Secretary 3
determines are necessary to maximize the safety and 4
effectiveness of officers and agents of the Depart-5
ment of Homeland Security or of any other Federal 6
agency deployed in the vicinity of such physical bar-7
riers, tactical infrastructure, or technology.’’; and 8
(E) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘this 9
subsection’’ and inserting ‘‘this section’’; 10
(3) in subsection (c)— 11
(A) by amending paragraph (1) to read as 12
follows: 13
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other 14
provision of law, the Secretary of Homeland Security 15
shall waive all legal requirements necessary to en-16
sure the expeditious design, testing, construction, in-17
stallation, deployment, integration, operation, and 18
maintenance of the physical barriers, tactical infra-19
structure, and technology under this section. The 20
Secretary shall ensure the maintenance and effec-21
tiveness of such physical barriers, tactical infrastruc-22
ture, or technology. Any such action by the Sec-23
retary shall be effective upon publication in the Fed-24
eral Register.’’; 25
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(B) by redesignating paragraph (2) as 1
paragraph (3); and 2
(C) by inserting after paragraph (1) the 3
following new paragraph: 4
‘‘(2) N
OTIFICATION.—Not later than seven 5
days after the date on which the Secretary of Home-6
land Security exercises a waiver pursuant to para-7
graph (1), the Secretary shall notify the Committee 8
on Homeland Security of the House of Representa-9
tives and the Committee on Homeland Security and 10
Governmental Affairs of the Senate of such waiver.’’; 11
and 12
(4) by adding at the end the following new sub-13
sections: 14
‘‘(e) T
ECHNOLOGY.—In carrying out this section, the 15
Secretary of Homeland Security shall deploy along the 16
southwest border the most practical and effective tech-17
nology available for achieving situational awareness and 18
operational control. 19
‘‘(f) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 20
‘‘(1) A
DVANCED UNATTENDED SURVEILLANCE 21
SENSORS.—The term ‘advanced unattended surveil-22
lance sensors’ means sensors that utilize an onboard 23
computer to analyze detections in an effort to dis-24
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cern between vehicles, humans, and animals, and ul-1
timately filter false positives prior to transmission. 2
‘‘(2) O
PERATIONAL CONTROL .—The term ‘oper-3
ational control’ has the meaning given such term in 4
section 2(b) of the Secure Fence Act of 2006 (Public 5
Law 109–367; 8 U.S.C. 1701 note). 6
‘‘(3) P
HYSICAL BARRIERS.—The term ‘physical 7
barriers’ includes reinforced fencing, the border wall, 8
and levee walls. 9
‘‘(4) S
ITUATIONAL AWARENESS .—The term ‘sit-10
uational awareness’ has the meaning given such 11
term in section 1092(a)(7) of the National Defense 12
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 (Public Law 13
114–328; 6 U.S.C. 223(a)(7)). 14
‘‘(5) T
ACTICAL INFRASTRUCTURE .—The term 15
‘tactical infrastructure’ includes boat ramps, access 16
gates, checkpoints, lighting, and roads. 17
‘‘(6) T
ECHNOLOGY.—The term ‘technology’ in-18
cludes border surveillance and detection technology, 19
including the following: 20
‘‘(A) Tower-based surveillance technology. 21
‘‘(B) Deployable, lighter-than-air ground 22
surveillance equipment. 23
‘‘(C) Vehicle and Dismount Exploitation 24
Radars (VADER). 25
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‘‘(D) 3-dimensional, seismic acoustic detec-1
tion and ranging border tunneling detection 2
technology. 3
‘‘(E) Advanced unattended surveillance 4
sensors. 5
‘‘(F) Mobile vehicle-mounted and man- 6
portable surveillance capabilities. 7
‘‘(G) Unmanned aircraft systems. 8
‘‘(H) Tunnel detection systems and other 9
seismic technology. 10
‘‘(I) Fiber-optic cable. 11
‘‘(J) Other border detection, communica-12
tion, and surveillance technology. 13
‘‘(7) U
NMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEM .—The term 14
‘unmanned aircraft system’ has the meaning given 15
such term in section 44801 of title 49, United 16
States Code.’’. 17
SEC. 104. BORDER AND PORT SECURITY TECHNOLOGY IN-18
VESTMENT PLAN. 19
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 20
date of the enactment of this Act, the Commissioner, in 21
consultation with covered officials and border and port se-22
curity technology stakeholders, shall submit to the appro-23
priate congressional committees a strategic 5-year tech-24
nology investment plan (in this section referred to as the 25
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‘‘plan’’). The plan may include a classified annex, if appro-1
priate. 2
(b) C
ONTENTS OFPLAN.—The plan shall include the 3
following: 4
(1) An analysis of security risks at and between 5
ports of entry along the northern and southern bor-6
ders of the United States. 7
(2) An identification of capability gaps with re-8
spect to security at and between such ports of entry 9
to be mitigated in order to— 10
(A) prevent terrorists and instruments of 11
terror from entering the United States; 12
(B) combat and reduce cross-border crimi-13
nal activity, including— 14
(i) the transport of illegal goods, such 15
as illicit drugs; and 16
(ii) human smuggling and human 17
trafficking; and 18
(C) facilitate the flow of legal trade across 19
the southwest border. 20
(3) An analysis of current and forecast trends 21
relating to the number of aliens who— 22
(A) unlawfully entered the United States 23
by crossing the northern or southern border of 24
the United States; or 25
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(B) are unlawfully present in the United 1
States. 2
(4) A description of security-related technology 3
acquisitions, to be listed in order of priority, to ad-4
dress the security risks and capability gaps analyzed 5
and identified pursuant to paragraphs (1) and (2), 6
respectively. 7
(5) A description of each planned security-re-8
lated technology program, including objectives, goals, 9
and timelines for each such program. 10
(6) An identification of each deployed security- 11
related technology that is at or near the end of the 12
life cycle of such technology. 13
(7) A description of the test, evaluation, mod-14
eling, and simulation capabilities, including target 15
methodologies, rationales, and timelines, necessary 16
to support the acquisition of security-related tech-17
nologies pursuant to paragraph (4). 18
(8) An identification and assessment of ways to 19
increase opportunities for communication and col-20
laboration with the private sector, small and dis-21
advantaged businesses, intragovernment entities, 22
university centers of excellence, and federal labora-23
tories to ensure CBP is able to engage with the mar-24
ket for security-related technologies that are avail-25
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able to satisfy its mission needs before engaging in 1
an acquisition of a security-related technology. 2
(9) An assessment of the management of 3
planned security-related technology programs by the 4
acquisition workforce of CBP. 5
(10) An identification of ways to leverage al-6
ready-existing acquisition expertise within the Fed-7
eral Government. 8
(11) A description of the security resources, in-9
cluding information security resources, required to 10
protect security-related technology from physical or 11
cyber theft, diversion, sabotage, or attack. 12
(12) A description of initiatives to— 13
(A) streamline the acquisition process of 14
CBP; and 15
(B) provide to the private sector greater 16
predictability and transparency with respect to 17
such process, including information relating to 18
the timeline for testing and evaluation of secu-19
rity-related technology. 20
(13) An assessment of the privacy and security 21
impact on border communities of security-related 22
technology. 23
(14) In the case of a new acquisition leading to 24
the removal of equipment from a port of entry along 25
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the northern or southern border of the United 1
States, a strategy to consult with the private sector 2
and community stakeholders affected by such re-3
moval. 4
(15) A strategy to consult with the private sec-5
tor and community stakeholders with respect to se-6
curity impacts at a port of entry described in para-7
graph (14). 8
(16) An identification of recent technological 9
advancements in the following: 10
(A) Manned aircraft sensor, communica-11
tion, and common operating picture technology. 12
(B) Unmanned aerial systems and related 13
technology, including counter-unmanned aerial 14
system technology. 15
(C) Surveillance technology, including the 16
following: 17
(i) Mobile surveillance vehicles. 18
(ii) Associated electronics, including 19
cameras, sensor technology, and radar. 20
(iii) Tower-based surveillance tech-21
nology. 22
(iv) Advanced unattended surveillance 23
sensors. 24
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(v) Deployable, lighter-than-air, 1
ground surveillance equipment. 2
(D) Nonintrusive inspection technology, in-3
cluding non-x-ray devices utilizing muon tomog-4
raphy and other advanced detection technology. 5
(E) Tunnel detection technology. 6
(F) Communications equipment, including 7
the following: 8
(i) Radios. 9
(ii) Long-term evolution broadband. 10
(iii) Miniature satellites. 11
(c) L
EVERAGING THEPRIVATESECTOR.—To the ex-12
tent practicable, the plan shall— 13
(1) leverage emerging technological capabilities, 14
and research and development trends, within the 15
public and private sectors; 16
(2) incorporate input from the private sector, 17
including from border and port security stake-18
holders, through requests for information, industry 19
day events, and other innovative means consistent 20
with the Federal Acquisition Regulation; and 21
(3) identify security-related technologies that 22
are in development or deployed, with or without ad-23
aptation, that may satisfy the mission needs of CBP. 24
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(d) FORM.—To the extent practicable, the plan shall 1
be published in unclassified form on the website of the 2
Department. 3
(e) D
ISCLOSURE.—The plan shall include an identi-4
fication of individuals not employed by the Federal Gov-5
ernment, and their professional affiliations, who contrib-6
uted to the development of the plan. 7
(f) U
PDATE ANDREPORT.—Not later than the date 8
that is two years after the date on which the plan is sub-9
mitted to the appropriate congressional committees pursu-10
ant to subsection (a) and biennially thereafter for ten 11
years, the Commissioner shall submit to the appropriate 12
congressional committees— 13
(1) an update of the plan, if appropriate; and 14
(2) a report that includes— 15
(A) the extent to which each security-re-16
lated technology acquired by CBP since the ini-17
tial submission of the plan or most recent up-18
date of the plan, as the case may be, is con-19
sistent with the planned technology programs 20
and projects described pursuant to subsection 21
(b)(5); and 22
(B) the type of contract and the reason for 23
acquiring each such security-related technology. 24
(g) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 25
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(1) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -1
TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-2
mittees’’ means— 3
(A) the Committee on Homeland Security 4
and the Committee on Appropriations of the 5
House of Representatives; and 6
(B) the Committee on Homeland Security 7
and Governmental Affairs and the Committee 8
on Appropriations of the Senate. 9
(2) C
OVERED OFFICIALS.—The term ‘‘covered 10
officials’’ means— 11
(A) the Under Secretary for Management 12
of the Department; 13
(B) the Under Secretary for Science and 14
Technology of the Department; and 15
(C) the Chief Information Officer of the 16
Department. 17
(3) U
NLAWFULLY PRESENT .—The term ‘‘un-18
lawfully present’’ has the meaning provided such 19
term in section 212(a)(9)(B)(ii) of the Immigration 20
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(9)(B)(ii)). 21
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SEC. 105. BORDER SECURITY TECHNOLOGY PROGRAM 1
MANAGEMENT. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subtitle C of title IV of the 3
Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 231 et seq.) 4
is amended by adding at the end the following new section: 5
‘‘SEC. 437. BORDER SECURITY TECHNOLOGY PROGRAM 6
MANAGEMENT. 7
‘‘(a) M
AJORACQUISITIONPROGRAMDEFINED.—In 8
this section, the term ‘major acquisition program’ means 9
an acquisition program of the Department that is esti-10
mated by the Secretary to require an eventual total ex-11
penditure of at least $100,000,000 (based on fiscal year 12
2023 constant dollars) over its life-cycle cost. 13
‘‘(b) P
LANNINGDOCUMENTATION.—For each border 14
security technology acquisition program of the Depart-15
ment that is determined to be a major acquisition pro-16
gram, the Secretary shall— 17
‘‘(1) ensure that each such program has a writ-18
ten acquisition program baseline approved by the 19
relevant acquisition decision authority; 20
‘‘(2) document that each such program is satis-21
fying cost, schedule, and performance thresholds as 22
specified in such baseline, in compliance with rel-23
evant departmental acquisition policies and the Fed-24
eral Acquisition Regulation; and 25
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‘‘(3) have a plan for satisfying program imple-1
mentation objectives by managing contractor per-2
formance. 3
‘‘(c) A
DHERENCE TO STANDARDS.—The Secretary, 4
acting through the Under Secretary for Management and 5
the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 6
shall ensure border security technology acquisition pro-7
gram managers who are responsible for carrying out this 8
section adhere to relevant internal control standards iden-9
tified by the Comptroller General of the United States. 10
The Commissioner shall provide information, as needed, 11
to assist the Under Secretary in monitoring management 12
of border security technology acquisition programs under 13
this section. 14
‘‘(d) P
LAN.—The Secretary, acting through the 15
Under Secretary for Management, in coordination with 16
the Under Secretary for Science and Technology and the 17
Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 18
shall submit to the Committee on Homeland Security of 19
the House of Representatives and the Committee on 20
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Sen-21
ate a plan for testing, evaluating, and using independent 22
verification and validation of resources relating to the pro-23
posed acquisition of border security technology. Under 24
such plan, the proposed acquisition of new border security 25
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technologies shall be evaluated through a series of assess-1
ments, processes, and audits to ensure— 2
‘‘(1) compliance with relevant departmental ac-3
quisition policies and the Federal Acquisition Regu-4
lation; and 5
‘‘(2) the effective use of taxpayer dollars.’’. 6
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of contents 7
in section 1(b) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 is 8
amended by inserting after the item relating to section 9
436 the following new item: 10
‘‘Sec. 437. Border security technology program management.’’. 
(c) PROHIBITION ONADDITIONALAUTHORIZATION 11
OFAPPROPRIATIONS.—No additional funds are author-12
ized to be appropriated to carry out section 437 of the 13
Homeland Security Act of 2002, as added by subsection 14
(a). 15
SEC. 106. U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION TECH-16
NOLOGY UPGRADES. 17
(a) S
ECURECOMMUNICATIONS.—The Commissioner 18
shall ensure that each CBP officer or agent, as appro-19
priate, is equipped with a secure radio or other two-way 20
communication device that allows each such officer or 21
agent to communicate— 22
(1) between ports of entry and inspection sta-23
tions; and 24
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(2) with other Federal, State, Tribal, and local 1
law enforcement entities. 2
(b) B
ORDERSECURITYDEPLOYMENTPROGRAM.— 3
(1) E
XPANSION.—Not later than September 30, 4
2025, the Commissioner shall— 5
(A) fully implement the Border Security 6
Deployment Program of CBP; and 7
(B) expand the integrated surveillance and 8
intrusion detection system at land ports of 9
entry along the northern and southern borders 10
of the United States. 11
(2) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS .—In 12
addition to amounts otherwise authorized to be ap-13
propriated for such purpose, there is authorized to 14
be appropriated $33,000,000 for fiscal years 2024 15
and 2025 to carry out paragraph (1). 16
(c) U
PGRADE OF LICENSEPLATEREADERS AT 17
P
ORTS OFENTRY.— 18
(1) U
PGRADE.—Not later than two years after 19
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Commis-20
sioner shall upgrade all existing license plate readers 21
in need of upgrade, as determined by the Commis-22
sioner, on the northern and southern borders of the 23
United States. 24
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(2) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS .—In 1
addition to amounts otherwise authorized to be ap-2
propriated for such purpose, there is authorized to 3
be appropriated $125,000,000 for fiscal years 2023 4
and 2024 to carry out paragraph (1). 5
SEC. 107. U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION PER-6
SONNEL. 7
(a) R
ETENTIONBONUS.—To carry out this section, 8
there is authorized to be appropriated up to $100,000,000 9
to the Commissioner to provide a retention bonus to any 10
front-line U.S. Border Patrol law enforcement agent— 11
(1) whose position is equal to or below level GS- 12
12 of the General Schedule; 13
(2) who has five years or more of service with 14
the U.S. Border Patrol; and 15
(3) who commits to two years of additional 16
service with the U.S. Border Patrol upon acceptance 17
of such bonus. 18
(b) B
ORDERPATROLAGENTS.—Not later than Sep-19
tember 30, 2025, the Commissioner shall hire, train, and 20
assign a sufficient number of Border Patrol agents to 21
maintain an active duty presence of not fewer than 22,000 22
full-time equivalent Border Patrol agents, who may not 23
perform the duties of processing coordinators. 24
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(c) PROHIBITIONAGAINSTALIENTRAVEL.—No per-1
sonnel or equipment of Air and Marine Operations may 2
be used for the transportation of non-detained aliens, or 3
detained aliens expected to be administratively released 4
upon arrival, from the southwest border to destinations 5
within the United States. 6
(d) GAO R
EPORT.—If the staffing level required 7
under this section is not achieved by the date associated 8
with such level, the Comptroller General of the United 9
States shall— 10
(1) conduct a review of the reasons why such 11
level was not so achieved; and 12
(2) not later than September 30, 2027, publish 13
on a publicly available website of the Government 14
Accountability Office a report relating thereto. 15
SEC. 108. ANTI-BORDER CORRUPTION ACT REAUTHORIZA-16
TION. 17
(a) H
IRINGFLEXIBILITY.—Section 3 of the Anti- 18
Border Corruption Act of 2010 (6 U.S.C. 221; Public Law 19
111–376) is amended by striking subsection (b) and in-20
serting the following new subsections: 21
‘‘(b) W
AIVERREQUIREMENT.—Subject to subsection 22
(c), the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Pro-23
tection shall waive the application of subsection (a)(1)— 24
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‘‘(1) to a current, full-time law enforcement of-1
ficer employed by a State or local law enforcement 2
agency who— 3
‘‘(A) has continuously served as a law en-4
forcement officer for not fewer than three 5
years; 6
‘‘(B) is authorized by law to engage in or 7
supervise the prevention, detection, investiga-8
tion, or prosecution of, or the incarceration of 9
any person for, any violation of law, and has 10
statutory powers for arrest or apprehension; 11
and 12
‘‘(C) is not currently under investigation, 13
has not been found to have engaged in criminal 14
activity or serious misconduct, has not resigned 15
from a law enforcement officer position under 16
investigation or in lieu of termination, and has 17
not been dismissed from a law enforcement offi-18
cer position; 19
‘‘(2) to a current, full-time Federal law enforce-20
ment officer who— 21
‘‘(A) has continuously served as a law en-22
forcement officer for not fewer than three 23
years; 24
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‘‘(B) is authorized to make arrests, con-1
duct investigations, conduct searches, make sei-2
zures, carry firearms, and serve orders, war-3
rants, and other processes; 4
‘‘(C) is not currently under investigation, 5
has not been found to have engaged in criminal 6
activity or serious misconduct, has not resigned 7
from a law enforcement officer position under 8
investigation or in lieu of termination, and has 9
not been dismissed from a law enforcement offi-10
cer position; and 11
‘‘(D) holds a current Tier 4 background 12
investigation or current Tier 5 background in-13
vestigation; or 14
‘‘(3) to a member of the Armed Forces (or a re-15
serve component thereof) or a veteran, if such indi-16
vidual— 17
‘‘(A) has served in the Armed Forces for 18
not fewer than three years; 19
‘‘(B) holds, or has held within the past five 20
years, a Secret, Top Secret, or Top Secret/Sen-21
sitive Compartmented Information clearance; 22
‘‘(C) holds, or has undergone within the 23
past five years, a current Tier 4 background in-24
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vestigation or current Tier 5 background inves-1
tigation; 2
‘‘(D) received, or is eligible to receive, an 3
honorable discharge from service in the Armed 4
Forces and has not engaged in criminal activity 5
or committed a serious military or civil offense 6
under the Uniform Code of Military Justice; 7
and 8
‘‘(E) was not granted any waivers to ob-9
tain the clearance referred to in subparagraph 10
(B). 11
‘‘(c) T
ERMINATION OF WAIVERREQUIREMENT; 12
S
NAP-BACK.—The requirement to issue a waiver under 13
subsection (b) shall terminate if the Commissioner of U.S. 14
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) certifies to the 15
Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Rep-16
resentatives and the Committee on Homeland Security 17
and Governmental Affairs of the Senate that CBP has met 18
all requirements pursuant to section 107 of the Secure the 19
Border Act of 2023 relating to personnel levels. If at any 20
time after such certification personnel levels fall below 21
such requirements, the Commissioner shall waive the ap-22
plication of subsection (a)(1) until such time as the Com-23
missioner re-certifies to such Committees that CBP has 24
so met all such requirements.’’. 25
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(b) SUPPLEMENTAL COMMISSIONER AUTHORITY; 1
R
EPORTING; DEFINITIONS.—The Anti-Border Corruption 2
Act of 2010 is amended by adding at the end the following 3
new sections: 4
‘‘SEC. 5. SUPPLEMENTAL COMMISSIONER AUTHORITY. 5
‘‘(a) N
ONEXEMPTION.—An individual who receives a 6
waiver under section 3(b) is not exempt from any other 7
hiring requirements relating to suitability for employment 8
and eligibility to hold a national security designated posi-9
tion, as determined by the Commissioner of U.S. Customs 10
and Border Protection. 11
‘‘(b) B
ACKGROUNDINVESTIGATIONS.—An individual 12
who receives a waiver under section 3(b) who holds a cur-13
rent Tier 4 background investigation shall be subject to 14
a Tier 5 background investigation. 15
‘‘(c) A
DMINISTRATION OF POLYGRAPHEXAMINA-16
TION.—The Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border 17
Protection is authorized to administer a polygraph exam-18
ination to an applicant or employee who is eligible for or 19
receives a waiver under section 3(b) if information is dis-20
covered before the completion of a background investiga-21
tion that results in a determination that a polygraph ex-22
amination is necessary to make a final determination re-23
garding suitability for employment or continued employ-24
ment, as the case may be. 25
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‘‘SEC. 6. REPORTING. 1
‘‘(a) A
NNUALREPORT.—Not later than one year 2
after the date of the enactment of this section and annu-3
ally thereafter while the waiver authority under section 4
3(b) is in effect, the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and 5
Border Protection shall submit to Congress a report that 6
includes, with respect to each such reporting period, the 7
following: 8
‘‘(1) Information relating to the number of 9
waivers granted under such section 3(b). 10
‘‘(2) Information relating to the percentage of 11
applicants who were hired after receiving such a 12
waiver. 13
‘‘(3) Information relating to the number of in-14
stances that a polygraph was administered to an ap-15
plicant who initially received such a waiver and the 16
results of such polygraph. 17
‘‘(4) An assessment of the current impact of 18
such waiver authority on filling law enforcement po-19
sitions at U.S. Customs and Border Protection. 20
‘‘(5) An identification of additional authorities 21
needed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to 22
better utilize such waiver authority for its intended 23
goals. 24
‘‘(b) A
DDITIONALINFORMATION.—The first report 25
submitted under subsection (a) shall include the following: 26
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‘‘(1) An analysis of other methods of employ-1
ment suitability tests that detect deception and could 2
be used in conjunction with traditional background 3
investigations to evaluate potential applicants or em-4
ployees for suitability for employment or continued 5
employment, as the case may be. 6
‘‘(2) A recommendation regarding whether a 7
test referred to in paragraph (1) should be adopted 8
by U.S. Customs and Border Protection when the 9
polygraph examination requirement is waived pursu-10
ant to section 3(b). 11
‘‘SEC. 7. DEFINITIONS. 12
‘‘In this Act: 13
‘‘(1) F
EDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER .— 14
The term ‘Federal law enforcement officer’ means a 15
‘law enforcement officer’, as such term is defined in 16
section 8331(20) or 8401(17) of title 5, United 17
States Code. 18
‘‘(2) S
ERIOUS MILITARY OR CIVIL OFFENSE .— 19
The term ‘serious military or civil offense’ means an 20
offense for which— 21
‘‘(A) a member of the Armed Forces may 22
be discharged or separated from service in the 23
Armed Forces; and 24
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‘‘(B) a punitive discharge is, or would be, 1
authorized for the same or a closely related of-2
fense under the Manual for Court-Martial, as 3
pursuant to Army Regulation 635–200, chapter 4
14–12. 5
‘‘(3) T
IER 4; TIER 5.—The terms ‘Tier 4’ and 6
‘Tier 5’, with respect to background investigations, 7
have the meaning given such terms under the 2012 8
Federal Investigative Standards. 9
‘‘(4) V
ETERAN.—The term ‘veteran’ has the 10
meaning given such term in section 101(2) of title 11
38, United States Code.’’. 12
(c) P
OLYGRAPHEXAMINERS.—Not later than Sep-13
tember 30, 2025, the Secretary shall increase to not fewer 14
than 150 the number of trained full-time equivalent poly-15
graph examiners for administering polygraphs under the 16
Anti-Border Corruption Act of 2010, as amended by this 17
section. 18
SEC. 109. ESTABLISHMENT OF WORKLOAD STAFFING MOD-19
ELS FOR U.S. BORDER PATROL AND AIR AND 20
MARINE OPERATIONS OF CBP. 21
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than one year after the 22
date of the enactment of this Act, the Commissioner, in 23
coordination with the Under Secretary for Management, 24
the Chief Human Capital Officer, and the Chief Financial 25
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Officer of the Department, shall implement a workload 1
staffing model for each of the following: 2
(1) The U.S. Border Patrol. 3
(2) Air and Marine Operations of CBP. 4
(b) R
ESPONSIBILITIES OF THE COMMISSIONER.— 5
Subsection (c) of section 411 of the Homeland Security 6
Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 211), is amended— 7
(1) by redesignating paragraphs (18) and (19) 8
as paragraphs (20) and (21), respectively; and 9
(2) by inserting after paragraph (17) the fol-10
lowing new paragraphs: 11
‘‘(18) implement a staffing model for the U.S. 12
Border Patrol, Air and Marine Operations, and the 13
Office of Field Operations that includes consider-14
ation for essential frontline operator activities and 15
functions, variations in operating environments, 16
present and planned infrastructure, present and 17
planned technology, and required operations support 18
levels to enable such entities to manage and assign 19
personnel of such entities to ensure field and sup-20
port posts possess adequate resources to carry out 21
duties specified in this section; 22
‘‘(19) develop standard operating procedures 23
for a workforce tracking system within the U.S. 24
Border Patrol, Air and Marine Operations, and the 25
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Office of Field Operations, train the workforce of 1
each of such entities on the use, capabilities, and 2
purpose of such system, and implement internal con-3
trols to ensure timely and accurate scheduling and 4
reporting of actual completed work hours and activi-5
ties;’’. 6
(c) R
EPORT.— 7
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than one year 8
after the date of the enactment of this Act with re-9
spect to subsection (a) and paragraphs (18) and 10
(19) of section 411(c) of the Homeland Security Act 11
of 2002 (as amended by subsection (b)), and annu-12
ally thereafter with respect to such paragraphs (18) 13
and (19), the Secretary shall submit to the appro-14
priate congressional committees a report that in-15
cludes a status update on the following: 16
(A) The implementation of such subsection 17
(a) and such paragraphs (18) and (19). 18
(B) Each relevant workload staffing model. 19
(2) D
ATA SOURCES AND METHODOLOGY RE -20
QUIRED.—Each report required under paragraph (1) 21
shall include information relating to the data sources 22
and methodology used to generate each relevant 23
staffing model. 24
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(d) INSPECTORGENERALREVIEW.—Not later than 1
90 days after the Commissioner develops the workload 2
staffing models pursuant to subsection (a), the Inspector 3
General of the Department shall review such models and 4
provide feedback to the Secretary and the appropriate con-5
gressional committees with respect to the degree to which 6
such models are responsive to the recommendations of the 7
Inspector General, including the following: 8
(1) Recommendations from the Inspector Gen-9
eral’s February 2019 audit. 10
(2) Any further recommendations to improve 11
such models. 12
(e) A
PPROPRIATECONGRESSIONALCOMMITTEESDE-13
FINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘appropriate congres-14
sional committees’’ means— 15
(1) the Committee on Homeland Security of the 16
House of Representatives; and 17
(2) the Committee on Homeland Security and 18
Governmental Affairs of the Senate. 19
SEC. 110. OPERATION STONEGARDEN. 20
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subtitle A of title XX of the 21
Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 601 et seq.) 22
is amended by adding at the end the following new section: 23
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‘‘SEC. 2010. OPERATION STONEGARDEN. 1
‘‘(a) E
STABLISHMENT.—There is established in the 2
Department a program to be known as ‘Operation 3
Stonegarden’, under which the Secretary, acting through 4
the Administrator, shall make grants to eligible law en-5
forcement agencies, through State administrative agen-6
cies, to enhance border security in accordance with this 7
section. 8
‘‘(b) E
LIGIBLERECIPIENTS.—To be eligible to re-9
ceive a grant under this section, a law enforcement agency 10
shall— 11
‘‘(1) be located in— 12
‘‘(A) a State bordering Canada or Mexico; 13
or 14
‘‘(B) a State or territory with a maritime 15
border; 16
‘‘(2) be involved in an active, ongoing, U.S. 17
Customs and Border Protection operation coordi-18
nated through a U.S. Border Patrol sector office; 19
and 20
‘‘(3) have an agreement in place with U.S. Im-21
migration and Customs Enforcement to support en-22
forcement operations. 23
‘‘(c) P
ERMITTEDUSES.—A recipient of a grant 24
under this section may use such grant for costs associated 25
with the following: 26
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‘‘(1) Equipment, including maintenance and 1
sustainment. 2
‘‘(2) Personnel, including overtime and backfill, 3
in support of enhanced border law enforcement ac-4
tivities. 5
‘‘(3) Any activity permitted for Operation 6
Stonegarden under the most recent fiscal year De-7
partment of Homeland Security’s Homeland Secu-8
rity Grant Program Notice of Funding Opportunity. 9
‘‘(d) P
ERIOD OFPERFORMANCE.—The Secretary 10
shall award grants under this section to grant recipients 11
for a period of not fewer than 36 months. 12
‘‘(e) N
OTIFICATION.—Upon denial of a grant to a law 13
enforcement agency, the Administrator shall provide writ-14
ten notice to the Committee on Homeland Security of the 15
House of Representatives and the Committee on Home-16
land Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate, in-17
cluding the reasoning for such denial. 18
‘‘(f) R
EPORT.—For each of fiscal years 2024 through 19
2028 the Administrator shall submit to the Committee on 20
Homeland Security of the House of Representatives and 21
the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 22
Affairs of the Senate a report that contains— 23
‘‘(1) information on the expenditure of grants 24
made under this section by each grant recipient; and 25
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‘‘(2) recommendations for other uses of such 1
grants to further support eligible law enforcement 2
agencies. 3
‘‘(g) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 4
is authorized to be appropriated $110,000,000 for each 5
of fiscal years 2024 through 2028 for grants under this 6
section.’’. 7
(b) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENT.—Subsection (a) of 8
section 2002 of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 9
U.S.C. 603) is amended to read as follows: 10
‘‘(a) G
RANTSAUTHORIZED.—The Secretary, through 11
the Administrator, may award grants under sections 2003, 12
2004, 2009, and 2010 to State, local, and Tribal govern-13
ments, as appropriate.’’. 14
(c) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of contents 15
in section 1(b) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 is 16
amended by inserting after the item relating to section 17
2009 the following new item: 18
‘‘Sec. 2010. Operation Stonegarden.’’. 
SEC. 111. AIR AND MARINE OPERATIONS FLIGHT HOURS. 
19
(a) A
IR AND MARINEOPERATIONS FLIGHT 20
H
OURS.—Not later than 120 days after the date of the 21
enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall ensure that not 22
fewer than 110,000 annual flight hours are carried out 23
by Air and Marine Operations of CBP. 24
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(b) UNMANNED AIRCRAFTSYSTEMS.—The Sec-1
retary, after coordination with the Administrator of the 2
Federal Aviation Administration, shall ensure that Air and 3
Marine Operations operate unmanned aircraft systems on 4
the southern border of the United States for not less than 5
24 hours per day. 6
(c) P
RIMARYMISSIONS.—The Commissioner shall 7
ensure the following: 8
(1) The primary missions for Air and Marine 9
Operations are to directly support the following: 10
(A) U.S. Border Patrol activities along the 11
borders of the United States. 12
(B) Joint Interagency Task Force South 13
and Joint Task Force East operations in the 14
transit zone. 15
(2) The Executive Assistant Commissioner of 16
Air and Marine Operations assigns the greatest pri-17
ority to support missions specified in paragraph (1). 18
(d) H
IGHDEMANDFLIGHTHOURREQUIRE-19
MENTS.—The Commissioner shall— 20
(1) ensure that U.S. Border Patrol Sector 21
Chiefs identify air support mission-critical hours; 22
and 23
(2) direct Air and Marine Operations to sup-24
port requests from such Sector Chiefs as a compo-25
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nent of the primary mission of Air and Marine Op-1
erations in accordance with subsection (c)(1)(A). 2
(e) C
ONTRACTAIRSUPPORTAUTHORIZATIONS.— 3
The Commissioner shall contract for air support mission- 4
critical hours to meet the requests for such hours, as iden-5
tified pursuant to subsection (d). 6
(f) S
MALLUNMANNEDAIRCRAFTSYSTEMS.— 7
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Chief of the U.S. Bor-8
der Patrol shall be the executive agent with respect 9
to the use of small unmanned aircraft by CBP for 10
the purposes of the following: 11
(A) Meeting the unmet flight hour oper-12
ational requirements of the U.S. Border Patrol. 13
(B) Achieving situational awareness and 14
operational control of the borders of the United 15
States. 16
(2) C
OORDINATION.—In carrying out para-17
graph (1), the Chief of the U.S. Border Patrol shall 18
coordinate— 19
(A) flight operations with the Adminis-20
trator of the Federal Aviation Administration to 21
ensure the safe and efficient operation of the 22
national airspace system; and 23
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(B) with the Executive Assistant Commis-1
sioner for Air and Marine Operations of CBP 2
to— 3
(i) ensure the safety of other CBP 4
aircraft flying in the vicinity of small un-5
manned aircraft operated by the U.S. Bor-6
der Patrol; and 7
(ii) establish a process to include data 8
from flight hours in the calculation of got 9
away statistics. 10
(3) C
ONFORMING AMENDMENT .—Paragraph (3) 11
of section 411(e) of the Homeland Security Act of 12
2002 (6 U.S.C. 211(e)) is amended— 13
(A) in subparagraph (B), by striking 14
‘‘and’’ after the semicolon at the end; 15
(B) by redesignating subparagraph (C) as 16
subparagraph (D); and 17
(C) by inserting after subparagraph (B) 18
the following new subparagraph: 19
‘‘(C) carry out the small unmanned air-20
craft (as such term is defined in section 44801 21
of title 49, United States Code) requirements 22
pursuant to subsection (f) of section 111 of the 23
Secure the Border Act of 2023; and’’. 24
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(g) SAVINGSCLAUSE.—Nothing in this section may 1
be construed as conferring, transferring, or delegating to 2
the Secretary, the Commissioner, the Executive Assistant 3
Commissioner for Air and Marine Operations of CBP, or 4
the Chief of the U.S. Border Patrol any authority of the 5
Secretary of Transportation or the Administrator of the 6
Federal Aviation Administration relating to the use of air-7
space or aviation safety. 8
(h) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 9
(1) G
OT AWAY.—The term ‘‘got away’’ has the 10
meaning given such term in section 1092(a)(3) of 11
the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 12
Year 2017 (Public Law 114–328; 6 U.S.C. 13
223(a)(3)). 14
(2) T
RANSIT ZONE.—The term ‘‘transit zone’’ 15
has the meaning given such term in section 16
1092(a)(8) of the National Defense Authorization 17
Act for Fiscal Year 2017 (Public Law 114–328; 6 18
U.S.C. 223(a)(8)). 19
SEC. 112. ERADICATION OF CARRIZO CANE AND SALT 20
CEDAR. 21
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 30 days after the 22
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary, in coordi-23
nation with the heads of relevant Federal, State, and local 24
agencies, shall hire contractors to begin eradicating the 25
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carrizo cane plant and any salt cedar along the Rio 1
Grande River that impedes border security operations. 2
Such eradication shall be completed— 3
(1) by not later than September 30, 2027, ex-4
cept for required maintenance; and 5
(2) in the most expeditious and cost-effective 6
manner possible to maintain clear fields of view. 7
(b) A
PPLICATION.—The waiver authority under sub-8
section (c) of section 102 of the Illegal Immigration Re-9
form and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 10
1103 note), as amended by section 103 of this division, 11
shall apply to activities carried out pursuant to subsection 12
(a). 13
(c) R
EPORT.—Not later than 180 days after the date 14
of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit 15
to the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of 16
Representatives and the Committee on Homeland Security 17
and Governmental Affairs of the Senate a strategic plan 18
to eradicate all carrizo cane plant and salt cedar along 19
the Rio Grande River that impedes border security oper-20
ations by not later than September 30, 2027. 21
(d) A
UTHORIZATION OFAPPROPRIATIONS.—There is 22
authorized to be appropriated $7,000,000 for each of fis-23
cal years 2024 through 2028 to the Secretary to carry 24
out this subsection. 25
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SEC. 113. BORDER PATROL STRATEGIC PLAN. 1
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than one year after the 2
date of the enactment of this Act and biennially thereafter, 3
the Commissioner, acting through the Chief of the U.S. 4
Border Patrol, shall issue a Border Patrol Strategic Plan 5
(referred to in this section as the ‘‘plan’’) to enhance the 6
security of the borders of the United States. 7
(b) E
LEMENTS.—The plan shall include the fol-8
lowing: 9
(1) A consideration of Border Patrol Capability 10
Gap Analysis reporting, Border Security Improve-11
ment Plans, and any other strategic document au-12
thored by the U.S. Border Patrol to address security 13
gaps between ports of entry, including efforts to 14
mitigate threats identified in such analyses, plans, 15
and documents. 16
(2) Information relating to the dissemination of 17
information relating to border security or border 18
threats with respect to the efforts of the Department 19
and other appropriate Federal agencies. 20
(3) Information relating to efforts by U.S. Bor-21
der Patrol to— 22
(A) increase situational awareness, includ-23
ing— 24
(i) surveillance capabilities, such as 25
capabilities developed or utilized by the 26
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Department of Defense, and any appro-1
priate technology determined to be excess 2
by the Department of Defense; and 3
(ii) the use of manned aircraft and 4
unmanned aircraft; 5
(B) detect and prevent terrorists and in-6
struments of terrorism from entering the 7
United States; 8
(C) detect, interdict, and disrupt between 9
ports of entry aliens unlawfully present in the 10
United States; 11
(D) detect, interdict, and disrupt human 12
smuggling, human trafficking, drug trafficking, 13
and other illicit cross-border activity; 14
(E) focus intelligence collection to disrupt 15
transnational criminal organizations outside of 16
the international and maritime borders of the 17
United States; and 18
(F) ensure that any new border security 19
technology can be operationally integrated with 20
existing technologies in use by the Department. 21
(4) Information relating to initiatives of the De-22
partment with respect to operational coordination, 23
including any relevant task forces of the Depart-24
ment. 25
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(5) Information gathered from the lessons 1
learned by the deployments of the National Guard to 2
the southern border of the United States. 3
(6) A description of cooperative agreements re-4
lating to information sharing with State, local, Trib-5
al, territorial, and other Federal law enforcement 6
agencies that have jurisdiction on the borders of the 7
United States. 8
(7) Information relating to border security in-9
formation received from the following: 10
(A) State, local, Tribal, territorial, and 11
other Federal law enforcement agencies that 12
have jurisdiction on the borders of the United 13
States or in the maritime environment. 14
(B) Border community stakeholders, in-15
cluding representatives from the following: 16
(i) Border agricultural and ranching 17
organizations. 18
(ii) Business and civic organizations. 19
(iii) Hospitals and rural clinics within 20
150 miles of the borders of the United 21
States. 22
(iv) Victims of crime committed by 23
aliens unlawfully present in the United 24
States. 25
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(v) Victims impacted by drugs, 1
transnational criminal organizations, car-2
tels, gangs, or other criminal activity. 3
(vi) Farmers, ranchers, and property 4
owners along the border. 5
(vii) Other individuals negatively im-6
pacted by illegal immigration. 7
(8) Information relating to the staffing require-8
ments with respect to border security for the De-9
partment. 10
(9) A prioritized list of Department research 11
and development objectives to enhance the security 12
of the borders of the United States. 13
(10) An assessment of training programs, in-14
cluding such programs relating to the following: 15
(A) Identifying and detecting fraudulent 16
documents. 17
(B) Understanding the scope of CBP en-18
forcement authorities and appropriate use of 19
force policies. 20
(C) Screening, identifying, and addressing 21
vulnerable populations, such as children and 22
victims of human trafficking. 23
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SEC. 114. U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION SPIR-1
ITUAL READINESS. 2
Not later than one year after the enactment of this 3
Act and annually thereafter for five years, the Commis-4
sioner shall submit to the Committee on Homeland Secu-5
rity of the House of Representatives and the Committee 6
on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the 7
Senate a report on the availability and usage of the assist-8
ance of chaplains, prayer groups, houses of worship, and 9
other spiritual resources for members of CBP who identify 10
as religiously affiliated and have attempted suicide, have 11
suicidal ideation, or are at risk of suicide, and metrics on 12
the impact such resources have in assisting religiously af-13
filiated members who have access to and utilize such re-14
sources compared to religiously affiliated members who do 15
not. 16
SEC. 115. RESTRICTIONS ON FUNDING. 17
(a) A
RRIVINGALIENS.—No funds are authorized to 18
be appropriated to the Department to process the entry 19
into the United States of aliens arriving in between ports 20
of entry. 21
(b) R
ESTRICTION ONNONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANI-22
ZATIONSUPPORT FORUNLAWFULACTIVITY.—No funds 23
are authorized to be appropriated to the Department for 24
disbursement to any nongovernmental organization that 25
facilitates or encourages unlawful activity, including un-26
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lawful entry, human trafficking, human smuggling, drug 1
trafficking, and drug smuggling. 2
(c) R
ESTRICTION ONNONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANI-3
ZATIONFACILITATION OFILLEGALIMMIGRATION.—No 4
funds are authorized to be appropriated to the Depart-5
ment for disbursement to any nongovernmental organiza-6
tion to provide, or facilitate the provision of, transpor-7
tation, lodging, or immigration legal services to inadmis-8
sible aliens who enter the United States after the date of 9
the enactment of this Act. 10
SEC. 116. COLLECTION OF DNA AND BIOMETRIC INFORMA-11
TION AT THE BORDER. 12
Not later than 14 days after the date of the enact-13
ment of this Act, the Secretary shall ensure and certify 14
to the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of 15
Representatives and the Committee on Homeland Security 16
and Governmental Affairs of the Senate that CBP is fully 17
compliant with Federal DNA and biometric collection re-18
quirements at United States land borders. 19
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SEC. 117. ERADICATION OF NARCOTIC DRUGS AND FORMU-1
LATING EFFECTIVE NEW TOOLS TO ADDRESS 2
YEARLY LOSSES OF LIFE; ENSURING TIMELY 3
UPDATES TO U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER 4
PROTECTION FIELD MANUALS. 5
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after the 6
date of the enactment of this Act, and not less frequently 7
than triennially thereafter, the Commissioner of U.S. Cus-8
toms and Border Protection shall review and update, as 9
necessary, the current policies and manuals of the Office 10
of Field Operations related to inspections at ports of 11
entry, and the U.S. Border Patrol related to inspections 12
between ports of entry, to ensure the uniform implementa-13
tion of inspection practices that will effectively respond to 14
technological and methodological changes designed to dis-15
guise unlawful activity, such as the smuggling of drugs 16
and humans, along the border. 17
(b) R
EPORTINGREQUIREMENT.—Not later than 90 18
days after each update required under subsection (a), the 19
Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection 20
shall submit to the Committee on Homeland Security and 21
the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Rep-22
resentatives and the Committee on Homeland Security 23
and Governmental Affairs and the Committee on the Judi-24
ciary of the Senate a report that summarizes any policy 25
and manual changes pursuant to subsection (a). 26
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SEC. 118. PUBLICATION BY U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER 1
PROTECTION OF OPERATIONAL STATISTICS. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than the seventh day of 3
each month beginning with the second full month after 4
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Commissioner 5
of U.S. Customs and Border Protection shall publish on 6
a publicly available website of the Department of Home-7
land Security information relating to the total number of 8
alien encounters and nationalities, unique alien encounters 9
and nationalities, gang affiliated apprehensions and na-10
tionalities, drug seizures, alien encounters included in the 11
terrorist screening database and nationalities, arrests of 12
criminal aliens or individuals wanted by law enforcement 13
and nationalities, known got aways, encounters with de-14
ceased aliens, and all other related or associated statistics 15
recorded by U.S. Customs and Border Protection during 16
the immediately preceding month. Each such publication 17
shall include the following: 18
(1) The aggregate such number, and such num-19
ber disaggregated by geographic regions, of such re-20
cordings and encounters, including specifications re-21
lating to whether such recordings and encounters 22
were at the southwest, northern, or maritime border. 23
(2) An identification of the Office of Field Op-24
erations field office, U.S. Border Patrol sector, or 25
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Air and Marine Operations branch making each re-1
cording or encounter. 2
(3) Information relating to whether each re-3
cording or encounter of an alien was of a single 4
adult, an unaccompanied alien child, or an individual 5
in a family unit. 6
(4) Information relating to the processing dis-7
position of each alien recording or encounter. 8
(5) Information relating to the nationality of 9
each alien who is the subject of each recording or 10
encounter. 11
(6) The total number of individuals included in 12
the terrorist screening database (as such term is de-13
fined in section 2101 of the Homeland Security Act 14
of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 621)) who have repeatedly at-15
tempted to cross unlawfully into the United States. 16
(7) The total number of individuals included in 17
the terrorist screening database who have been ap-18
prehended, including information relating to whether 19
such individuals were released into the United States 20
or removed. 21
(b) E
XCEPTIONS.—If the Commissioner of U.S. Cus-22
toms and Border Protection in any month does not publish 23
the information required under subsection (a), or does not 24
publish such information by the date specified in such sub-25
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section, the Commissioner shall brief the Committee on 1
Homeland Security of the House of Representatives and 2
the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 3
Affairs of the Senate regarding the reason relating there-4
to, as the case may be, by not later than the date that 5
is two business days after the tenth day of such month. 6
(c) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 7
(1) A
LIEN ENCOUNTERS.—The term ‘‘alien en-8
counters’’ means aliens apprehended, determined in-9
admissible, or processed for removal by U.S. Cus-10
toms and Border Protection. 11
(2) G
OT AWAY.—The term ‘‘got away’’ has the 12
meaning given such term in section 1092(a) of the 13
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 14
2017 (6 U.S.C. 223(a)). 15
(3) T
ERRORIST SCREENING DATABASE .—The 16
term ‘‘terrorist screening database’’ has the meaning 17
given such term in section 2101 of the Homeland 18
Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 621). 19
(4) U
NACCOMPANIED ALIEN CHILD .—The term 20
‘‘unaccompanied alien child’’ has the meaning given 21
such term in section 462(g) of the Homeland Secu-22
rity Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 279(g)). 23
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SEC. 119. ALIEN CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECKS. 1
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than seven days after 2
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Commissioner 3
shall certify to the Committee on Homeland Security and 4
the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Rep-5
resentatives and the Committee on Homeland Security 6
and Governmental Affairs and the Committee on the Judi-7
ciary of the Senate that CBP has real-time access to the 8
criminal history databases of all countries of origin and 9
transit for aliens encountered by CBP to perform criminal 10
history background checks for such aliens. 11
(b) S
TANDARDS.—The certification required under 12
subsection (a) shall also include a determination whether 13
the criminal history databases of a country are accurate, 14
up to date, digitized, searchable, and otherwise meet the 15
standards of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for 16
criminal history databases maintained by State and local 17
governments. 18
(c) C
ERTIFICATION.—The Secretary shall annually 19
submit to the Committee on Homeland Security and the 20
Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representa-21
tives and the Committee on Homeland Security and Gov-22
ernmental Affairs and the Committee on the Judiciary of 23
the Senate a certification that each database referred to 24
in subsection (b) which the Secretary accessed or sought 25
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to access pursuant to this section met the standards de-1
scribed in subsection (b). 2
SEC. 120. PROHIBITED IDENTIFICATION DOCUMENTS AT 3
AIRPORT SECURITY CHECKPOINTS; NOTIFI-4
CATION TO IMMIGRATION AGENCIES. 5
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Administrator may not ac-6
cept as valid proof of identification a prohibited identifica-7
tion document at an airport security checkpoint. 8
(b) N
OTIFICATION TOIMMIGRATIONAGENCIES.—If 9
an individual presents a prohibited identification docu-10
ment to an officer of the Transportation Security Admin-11
istration at an airport security checkpoint, the Adminis-12
trator shall promptly notify the Director of U.S. Immigra-13
tion and Customs Enforcement, the Director of U.S. Cus-14
toms and Border Protection, and the head of the appro-15
priate local law enforcement agency to determine whether 16
the individual is in violation of any term of release from 17
the custody of any such agency. 18
(c) E
NTRYINTOSTERILEAREAS.— 19
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-20
graph (2), if an individual is found to be in violation 21
of any term of release under subsection (b), the Ad-22
ministrator may not permit such individual to enter 23
a sterile area. 24
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(2) EXCEPTION.—An individual presenting a 1
prohibited identification document under this section 2
may enter a sterile area if the individual— 3
(A) is leaving the United States for the 4
purposes of removal or deportation; or 5
(B) presents a covered identification docu-6
ment. 7
(d) C
OLLECTION OFBIOMETRICINFORMATIONFROM 8
C
ERTAININDIVIDUALSSEEKINGENTRYINTO THESTER-9
ILEAREA OF ANAIRPORT.—Beginning not later than 120 10
days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Ad-11
ministrator shall collect biometric information from an in-12
dividual described in subsection (e) prior to authorizing 13
such individual to enter into a sterile area. 14
(e) I
NDIVIDUALDESCRIBED.—An individual de-15
scribed in this subsection is an individual who— 16
(1) is seeking entry into the sterile area of an 17
airport; 18
(2) does not present a covered identification 19
document; and 20
(3) the Administrator cannot verify is a na-21
tional of the United States. 22
(f) P
ARTICIPATION INIDENT.—Beginning not later 23
than 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, 24
the Administrator, in coordination with the Secretary, 25
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shall submit biometric data collected under this section to 1
the Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT). 2
(g) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 3
(1) A
DMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis-4
trator’’ means the Administrator of the Transpor-5
tation Security Administration. 6
(2) B
IOMETRIC INFORMATION .—The term ‘‘bio-7
metric information’’ means any of the following: 8
(A) A fingerprint. 9
(B) A palm print. 10
(C) A photograph, including— 11
(i) a photograph of an individual’s 12
face for use with facial recognition tech-13
nology; and 14
(ii) a photograph of any physical or 15
anatomical feature, such as a scar, skin 16
mark, or tattoo. 17
(D) A signature. 18
(E) A voice print. 19
(F) An iris image. 20
(3) C
OVERED IDENTIFICATION DOCUMENT .— 21
The term ‘‘covered identification document’’ means 22
any of the following, if the document is valid and 23
unexpired: 24
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(A) A United States passport or passport 1
card. 2
(B) A biometrically secure card issued by 3
a trusted traveler program of the Department 4
of Homeland Security, including— 5
(i) Global Entry; 6
(ii) Nexus; 7
(iii) Secure Electronic Network for 8
Travelers Rapid Inspection (SENTRI); 9
and 10
(iv) Free and Secure Trade (FAST). 11
(C) An identification card issued by the 12
Department of Defense, including such a card 13
issued to a dependent. 14
(D) Any document required for admission 15
to the United States under section 211(a) of 16
the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 17
1181(a)). 18
(E) An enhanced driver’s license issued by 19
a State. 20
(F) A photo identification card issued by a 21
federally recognized Indian Tribe. 22
(G) A personal identity verification creden-23
tial issued in accordance with Homeland Secu-24
rity Presidential Directive 12. 25
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(H) A driver’s license issued by a province 1
of Canada. 2
(I) A Secure Certificate of Indian Status 3
issued by the Government of Canada. 4
(J) A Transportation Worker Identifica-5
tion Credential. 6
(K) A Merchant Mariner Credential issued 7
by the Coast Guard. 8
(L) A Veteran Health Identification Card 9
issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs. 10
(M) Any other document the Administrator 11
determines, pursuant to a rule making in ac-12
cordance with section 553 of title 5, United 13
States Code, will satisfy the identity verification 14
procedures of the Transportation Security Ad-15
ministration. 16
(4) I
MMIGRATION LAWS.—The term ‘‘immigra-17
tion laws’’ has the meaning given that term in sec-18
tion 101 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 19
U.S.C. 1101). 20
(5) P
ROHIBITED IDENTIFICATION DOCU -21
MENT.—The term ‘‘prohibited identification docu-22
ment’’ means any of the following (or any applicable 23
successor form): 24
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(A) U.S. Immigration and Customs En-1
forcement Form I–200, Warrant for Arrest of 2
Alien. 3
(B) U.S. Immigration and Customs En-4
forcement Form I–205, Warrant of Removal/ 5
Deportation. 6
(C) U.S. Immigration and Customs En-7
forcement Form I–220A, Order of Release on 8
Recognizance. 9
(D) U.S. Immigration and Customs En-10
forcement Form I–220B, Order of Supervision. 11
(E) Department of Homeland Security 12
Form I–862, Notice to Appear. 13
(F) U.S. Customs and Border Protection 14
Form I–94, Arrival/Departure Record (includ-15
ing a print-out of an electronic record). 16
(G) Department of Homeland Security 17
Form I–385, Notice to Report. 18
(H) Any document that directs an indi-19
vidual to report to the Department of Home-20
land Security. 21
(I) Any Department of Homeland Security 22
work authorization or employment verification 23
document. 24
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(6) STERILE AREA.—The term ‘‘sterile area’’ 1
has the meaning given that term in section 1540.5 2
of title 49, Code of Federal Regulations, or any suc-3
cessor regulation. 4
SEC. 121. PROHIBITION AGAINST ANY COVID–19 VACCINE 5
MANDATE OR ADVERSE ACTION AGAINST 6
DHS EMPLOYEES. 7
(a) L
IMITATION ON IMPOSITION OF NEWMAN-8
DATE.—The Secretary may not issue any COVID–19 vac-9
cine mandate unless Congress expressly authorizes such 10
a mandate. 11
(b) P
ROHIBITION ONADVERSEACTION.—The Sec-12
retary may not take any adverse action against a Depart-13
ment employee based solely on the refusal of such em-14
ployee to receive a vaccine for COVID–19. 15
(c) R
EPORT.—Not later than 90 days after the date 16
of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall report 17
to the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of 18
Representatives and the Committee on Homeland Security 19
and Governmental Affairs of the Senate on the following: 20
(1) The number of Department employees who 21
were terminated or resigned due to the COVID–19 22
vaccine mandate. 23
(2) An estimate of the cost to reinstate such 24
employees. 25
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(3) How the Department would effectuate rein-1
statement of such employees. 2
(d) R
ETENTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF 3
U
NVACCINATEDEMPLOYEES.—The Secretary shall make 4
every effort to retain Department employees who are not 5
vaccinated against COVID–19 and provide such employees 6
with professional development, promotion and leadership 7
opportunities, and consideration equal to that of their 8
peers. 9
SEC. 122. CBP ONE APP LIMITATION. 10
(a) L
IMITATION.—The Department may use the CBP 11
One Mobile Application or any other similar program, ap-12
plication, internet-based portal, website, device, or initia-13
tive only for inspection of perishable cargo. 14
(b) R
EPORT.—Not later than 60 days after the date 15
of the enactment of this Act, the Commissioner shall re-16
port to the Committee on Homeland Security of the House 17
of Representatives and the Committee on Homeland Secu-18
rity and Governmental Affairs of the Senate the date on 19
which CBP began using CBP One to allow aliens to sched-20
ule interviews at land ports of entry, how many aliens have 21
scheduled interviews at land ports of entry using CBP 22
One, the nationalities of such aliens, and the stated final 23
destinations of such aliens within the United States, if 24
any. 25
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SEC. 123. REPORT ON MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS. 1
Not later than 60 days after the date of the enact-2
ment of this Act, Congress shall commission a report that 3
contains the following: 4
(1) A national strategy to address Mexican 5
drug cartels, and a determination regarding whether 6
there should be a designation established to address 7
such cartels. 8
(2) Information relating to actions by such car-9
tels that causes harm to the United States. 10
SEC. 124. GAO STUDY ON COSTS INCURRED BY STATES TO 11
SECURE THE SOUTHWEST BORDER. 12
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after the 13
date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General 14
of the United States shall conduct a study to examine the 15
costs incurred by individual States as a result of actions 16
taken by such States in support of the Federal mission 17
to secure the southwest border, and the feasibility of a 18
program to reimburse such States for such costs. 19
(b) C
ONTENTS.—The study required under sub-20
section (a) shall include consideration of the following: 21
(1) Actions taken by the Department of Home-22
land Security that have contributed to costs de-23
scribed in such subsection incurred by States to se-24
cure the border in the absence of Federal action, in-25
cluding the termination of the Migrant Protection 26
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Protocols and cancellation of border wall construc-1
tion. 2
(2) Actions taken by individual States along the 3
southwest border to secure their borders, and the 4
costs associated with such actions. 5
(3) The feasibility of a program within the De-6
partment of Homeland Security to reimburse States 7
for the costs incurred in support of the Federal mis-8
sion to secure the southwest border. 9
SEC. 125. REPORT BY INSPECTOR GENERAL OF THE DE-10
PARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY. 11
(a) R
EPORT.—Not later than one year after the date 12
of the enactment of this Act and annually thereafter for 13
five years, the Inspector General of the Department of 14
Homeland Security shall submit to the Committee on 15
Homeland Security of the House of Representatives and 16
the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 17
Affairs of the Senate a report examining the economic and 18
security impact of mass migration to municipalities and 19
States along the southwest border. Such report shall in-20
clude information regarding costs incurred by the fol-21
lowing: 22
(1) State and local law enforcement to secure 23
the southwest border. 24
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(2) Public school districts to educate students 1
who are aliens unlawfully present in the United 2
States. 3
(3) Healthcare providers to provide care to 4
aliens unlawfully present in the United States who 5
have not paid for such care. 6
(4) Farmers and ranchers due to migration im-7
pacts to their properties. 8
(b) C
ONSULTATION.—To produce the report required 9
under subsection (a), the Inspector General of the Depart-10
ment of Homeland Security shall consult with the individ-11
uals and representatives of the entities described in para-12
graphs (1) through (4) of such subsection. 13
SEC. 126. OFFSETTING AUTHORIZATIONS OF APPROPRIA-14
TIONS. 15
(a) O
FFICE OF THESECRETARY AND EMERGENCY 16
M
ANAGEMENT.—No funds are authorized to be appro-17
priated for the Alternatives to Detention Case Manage-18
ment Pilot Program or the Office of the Immigration De-19
tention Ombudsman for the Office of the Secretary and 20
Emergency Management of the Department of Homeland 21
Security. 22
(b) M
ANAGEMENTDIRECTORATE.—No funds are au-23
thorized to be appropriated for electric vehicles or St. Eliz-24
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abeths campus construction for the Management Direc-1
torate of the Department of Homeland Security. 2
(c) I
NTELLIGENCE, ANALYSIS, ANDSITUATIONAL 3
A
WARENESS.—There is authorized to be appropriated 4
$216,000,000 for Intelligence, Analysis, and Situational 5
Awareness of the Department of Homeland Security. 6
(d) U.S. C
USTOMS ANDBORDERPROTECTION.—No 7
funds are authorized to be appropriated for the Shelter 8
Services Program for U.S. Customs and Border Protec-9
tion. 10
SEC. 127. REPORT TO CONGRESS ON FOREIGN TERRORIST 11
ORGANIZATIONS. 12
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after the 13
date of the enactment of this Act and annually thereafter 14
for five years, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall 15
submit to the Committee on Homeland Security of the 16
House of Representatives and the Committee on Home-17
land Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate an 18
assessment of foreign terrorist organizations attempting 19
to move their members or affiliates into the United States 20
through the southern, northern, or maritime border. 21
(b) D
EFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘‘foreign 22
terrorist organization’’ means an organization described in 23
section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 24
U.S.C. 1189). 25
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SEC. 128. ASSESSMENT BY INSPECTOR GENERAL OF THE 1
DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY ON 2
THE MITIGATION OF UNMANNED AIRCRAFT 3
SYSTEMS AT THE SOUTHWEST BORDER. 4
Not later than 90 days after the date of the enact-5
ment of this Act, the Inspector General of the Department 6
of Homeland Security shall submit to the Committee on 7
Homeland Security of the House of Representatives and 8
the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 9
Affairs of the Senate an assessment of U.S. Customs and 10
Border Protection’s ability to mitigate unmanned aircraft 11
systems at the southwest border. Such assessment shall 12
include information regarding any intervention between 13
January 1, 2021, and the date of the enactment of this 14
Act, by any Federal agency affecting in any manner U.S. 15
Customs and Border Protection’s authority to so mitigate 16
such systems. 17
DIVISION B—IMMIGRATION EN-18
FORCEMENT AND FOREIGN 19
AFFAIRS 20
TITLE I—ASYLUM REFORM AND 21
BORDER PROTECTION 22
SEC. 101. SAFE THIRD COUNTRY. 23
Section 208(a)(2)(A) of the Immigration and Nation-24
ality Act (8 U.S.C. 1158(a)(2)(A)) is amended— 25
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(1) by striking ‘‘if the Attorney General deter-1
mines’’ and inserting ‘‘if the Attorney General or the 2
Secretary of Homeland Security determines—’’; 3
(2) by striking ‘‘that the alien may be removed’’ 4
and inserting the following: 5
‘‘(i) that the alien may be removed’’; 6
(3) by striking ‘‘, pursuant to a bilateral or 7
multilateral agreement, to’’ and inserting ‘‘to’’; 8
(4) by inserting ‘‘or the Secretary, on a case by 9
case basis,’’ before ‘‘finds that’’; 10
(5) by striking the period at the end and insert-11
ing ‘‘; or’’; and 12
(6) by adding at the end the following: 13
‘‘(ii) that the alien entered, attempted to enter, 14
or arrived in the United States after transiting 15
through at least one country outside the alien’s 16
country of citizenship, nationality, or last lawful ha-17
bitual residence en route to the United States, un-18
less— 19
‘‘(I) the alien demonstrates that he or she 20
applied for protection from persecution or tor-21
ture in at least one country outside the alien’s 22
country of citizenship, nationality, or last lawful 23
habitual residence through which the alien 24
transited en route to the United States, and the 25
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alien received a final judgment denying the 1
alien protection in each country; 2
‘‘(II) the alien demonstrates that he or she 3
was a victim of a severe form of trafficking in 4
which a commercial sex act was induced by 5
force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person 6
induced to perform such act was under the age 7
of 18 years; or in which the trafficking included 8
the recruitment, harboring, transportation, pro-9
vision, or obtaining of a person for labor or 10
services through the use of force, fraud, or coer-11
cion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary 12
servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery, 13
and was unable to apply for protection from 14
persecution in each country through which the 15
alien transited en route to the United States as 16
a result of such severe form of trafficking; or 17
‘‘(III) the only countries through which the 18
alien transited en route to the United States 19
were, at the time of the transit, not parties to 20
the 1951 United Nations Convention relating to 21
the Status of Refugees, the 1967 Protocol Re-22
lating to the Status of Refugees, or the United 23
Nations Convention against Torture and Other 24
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Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or 1
Punishment.’’. 2
SEC. 102. CREDIBLE FEAR INTERVIEWS. 3
Section 235(b)(1)(B)(v) of the Immigration and Na-4
tionality Act (8 U.S.C. 1225(b)(1)(B)(v)) is amended by 5
striking ‘‘there is a significant possibility’’ and all that fol-6
lows, and inserting ‘‘, taking into account the credibility 7
of the statements made by the alien in support of the 8
alien’s claim, as determined pursuant to section 9
208(b)(1)(B)(iii), and such other facts as are known to 10
the officer, the alien more likely than not could establish 11
eligibility for asylum under section 208, and it is more 12
likely than not that the statements made by, and on behalf 13
of, the alien in support of the alien’s claim are true.’’. 14
SEC. 103. CLARIFICATION OF ASYLUM ELIGIBILITY. 15
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 208(b)(1)(A) of the Im-16
migration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1158(b)(1)(A)) 17
is amended by inserting after ‘‘section 101(a)(42)(A)’’ the 18
following: ‘‘(in accordance with the rules set forth in this 19
section), and is eligible to apply for asylum under sub-20
section (a)’’. 21
(b) P
LACE OFARRIVAL.—Section 208(a)(1) of the 22
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1158(a)(1)) 23
is amended— 24
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(1) by striking ‘‘or who arrives in the United 1
States (whether or not at a designated port of ar-2
rival and including an alien who is brought to the 3
United States after having been interdicted in inter-4
national or United States waters),’’; and 5
(2) by inserting after ‘‘United States’’ the fol-6
lowing: ‘‘and has arrived in the United States at a 7
port of entry (including an alien who is brought to 8
the United States after having been interdicted in 9
international or United States waters),’’. 10
SEC. 104. EXCEPTIONS. 11
Paragraph (2) of section 208(b) of the Immigration 12
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1158(b)(2)) is amended to 13
read as follows: 14
‘‘(2) E
XCEPTIONS.— 15
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Paragraph (1) shall 16
not apply to an alien if the Secretary of Home-17
land Security or the Attorney General deter-18
mines that— 19
‘‘(i) the alien ordered, incited, as-20
sisted, or otherwise participated in the per-21
secution of any person on account of race, 22
religion, nationality, membership in a par-23
ticular social group, or political opinion; 24
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‘‘(ii) the alien has been convicted of 1
any felony under Federal, State, tribal, or 2
local law; 3
‘‘(iii) the alien has been convicted of 4
any misdemeanor offense under Federal, 5
State, tribal, or local law involving— 6
‘‘(I) the unlawful possession or 7
use of an identification document, au-8
thentication feature, or false identi-9
fication document (as those terms and 10
phrases are defined in the jurisdiction 11
where the conviction occurred), unless 12
the alien can establish that the convic-13
tion resulted from circumstances 14
showing that— 15
‘‘(aa) the document or fea-16
ture was presented before board-17
ing a common carrier; 18
‘‘(bb) the document or fea-19
ture related to the alien’s eligi-20
bility to enter the United States; 21
‘‘(cc) the alien used the doc-22
ument or feature to depart a 23
country wherein the alien has 24
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claimed a fear of persecution; 1
and 2
‘‘(dd) the alien claimed a 3
fear of persecution without delay 4
upon presenting himself or her-5
self to an immigration officer 6
upon arrival at a United States 7
port of entry; 8
‘‘(II) the unlawful receipt of a 9
Federal public benefit (as defined in 10
section 401(c) of the Personal Re-11
sponsibility and Work Opportunity 12
Reconciliation Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 13
1611(c))), from a Federal entity, or 14
the unlawful receipt of similar public 15
benefits from a State, tribal, or local 16
entity; or 17
‘‘(III) possession or trafficking of 18
a controlled substance or controlled 19
substance paraphernalia, as those 20
phrases are defined under the law of 21
the jurisdiction where the conviction 22
occurred, other than a single offense 23
involving possession for one’s own use 24
of 30 grams or less of marijuana (as 25
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marijuana is defined under the law of 1
the jurisdiction where the conviction 2
occurred); 3
‘‘(iv) the alien has been convicted of 4
an offense arising under paragraph (1)(A) 5
or (2) of section 274(a), or under section 6
276; 7
‘‘(v) the alien has been convicted of a 8
Federal, State, tribal, or local crime that 9
the Attorney General or Secretary of 10
Homeland Security knows, or has reason 11
to believe, was committed in support, pro-12
motion, or furtherance of the activity of a 13
criminal street gang (as defined under the 14
law of the jurisdiction where the conviction 15
occurred or in section 521(a) of title 18, 16
United States Code); 17
‘‘(vi) the alien has been convicted of 18
an offense for driving while intoxicated or 19
impaired, as those terms are defined under 20
the law of the jurisdiction where the con-21
viction occurred (including a conviction for 22
driving while under the influence of or im-23
paired by alcohol or drugs), without regard 24
to whether the conviction is classified as a 25
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misdemeanor or felony under Federal, 1
State, tribal, or local law, in which such in-2
toxicated or impaired driving was a cause 3
of serious bodily injury or death of another 4
person; 5
‘‘(vii) the alien has been convicted of 6
more than one offense for driving while in-7
toxicated or impaired, as those terms are 8
defined under the law of the jurisdiction 9
where the conviction occurred (including a 10
conviction for driving while under the in-11
fluence of or impaired by alcohol or drugs), 12
without regard to whether the conviction is 13
classified as a misdemeanor or felony 14
under Federal, State, tribal, or local law; 15
‘‘(viii) the alien has been convicted of 16
a crime— 17
‘‘(I) that involves conduct 18
amounting to a crime of stalking; 19
‘‘(II) of child abuse, child ne-20
glect, or child abandonment; or 21
‘‘(III) that involves conduct 22
amounting to a domestic assault or 23
battery offense, including— 24
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‘‘(aa) a misdemeanor crime 1
of domestic violence, as described 2
in section 921(a)(33) of title 18, 3
United States Code; 4
‘‘(bb) a crime of domestic vi-5
olence, as described in section 6
40002(a)(12) of the Violence 7
Against Women Act of 1994 (34 8
U.S.C. 12291(a)(12)); or 9
‘‘(cc) any crime based on 10
conduct in which the alien har-11
assed, coerced, intimidated, vol-12
untarily or recklessly used (or 13
threatened to use) force or vio-14
lence against, or inflicted phys-15
ical injury or physical pain, how-16
ever slight, upon a person— 17
‘‘(AA) who is a current 18
or former spouse of the 19
alien; 20
‘‘(BB) with whom the 21
alien shares a child; 22
‘‘(CC) who is cohabi-23
tating with, or who has 24
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cohabitated with, the alien 1
as a spouse; 2
‘‘(DD) who is similarly 3
situated to a spouse of the 4
alien under the domestic or 5
family violence laws of the 6
jurisdiction where the of-7
fense occurred; or 8
‘‘(EE) who is protected 9
from that alien’s acts under 10
the domestic or family vio-11
lence laws of the United 12
States or of any State, tribal 13
government, or unit of local 14
government; 15
‘‘(ix) the alien has engaged in acts of 16
battery or extreme cruelty upon a person 17
and the person— 18
‘‘(I) is a current or former 19
spouse of the alien; 20
‘‘(II) shares a child with the 21
alien; 22
‘‘(III) cohabitates or has 23
cohabitated with the alien as a spouse; 24
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‘‘(IV) is similarly situated to a 1
spouse of the alien under the domestic 2
or family violence laws of the jurisdic-3
tion where the offense occurred; or 4
‘‘(V) is protected from that 5
alien’s acts under the domestic or 6
family violence laws of the United 7
States or of any State, tribal govern-8
ment, or unit of local government; 9
‘‘(x) the alien, having been convicted 10
by a final judgment of a particularly seri-11
ous crime, constitutes a danger to the com-12
munity of the United States; 13
‘‘(xi) there are serious reasons for be-14
lieving that the alien has committed a seri-15
ous nonpolitical crime outside the United 16
States prior to the arrival of the alien in 17
the United States; 18
‘‘(xii) there are reasonable grounds 19
for regarding the alien as a danger to the 20
security of the United States; 21
‘‘(xiii) the alien is described in sub-22
clause (I), (II), (III), (IV), or (VI) of sec-23
tion 212(a)(3)(B)(i) or section 24
237(a)(4)(B) (relating to terrorist activ-25
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ity), unless, in the case only of an alien in-1
admissible under subclause (IV) of section 2
212(a)(3)(B)(i), the Secretary of Home-3
land Security or the Attorney General de-4
termines, in the Secretary’s or the Attor-5
ney General’s discretion, that there are not 6
reasonable grounds for regarding the alien 7
as a danger to the security of the United 8
States; 9
‘‘(xiv) the alien was firmly resettled in 10
another country prior to arriving in the 11
United States; or 12
‘‘(xv) there are reasonable grounds for 13
concluding the alien could avoid persecu-14
tion by relocating to another part of the 15
alien’s country of nationality or, in the 16
case of an alien having no nationality, an-17
other part of the alien’s country of last ha-18
bitual residence. 19
‘‘(B) S
PECIAL RULES.— 20
‘‘(i) P
ARTICULARLY SERIOUS CRIME ; 21
SERIOUS NONPOLITICAL CRIME OUTSIDE 22
THE UNITED STATES.— 23
‘‘(I) I
N GENERAL.—For purposes 24
of subparagraph (A)(x), the Attorney 25
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General or Secretary of Homeland Se-1
curity, in their discretion, may deter-2
mine that a conviction constitutes a 3
particularly serious crime based on— 4
‘‘(aa) the nature of the con-5
viction; 6
‘‘(bb) the type of sentence 7
imposed; or 8
‘‘(cc) the circumstances and 9
underlying facts of the convic-10
tion. 11
‘‘(II) D
ETERMINATION.—In mak-12
ing a determination under subclause 13
(I), the Attorney General or Secretary 14
of Homeland Security may consider 15
all reliable information and is not lim-16
ited to facts found by the criminal 17
court or provided in the underlying 18
record of conviction. 19
‘‘(III) T
REATMENT OF FELO -20
NIES.—In making a determination 21
under subclause (I), an alien who has 22
been convicted of a felony (as defined 23
under this section) or an aggravated 24
felony (as defined under section 25
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101(a)(43)), shall be considered to 1
have been convicted of a particularly 2
serious crime. 3
‘‘(IV) I
NTERPOL RED NOTICE .— 4
In making a determination under sub-5
paragraph (A)(xi), an Interpol Red 6
Notice may constitute reliable evi-7
dence that the alien has committed a 8
serious nonpolitical crime outside the 9
United States. 10
‘‘(ii) C
RIMES AND EXCEPTIONS .— 11
‘‘(I) D
RIVING WHILE INTOXI -12
CATED OR IMPAIRED .—A finding 13
under subparagraph (A)(vi) does not 14
require the Attorney General or Sec-15
retary of Homeland Security to find 16
the first conviction for driving while 17
intoxicated or impaired (including a 18
conviction for driving while under the 19
influence of or impaired by alcohol or 20
drugs) as a predicate offense. The At-21
torney General or Secretary of Home-22
land Security need only make a fac-23
tual determination that the alien pre-24
viously was convicted for driving while 25
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intoxicated or impaired as those terms 1
are defined under the jurisdiction 2
where the conviction occurred (includ-3
ing a conviction for driving while 4
under the influence of or impaired by 5
alcohol or drugs). 6
‘‘(II) S
TALKING AND OTHER 7
CRIMES.—In making a determination 8
under subparagraph (A)(viii), includ-9
ing determining the existence of a do-10
mestic relationship between the alien 11
and the victim, the underlying conduct 12
of the crime may be considered, and 13
the Attorney General or Secretary of 14
Homeland Security is not limited to 15
facts found by the criminal court or 16
provided in the underlying record of 17
conviction. 18
‘‘(III) B
ATTERY OR EXTREME 19
CRUELTY.—In making a determina-20
tion under subparagraph (A)(ix), the 21
phrase ‘battery or extreme cruelty’ in-22
cludes— 23
‘‘(aa) any act or threatened 24
act of violence, including any 25
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forceful detention, which results 1
or threatens to result in physical 2
or mental injury; 3
‘‘(bb) psychological or sexual 4
abuse or exploitation, including 5
rape, molestation, incest, or 6
forced prostitution, shall be con-7
sidered acts of violence; and 8
‘‘(cc) other abusive acts, in-9
cluding acts that, in and of them-10
selves, may not initially appear 11
violent, but that are a part of an 12
overall pattern of violence. 13
‘‘(IV) E
XCEPTION FOR VICTIMS 14
OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE .—An alien 15
who was convicted of an offense de-16
scribed in clause (viii) or (ix) of sub-17
paragraph (A) is not ineligible for 18
asylum on that basis if the alien satis-19
fies the criteria under section 20
237(a)(7)(A). 21
‘‘(C) S
PECIFIC CIRCUMSTANCES .—Para-22
graph (1) shall not apply to an alien whose 23
claim is based on— 24
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‘‘(i) personal animus or retribution, 1
including personal animus in which the al-2
leged persecutor has not targeted, or mani-3
fested an animus against, other members 4
of an alleged particular social group in ad-5
dition to the member who has raised the 6
claim at issue; 7
‘‘(ii) the applicant’s generalized dis-8
approval of, disagreement with, or opposi-9
tion to criminal, terrorist, gang, guerilla, 10
or other non-state organizations absent ex-11
pressive behavior in furtherance of a dis-12
crete cause against such organizations re-13
lated to control of a State or expressive be-14
havior that is antithetical to the State or 15
a legal unit of the State; 16
‘‘(iii) the applicant’s resistance to re-17
cruitment or coercion by guerrilla, crimi-18
nal, gang, terrorist, or other non-state or-19
ganizations; 20
‘‘(iv) the targeting of the applicant for 21
criminal activity for financial gain based 22
on wealth or affluence or perceptions of 23
wealth or affluence; 24
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‘‘(v) the applicant’s criminal activity; 1
or 2
‘‘(vi) the applicant’s perceived, past or 3
present, gang affiliation. 4
‘‘(D) D
EFINITIONS AND CLARIFICA -5
TIONS.— 6
‘‘(i) D
EFINITIONS.—For purposes of 7
this paragraph: 8
‘‘(I) F
ELONY.—The term ‘felony’ 9
means— 10
‘‘(aa) any crime defined as a 11
felony by the relevant jurisdiction 12
(Federal, State, tribal, or local) 13
of conviction; or 14
‘‘(bb) any crime punishable 15
by more than one year of impris-16
onment. 17
‘‘(II) M
ISDEMEANOR.—The term 18
‘misdemeanor’ means— 19
‘‘(aa) any crime defined as a 20
misdemeanor by the relevant ju-21
risdiction (Federal, State, tribal, 22
or local) of conviction; or 23
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‘‘(bb) any crime not punish-1
able by more than one year of 2
imprisonment. 3
‘‘(ii) C
LARIFICATIONS.— 4
‘‘(I) C
ONSTRUCTION.—For pur-5
poses of this paragraph, whether any 6
activity or conviction also may con-7
stitute a basis for removal is immate-8
rial to a determination of asylum eli-9
gibility. 10
‘‘(II) A
TTEMPT, CONSPIRACY, OR 11
SOLICITATION.—For purposes of this 12
paragraph, all references to a criminal 13
offense or criminal conviction shall be 14
deemed to include any attempt, con-15
spiracy, or solicitation to commit the 16
offense or any other inchoate form of 17
the offense. 18
‘‘(III) E
FFECT OF CERTAIN OR -19
DERS.— 20
‘‘(aa) I
N GENERAL .—No 21
order vacating a conviction, 22
modifying a sentence, clarifying a 23
sentence, or otherwise altering a 24
conviction or sentence shall have 25
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any effect under this paragraph 1
unless the Attorney General or 2
Secretary of Homeland Security 3
determines that— 4
‘‘(AA) the court issuing 5
the order had jurisdiction 6
and authority to do so; and 7
‘‘(BB) the order was 8
not entered for rehabilitative 9
purposes or for purposes of 10
ameliorating the immigra-11
tion consequences of the 12
conviction or sentence. 13
‘‘(bb) A
MELIORATING IMMI-14
GRATION CONSEQUENCES .—For 15
purposes of item (aa)(BB), the 16
order shall be presumed to be for 17
the purpose of ameliorating im-18
migration consequences if— 19
‘‘(AA) the order was 20
entered after the initiation 21
of any proceeding to remove 22
the alien from the United 23
States; or 24
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‘‘(BB) the alien moved 1
for the order more than one 2
year after the date of the 3
original order of conviction 4
or sentencing, whichever is 5
later. 6
‘‘(cc) A
UTHORITY OF IMMI -7
GRATION JUDGE.—An immigra-8
tion judge is not limited to con-9
sideration only of material in-10
cluded in any order vacating a 11
conviction, modifying a sentence, 12
or clarifying a sentence to deter-13
mine whether such order should 14
be given any effect under this 15
paragraph, but may consider 16
such additional information as 17
the immigration judge determines 18
appropriate. 19
‘‘(E) A
DDITIONAL LIMITATIONS .—The 20
Secretary of Homeland Security or the Attorney 21
General may by regulation establish additional 22
limitations and conditions, consistent with this 23
section, under which an alien shall be ineligible 24
for asylum under paragraph (1). 25
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‘‘(F) NO JUDICIAL REVIEW.—There shall 1
be no judicial review of a determination of the 2
Secretary of Homeland Security or the Attorney 3
General under subparagraph (A)(xiii).’’. 4
SEC. 105. EMPLOYMENT AUTHORIZATION. 5
Paragraph (2) of section 208(d) of the Immigration 6
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1158(d)) is amended to 7
read as follows: 8
‘‘(2) E
MPLOYMENT AUTHORIZATION .— 9
‘‘(A) A
UTHORIZATION PERMITTED .—An 10
applicant for asylum is not entitled to employ-11
ment authorization, but such authorization may 12
be provided under regulation by the Secretary 13
of Homeland Security. An applicant who is not 14
otherwise eligible for employment authorization 15
shall not be granted such authorization prior to 16
the date that is 180 days after the date of filing 17
of the application for asylum. 18
‘‘(B) T
ERMINATION.—Each grant of em-19
ployment authorization under subparagraph 20
(A), and any renewal or extension thereof, shall 21
be valid for a period of 6 months, except that 22
such authorization, renewal, or extension shall 23
terminate prior to the end of such 6 month pe-24
riod as follows: 25
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‘‘(i) Immediately following the denial 1
of an asylum application by an asylum offi-2
cer, unless the case is referred to an immi-3
gration judge. 4
‘‘(ii) 30 days after the date on which 5
an immigration judge denies an asylum ap-6
plication, unless the alien timely appeals to 7
the Board of Immigration Appeals. 8
‘‘(iii) Immediately following the denial 9
by the Board of Immigration Appeals of an 10
appeal of a denial of an asylum applica-11
tion. 12
‘‘(C) R
ENEWAL.—The Secretary of Home-13
land Security may not grant, renew, or extend 14
employment authorization to an alien if the 15
alien was previously granted employment au-16
thorization under subparagraph (A), and the 17
employment authorization was terminated pur-18
suant to a circumstance described in subpara-19
graph (B)(i), (ii), or (iii), unless a Federal 20
court of appeals remands the alien’s case to the 21
Board of Immigration Appeals. 22
‘‘(D) I
NELIGIBILITY.—The Secretary of 23
Homeland Security may not grant employment 24
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authorization to an alien under this paragraph 1
if the alien— 2
‘‘(i) is ineligible for asylum under sub-3
section (b)(2)(A); or 4
‘‘(ii) entered or attempted to enter the 5
United States at a place and time other 6
than lawfully through a United States port 7
of entry.’’. 8
SEC. 106. ASYLUM FEES. 9
Paragraph (3) of section 208(d) of the Immigration 10
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1158(d)) is amended to 11
read as follows: 12
‘‘(3) F
EES.— 13
‘‘(A) A
PPLICATION FEE.—A fee of not less 14
than $50 for each application for asylum shall 15
be imposed. Such fee shall not exceed the cost 16
of adjudicating the application. Such fee shall 17
not apply to an unaccompanied alien child who 18
files an asylum application in proceedings under 19
section 240. 20
‘‘(B) E
MPLOYMENT AUTHORIZATION .—A 21
fee may also be imposed for the consideration 22
of an application for employment authorization 23
under this section and for adjustment of status 24
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under section 209(b). Such a fee shall not ex-1
ceed the cost of adjudicating the application. 2
‘‘(C) P
AYMENT.—Fees under this para-3
graph may be assessed and paid over a period 4
of time or by installments. 5
‘‘(D) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—Nothing 6
in this paragraph shall be construed to limit the 7
authority of the Attorney General or Secretary 8
of Homeland Security to set adjudication and 9
naturalization fees in accordance with section 10
286(m).’’. 11
SEC. 107. RULES FOR DETERMINING ASYLUM ELIGIBILITY. 12
Section 208 of the Immigration and Nationality Act 13
(8 U.S.C. 1158) is amended by adding at the end the fol-14
lowing: 15
‘‘(f) R
ULES FOR DETERMININGASYLUMELIGI-16
BILITY.—In making a determination under subsection 17
(b)(1)(A) with respect to whether an alien is a refugee 18
within the meaning of section 101(a)(42)(A), the following 19
shall apply: 20
‘‘(1) P
ARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUP .—The Sec-21
retary of Homeland Security or the Attorney Gen-22
eral shall not determine that an alien is a member 23
of a particular social group unless the alien articu-24
lates on the record, or provides a basis on the record 25
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for determining, the definition and boundaries of the 1
alleged particular social group, establishes that the 2
particular social group exists independently from the 3
alleged persecution, and establishes that the alien’s 4
claim of membership in a particular social group 5
does not involve— 6
‘‘(A) past or present criminal activity or 7
association (including gang membership); 8
‘‘(B) presence in a country with general-9
ized violence or a high crime rate; 10
‘‘(C) being the subject of a recruitment ef-11
fort by criminal, terrorist, or persecutory 12
groups; 13
‘‘(D) the targeting of the applicant for 14
criminal activity for financial gain based on per-15
ceptions of wealth or affluence; 16
‘‘(E) interpersonal disputes of which gov-17
ernmental authorities in the relevant society or 18
region were unaware or uninvolved; 19
‘‘(F) private criminal acts of which govern-20
mental authorities in the relevant society or re-21
gion were unaware or uninvolved; 22
‘‘(G) past or present terrorist activity or 23
association; 24
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‘‘(H) past or present persecutory activity 1
or association; or 2
‘‘(I) status as an alien returning from the 3
United States. 4
‘‘(2) P
OLITICAL OPINION.—The Secretary of 5
Homeland Security or the Attorney General may not 6
determine that an alien holds a political opinion with 7
respect to which the alien is subject to persecution 8
if the political opinion is constituted solely by gener-9
alized disapproval of, disagreement with, or opposi-10
tion to criminal, terrorist, gang, guerilla, or other 11
non-state organizations and does not include expres-12
sive behavior in furtherance of a cause against such 13
organizations related to efforts by the State to con-14
trol such organizations or behavior that is antithet-15
ical to or otherwise opposes the ruling legal entity of 16
the State or a unit thereof. 17
‘‘(3) P
ERSECUTION.—The Secretary of Home-18
land Security or the Attorney General may not de-19
termine that an alien has been subject to persecution 20
or has a well-founded fear of persecution based only 21
on— 22
‘‘(A) the existence of laws or government 23
policies that are unenforced or infrequently en-24
forced, unless there is credible evidence that 25
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such a law or policy has been or would be ap-1
plied to the applicant personally; or 2
‘‘(B) the conduct of rogue foreign govern-3
ment officials acting outside the scope of their 4
official capacity. 5
‘‘(4) D
ISCRETIONARY DETERMINATION .— 6
‘‘(A) A
DVERSE DISCRETIONARY FAC -7
TORS.—The Secretary of Homeland Security or 8
the Attorney General may only grant asylum to 9
an alien if the alien establishes that he or she 10
warrants a favorable exercise of discretion. In 11
making such a determination, the Attorney 12
General or Secretary of Homeland Security 13
shall consider, if applicable, an alien’s use of 14
fraudulent documents to enter the United 15
States, unless the alien arrived in the United 16
States by air, sea, or land directly from the ap-17
plicant’s home country without transiting 18
through any other country. 19
‘‘(B) F
AVORABLE EXERCISE OF DISCRE -20
TION NOT PERMITTED .—Except as provided in 21
subparagraph (C), the Attorney General or Sec-22
retary of Homeland Security shall not favorably 23
exercise discretion under this section for any 24
alien who— 25
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‘‘(i) has accrued more than one year 1
of unlawful presence in the United States, 2
as defined in sections 212(a)(9)(B)(ii) and 3
(iii), prior to filing an application for asy-4
lum; 5
‘‘(ii) at the time the asylum applica-6
tion is filed with the immigration court or 7
is referred from the Department of Home-8
land Security, has— 9
‘‘(I) failed to timely file (or time-10
ly file a request for an extension of 11
time to file) any required Federal, 12
State, or local income tax returns; 13
‘‘(II) failed to satisfy any out-14
standing Federal, State, or local tax 15
obligations; or 16
‘‘(III) income that would result 17
in tax liability under section 1 of the 18
Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and 19
that was not reported to the Internal 20
Revenue Service; 21
‘‘(iii) has had two or more prior asy-22
lum applications denied for any reason; 23
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‘‘(iv) has withdrawn a prior asylum 1
application with prejudice or been found to 2
have abandoned a prior asylum application; 3
‘‘(v) failed to attend an interview re-4
garding his or her asylum application with 5
the Department of Homeland Security, un-6
less the alien shows by a preponderance of 7
the evidence that— 8
‘‘(I) exceptional circumstances 9
prevented the alien from attending the 10
interview; or 11
‘‘(II) the interview notice was not 12
mailed to the last address provided by 13
the alien or the alien’s representative 14
and neither the alien nor the alien’s 15
representative received notice of the 16
interview; or 17
‘‘(vi) was subject to a final order of 18
removal, deportation, or exclusion and did 19
not file a motion to reopen to seek asylum 20
based on changed country conditions with-21
in one year of the change in country condi-22
tions. 23
‘‘(C) E
XCEPTIONS.—If one or more of the 24
adverse discretionary factors set forth in sub-25
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paragraph (B) are present, the Attorney Gen-1
eral or the Secretary, may, notwithstanding 2
such subparagraph (B), favorably exercise dis-3
cretion under section 208— 4
‘‘(i) in extraordinary circumstances, 5
such as those involving national security or 6
foreign policy considerations; or 7
‘‘(ii) if the alien, by clear and con-8
vincing evidence, demonstrates that the de-9
nial of the application for asylum would re-10
sult in exceptional and extremely unusual 11
hardship to the alien. 12
‘‘(5) L
IMITATION.—If the Secretary or the At-13
torney General determines that an alien fails to sat-14
isfy the requirement under paragraph (1), the alien 15
may not be granted asylum based on membership in 16
a particular social group, and may not appeal the 17
determination of the Secretary or Attorney General, 18
as applicable. A determination under this paragraph 19
shall not serve as the basis for any motion to reopen 20
or reconsider an application for asylum or with-21
holding of removal for any reason, including a claim 22
of ineffective assistance of counsel, unless the alien 23
complies with the procedural requirements for such 24
a motion and demonstrates that counsel’s failure to 25
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define, or provide a basis for defining, a formulation 1
of a particular social group was both not a strategic 2
choice and constituted egregious conduct. 3
‘‘(6) S
TEREOTYPES.—Evidence offered in sup-4
port of an application for asylum that promotes cul-5
tural stereotypes about a country, its inhabitants, or 6
an alleged persecutor, including stereotypes based on 7
race, religion, nationality, or gender, shall not be ad-8
missible in adjudicating that application, except that 9
evidence that an alleged persecutor holds 10
stereotypical views of the applicant shall be admis-11
sible. 12
‘‘(7) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 13
‘‘(A) The term ‘membership in a particular 14
social group’ means membership in a group 15
that is— 16
‘‘(i) composed of members who share 17
a common immutable characteristic; 18
‘‘(ii) defined with particularity; and 19
‘‘(iii) socially distinct within the soci-20
ety in question. 21
‘‘(B) The term ‘political opinion’ means an 22
ideal or conviction in support of the furtherance 23
of a discrete cause related to political control of 24
a state or a unit thereof. 25
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‘‘(C) The term ‘persecution’ means the in-1
fliction of a severe level of harm constituting an 2
exigent threat by the government of a country 3
or by persons or an organization that the gov-4
ernment was unable or unwilling to control. 5
Such term does not include— 6
‘‘(i) generalized harm or violence that 7
arises out of civil, criminal, or military 8
strife in a country; 9
‘‘(ii) all treatment that the United 10
States regards as unfair, offensive, unjust, 11
unlawful, or unconstitutional; 12
‘‘(iii) intermittent harassment, includ-13
ing brief detentions; 14
‘‘(iv) threats with no actual effort to 15
carry out the threats, except that particu-16
larized threats of severe harm of an imme-17
diate and menacing nature made by an 18
identified entity may constitute persecu-19
tion; or 20
‘‘(v) non-severe economic harm or 21
property damage.’’. 22
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SEC. 108. FIRM RESETTLEMENT. 1
Section 208 of the Immigration and Nationality Act 2
(8 U.S.C. 1158), as amended by this title, is further 3
amended by adding at the end the following: 4
‘‘(g) F
IRMRESETTLEMENT.—In determining wheth-5
er an alien was firmly resettled in another country prior 6
to arriving in the United States under subsection 7
(b)(2)(A)(xiv), the following shall apply: 8
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—An alien shall be consid-9
ered to have firmly resettled in another country if, 10
after the events giving rise to the alien’s asylum 11
claim— 12
‘‘(A) the alien resided in a country through 13
which the alien transited prior to arriving in or 14
entering the United States and— 15
‘‘(i) received or was eligible for any 16
permanent legal immigration status in that 17
country; 18
‘‘(ii) resided in such a country with 19
any non-permanent but indefinitely renew-20
able legal immigration status (including 21
asylee, refugee, or similar status, but ex-22
cluding status of a tourist); or 23
‘‘(iii) resided in such a country and 24
could have applied for and obtained an im-25
migration status described in clause (ii); 26
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‘‘(B) the alien physically resided volun-1
tarily, and without continuing to suffer persecu-2
tion or torture, in any one country for one year 3
or more after departing his country of nation-4
ality or last habitual residence and prior to ar-5
rival in or entry into the United States, except 6
for any time spent in Mexico by an alien who 7
is not a native or citizen of Mexico solely as a 8
direct result of being returned to Mexico pursu-9
ant to section 235(b)(3) or of being subject to 10
metering; or 11
‘‘(C) the alien is a citizen of a country 12
other than the country in which the alien al-13
leges a fear of persecution, or was a citizen of 14
such a country in the case of an alien who re-15
nounces such citizenship, and the alien was 16
present in that country after departing his 17
country of nationality or last habitual residence 18
and prior to arrival in or entry into the United 19
States. 20
‘‘(2) B
URDEN OF PROOF .—If an immigration 21
judge determines that an alien has firmly resettled 22
in another country under paragraph (1), the alien 23
shall bear the burden of proving the bar does not 24
apply. 25
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‘‘(3) FIRM RESETTLEMENT OF PARENT .—An 1
alien shall be presumed to have been firmly resettled 2
in another country if the alien’s parent was firmly 3
resettled in another country, the parent’s resettle-4
ment occurred before the alien turned 18 years of 5
age, and the alien resided with such parent at the 6
time of the firm resettlement, unless the alien estab-7
lishes that he or she could not have derived any per-8
manent legal immigration status or any non-perma-9
nent but indefinitely renewable legal immigration 10
status (including asylum, refugee, or similar status, 11
but excluding status of a tourist) from the alien’s 12
parent.’’. 13
SEC. 109. NOTICE CONCERNING FRIVOLOUS ASYLUM AP-14
PLICATIONS. 15
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 208(d)(4) of the Immi-16
gration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1158(d)(4)) is 17
amended— 18
(1) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), 19
by inserting ‘‘the Secretary of Homeland Security 20
or’’ before ‘‘the Attorney General’’; 21
(2) in subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘and of 22
the consequences, under paragraph (6), of knowingly 23
filing a frivolous application for asylum; and’’ and 24
inserting a semicolon; 25
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(3) in subparagraph (B), by striking the period 1
and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 2
(4) by adding at the end the following: 3
‘‘(C) ensure that a written warning ap-4
pears on the asylum application advising the 5
alien of the consequences of filing a frivolous 6
application and serving as notice to the alien of 7
the consequence of filing a frivolous applica-8
tion.’’. 9
(b) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENT.—Section 208(d)(6) 10
of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 11
1158(d)(6)) is amended by striking ‘‘If the’’ and all that 12
follows and inserting: 13
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—If the Secretary of 14
Homeland Security or the Attorney General de-15
termines that an alien has knowingly made a 16
frivolous application for asylum and the alien 17
has received the notice under paragraph (4)(C), 18
the alien shall be permanently ineligible for any 19
benefits under this chapter, effective as the date 20
of the final determination of such an applica-21
tion. 22
‘‘(B) C
RITERIA.—An application is frivo-23
lous if the Secretary of Homeland Security or 24
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the Attorney General determines, consistent 1
with subparagraph (C), that— 2
‘‘(i) it is so insufficient in substance 3
that it is clear that the applicant know-4
ingly filed the application solely or in part 5
to delay removal from the United States, 6
to seek employment authorization as an 7
applicant for asylum pursuant to regula-8
tions issued pursuant to paragraph (2), or 9
to seek issuance of a Notice to Appear in 10
order to pursue Cancellation of Removal 11
under section 240A(b); or 12
‘‘(ii) any of the material elements are 13
knowingly fabricated. 14
‘‘(C) S
UFFICIENT OPPORTUNITY TO CLAR -15
IFY.—In determining that an application is friv-16
olous, the Secretary or the Attorney General, 17
must be satisfied that the applicant, during the 18
course of the proceedings, has had sufficient op-19
portunity to clarify any discrepancies or implau-20
sible aspects of the claim. 21
‘‘(D) W
ITHHOLDING OF REMOVAL NOT 22
PRECLUDED.—For purposes of this section, a 23
finding that an alien filed a frivolous asylum 24
application shall not preclude the alien from 25
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seeking withholding of removal under section 1
241(b)(3) or protection pursuant to the Con-2
vention Against Torture.’’. 3
SEC. 110. TECHNICAL AMENDMENTS. 4
Section 208 of the Immigration and Nationality Act 5
(8 U.S.C. 1158) is amended— 6
(1) in subsection (a)— 7
(A) in paragraph (2)(D), by inserting 8
‘‘Secretary of Homeland Security or the’’ before 9
‘‘Attorney General’’; and 10
(B) in paragraph (3), by inserting ‘‘Sec-11
retary of Homeland Security or the’’ before 12
‘‘Attorney General’’; 13
(2) in subsection (c)— 14
(A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘Attor-15
ney General’’ each place such term appears and 16
inserting ‘‘Secretary of Homeland Security’’; 17
(B) in paragraph (2), in the matter pre-18
ceding subparagraph (A), by inserting ‘‘Sec-19
retary of Homeland Security or the’’ before 20
‘‘Attorney General’’; and 21
(C) in paragraph (3), by inserting ‘‘Sec-22
retary of Homeland Security or the’’ before 23
‘‘Attorney General’’; and 24
(3) in subsection (d)— 25
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(A) in paragraph (1), by inserting ‘‘Sec-1
retary of Homeland Security or the’’ before 2
‘‘Attorney General’’ each place such term ap-3
pears; and 4
(B) in paragraph (5)— 5
(i) in subparagraph (A), by striking 6
‘‘Attorney General’’ and inserting ‘‘Sec-7
retary of Homeland Security’’; and 8
(ii) in subparagraph (B), by inserting 9
‘‘Secretary of Homeland Security or the’’ 10
before ‘‘Attorney General’’. 11
SEC. 111. REQUIREMENT FOR PROCEDURES RELATING TO 12
CERTAIN ASYLUM APPLICATIONS. 13
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 30 days after the 14
date of the enactment of this Act, the Attorney General 15
shall establish procedures to expedite the adjudication of 16
asylum applications for aliens— 17
(1) who are subject to removal proceedings 18
under section 240 of the Immigration and Nation-19
ality Act (8 U.S.C. 1229a); and 20
(2) who are nationals of a Western Hemisphere 21
country sanctioned by the United States, as de-22
scribed in subsection (b), as of January 1, 2023. 23
(b) W
ESTERNHEMISPHERECOUNTRYSANCTIONED 24
BY THEUNITEDSTATESDESCRIBED.—Subsection (a) 25
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shall apply only to an asylum application filed by an alien 1
who is a national of a Western Hemisphere country sub-2
ject to sanctions pursuant to— 3
(1) the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Soli-4
darity (LIBERTAD) Act of 1996 (22 U.S.C. 6021 5
note); 6
(2) the Reinforcing Nicaragua’s Adherence to 7
Conditions for Electoral Reform Act of 2021 or the 8
RENACER Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 note); or 9
(3) Executive Order 13692 (80 Fed. Reg. 10
12747; declaring a national emergency with respect 11
to the situation in Venezuela). 12
(c) A
PPLICABILITY.—This section shall only apply to 13
an alien who files an application for asylum after the date 14
of the enactment of this Act. 15
TITLE II—BORDER SAFETY AND 16
MIGRANT PROTECTION 17
SEC. 201. INSPECTION OF APPLICANTS FOR ADMISSION. 18
Section 235 of the Immigration and Nationality Act 19
(8 U.S.C. 1225) is amended— 20
(1) in subsection (b)— 21
(A) in paragraph (1)— 22
(i) in subparagraph (A)— 23
(I) in clauses (i) and (ii), by 24
striking ‘‘section 212(a)(6)(C)’’ in-25
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serting ‘‘subparagraph (A) or (C) of 1
section 212(a)(6)’’; and 2
(II) by adding at the end the fol-3
lowing: 4
‘‘(iv) I
NELIGIBILITY FOR PAROLE .— 5
An alien described in clause (i) or (ii) shall 6
not be eligible for parole except as ex-7
pressly authorized pursuant to section 8
212(d)(5), or for parole or release pursu-9
ant to section 236(a).’’; and 10
(ii) in subparagraph (B)— 11
(I) in clause (ii), by striking 12
‘‘asylum.’’ and inserting ‘‘asylum and 13
shall not be released (including pursu-14
ant to parole or release pursuant to 15
section 236(a) but excluding as ex-16
pressly authorized pursuant to section 17
212(d)(5)) other than to be removed 18
or returned to a country as described 19
in paragraph (3).’’; and 20
(II) in clause (iii)(IV)— 21
(aa) in the header by strik-22
ing ‘‘
DETENTION’’ and inserting 23
‘‘
DETENTION, RETURN, OR RE-24
MOVAL’’; and 25
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(bb) by adding at the end 1
the following: ‘‘The alien shall 2
not be released (including pursu-3
ant to parole or release pursuant 4
to section 236(a) but excluding 5
as expressly authorized pursuant 6
to section 212(d)(5)) other than 7
to be removed or returned to a 8
country as described in para-9
graph (3).’’; 10
(B) in paragraph (2)— 11
(i) in subparagraph (A)— 12
(I) by striking ‘‘Subject to sub-13
paragraphs (B) and (C),’’ and insert-14
ing ‘‘Subject to subparagraph (B) and 15
paragraph (3),’’; and 16
(II) by adding at the end the fol-17
lowing: ‘‘The alien shall not be re-18
leased (including pursuant to parole 19
or release pursuant to section 236(a) 20
but excluding as expressly authorized 21
pursuant to section 212(d)(5)) other 22
than to be removed or returned to a 23
country as described in paragraph 24
(3).’’; and 25
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(ii) by striking subparagraph (C); 1
(C) by redesignating paragraph (3) as 2
paragraph (5); and 3
(D) by inserting after paragraph (2) the 4
following: 5
‘‘(3) R
ETURN TO FOREIGN TERRITORY CONTIG -6
UOUS TO THE UNITED STATES .— 7
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary of 8
Homeland Security may return to a foreign ter-9
ritory contiguous to the United States any alien 10
arriving on land from that territory (whether or 11
not at a designated port of entry) pending a 12
proceeding under section 240 or review of a de-13
termination under subsection (b)(1)(B)(iii)(III). 14
‘‘(B) M
ANDATORY RETURN .—If at any 15
time the Secretary of Homeland Security can-16
not— 17
‘‘(i) comply with its obligations to de-18
tain an alien as required under clauses (ii) 19
and (iii)(IV) of subsection (b)(1)(B) and 20
subsection (b)(2)(A); or 21
‘‘(ii) remove an alien to a country de-22
scribed in section 208(a)(2)(A), 23
the Secretary of Homeland Security shall, with-24
out exception, including pursuant to parole or 25
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release pursuant to section 236(a) but exclud-1
ing as expressly authorized pursuant to section 2
212(d)(5), return to a foreign territory contig-3
uous to the United States any alien arriving on 4
land from that territory (whether or not at a 5
designated port of entry) pending a proceeding 6
under section 240 or review of a determination 7
under subsection (b)(1)(B)(iii)(III). 8
‘‘(4) E
NFORCEMENT BY STATE ATTORNEYS 9
GENERAL.—The attorney general of a State, or 10
other authorized State officer, alleging a violation of 11
the detention, return, or removal requirements under 12
paragraph (1), (2), or (3) that affects such State or 13
its residents, may bring an action against the Sec-14
retary of Homeland Security on behalf of the resi-15
dents of the State in an appropriate United States 16
district court to obtain appropriate injunctive re-17
lief.’’; and 18
(2) by adding at the end the following: 19
‘‘(e) A
UTHORITYTOPROHIBITINTRODUCTION OF 20
C
ERTAINALIENS.—If the Secretary of Homeland Security 21
determines, in his discretion, that the prohibition of the 22
introduction of aliens who are inadmissible under subpara-23
graph (A) or (C) of section 212(a)(6) or under section 24
212(a)(7) at an international land or maritime border of 25
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the United States is necessary to achieve operational con-1
trol (as defined in section 2 of the Secure Fence Act of 2
2006 (8 U.S.C. 1701 note)) of such border, the Secretary 3
may prohibit, in whole or in part, the introduction of such 4
aliens at such border for such period of time as the Sec-5
retary determines is necessary for such purpose.’’. 6
SEC. 202. OPERATIONAL DETENTION FACILITIES. 7
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than September 30, 8
2023, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall take all 9
necessary actions to reopen or restore all U.S. Immigra-10
tion and Customs Enforcement detention facilities that 11
were in operation on January 20, 2021, that subsequently 12
closed or with respect to which the use was altered, re-13
duced, or discontinued after January 20, 2021. In car-14
rying out the requirement under this subsection, the Sec-15
retary may use the authority under section 103(a)(11) of 16
the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 17
1103(a)(11)). 18
(b) S
PECIFICFACILITIES.—The requirement under 19
subsection (a) shall include at a minimum, reopening, or 20
restoring, the following facilities: 21
(1) Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia. 22
(2) C. Carlos Carreiro Immigration Detention 23
Center in Bristol County, Massachusetts. 24
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(3) Etowah County Detention Center in Gads-1
den, Alabama. 2
(4) Glades County Detention Center in Moore 3
Haven, Florida. 4
(5) South Texas Family Residential Center. 5
(c) E
XCEPTION.— 6
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-7
graphs (2) and (3), the Secretary of Homeland Se-8
curity is authorized to obtain equivalent capacity for 9
detention facilities at locations other than those list-10
ed in subsection (b). 11
(2) L
IMITATION.—The Secretary may not take 12
action under paragraph (1) unless the capacity ob-13
tained would result in a reduction of time and cost 14
relative to the cost and time otherwise required to 15
obtain such capacity. 16
(3) S
OUTH TEXAS FAMILY RESIDENTIAL CEN -17
TER.—The exception under paragraph (1) shall not 18
apply to the South Texas Family Residential Center. 19
The Secretary shall take all necessary steps to mod-20
ify and operate the South Texas Family Residential 21
Center in the same manner and capability it was op-22
erating on January 20, 2021. 23
(d) P
ERIODICREPORT.—Not later than 90 days after 24
the date of the enactment of this Act, and every 90 days 25
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thereafter until September 30, 2027, the Secretary of 1
Homeland Security shall submit to the appropriate con-2
gressional committees a detailed plan for and a status re-3
port on— 4
(1) compliance with the deadline under sub-5
section (a); 6
(2) the increase in detention capabilities re-7
quired by this section— 8
(A) for the 90 day period immediately pre-9
ceding the date such report is submitted; and 10
(B) for the period beginning on the first 11
day of the fiscal year during which the report 12
is submitted, and ending on the date such re-13
port is submitted; 14
(3) the number of detention beds that were 15
used and the number of available detention beds 16
that were not used during— 17
(A) the 90 day period immediately pre-18
ceding the date such report is submitted; and 19
(B) the period beginning on the first day 20
of the fiscal year during which the report is 21
submitted, and ending on the date such report 22
is submitted; 23
(4) the number of aliens released due to a lack 24
of available detention beds; and 25
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(5) the resources the Department of Homeland 1
Security needs in order to comply with the require-2
ments under this section. 3
(e) N
OTIFICATION.—The Secretary of Homeland Se-4
curity shall notify Congress, and include with such notifi-5
cation a detailed description of the resources the Depart-6
ment of Homeland Security needs in order to detain all 7
aliens whose detention is mandatory or nondiscretionary 8
under the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 9
1101 et seq.)— 10
(1) not later than 5 days after all U.S. Immi-11
gration and Customs Enforcement detention facili-12
ties reach 90 percent of capacity; 13
(2) not later than 5 days after all U.S. Immi-14
gration and Customs Enforcement detention facili-15
ties reach 95 percent of capacity; and 16
(3) not later than 5 days after all U.S. Immi-17
gration and Customs Enforcement detention facili-18
ties reach full capacity. 19
(f) A
PPROPRIATECONGRESSIONALCOMMITTEES.— 20
In this section, the term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-21
mittees’’ means— 22
(1) the Committee on the Judiciary of the 23
House of Representatives; 24
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(2) the Committee on Appropriations of the 1
House of Representatives; 2
(3) the Committee on the Judiciary of the Sen-3
ate; and 4
(4) the Committee on Appropriations of the 5
Senate. 6
TITLE III—PREVENTING UNCON-7
TROLLED MIGRATION FLOWS 8
IN THE WESTERN HEMI-9
SPHERE 10
SEC. 301. UNITED STATES POLICY REGARDING WESTERN 11
HEMISPHERE COOPERATION ON IMMIGRA-12
TION AND ASYLUM. 13
It is the policy of the United States to enter into 14
agreements, accords, and memoranda of understanding 15
with countries in the Western Hemisphere, the purposes 16
of which are to advance the interests of the United States 17
by reducing costs associated with illegal immigration and 18
to protect the human capital, societal traditions, and eco-19
nomic growth of other countries in the Western Hemi-20
sphere. It is further the policy of the United States to 21
ensure that humanitarian and development assistance 22
funding aimed at reducing illegal immigration is not ex-23
pended on programs that have not proven to reduce illegal 24
immigrant flows in the aggregate. 25
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SEC. 302. NEGOTIATIONS BY SECRETARY OF STATE. 1
(a) A
UTHORIZATIONTONEGOTIATE.—The Secretary 2
of State shall seek to negotiate agreements, accords, and 3
memoranda of understanding between the United States, 4
Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and other 5
countries in the Western Hemisphere with respect to co-6
operation and burden sharing required for effective re-7
gional immigration enforcement, expediting legal claims by 8
aliens for asylum, and the processing, detention, and repa-9
triation of foreign nationals seeking to enter the United 10
States unlawfully. Such agreements shall be designed to 11
facilitate a regional approach to immigration enforcement 12
and shall, at a minimum, provide that— 13
(1) the Government of Mexico authorize and ac-14
cept the rapid entrance into Mexico of nationals of 15
countries other than Mexico who seek asylum in 16
Mexico, and process the asylum claims of such na-17
tionals inside Mexico, in accordance with both do-18
mestic law and international treaties and conven-19
tions governing the processing of asylum claims; 20
(2) the Government of Mexico authorize and ac-21
cept both the rapid entrance into Mexico of all na-22
tionals of countries other than Mexico who are ineli-23
gible for asylum in Mexico and wish to apply for 24
asylum in the United States, whether or not at a 25
port of entry, and the continued presence of such 26
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nationals in Mexico while they wait for the adjudica-1
tion of their asylum claims to conclude in the United 2
States; 3
(3) the Government of Mexico commit to pro-4
vide the individuals described in paragraphs (1) and 5
(2) with appropriate humanitarian protections; 6
(4) the Government of Honduras, the Govern-7
ment of El Salvador, and the Government of Guate-8
mala each authorize and accept the entrance into 9
the respective countries of nationals of other coun-10
tries seeking asylum in the applicable such country 11
and process such claims in accordance with applica-12
ble domestic law and international treaties and con-13
ventions governing the processing of asylum claims; 14
(5) the Government of the United States com-15
mit to work to accelerate the adjudication of asylum 16
claims and to conclude removal proceedings in the 17
wake of asylum adjudications as expeditiously as 18
possible; 19
(6) the Government of the United States com-20
mit to continue to assist the governments of coun-21
tries in the Western Hemisphere, such as the Gov-22
ernment of Honduras, the Government of El Sal-23
vador, and the Government of Guatemala, by sup-24
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porting the enhancement of asylum capacity in those 1
countries; and 2
(7) the Government of the United States com-3
mit to monitoring developments in hemispheric im-4
migration trends and regional asylum capabilities to 5
determine whether additional asylum cooperation 6
agreements are warranted. 7
(b) N
OTIFICATION INACCORDANCEWITHCASE-ZA-8
BLOCKIACT.—The Secretary of State shall, in accordance 9
with section 112b of title 1, United States Code, promptly 10
inform the relevant congressional committees of each 11
agreement entered into pursuant to subsection (a). Such 12
notifications shall be submitted not later than 48 hours 13
after such agreements are signed. 14
(c) A
LIENDEFINED.—In this section, the term 15
‘‘alien’’ has the meaning given such term in section 101 16
of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101). 17
SEC. 303. MANDATORY BRIEFINGS ON UNITED STATES EF-18
FORTS TO ADDRESS THE BORDER CRISIS. 19
(a) B
RIEFINGREQUIRED.—Not later than 90 days 20
after the date of the enactment of this Act, and not less 21
frequently than once every 90 days thereafter until the 22
date described in subsection (b), the Secretary of State, 23
or the designee of the Secretary of State, shall provide 24
to the appropriate congressional committees an in-person 25
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briefing on efforts undertaken pursuant to the negotiation 1
authority provided by section 302 of this title to monitor, 2
deter, and prevent illegal immigration to the United 3
States, including by entering into agreements, accords, 4
and memoranda of understanding with foreign countries 5
and by using United States foreign assistance to stem the 6
root causes of migration in the Western Hemisphere. 7
(b) T
ERMINATION OFMANDATORYBRIEFING.—The 8
date described in this subsection is the date on which the 9
Secretary of State, in consultation with the heads of other 10
relevant Federal departments and agencies, determines 11
and certifies to the appropriate congressional committees 12
that illegal immigration flows have subsided to a manage-13
able rate. 14
(c) A
PPROPRIATECONGRESSIONALCOMMITTEESDE-15
FINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘appropriate congres-16
sional committees’’ means the Committee on Foreign Af-17
fairs of the House of Representatives and the Committee 18
on Foreign Relations of the Senate. 19
TITLE IV—ENSURING UNITED 20
FAMILIES AT THE BORDER 21
SEC. 401. CLARIFICATION OF STANDARDS FOR FAMILY DE-22
TENTION. 23
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 235 of the William Wil-24
berforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization 25
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Act of 2008 (8 U.S.C. 1232) is amended by adding at 1
the end the following: 2
‘‘(j) C
ONSTRUCTION.— 3
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other 4
provision of law, judicial determination, consent de-5
cree, or settlement agreement, the detention of any 6
alien child who is not an unaccompanied alien child 7
shall be governed by sections 217, 235, 236, and 8
241 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 9
U.S.C. 1187, 1225, 1226, and 1231). There is no 10
presumption that an alien child who is not an unac-11
companied alien child should not be detained. 12
‘‘(2) F
AMILY DETENTION .—The Secretary of 13
Homeland Security shall— 14
‘‘(A) maintain the care and custody of an 15
alien, during the period during which the 16
charges described in clause (i) are pending, 17
who— 18
‘‘(i) is charged only with a mis-19
demeanor offense under section 275(a) of 20
the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 21
U.S.C. 1325(a)); and 22
‘‘(ii) entered the United States with 23
the alien’s child who has not attained 18 24
years of age; and 25
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‘‘(B) detain the alien with the alien’s 1
child.’’. 2
(b) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-3
gress that the amendments in this section to section 235 4
of the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection 5
Reauthorization Act of 2008 (8 U.S.C. 1232) are intended 6
to satisfy the requirements of the Settlement Agreement 7
in Flores v. Meese, No. 85–4544 (C.D. Cal), as approved 8
by the court on January 28, 1997, with respect to its in-9
terpretation in Flores v. Johnson, 212 F. Supp. 3d 864 10
(C.D. Cal. 2015), that the agreement applies to accom-11
panied minors. 12
(c) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendment made by 13
subsection (a) shall take effect on the date of the enact-14
ment of this Act and shall apply to all actions that occur 15
before, on, or after such date. 16
(d) P
REEMPTION OF STATELICENSINGREQUIRE-17
MENTS.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, ju-18
dicial determination, consent decree, or settlement agree-19
ment, no State may require that an immigration detention 20
facility used to detain children who have not attained 18 21
years of age, or families consisting of one or more of such 22
children and the parents or legal guardians of such chil-23
dren, that is located in that State, be licensed by the State 24
or any political subdivision thereof. 25
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TITLE V—PROTECTION OF 1
CHILDREN 2
SEC. 501. FINDINGS. 3
Congress makes the following findings: 4
(1) Implementation of the provisions of the 5
Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act 6
of 2008 that govern unaccompanied alien children 7
has incentivized multiple surges of unaccompanied 8
alien children arriving at the southwest border in the 9
years since the bill’s enactment. 10
(2) The provisions of the Trafficking Victims 11
Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 that govern 12
unaccompanied alien children treat unaccompanied 13
alien children from countries that are contiguous to 14
the United States disparately by swiftly returning 15
them to their home country absent indications of 16
trafficking or a credible fear of return, but allowing 17
for the release of unaccompanied alien children from 18
noncontiguous countries into the interior of the 19
United States, often to those individuals who paid to 20
smuggle them into the country in the first place. 21
(3) The provisions of the Trafficking Victims 22
Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 governing 23
unaccompanied alien children have enriched the car-24
tels, who profit hundreds of millions of dollars each 25
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year by smuggling unaccompanied alien children to 1
the southwest border, exploiting and sexually abus-2
ing many such unaccompanied alien children on the 3
perilous journey. 4
(4) Prior to 2008, the number of unaccom-5
panied alien children encountered at the southwest 6
border never exceeded 1,000 in a single year. 7
(5) The United States is currently in the midst 8
of the worst crisis of unaccompanied alien children 9
in our nation’s history, with over 350,000 such un-10
accompanied alien children encountered at the 11
southwest border since Joe Biden became President. 12
(6) In 2022, during the Biden Administration, 13
152,057 unaccompanied alien children were encoun-14
tered, the most ever in a single year and an over 15
400 percent increase compared to the last full fiscal 16
year of the Trump Administration in which 33,239 17
unaccompanied alien children were encountered. 18
(7) The Biden Administration has lost contact 19
with at least 85,000 unaccompanied alien children 20
who entered the United States since Joe Biden took 21
office. 22
(8) The Biden Administration dismantled effec-23
tive safeguards put in place by the Trump Adminis-24
tration that protected unaccompanied alien children 25
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from being abused by criminals or exploited for ille-1
gal and dangerous child labor. 2
(9) A recent New York Times investigation 3
found that unaccompanied alien children are being 4
exploited in the labor market and ‘‘are ending up in 5
some of the most punishing jobs in the country.’’. 6
(10) The Times investigation found unaccom-7
panied alien children, ‘‘under intense pressure to 8
earn money’’ in order to ‘‘send cash back to their 9
families while often being in debt to their sponsors 10
for smuggling fees, rent, and living expenses,’’ 11
feared ‘‘that they had become trapped in cir-12
cumstances they never could have imagined.’’. 13
(11) The Biden Administration’s Department of 14
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier 15
Becerra compared placing unaccompanied alien chil-16
dren with sponsors, to widgets in an assembly line, 17
stating that, ‘‘If Henry Ford had seen this in his 18
plant, he would have never become famous and rich. 19
This is not the way you do an assembly line.’’. 20
(12) Department of Health and Human Serv-21
ices employees working under Secretary Xavier 22
Becerra’s leadership penned a July 2021 memo-23
randum expressing serious concern that ‘‘labor traf-24
ficking was increasing’’ and that the agency had be-25
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come ‘‘one that rewards individuals for making quick 1
releases, and not one that rewards individuals for 2
preventing unsafe releases.’’. 3
(13) Despite this, Secretary Xavier Becerra 4
pressured then-Director of the Office of Refugee Re-5
settlement Cindy Huang to prioritize releases of un-6
accompanied alien children over ensuring their safe-7
ty, telling her ‘‘if she could not increase the number 8
of discharges he would find someone who could’’ and 9
then-Director Huang resigned one month later. 10
(14) In June 2014, the Obama-Biden Adminis-11
tration requested legal authority to exercise discre-12
tion in returning and removing unaccompanied alien 13
children from non-contiguous countries back to their 14
home countries. 15
(15) In August 2014, the House of Representa-16
tives passed H.R. 5320, which included the Protec-17
tion of Children Act. 18
(16) This title ends the disparate policies of the 19
Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act 20
of 2008 by ensuring the swift return of all unaccom-21
panied alien children to their country of origin if 22
they are not victims of trafficking and do not have 23
a fear of return. 24
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SEC. 502. REPATRIATION OF UNACCOMPANIED ALIEN CHIL-1
DREN. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 235 of the William Wil-3
berforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization 4
Act of 2008 (8 U.S.C. 1232) is amended— 5
(1) in subsection (a)— 6
(A) in paragraph (2)— 7
(i) by amending the heading to read 8
as follows: ‘‘R
ULES FOR UNACCOMPANIED 9
ALIEN CHILDREN.—’’; 10
(ii) in subparagraph (A)— 11
(I) in the matter preceding clause 12
(i), by striking ‘‘who is a national or 13
habitual resident of a country that is 14
contiguous with the United States’’; 15
(II) in clause (i), by inserting 16
‘‘and’’ at the end; 17
(III) in clause (ii), by striking ‘‘; 18
and’’ and inserting a period; and 19
(IV) by striking clause (iii); and 20
(iii) in subparagraph (B)— 21
(I) in the matter preceding clause 22
(i), by striking ‘‘(8 U.S.C. 1101 et 23
seq.) may—’’ and inserting ‘‘(8 24
U.S.C. 1101 et seq.)—’’; 25
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(II) in clause (i), by inserting be-1
fore ‘‘permit such child to withdraw’’ 2
the following: ‘‘may’’; and 3
(III) in clause (ii), by inserting 4
before ‘‘return such child’’ the fol-5
lowing: ‘‘shall’’; and 6
(B) in paragraph (5)(D)— 7
(i) in the matter preceding clause (i), 8
by striking ‘‘, except for an unaccompanied 9
alien child from a contiguous country sub-10
ject to exceptions under subsection (a)(2),’’ 11
and inserting ‘‘who does not meet the cri-12
teria listed in paragraph (2)(A)’’; and 13
(ii) in clause (i), by inserting before 14
the semicolon at the end the following: ‘‘, 15
which shall include a hearing before an im-16
migration judge not later than 14 days 17
after being screened under paragraph (4)’’; 18
(2) in subsection (b)— 19
(A) in paragraph (2)— 20
(i) in subparagraph (A), by inserting 21
before the semicolon the following: ‘‘be-22
lieved not to meet the criteria listed in sub-23
section (a)(2)(A)’’; and 24
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(ii) in subparagraph (B), by inserting 1
before the period the following: ‘‘and does 2
not meet the criteria listed in subsection 3
(a)(2)(A)’’; and 4
(B) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘an un-5
accompanied alien child in custody shall’’ and 6
all that follows, and inserting the following: ‘‘an 7
unaccompanied alien child in custody— 8
‘‘(A) in the case of a child who does not 9
meet the criteria listed in subsection (a)(2)(A), 10
shall transfer the custody of such child to the 11
Secretary of Health and Human Services not 12
later than 30 days after determining that such 13
child is an unaccompanied alien child who does 14
not meet such criteria; or 15
‘‘(B) in the case of a child who meets the 16
criteria listed in subsection (a)(2)(A), may 17
transfer the custody of such child to the Sec-18
retary of Health and Human Services after de-19
termining that such child is an unaccompanied 20
alien child who meets such criteria.’’; and 21
(3) in subsection (c)— 22
(A) in paragraph (3), by inserting at the 23
end the following: 24
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‘‘(D) INFORMATION ABOUT INDIVIDUALS 1
WITH WHOM CHILDREN ARE PLACED .— 2
‘‘(i) I
NFORMATION TO BE PROVIDED 3
TO HOMELAND SECURITY .—Before placing 4
a child with an individual, the Secretary of 5
Health and Human Services shall provide 6
to the Secretary of Homeland Security, re-7
garding the individual with whom the child 8
will be placed, information on— 9
‘‘(I) the name of the individual; 10
‘‘(II) the social security number 11
of the individual; 12
‘‘(III) the date of birth of the in-13
dividual; 14
‘‘(IV) the location of the individ-15
ual’s residence where the child will be 16
placed; 17
‘‘(V) the immigration status of 18
the individual, if known; and 19
‘‘(VI) contact information for the 20
individual. 21
‘‘(ii) A
CTIVITIES OF THE SECRETARY 22
OF HOMELAND SECURITY .—Not later than 23
30 days after receiving the information 24
listed in clause (i), the Secretary of Home-25
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land Security, upon determining that an 1
individual with whom a child is placed is 2
unlawfully present in the United States 3
and not in removal proceedings pursuant 4
to chapter 4 of title II of the Immigration 5
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1221 et 6
seq.), shall initiate such removal pro-7
ceedings.’’; and 8
(B) in paragraph (5)— 9
(i) by inserting after ‘‘to the greatest 10
extent practicable’’ the following: ‘‘(at no 11
expense to the Government)’’; and 12
(ii) by striking ‘‘have counsel to rep-13
resent them’’ and inserting ‘‘have access to 14
counsel to represent them’’. 15
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 16
this section shall apply to any unaccompanied alien child 17
(as such term is defined in section 462(g) of the Home-18
land Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 279(g))) apprehended 19
on or after the date that is 30 days after the date of the 20
enactment of this Act. 21
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SEC. 503. SPECIAL IMMIGRANT JUVENILE STATUS FOR IM-1
MIGRANTS UNABLE TO REUNITE WITH EI-2
THER PARENT. 3
Section 101(a)(27)(J) of the Immigration and Na-4
tionality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(27)(J)) is amended— 5
(1) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘, and whose reuni-6
fication with 1 or both of the immigrant’s parents 7
is not viable due to abuse, neglect, abandonment, or 8
a similar basis found under State law’’; and 9
(2) in clause (iii)— 10
(A) in subclause (I), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 11
the end; 12
(B) in subclause (II), by inserting ‘‘and’’ 13
after the semicolon; and 14
(C) by adding at the end the following: 15
‘‘(III) an alien may not be grant-16
ed special immigrant status under this 17
subparagraph if the alien’s reunifica-18
tion with any one parent or legal 19
guardian is not precluded by abuse, 20
neglect, abandonment, or any similar 21
cause under State law;’’. 22
SEC. 504. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 23
Nothing in this title shall be construed to limit the 24
following procedures or practices relating to an unaccom-25
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panied alien child (as defined in section 462(g)(2) of the 1
Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 279(g)(2))): 2
(1) Screening of such a child for a credible fear 3
of return to his or her country of origin. 4
(2) Screening of such a child to determine 5
whether he or she was a victim of trafficking. 6
(3) Department of Health and Human Services 7
policy in effect on the date of the enactment of this 8
Act requiring a home study for such a child if he or 9
she is under 12 years of age. 10
TITLE VI—VISA OVERSTAYS 11
PENALTIES 12
SEC. 601. EXPANDED PENALTIES FOR ILLEGAL ENTRY OR 13
PRESENCE. 14
Section 275 of the Immigration and Nationality Act 15
(8 U.S.C. 1325) is amended— 16
(1) in subsection (a) by inserting after ‘‘for a 17
subsequent commission of any such offense’’ the fol-18
lowing: ‘‘or if the alien was previously convicted of 19
an offense under subsection (e)(2)(A)’’; 20
(2) in subsection (b)— 21
(A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘at least 22
$50 and not more than $250’’ and inserting 23
‘‘not less than $500 and not more than 24
$1,000’’; and 25
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(B) in paragraph (2), by inserting after 1
‘‘in the case of an alien who has been previously 2
subject to a civil penalty under this subsection’’ 3
the following: ‘‘or subsection (e)(2)(B)’’; and 4
(3) by adding at the end the following: 5
‘‘(e) V
ISAOVERSTAYS.— 6
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—An alien who was admitted 7
as a nonimmigrant has violated this paragraph if the 8
alien, for an aggregate of 10 days or more, has 9
failed— 10
‘‘(A) to maintain the nonimmigrant status 11
in which the alien was admitted, or to which it 12
was changed under section 248, including com-13
plying with the period of stay authorized by the 14
Secretary of Homeland Security in connection 15
with such status; or 16
‘‘(B) to comply otherwise with the condi-17
tions of such nonimmigrant status. 18
‘‘(2) P
ENALTIES.—An alien who has violated 19
paragraph (1)— 20
‘‘(A) shall— 21
‘‘(i) for the first commission of such a 22
violation, be fined under title 18, United 23
States Code, or imprisoned not more than 24
6 months, or both; and 25
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‘‘(ii) for a subsequent commission of 1
such a violation, or if the alien was pre-2
viously convicted of an offense under sub-3
section (a), be fined under such title 18, or 4
imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both; 5
and 6
‘‘(B) in addition to, and not in lieu of, any 7
penalty under subparagraph (A) and any other 8
criminal or civil penalties that may be imposed, 9
shall be subject to a civil penalty of— 10
‘‘(i) not less than $500 and not more 11
than $1,000 for each violation; or 12
‘‘(ii) twice the amount specified in 13
clause (i), in the case of an alien who has 14
been previously subject to a civil penalty 15
under this subparagraph or subsection 16
(b).’’. 17
TITLE VII—IMMIGRATION 18
PAROLE REFORM 19
SEC. 701. IMMIGRATION PAROLE REFORM. 20
Section 212(d)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality 21
Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(d)(5)) is amended to read as follows: 22
‘‘(5)(A) Except as provided in subparagraphs (B) 23
and (C) and section 214(f), the Secretary of Homeland 24
Security, in the discretion of the Secretary, may tempo-25
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rarily parole into the United States any alien applying for 1
admission to the United States who is not present in the 2
United States, under such conditions as the Secretary may 3
prescribe, on a case-by-case basis, and not according to 4
eligibility criteria describing an entire class of potential 5
parole recipients, for urgent humanitarian reasons or sig-6
nificant public benefit. Parole granted under this subpara-7
graph may not be regarded as an admission of the alien. 8
When the purposes of such parole have been served in the 9
opinion of the Secretary, the alien shall immediately re-10
turn or be returned to the custody from which the alien 11
was paroled. After such return, the case of the alien shall 12
be dealt with in the same manner as the case of any other 13
applicant for admission to the United States. 14
‘‘(B) The Secretary of Homeland Security may grant 15
parole to any alien who— 16
‘‘(i) is present in the United States without 17
lawful immigration status; 18
‘‘(ii) is the beneficiary of an approved petition 19
under section 203(a); 20
‘‘(iii) is not otherwise inadmissible or remov-21
able; and 22
‘‘(iv) is the spouse or child of a member of the 23
Armed Forces serving on active duty. 24
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‘‘(C) The Secretary of Homeland Security may grant 1
parole to any alien— 2
‘‘(i) who is a national of the Republic of Cuba 3
and is living in the Republic of Cuba; 4
‘‘(ii) who is the beneficiary of an approved peti-5
tion under section 203(a); 6
‘‘(iii) for whom an immigrant visa is not imme-7
diately available; 8
‘‘(iv) who meets all eligibility requirements for 9
an immigrant visa; 10
‘‘(v) who is not otherwise inadmissible; and 11
‘‘(vi) who is receiving a grant of parole in fur-12
therance of the commitment of the United States to 13
the minimum level of annual legal migration of 14
Cuban nationals to the United States specified in 15
the U.S.-Cuba Joint Communique´on Migration, 16
done at New York September 9, 1994, and re-17
affirmed in the Cuba-United States: Joint Statement 18
on Normalization of Migration, Building on the 19
Agreement of September 9, 1994, done at New York 20
May 2, 1995. 21
‘‘(D) The Secretary of Homeland Security may grant 22
parole to an alien who is returned to a contiguous country 23
under section 235(b)(3) to allow the alien to attend the 24
alien’s immigration hearing. The grant of parole shall not 25
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exceed the time required for the alien to be escorted to, 1
and attend, the alien’s immigration hearing scheduled on 2
the same calendar day as the grant, and to immediately 3
thereafter be escorted back to the contiguous country. A 4
grant of parole under this subparagraph shall not be con-5
sidered for purposes of determining whether the alien is 6
inadmissible under this Act. 7
‘‘(E) For purposes of determining an alien’s eligi-8
bility for parole under subparagraph (A), an urgent hu-9
manitarian reason shall be limited to circumstances in 10
which the alien establishes that— 11
‘‘(i)(I) the alien has a medical emergency; and 12
‘‘(II)(aa) the alien cannot obtain necessary 13
treatment in the foreign state in which the alien is 14
residing; or 15
‘‘(bb) the medical emergency is life-threatening 16
and there is insufficient time for the alien to be ad-17
mitted to the United States through the normal visa 18
process; 19
‘‘(ii) the alien is the parent or legal guardian of 20
an alien described in clause (i) and the alien de-21
scribed in clause (i) is a minor; 22
‘‘(iii) the alien is needed in the United States 23
in order to donate an organ or other tissue for 24
transplant and there is insufficient time for the alien 25
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to be admitted to the United States through the nor-1
mal visa process; 2
‘‘(iv) the alien has a close family member in the 3
United States whose death is imminent and the alien 4
could not arrive in the United States in time to see 5
such family member alive if the alien were to be ad-6
mitted to the United States through the normal visa 7
process; 8
‘‘(v) the alien is seeking to attend the funeral 9
of a close family member and the alien could not ar-10
rive in the United States in time to attend such fu-11
neral if the alien were to be admitted to the United 12
States through the normal visa process; 13
‘‘(vi) the alien is an adopted child with an ur-14
gent medical condition who is in the legal custody of 15
the petitioner for a final adoption-related visa and 16
whose medical treatment is required before the ex-17
pected award of a final adoption-related visa; or 18
‘‘(vii) the alien is a lawful applicant for adjust-19
ment of status under section 245 and is returning 20
to the United States after temporary travel abroad. 21
‘‘(F) For purposes of determining an alien’s eligi-22
bility for parole under subparagraph (A), a significant 23
public benefit may be determined to result from the parole 24
of an alien only if— 25
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‘‘(i) the alien has assisted (or will assist, wheth-1
er knowingly or not) the United States Government 2
in a law enforcement matter; 3
‘‘(ii) the alien’s presence is required by the Gov-4
ernment in furtherance of such law enforcement 5
matter; and 6
‘‘(iii) the alien is inadmissible, does not satisfy 7
the eligibility requirements for admission as a non-8
immigrant, or there is insufficient time for the alien 9
to be admitted to the United States through the nor-10
mal visa process. 11
‘‘(G) For purposes of determining an alien’s eligi-12
bility for parole under subparagraph (A), the term ‘case- 13
by-case basis’ means that the facts in each individual case 14
are considered and parole is not granted based on mem-15
bership in a defined class of aliens to be granted parole. 16
The fact that aliens are considered for or granted parole 17
one-by-one and not as a group is not sufficient to establish 18
that the parole decision is made on a ‘case-by-case basis’. 19
‘‘(H) The Secretary of Homeland Security may not 20
use the parole authority under this paragraph to parole 21
an alien into the United States for any reason or purpose 22
other than those described in subparagraphs (B), (C), (D), 23
(E), and (F). 24
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‘‘(I) An alien granted parole may not accept employ-1
ment, except that an alien granted parole pursuant to sub-2
paragraph (B) or (C) is authorized to accept employment 3
for the duration of the parole, as evidenced by an employ-4
ment authorization document issued by the Secretary of 5
Homeland Security. 6
‘‘(J) Parole granted after a departure from the 7
United States shall not be regarded as an admission of 8
the alien. An alien granted parole, whether as an initial 9
grant of parole or parole upon reentry into the United 10
States, is not eligible to adjust status to lawful permanent 11
residence or for any other immigration benefit if the immi-12
gration status the alien had at the time of departure did 13
not authorize the alien to adjust status or to be eligible 14
for such benefit. 15
‘‘(K)(i) Except as provided in clauses (ii) and (iii), 16
parole shall be granted to an alien under this paragraph 17
for the shorter of— 18
‘‘(I) a period of sufficient length to accomplish 19
the activity described in subparagraph (D), (E), or 20
(F) for which the alien was granted parole; or 21
‘‘(II) 1 year. 22
‘‘(ii) Grants of parole pursuant to subparagraph (A) 23
may be extended once, in the discretion of the Secretary, 24
for an additional period that is the shorter of— 25
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‘‘(I) the period that is necessary to accomplish 1
the activity described in subparagraph (E) or (F) for 2
which the alien was granted parole; or 3
‘‘(II) 1 year. 4
‘‘(iii) Aliens who have a pending application to adjust 5
status to permanent residence under section 245 may re-6
quest extensions of parole under this paragraph, in 1-year 7
increments, until the application for adjustment has been 8
adjudicated. Such parole shall terminate immediately upon 9
the denial of such adjustment application. 10
‘‘(L) Not later than 90 days after the last day of each 11
fiscal year, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall sub-12
mit to the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate and 13
the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Rep-14
resentatives and make available to the public, a report— 15
‘‘(i) identifying the total number of aliens pa-16
roled into the United States under this paragraph 17
during the previous fiscal year; and 18
‘‘(ii) containing information and data regarding 19
all aliens paroled during such fiscal year, includ-20
ing— 21
‘‘(I) the duration of parole; 22
‘‘(II) the type of parole; and 23
‘‘(III) the current status of the aliens so 24
paroled.’’. 25
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SEC. 702. IMPLEMENTATION. 1
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Except as provided in subsection 2
(b), this title and the amendments made by this title shall 3
take effect on the date that is 30 days after the date of 4
the enactment of this Act. 5
(b) E
XCEPTIONS.—Notwithstanding subsection (a), 6
each of the following exceptions apply: 7
(1) Any application for parole or advance parole 8
filed by an alien before the date of the enactment of 9
this Act shall be adjudicated under the law that was 10
in effect on the date on which the application was 11
properly filed and any approved advance parole shall 12
remain valid under the law that was in effect on the 13
date on which the advance parole was approved. 14
(2) Section 212(d)(5)(J) of the Immigration 15
and Nationality Act, as added by section 701 of this 16
title, shall take effect on the date of the enactment 17
of this Act. 18
(3) Aliens who were paroled into the United 19
States pursuant to section 212(d)(5)(A) of the Im-20
migration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 21
1182(d)(5)(A)) before January 1, 2023, shall con-22
tinue to be subject to the terms of parole that were 23
in effect on the date on which their respective parole 24
was approved. 25
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SEC. 703. CAUSE OF ACTION. 1
Any person, State, or local government that experi-2
ences financial harm in excess of $1,000 due to a failure 3
of the Federal Government to lawfully apply the provisions 4
of this title or the amendments made by this title shall 5
have standing to bring a civil action against the Federal 6
Government in an appropriate district court of the United 7
States for appropriate relief. 8
SEC. 704. SEVERABILITY. 9
If any provision of this title or any amendment by 10
this title, or the application of such provision or amend-11
ment to any person or circumstance, is held to be uncon-12
stitutional, the remainder of this title and the application 13
of such provision or amendment to any other person or 14
circumstance shall not be affected. 15
TITLE VIII—LEGAL WORKFORCE 16
SEC. 801. EMPLOYMENT ELIGIBILITY VERIFICATION PROC-17
ESS. 18
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 274A(b) of the Immigra-19
tion and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1324a(b)) is amended 20
to read as follows: 21
‘‘(b) E
MPLOYMENT ELIGIBILITYVERIFICATION 22
P
ROCESS.— 23
‘‘(1) N
EW HIRES, RECRUITMENT, AND REFER-24
RAL.—The requirements referred to in paragraphs 25
(1)(B) and (3) of subsection (a) are, in the case of 26
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a person or other entity hiring, recruiting, or refer-1
ring an individual for employment in the United 2
States, the following: 3
‘‘(A) A
TTESTATION AFTER EXAMINATION 4
OF DOCUMENTATION .— 5
‘‘(i) A
TTESTATION.—During the 6
verification period (as defined in subpara-7
graph (E)), the person or entity shall at-8
test, under penalty of perjury and on a 9
form, including electronic format, des-10
ignated or established by the Secretary by 11
regulation not later than 6 months after 12
the date of the enactment of title VIII of 13
division B of the Secure the Border Act of 14
2023, that it has verified that the indi-15
vidual is not an unauthorized alien by— 16
‘‘(I) obtaining from the indi-17
vidual the individual’s social security 18
account number or United States 19
passport number and recording the 20
number on the form (if the individual 21
claims to have been issued such a 22
number), and, if the individual does 23
not attest to United States nationality 24
under subparagraph (B), obtaining 25
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such identification or authorization 1
number established by the Depart-2
ment of Homeland Security for the 3
alien as the Secretary of Homeland 4
Security may specify, and recording 5
such number on the form; and 6
‘‘(II) examining— 7
‘‘(aa) a document relating to 8
the individual presenting it de-9
scribed in clause (ii); or 10
‘‘(bb) a document relating to 11
the individual presenting it de-12
scribed in clause (iii) and a docu-13
ment relating to the individual 14
presenting it described in clause 15
(iv). 16
‘‘(ii) D
OCUMENTS EVIDENCING EM -17
PLOYMENT AUTHORIZATION AND ESTAB -18
LISHING IDENTITY .—A document de-19
scribed in this subparagraph is an individ-20
ual’s— 21
‘‘(I) unexpired United States 22
passport or passport card; 23
‘‘(II) unexpired permanent resi-24
dent card that contains a photograph; 25
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‘‘(III) unexpired employment au-1
thorization card that contains a pho-2
tograph; 3
‘‘(IV) in the case of a non-4
immigrant alien authorized to work 5
for a specific employer incident to sta-6
tus, a foreign passport with Form I– 7
94 or Form I–94A, or other docu-8
mentation as designated by the Sec-9
retary specifying the alien’s non-10
immigrant status as long as the pe-11
riod of status has not yet expired and 12
the proposed employment is not in 13
conflict with any restrictions or limita-14
tions identified in the documentation; 15
‘‘(V) passport from the Fed-16
erated States of Micronesia (FSM) or 17
the Republic of the Marshall Islands 18
(RMI) with Form I–94 or Form I– 19
94A, or other documentation as des-20
ignated by the Secretary, indicating 21
nonimmigrant admission under the 22
Compact of Free Association Between 23
the United States and the FSM or 24
RMI; or 25
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‘‘(VI) other document designated 1
by the Secretary of Homeland Secu-2
rity, if the document— 3
‘‘(aa) contains a photograph 4
of the individual and biometric 5
identification data from the indi-6
vidual and such other personal 7
identifying information relating 8
to the individual as the Secretary 9
of Homeland Security finds, by 10
regulation, sufficient for purposes 11
of this clause; 12
‘‘(bb) is evidence of author-13
ization of employment in the 14
United States; and 15
‘‘(cc) contains security fea-16
tures to make it resistant to tam-17
pering, counterfeiting, and fraud-18
ulent use. 19
‘‘(iii) D
OCUMENTS EVIDENCING EM -20
PLOYMENT AUTHORIZATION .—A document 21
described in this subparagraph is an indi-22
vidual’s social security account number 23
card (other than such a card which speci-24
fies on the face that the issuance of the 25
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card does not authorize employment in the 1
United States). 2
‘‘(iv) D
OCUMENTS ESTABLISHING 3
IDENTITY OF INDIVIDUAL .—A document 4
described in this subparagraph is— 5
‘‘(I) an individual’s unexpired 6
State issued driver’s license or identi-7
fication card if it contains a photo-8
graph and information such as name, 9
date of birth, gender, height, eye 10
color, and address; 11
‘‘(II) an individual’s unexpired 12
United States military identification 13
card; 14
‘‘(III) an individual’s unexpired 15
Native American tribal identification 16
document issued by a tribal entity rec-17
ognized by the Bureau of Indian Af-18
fairs; or 19
‘‘(IV) in the case of an individual 20
under 18 years of age, a parent or 21
legal guardian’s attestation under 22
penalty of law as to the identity and 23
age of the individual. 24
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‘‘(v) AUTHORITY TO PROHIBIT USE OF 1
CERTAIN DOCUMENTS .—If the Secretary of 2
Homeland Security finds, by regulation, 3
that any document described in clause (i), 4
(ii), or (iii) as establishing employment au-5
thorization or identity does not reliably es-6
tablish such authorization or identity or is 7
being used fraudulently to an unacceptable 8
degree, the Secretary may prohibit or place 9
conditions on its use for purposes of this 10
paragraph. 11
‘‘(vi) S
IGNATURE.—Such attestation 12
may be manifested by either a handwritten 13
or electronic signature. 14
‘‘(B) I
NDIVIDUAL ATTESTATION OF EM -15
PLOYMENT AUTHORIZATION .—During the 16
verification period (as defined in subparagraph 17
(E)), the individual shall attest, under penalty 18
of perjury on the form designated or established 19
for purposes of subparagraph (A), that the indi-20
vidual is a citizen or national of the United 21
States, an alien lawfully admitted for perma-22
nent residence, or an alien who is authorized 23
under this Act or by the Secretary of Homeland 24
Security to be hired, recruited, or referred for 25
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such employment. Such attestation may be 1
manifested by either a handwritten or electronic 2
signature. The individual shall also provide that 3
individual’s social security account number or 4
United States passport number (if the indi-5
vidual claims to have been issued such a num-6
ber), and, if the individual does not attest to 7
United States nationality under this subpara-8
graph, such identification or authorization num-9
ber established by the Department of Homeland 10
Security for the alien as the Secretary may 11
specify. 12
‘‘(C) R
ETENTION OF VERIFICATION FORM 13
AND VERIFICATION.— 14
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—After completion 15
of such form in accordance with subpara-16
graphs (A) and (B), the person or entity 17
shall— 18
‘‘(I) retain a paper or electronic 19
version of the form and make it avail-20
able for inspection by officers of the 21
Department of Homeland Security, 22
the Department of Justice, or the De-23
partment of Labor during a period be-24
ginning on the date of the recruiting 25
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or referral of the individual, or, in the 1
case of the hiring of an individual, the 2
date on which the verification is com-3
pleted, and ending— 4
‘‘(aa) in the case of the re-5
cruiting or referral of an indi-6
vidual, 3 years after the date of 7
the recruiting or referral; and 8
‘‘(bb) in the case of the hir-9
ing of an individual, the later of 10
3 years after the date the 11
verification is completed or one 12
year after the date the individ-13
ual’s employment is terminated; 14
and 15
‘‘(II) during the verification pe-16
riod (as defined in subparagraph (E)), 17
make an inquiry, as provided in sub-18
section (d), using the verification sys-19
tem to seek verification of the identity 20
and employment eligibility of an indi-21
vidual. 22
‘‘(ii) C
ONFIRMATION.— 23
‘‘(I) C
ONFIRMATION RE -24
CEIVED.—If the person or other entity 25
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receives an appropriate confirmation 1
of an individual’s identity and work 2
eligibility under the verification sys-3
tem within the time period specified, 4
the person or entity shall record on 5
the form an appropriate code that is 6
provided under the system and that 7
indicates a final confirmation of such 8
identity and work eligibility of the in-9
dividual. 10
‘‘(II) T
ENTATIVE NONCONFIRMA -11
TION RECEIVED.—If the person or 12
other entity receives a tentative non-13
confirmation of an individual’s iden-14
tity or work eligibility under the 15
verification system within the time pe-16
riod specified, the person or entity 17
shall so inform the individual for 18
whom the verification is sought. If the 19
individual does not contest the non-20
confirmation within the time period 21
specified, the nonconfirmation shall be 22
considered final. The person or entity 23
shall then record on the form an ap-24
propriate code which has been pro-25
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vided under the system to indicate a 1
final nonconfirmation. If the indi-2
vidual does contest the nonconfirma-3
tion, the individual shall utilize the 4
process for secondary verification pro-5
vided under subsection (d). The non-6
confirmation will remain tentative 7
until a final confirmation or noncon-8
firmation is provided by the 9
verification system within the time pe-10
riod specified. In no case shall an em-11
ployer terminate employment of an in-12
dividual because of a failure of the in-13
dividual to have identity and work eli-14
gibility confirmed under this section 15
until a nonconfirmation becomes final. 16
Nothing in this clause shall apply to a 17
termination of employment for any 18
reason other than because of such a 19
failure. In no case shall an employer 20
rescind the offer of employment to an 21
individual because of a failure of the 22
individual to have identity and work 23
eligibility confirmed under this sub-24
section until a nonconfirmation be-25
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comes final. Nothing in this subclause 1
shall apply to a recission of the offer 2
of employment for any reason other 3
than because of such a failure. 4
‘‘(III) F
INAL CONFIRMATION OR 5
NONCONFIRMATION RECEIVED .—If a 6
final confirmation or nonconfirmation 7
is provided by the verification system 8
regarding an individual, the person or 9
entity shall record on the form an ap-10
propriate code that is provided under 11
the system and that indicates a con-12
firmation or nonconfirmation of iden-13
tity and work eligibility of the indi-14
vidual. 15
‘‘(IV) E
XTENSION OF TIME .—If 16
the person or other entity in good 17
faith attempts to make an inquiry 18
during the time period specified and 19
the verification system has registered 20
that not all inquiries were received 21
during such time, the person or entity 22
may make an inquiry in the first sub-23
sequent working day in which the 24
verification system registers that it 25
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has received all inquiries. If the 1
verification system cannot receive in-2
quiries at all times during a day, the 3
person or entity merely has to assert 4
that the entity attempted to make the 5
inquiry on that day for the previous 6
sentence to apply to such an inquiry, 7
and does not have to provide any ad-8
ditional proof concerning such inquiry. 9
‘‘(V) C
ONSEQUENCES OF NON -10
CONFIRMATION.— 11
‘‘(aa) T
ERMINATION OR NO-12
TIFICATION OF CONTINUED EM -13
PLOYMENT.—If the person or 14
other entity has received a final 15
nonconfirmation regarding an in-16
dividual, the person or entity 17
may terminate employment of the 18
individual (or decline to recruit 19
or refer the individual). If the 20
person or entity does not termi-21
nate employment of the indi-22
vidual or proceeds to recruit or 23
refer the individual, the person or 24
entity shall notify the Secretary 25
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of Homeland Security of such 1
fact through the verification sys-2
tem or in such other manner as 3
the Secretary may specify. 4
‘‘(bb) F
AILURE TO NO -5
TIFY.—If the person or entity 6
fails to provide notice with re-7
spect to an individual as required 8
under item (aa), the failure is 9
deemed to constitute a violation 10
of subsection (a)(1)(A) with re-11
spect to that individual. 12
‘‘(VI) C
ONTINUED EMPLOYMENT 13
AFTER FINAL NONCONFIRMATION .—If 14
the person or other entity continues to 15
employ (or to recruit or refer) an indi-16
vidual after receiving final noncon-17
firmation, a rebuttable presumption is 18
created that the person or entity has 19
violated subsection (a)(1)(A). 20
‘‘(D) E
FFECTIVE DATES OF NEW PROCE -21
DURES.— 22
‘‘(i) H
IRING.—Except as provided in 23
clause (iii), the provisions of this para-24
graph shall apply to a person or other enti-25
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ty hiring an individual for employment in 1
the United States as follows: 2
‘‘(I) With respect to employers 3
having 10,000 or more employees in 4
the United States on the date of the 5
enactment of title VIII of division B 6
of the Secure the Border Act of 2023, 7
on the date that is 6 months after the 8
date of the enactment of title. 9
‘‘(II) With respect to employers 10
having 500 or more employees in the 11
United States, but less than 10,000 12
employees in the United States, on 13
the date of the enactment of title VIII 14
of division B of the Secure the Border 15
Act of 2023, on the date that is 12 16
months after the date of the enact-17
ment of such title. 18
‘‘(III) With respect to employers 19
having 20 or more employees in the 20
United States, but less than 500 em-21
ployees in the United States, on the 22
date of the enactment of title VIII of 23
division B of the Secure the Border 24
Act of 2023, on the date that is 18 25
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months after the date of the enact-1
ment of such title. 2
‘‘(IV) With respect to employers 3
having one or more employees in the 4
United States, but less than 20 em-5
ployees in the United States, on the 6
date of the enactment of title VIII of 7
division B of the Secure the Border 8
Act of 2023, on the date that is 24 9
months after the date of the enact-10
ment of such title. 11
‘‘(ii) R
ECRUITING AND REFERRING .— 12
Except as provided in clause (iii), the pro-13
visions of this paragraph shall apply to a 14
person or other entity recruiting or refer-15
ring an individual for employment in the 16
United States on the date that is 12 17
months after the date of the enactment of 18
title VIII of division B of the Secure the 19
Border Act of 2023. 20
‘‘(iii) A
GRICULTURAL LABOR OR SERV -21
ICES.—With respect to an employee per-22
forming agricultural labor or services, this 23
paragraph shall not apply with respect to 24
the verification of the employee until the 25
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date that is 36 months after the date of 1
the enactment of title VIII of division B of 2
the Secure the Border Act of 2023. For 3
purposes of the preceding sentence, the 4
term ‘agricultural labor or services’ has the 5
meaning given such term by the Secretary 6
of Agriculture in regulations and includes 7
agricultural labor as defined in section 8
3121(g) of the Internal Revenue Code of 9
1986, agriculture as defined in section 3(f) 10
of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 11
(29 U.S.C. 203(f)), the handling, planting, 12
drying, packing, packaging, processing, 13
freezing, or grading prior to delivery for 14
storage of any agricultural or horticultural 15
commodity in its unmanufactured state, all 16
activities required for the preparation, 17
processing or manufacturing of a product 18
of agriculture (as such term is defined in 19
such section 3(f)) for further distribution, 20
and activities similar to all the foregoing 21
as they relate to fish or shellfish facilities. 22
An employee described in this clause shall 23
not be counted for purposes of clause (i). 24
‘‘(iv) E
XTENSIONS.— 25
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‘‘(I) ON REQUEST.—Upon re-1
quest by an employer having 50 or 2
fewer employees, the Secretary shall 3
allow a one-time 6-month extension of 4
the effective date set out in this sub-5
paragraph applicable to such em-6
ployer. Such request shall be made to 7
the Secretary and shall be made prior 8
to such effective date. 9
‘‘(II) F
OLLOWING REPORT .—If 10
the study under section 814 of title 11
VIII of division B of the Secure the 12
Border Act of 2023 has been sub-13
mitted in accordance with such sec-14
tion, the Secretary of Homeland Secu-15
rity may extend the effective date set 16
out in clause (iii) on a one-time basis 17
for 12 months. 18
‘‘(v) T
RANSITION RULE.—Subject to 19
paragraph (4), the following shall apply to 20
a person or other entity hiring, recruiting, 21
or referring an individual for employment 22
in the United States until the effective 23
date or dates applicable under clauses (i) 24
through (iii): 25
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‘‘(I) This subsection, as in effect 1
before the enactment of title VIII of 2
division B of the Secure the Border 3
Act of 2023. 4
‘‘(II) Subtitle A of title IV of the 5
Illegal Immigration Reform and Im-6
migrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 7
U.S.C. 1324a note), as in effect be-8
fore the effective date in section 9
807(c) of title VIII of division B of 10
the Secure the Border Act of 2023. 11
‘‘(III) Any other provision of 12
Federal law requiring the person or 13
entity to participate in the E-Verify 14
Program described in section 403(a) 15
of the Illegal Immigration Reform and 16
Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 17
(8 U.S.C. 1324a note), as in effect be-18
fore the effective date in section 19
807(c) of title VIII of division B of 20
the Secure the Border Act of 2023, 21
including Executive Order 13465 (8 22
U.S.C. 1324a note; relating to Gov-23
ernment procurement). 24
‘‘(E) V
ERIFICATION PERIOD DEFINED .— 25
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‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of 1
this paragraph: 2
‘‘(I) In the case of recruitment or 3
referral, the term ‘verification period’ 4
means the period ending on the date 5
recruiting or referring commences. 6
‘‘(II) In the case of hiring, the 7
term ‘verification period’ means the 8
period beginning on the date on which 9
an offer of employment is extended 10
and ending on the date that is three 11
business days after the date of hire, 12
except as provided in clause (iii). The 13
offer of employment may be condi-14
tioned in accordance with clause (ii). 15
‘‘(ii) J
OB OFFER MAY BE CONDI -16
TIONAL.—A person or other entity may 17
offer a prospective employee an employ-18
ment position that is conditioned on final 19
verification of the identity and employment 20
eligibility of the employee using the proce-21
dures established under this paragraph. 22
‘‘(iii) S
PECIAL RULE .—Notwith-23
standing clause (i)(II), in the case of an 24
alien who is authorized for employment 25
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and who provides evidence from the Social 1
Security Administration that the alien has 2
applied for a social security account num-3
ber, the verification period ends three busi-4
ness days after the alien receives the social 5
security account number. 6
‘‘(2) R
EVERIFICATION FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH 7
LIMITED WORK AUTHORIZATION .— 8
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in 9
subparagraph (B), a person or entity shall 10
make an inquiry, as provided in subsection (d), 11
using the verification system to seek 12
reverification of the identity and employment 13
eligibility of all individuals with a limited period 14
of work authorization employed by the person 15
or entity during the three business days after 16
the date on which the employee’s work author-17
ization expires as follows: 18
‘‘(i) With respect to employers having 19
10,000 or more employees in the United 20
States on the date of the enactment of title 21
VIII of division B of the Secure the Border 22
Act of 2023, beginning on the date that is 23
6 months after the date of the enactment 24
of such title. 25
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‘‘(ii) With respect to employers having 1
500 or more employees in the United 2
States, but less than 10,000 employees in 3
the United States, on the date of the en-4
actment of title VIII of division B of the 5
Secure the Border Act of 2023, beginning 6
on the date that is 12 months after the 7
date of the enactment of such title. 8
‘‘(iii) With respect to employers hav-9
ing 20 or more employees in the United 10
States, but less than 500 employees in the 11
United States, on the date of the enact-12
ment of title VIII of division B of the Se-13
cure the Border Act of 2023, beginning on 14
the date that is 18 months after the date 15
of the enactment of such title. 16
‘‘(iv) With respect to employers hav-17
ing one or more employees in the United 18
States, but less than 20 employees in the 19
United States, on the date of the enact-20
ment of title VIII of division B of the Se-21
cure the Border Act of 2023, beginning on 22
the date that is 24 months after the date 23
of the enactment of such title. 24
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‘‘(B) AGRICULTURAL LABOR OR SERV -1
ICES.—With respect to an employee performing 2
agricultural labor or services, or an employee 3
recruited or referred by a farm labor contractor 4
(as defined in section 3 of the Migrant and Sea-5
sonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (29 6
U.S.C. 1801)), subparagraph (A) shall not 7
apply with respect to the reverification of the 8
employee until the date that is 36 months after 9
the date of the enactment of title VIII of divi-10
sion B of the Secure the Border Act of 2023. 11
For purposes of the preceding sentence, the 12
term ‘agricultural labor or services’ has the 13
meaning given such term by the Secretary of 14
Agriculture in regulations and includes agricul-15
tural labor as defined in section 3121(g) of the 16
Internal Revenue Code of 1986, agriculture as 17
defined in section 3(f) of the Fair Labor Stand-18
ards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 203(f)), the han-19
dling, planting, drying, packing, packaging, 20
processing, freezing, or grading prior to delivery 21
for storage of any agricultural or horticultural 22
commodity in its unmanufactured state, all ac-23
tivities required for the preparation, processing, 24
or manufacturing of a product of agriculture 25
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(as such term is defined in such section 3(f)) 1
for further distribution, and activities similar to 2
all the foregoing as they relate to fish or shell-3
fish facilities. An employee described in this 4
subparagraph shall not be counted for purposes 5
of subparagraph (A). 6
‘‘(C) R
EVERIFICATION.—Paragraph 7
(1)(C)(ii) shall apply to reverifications pursuant 8
to this paragraph on the same basis as it ap-9
plies to verifications pursuant to paragraph (1), 10
except that employers shall— 11
‘‘(i) use a form designated or estab-12
lished by the Secretary by regulation for 13
purposes of this paragraph; and 14
‘‘(ii) retain a paper or electronic 15
version of the form and make it available 16
for inspection by officers of the Depart-17
ment of Homeland Security, the Depart-18
ment of Justice, or the Department of 19
Labor during the period beginning on the 20
date the reverification commences and end-21
ing on the date that is the later of 3 years 22
after the date of such reverification or 1 23
year after the date the individual’s employ-24
ment is terminated. 25
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‘‘(3) PREVIOUSLY HIRED INDIVIDUALS .— 1
‘‘(A) O
N A MANDATORY BASIS FOR CER -2
TAIN EMPLOYEES.— 3
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than the 4
date that is 6 months after the date of the 5
enactment of title VIII of division B of the 6
Secure the Border Act of 2023, an em-7
ployer shall make an inquiry, as provided 8
in subsection (d), using the verification 9
system to seek verification of the identity 10
and employment eligibility of any indi-11
vidual described in clause (ii) employed by 12
the employer whose employment eligibility 13
has not been verified under the E-Verify 14
Program described in section 403(a) of the 15
Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant 16
Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 17
1324a note). 18
‘‘(ii) I
NDIVIDUALS DESCRIBED .—An 19
individual described in this clause is any of 20
the following: 21
‘‘(I) An employee of any unit of 22
a Federal, State, or local government. 23
‘‘(II) An employee who requires a 24
Federal security clearance working in 25
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a Federal, State, or local government 1
building, a military base, a nuclear 2
energy site, a weapons site, or an air-3
port or other facility that requires 4
workers to carry a Transportation 5
Worker Identification Credential 6
(TWIC). 7
‘‘(III) An employee assigned to 8
perform work in the United States 9
under a Federal contract, except that 10
this subclause— 11
‘‘(aa) is not applicable to in-12
dividuals who have a clearance 13
under Homeland Security Presi-14
dential Directive 12 (HSPD 12 15
clearance), are administrative or 16
overhead personnel, or are work-17
ing solely on contracts that pro-18
vide Commercial Off The Shelf 19
goods or services as set forth by 20
the Federal Acquisition Regu-21
latory Council, unless they are 22
subject to verification under sub-23
clause (II); and 24
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‘‘(bb) only applies to con-1
tracts over the simple acquisition 2
threshold as defined in section 3
2.101 of title 48, Code of Federal 4
Regulations. 5
‘‘(B) O
N A MANDATORY BASIS FOR MUL -6
TIPLE USERS OF SAME SOCIAL SECURITY AC -7
COUNT NUMBER .—In the case of an employer 8
who is required by this subsection to use the 9
verification system described in subsection (d), 10
or has elected voluntarily to use such system, 11
the employer shall make inquiries to the system 12
in accordance with the following: 13
‘‘(i) The Commissioner of Social Secu-14
rity shall notify annually employees (at the 15
employee address listed on the Wage and 16
Tax Statement) who submit a social secu-17
rity account number to which more than 18
one employer reports income and for which 19
there is a pattern of unusual multiple use. 20
The notification letter shall identify the 21
number of employers to which income is 22
being reported as well as sufficient infor-23
mation notifying the employee of the proc-24
ess to contact the Social Security Adminis-25
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HR 2 PCS
tration Fraud Hotline if the employee be-1
lieves the employee’s identity may have 2
been stolen. The notice shall not share in-3
formation protected as private, in order to 4
avoid any recipient of the notice from 5
being in the position to further commit or 6
begin committing identity theft. 7
‘‘(ii) If the person to whom the social 8
security account number was issued by the 9
Social Security Administration has been 10
identified and confirmed by the Commis-11
sioner, and indicates that the social secu-12
rity account number was used without 13
their knowledge, the Secretary and the 14
Commissioner shall lock the social security 15
account number for employment eligibility 16
verification purposes and shall notify the 17
employers of the individuals who wrong-18
fully submitted the social security account 19
number that the employee may not be 20
work eligible. 21
‘‘(iii) Each employer receiving such 22
notification of an incorrect social security 23
account number under clause (ii) shall use 24
the verification system described in sub-25
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HR 2 PCS
section (d) to check the work eligibility sta-1
tus of the applicable employee within 10 2
business days of receipt of the notification. 3
‘‘(C) O
N A VOLUNTARY BASIS.—Subject to 4
paragraph (2), and subparagraphs (A) through 5
(C) of this paragraph, beginning on the date 6
that is 30 days after the date of the enactment 7
of title VIII of division B of the Secure the 8
Border Act of 2023, an employer may make an 9
inquiry, as provided in subsection (d), using the 10
verification system to seek verification of the 11
identity and employment eligibility of any indi-12
vidual employed by the employer. If an em-13
ployer chooses voluntarily to seek verification of 14
any individual employed by the employer, the 15
employer shall seek verification of all individ-16
uals employed at the same geographic location 17
or, at the option of the employer, all individuals 18
employed within the same job category, as the 19
employee with respect to whom the employer 20
seeks voluntarily to use the verification system. 21
An employer’s decision about whether or not 22
voluntarily to seek verification of its current 23
workforce under this subparagraph may not be 24
considered by any government agency in any 25
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HR 2 PCS
proceeding, investigation, or review provided for 1
in this Act. 2
‘‘(D) V
ERIFICATION.—Paragraph 3
(1)(C)(ii) shall apply to verifications pursuant 4
to this paragraph on the same basis as it ap-5
plies to verifications pursuant to paragraph (1), 6
except that employers shall— 7
‘‘(i) use a form designated or estab-8
lished by the Secretary by regulation for 9
purposes of this paragraph; and 10
‘‘(ii) retain a paper or electronic 11
version of the form and make it available 12
for inspection by officers of the Depart-13
ment of Homeland Security, the Depart-14
ment of Justice, or the Department of 15
Labor during the period beginning on the 16
date the verification commences and end-17
ing on the date that is the later of 3 years 18
after the date of such verification or 1 year 19
after the date the individual’s employment 20
is terminated. 21
‘‘(4) E
ARLY COMPLIANCE.— 22
‘‘(A) F
ORMER E-VERIFY REQUIRED USERS , 23
INCLUDING FEDERAL CONTRACTORS .—Notwith-24
standing the deadlines in paragraphs (1) and 25
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(2), beginning on the date of the enactment of 1
title VIII of division B of the Secure the Border 2
Act of 2023, the Secretary is authorized to 3
commence requiring employers required to par-4
ticipate in the E-Verify Program described in 5
section 403(a) of the Illegal Immigration Re-6
form and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 7
(8 U.S.C. 1324a note), including employers re-8
quired to participate in such program by reason 9
of Federal acquisition laws (and regulations 10
promulgated under those laws, including the 11
Federal Acquisition Regulation), to commence 12
compliance with the requirements of this sub-13
section (and any additional requirements of 14
such Federal acquisition laws and regulation) in 15
lieu of any requirement to participate in the E- 16
Verify Program. 17
‘‘(B) F
ORMER E-VERIFY VOLUNTARY 18
USERS AND OTHERS DESIRING EARLY COMPLI -19
ANCE.—Notwithstanding the deadlines in para-20
graphs (1) and (2), beginning on the date of 21
the enactment of title VIII of division B of the 22
Secure the Border Act of 2023, the Secretary 23
shall provide for the voluntary compliance with 24
the requirements of this subsection by employ-25
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HR 2 PCS
ers voluntarily electing to participate in the E- 1
Verify Program described in section 403(a) of 2
the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant 3
Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1324a 4
note) before such date, as well as by other em-5
ployers seeking voluntary early compliance. 6
‘‘(5) C
OPYING OF DOCUMENTATION PER -7
MITTED.—Notwithstanding any other provision of 8
law, the person or entity may copy a document pre-9
sented by an individual pursuant to this subsection 10
and may retain the copy, but only (except as other-11
wise permitted under law) for the purpose of com-12
plying with the requirements of this subsection. 13
‘‘(6) L
IMITATION ON USE OF FORMS .—A form 14
designated or established by the Secretary of Home-15
land Security under this subsection and any infor-16
mation contained in or appended to such form, may 17
not be used for purposes other than for enforcement 18
of this Act and any other provision of Federal crimi-19
nal law. 20
‘‘(7) G
OOD FAITH COMPLIANCE .— 21
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Except as otherwise 22
provided in this subsection, a person or entity 23
is considered to have complied with a require-24
ment of this subsection notwithstanding a tech-25
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HR 2 PCS
nical or procedural failure to meet such require-1
ment if there was a good faith attempt to com-2
ply with the requirement. 3
‘‘(B) E
XCEPTION IF FAILURE TO CORRECT 4
AFTER NOTICE.—Subparagraph (A) shall not 5
apply if— 6
‘‘(i) the failure is not de minimus; 7
‘‘(ii) the Secretary of Homeland Secu-8
rity has explained to the person or entity 9
the basis for the failure and why it is not 10
de minimus; 11
‘‘(iii) the person or entity has been 12
provided a period of not less than 30 cal-13
endar days (beginning after the date of the 14
explanation) within which to correct the 15
failure; and 16
‘‘(iv) the person or entity has not cor-17
rected the failure voluntarily within such 18
period. 19
‘‘(C) E
XCEPTION FOR PATTERN OR PRAC -20
TICE VIOLATORS.—Subparagraph (A) shall not 21
apply to a person or entity that has engaged or 22
is engaging in a pattern or practice of violations 23
of subsection (a)(1)(A) or (a)(2). 24
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‘‘(8) SINGLE EXTENSION OF DEADLINES UPON 1
CERTIFICATION.—In a case in which the Secretary 2
of Homeland Security has certified to the Congress 3
that the employment eligibility verification system 4
required under subsection (d) will not be fully oper-5
ational by the date that is 6 months after the date 6
of the enactment of title VIII of division B of the 7
Secure the Border Act of 2023, each deadline estab-8
lished under this section for an employer to make an 9
inquiry using such system shall be extended by 6 10
months. No other extension of such a deadline shall 11
be made except as authorized under paragraph 12
(1)(D)(iv).’’. 13
(b) D
ATE OFHIRE.—Section 274A(h) of the Immi-14
gration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1324a(h)) is 15
amended by adding at the end the following: 16
‘‘(4) D
EFINITION OF DATE OF HIRE .—As used 17
in this section, the term ‘date of hire’ means the 18
date of actual commencement of employment for 19
wages or other remuneration, unless otherwise speci-20
fied.’’. 21
SEC. 802. EMPLOYMENT ELIGIBILITY VERIFICATION SYS-22
TEM. 23
Section 274A(d) of the Immigration and Nationality 24
Act (8 U.S.C. 1324a(d)) is amended to read as follows: 25
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‘‘(d) EMPLOYMENTELIGIBILITYVERIFICATIONSYS-1
TEM.— 2
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Patterned on the employ-3
ment eligibility confirmation system established 4
under section 404 of the Illegal Immigration Reform 5
and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 6
1324a note), the Secretary of Homeland Security 7
shall establish and administer a verification system 8
through which the Secretary (or a designee of the 9
Secretary, which may be a nongovernmental enti-10
ty)— 11
‘‘(A) responds to inquiries made by per-12
sons at any time through a toll-free electronic 13
media concerning an individual’s identity and 14
whether the individual is authorized to be em-15
ployed; and 16
‘‘(B) maintains records of the inquiries 17
that were made, of verifications provided (or 18
not provided), and of the codes provided to in-19
quirers as evidence of their compliance with 20
their obligations under this section. 21
‘‘(2) I
NITIAL RESPONSE.—The verification sys-22
tem shall provide confirmation or a tentative non-23
confirmation of an individual’s identity and employ-24
ment eligibility within 3 working days of the initial 25
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inquiry. If providing confirmation or tentative non-1
confirmation, the verification system shall provide an 2
appropriate code indicating such confirmation or 3
such nonconfirmation. 4
‘‘(3) S
ECONDARY CONFIRMATION PROCESS IN 5
CASE OF TENTATIVE NONCONFIRMATION .—In cases 6
of tentative nonconfirmation, the Secretary shall 7
specify, in consultation with the Commissioner of 8
Social Security, an available secondary verification 9
process to confirm the validity of information pro-10
vided and to provide a final confirmation or noncon-11
firmation not later than 10 working days after the 12
date on which the notice of the tentative noncon-13
firmation is received by the employee. The Secretary, 14
in consultation with the Commissioner, may extend 15
this deadline once on a case-by-case basis for a pe-16
riod of 10 working days, and if the time is extended, 17
shall document such extension within the verification 18
system. The Secretary, in consultation with the 19
Commissioner, shall notify the employee and em-20
ployer of such extension. The Secretary, in consulta-21
tion with the Commissioner, shall create a standard 22
process of such extension and notification and shall 23
make a description of such process available to the 24
public. When final confirmation or nonconfirmation 25
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is provided, the verification system shall provide an 1
appropriate code indicating such confirmation or 2
nonconfirmation. 3
‘‘(4) D
ESIGN AND OPERATION OF SYSTEM .— 4
The verification system shall be designed and oper-5
ated— 6
‘‘(A) to maximize its reliability and ease of 7
use by persons and other entities consistent 8
with insulating and protecting the privacy and 9
security of the underlying information; 10
‘‘(B) to respond to all inquiries made by 11
such persons and entities on whether individ-12
uals are authorized to be employed and to reg-13
ister all times when such inquiries are not re-14
ceived; 15
‘‘(C) with appropriate administrative, tech-16
nical, and physical safeguards to prevent unau-17
thorized disclosure of personal information; 18
‘‘(D) to have reasonable safeguards against 19
the system’s resulting in unlawful discrimina-20
tory practices based on national origin or citi-21
zenship status, including— 22
‘‘(i) the selective or unauthorized use 23
of the system to verify eligibility; or 24
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‘‘(ii) the exclusion of certain individ-1
uals from consideration for employment as 2
a result of a perceived likelihood that addi-3
tional verification will be required, beyond 4
what is required for most job applicants; 5
‘‘(E) to maximize the prevention of iden-6
tity theft use in the system; and 7
‘‘(F) to limit the subjects of verification to 8
the following individuals: 9
‘‘(i) Individuals hired, referred, or re-10
cruited, in accordance with paragraph (1) 11
or (4) of subsection (b). 12
‘‘(ii) Employees and prospective em-13
ployees, in accordance with paragraph (1), 14
(2), (3), or (4) of subsection (b). 15
‘‘(iii) Individuals seeking to confirm 16
their own employment eligibility on a vol-17
untary basis. 18
‘‘(5) R
ESPONSIBILITIES OF COMMISSIONER OF 19
SOCIAL SECURITY.—As part of the verification sys-20
tem, the Commissioner of Social Security, in con-21
sultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security 22
(and any designee of the Secretary selected to estab-23
lish and administer the verification system), shall es-24
tablish a reliable, secure method, which, within the 25
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time periods specified under paragraphs (2) and (3), 1
compares the name and social security account num-2
ber provided in an inquiry against such information 3
maintained by the Commissioner in order to validate 4
(or not validate) the information provided regarding 5
an individual whose identity and employment eligi-6
bility must be confirmed, the correspondence of the 7
name and number, and whether the individual has 8
presented a social security account number that is 9
not valid for employment. The Commissioner shall 10
not disclose or release social security information 11
(other than such confirmation or nonconfirmation) 12
under the verification system except as provided for 13
in this section or section 205(c)(2)(I) of the Social 14
Security Act. 15
‘‘(6) R
ESPONSIBILITIES OF SECRETARY OF 16
HOMELAND SECURITY .—As part of the verification 17
system, the Secretary of Homeland Security (in con-18
sultation with any designee of the Secretary selected 19
to establish and administer the verification system), 20
shall establish a reliable, secure method, which, with-21
in the time periods specified under paragraphs (2) 22
and (3), compares the name and alien identification 23
or authorization number (or any other information 24
as determined relevant by the Secretary) which are 25
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provided in an inquiry against such information 1
maintained or accessed by the Secretary in order to 2
validate (or not validate) the information provided, 3
the correspondence of the name and number, wheth-4
er the alien is authorized to be employed in the 5
United States, or to the extent that the Secretary 6
determines to be feasible and appropriate, whether 7
the records available to the Secretary verify the 8
identity or status of a national of the United States. 9
‘‘(7) U
PDATING INFORMATION .—The Commis-10
sioner of Social Security and the Secretary of Home-11
land Security shall update their information in a 12
manner that promotes the maximum accuracy and 13
shall provide a process for the prompt correction of 14
erroneous information, including instances in which 15
it is brought to their attention in the secondary 16
verification process described in paragraph (3). 17
‘‘(8) L
IMITATION ON USE OF THE 18
VERIFICATION SYSTEM AND ANY RELATED SYS -19
TEMS.— 20
‘‘(A) N
O NATIONAL IDENTIFICATION 21
CARD.—Nothing in this section shall be con-22
strued to authorize, directly or indirectly, the 23
issuance or use of national identification cards 24
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or the establishment of a national identification 1
card. 2
‘‘(B) C
RITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE .—The 3
Secretary may authorize or direct any person or 4
entity responsible for granting access to, pro-5
tecting, securing, operating, administering, or 6
regulating part of the critical infrastructure (as 7
defined in section 1016(e) of the Critical Infra-8
structure Protection Act of 2001 (42 U.S.C. 9
5195c(e))) to use the verification system to the 10
extent the Secretary determines that such use 11
will assist in the protection of the critical infra-12
structure. 13
‘‘(9) R
EMEDIES.—If an individual alleges that 14
the individual would not have been dismissed from 15
a job or would have been hired for a job but for an 16
error of the verification mechanism, the individual 17
may seek compensation only through the mechanism 18
of the Federal Tort Claims Act, and injunctive relief 19
to correct such error. No class action may be 20
brought under this paragraph.’’. 21
SEC. 803. RECRUITMENT, REFERRAL, AND CONTINUATION 22
OF EMPLOYMENT. 23
(a) A
DDITIONALCHANGES TORULES FORRECRUIT-24
MENT, REFERRAL, ANDCONTINUATION OF EMPLOY-25
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MENT.—Section 274A(a) of the Immigration and Nation-1
ality Act (8 U.S.C. 1324a(a)) is amended— 2
(1) in paragraph (1)(A), by striking ‘‘for a fee’’; 3
(2) in paragraph (1), by amending subpara-4
graph (B) to read as follows: 5
‘‘(B) to hire, continue to employ, or to re-6
cruit or refer for employment in the United 7
States an individual without complying with the 8
requirements of subsection (b).’’; and 9
(3) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘after hiring 10
an alien for employment in accordance with para-11
graph (1),’’ and inserting ‘‘after complying with 12
paragraph (1),’’. 13
(b) D
EFINITION.—Section 274A(h) of the Immigra-14
tion and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1324a(h)), as amended 15
by section 801(b) of this title, is further amended by add-16
ing at the end the following: 17
‘‘(5) D
EFINITION OF RECRUIT OR REFER .—As 18
used in this section, the term ‘refer’ means the act 19
of sending or directing a person who is in the United 20
States or transmitting documentation or information 21
to another, directly or indirectly, with the intent of 22
obtaining employment in the United States for such 23
person. Only persons or entities referring for remu-24
neration (whether on a retainer or contingency 25
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basis) are included in the definition, except that 1
union hiring halls that refer union members or non-2
union individuals who pay union membership dues 3
are included in the definition whether or not they re-4
ceive remuneration, as are labor service entities or 5
labor service agencies, whether public, private, for- 6
profit, or nonprofit, that refer, dispatch, or other-7
wise facilitate the hiring of laborers for any period 8
of time by a third party. As used in this section, the 9
term ‘recruit’ means the act of soliciting a person 10
who is in the United States, directly or indirectly, 11
and referring the person to another with the intent 12
of obtaining employment for that person. Only per-13
sons or entities referring for remuneration (whether 14
on a retainer or contingency basis) are included in 15
the definition, except that union hiring halls that 16
refer union members or nonunion individuals who 17
pay union membership dues are included in this defi-18
nition whether or not they receive remuneration, as 19
are labor service entities or labor service agencies, 20
whether public, private, for-profit, or nonprofit that 21
recruit, dispatch, or otherwise facilitate the hiring of 22
laborers for any period of time by a third party.’’. 23
(c) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 24
this section shall take effect on the date that is 1 year 25
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after the date of the enactment of this Act, except that 1
the amendments made by subsection (a) shall take effect 2
6 months after the date of the enactment of this Act inso-3
far as such amendments relate to continuation of employ-4
ment. 5
SEC. 804. GOOD FAITH DEFENSE. 6
Section 274A(a)(3) of the Immigration and Nation-7
ality Act (8 U.S.C. 1324a(a)(3)) is amended to read as 8
follows: 9
‘‘(3) G
OOD FAITH DEFENSE.— 10
‘‘(A) D
EFENSE.—An employer (or person 11
or entity that hires, employs, recruits, or refers 12
(as defined in subsection (h)(5)), or is otherwise 13
obligated to comply with this section) who es-14
tablishes that it has complied in good faith with 15
the requirements of subsection (b)— 16
‘‘(i) shall not be liable to a job appli-17
cant, an employee, the Federal Govern-18
ment, or a State or local government, 19
under Federal, State, or local criminal or 20
civil law for any employment-related action 21
taken with respect to a job applicant or 22
employee in good-faith reliance on informa-23
tion provided through the system estab-24
lished under subsection (d); and 25
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‘‘(ii) has established compliance with 1
its obligations under subparagraphs (A) 2
and (B) of paragraph (1) and subsection 3
(b) absent a showing by the Secretary of 4
Homeland Security, by clear and con-5
vincing evidence, that the employer had 6
knowledge that an employee is an unau-7
thorized alien. 8
‘‘(B) M
ITIGATION ELEMENT .—For pur-9
poses of subparagraph (A)(i), if an employer 10
proves by a preponderance of the evidence that 11
the employer uses a reasonable, secure, and es-12
tablished technology to authenticate the identity 13
of the new employee, that fact shall be taken 14
into account for purposes of determining good 15
faith use of the system established under sub-16
section (d). 17
‘‘(C) F
AILURE TO SEEK AND OBTAIN 18
VERIFICATION.—Subject to the effective dates 19
and other deadlines applicable under subsection 20
(b), in the case of a person or entity in the 21
United States that hires, or continues to em-22
ploy, an individual, or recruits or refers an indi-23
vidual for employment, the following require-24
ments apply: 25
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‘‘(i) FAILURE TO SEEK 1
VERIFICATION.— 2
‘‘(I) I
N GENERAL.—If the person 3
or entity has not made an inquiry, 4
under the mechanism established 5
under subsection (d) and in accord-6
ance with the timeframes established 7
under subsection (b), seeking 8
verification of the identity and work 9
eligibility of the individual, the de-10
fense under subparagraph (A) shall 11
not be considered to apply with re-12
spect to any employment, except as 13
provided in subclause (II). 14
‘‘(II) S
PECIAL RULE FOR FAIL -15
URE OF VERIFICATION MECHANISM .— 16
If such a person or entity in good 17
faith attempts to make an inquiry in 18
order to qualify for the defense under 19
subparagraph (A) and the verification 20
mechanism has registered that not all 21
inquiries were responded to during the 22
relevant time, the person or entity can 23
make an inquiry until the end of the 24
first subsequent working day in which 25
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the verification mechanism registers 1
no nonresponses and qualify for such 2
defense. 3
‘‘(ii) F
AILURE TO OBTAIN 4
VERIFICATION.—If the person or entity 5
has made the inquiry described in clause 6
(i)(I) but has not received an appropriate 7
verification of such identity and work eligi-8
bility under such mechanism within the 9
time period specified under subsection 10
(d)(2) after the time the verification in-11
quiry was received, the defense under sub-12
paragraph (A) shall not be considered to 13
apply with respect to any employment after 14
the end of such time period.’’. 15
SEC. 805. PREEMPTION AND STATES’ RIGHTS. 16
Section 274A(h)(2) of the Immigration and Nation-17
ality Act (8 U.S.C. 1324a(h)(2)) is amended to read as 18
follows: 19
‘‘(2) P
REEMPTION.— 20
‘‘(A) S
INGLE, NATIONAL POLICY .—The 21
provisions of this section preempt any State or 22
local law, ordinance, policy, or rule, including 23
any criminal or civil fine or penalty structure, 24
insofar as they may now or hereafter relate to 25
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the hiring, continued employment, or status 1
verification for employment eligibility purposes, 2
of unauthorized aliens. 3
‘‘(B) S
TATE ENFORCEMENT OF FEDERAL 4
LAW.— 5
‘‘(i) B
USINESS LICENSING.—A State, 6
locality, municipality, or political subdivi-7
sion may exercise its authority over busi-8
ness licensing and similar laws as a pen-9
alty for failure to use the verification sys-10
tem described in subsection (d) to verify 11
employment eligibility when and as re-12
quired under subsection (b). 13
‘‘(ii) G
ENERAL RULES.—A State, at 14
its own cost, may enforce the provisions of 15
this section, but only insofar as such State 16
follows the Federal regulations imple-17
menting this section, applies the Federal 18
penalty structure set out in this section, 19
and complies with all Federal rules and 20
guidance concerning implementation of this 21
section. Such State may collect any fines 22
assessed under this section. An employer 23
may not be subject to enforcement, includ-24
ing audit and investigation, by both a Fed-25
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eral agency and a State for the same viola-1
tion under this section. Whichever entity, 2
the Federal agency or the State, is first to 3
initiate the enforcement action, has the 4
right of first refusal to proceed with the 5
enforcement action. The Secretary must 6
provide copies of all guidance, training, 7
and field instructions provided to Federal 8
officials implementing the provisions of 9
this section to each State.’’. 10
SEC. 806. REPEAL. 11
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subtitle A of title IV of the Illegal 12
Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 13
1996 (8 U.S.C. 1324a note) is repealed. 14
(b) R
EFERENCES.—Any reference in any Federal 15
law, Executive order, rule, regulation, or delegation of au-16
thority, or any document of, or pertaining to, the Depart-17
ment of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, or the 18
Social Security Administration, to the employment eligi-19
bility confirmation system established under section 404 20
of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Respon-21
sibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1324a note) is deemed to 22
refer to the employment eligibility confirmation system es-23
tablished under section 274A(d) of the Immigration and 24
Nationality Act, as amended by section 802 of this title. 25
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(c) EFFECTIVEDATE.—This section shall take effect 1
on the date that is 30 months after the date of the enact-2
ment of this Act. 3
(d) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of sections, 4
in section 1(d) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Im-5
migrant Responsibility Act of 1996, is amended by strik-6
ing the items relating to subtitle A of title IV. 7
SEC. 807. PENALTIES. 8
Section 274A of the Immigration and Nationality Act 9
(8 U.S.C. 1324a) is amended— 10
(1) in subsection (e)(1)— 11
(A) by striking ‘‘Attorney General’’ each 12
place such term appears and inserting ‘‘Sec-13
retary of Homeland Security’’; and 14
(B) in subparagraph (D), by striking 15
‘‘Service’’ and inserting ‘‘Department of Home-16
land Security’’; 17
(2) in subsection (e)(4)— 18
(A) in subparagraph (A), in the matter be-19
fore clause (i), by inserting ‘‘, subject to para-20
graph (10),’’ after ‘‘in an amount’’; 21
(B) in subparagraph (A)(i), by striking 22
‘‘not less than $250 and not more than 23
$2,000’’ and inserting ‘‘not less than $2,500 24
and not more than $5,000’’; 25
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(C) in subparagraph (A)(ii), by striking 1
‘‘not less than $2,000 and not more than 2
$5,000’’ and inserting ‘‘not less than $5,000 3
and not more than $10,000’’; 4
(D) in subparagraph (A)(iii), by striking 5
‘‘not less than $3,000 and not more than 6
$10,000’’ and inserting ‘‘not less than $10,000 7
and not more than $25,000’’; and 8
(E) by moving the margin of the continu-9
ation text following subparagraph (B) two ems 10
to the left and by amending subparagraph (B) 11
to read as follows: 12
‘‘(B) may require the person or entity to 13
take such other remedial action as is appro-14
priate.’’; 15
(3) in subsection (e)(5)— 16
(A) in the paragraph heading, strike ‘‘
PA-17
PERWORK’’; 18
(B) by inserting ‘‘, subject to paragraphs 19
(10) through (12),’’ after ‘‘in an amount’’; 20
(C) by striking ‘‘$100’’ and inserting 21
‘‘$1,000’’; 22
(D) by striking ‘‘$1,000’’ and inserting 23
‘‘$25,000’’; and 24
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(E) by adding at the end the following: 1
‘‘Failure by a person or entity to utilize the em-2
ployment eligibility verification system as re-3
quired by law, or providing information to the 4
system that the person or entity knows or rea-5
sonably believes to be false, shall be treated as 6
a violation of subsection (a)(1)(A).’’; 7
(4) by adding at the end of subsection (e) the 8
following: 9
‘‘(10) E
XEMPTION FROM PENALTY FOR GOOD 10
FAITH VIOLATION.—In the case of imposition of a 11
civil penalty under paragraph (4)(A) with respect to 12
a violation of subsection (a)(1)(A) or (a)(2) for hir-13
ing or continuation of employment or recruitment or 14
referral by person or entity and in the case of impo-15
sition of a civil penalty under paragraph (5) for a 16
violation of subsection (a)(1)(B) for hiring or re-17
cruitment or referral by a person or entity, the pen-18
alty otherwise imposed may be waived or reduced if 19
the violator establishes that the violator acted in 20
good faith. 21
‘‘(11) M
ITIGATION ELEMENT.—For purposes of 22
paragraph (4), the size of the business shall be 23
taken into account when assessing the level of civil 24
money penalty. 25
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‘‘(12) AUTHORITY TO DEBAR EMPLOYERS FOR 1
CERTAIN VIOLATIONS.— 2
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—If a person or entity 3
is determined by the Secretary of Homeland Se-4
curity to be a repeat violator of paragraph 5
(1)(A) or (2) of subsection (a), or is convicted 6
of a crime under this section, such person or 7
entity may be considered for debarment from 8
the receipt of Federal contracts, grants, or co-9
operative agreements in accordance with the de-10
barment standards and pursuant to the debar-11
ment procedures set forth in the Federal Acqui-12
sition Regulation. 13
‘‘(B) D
OES NOT HAVE CONTRACT , GRANT, 14
AGREEMENT.—If the Secretary of Homeland 15
Security or the Attorney General wishes to have 16
a person or entity considered for debarment in 17
accordance with this paragraph, and such a 18
person or entity does not hold a Federal con-19
tract, grant, or cooperative agreement, the Sec-20
retary or Attorney General shall refer the mat-21
ter to the Administrator of General Services to 22
determine whether to list the person or entity 23
on the List of Parties Excluded from Federal 24
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Procurement, and if so, for what duration and 1
under what scope. 2
‘‘(C) H
AS CONTRACT, GRANT, AGREE-3
MENT.—If the Secretary of Homeland Security 4
or the Attorney General wishes to have a per-5
son or entity considered for debarment in ac-6
cordance with this paragraph, and such person 7
or entity holds a Federal contract, grant, or co-8
operative agreement, the Secretary or Attorney 9
General shall advise all agencies or departments 10
holding a contract, grant, or cooperative agree-11
ment with the person or entity of the Govern-12
ment’s interest in having the person or entity 13
considered for debarment, and after soliciting 14
and considering the views of all such agencies 15
and departments, the Secretary or Attorney 16
General may refer the matter to any appro-17
priate lead agency to determine whether to list 18
the person or entity on the List of Parties Ex-19
cluded from Federal Procurement, and if so, for 20
what duration and under what scope. 21
‘‘(D) R
EVIEW.—Any decision to debar a 22
person or entity in accordance with this para-23
graph shall be reviewable pursuant to part 9.4 24
of the Federal Acquisition Regulation. 25
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‘‘(13) OFFICE FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERN -1
MENT COMPLAINTS .—The Secretary of Homeland 2
Security shall establish an office— 3
‘‘(A) to which State and local government 4
agencies may submit information indicating po-5
tential violations of subsection (a), (b), or 6
(g)(1) that were generated in the normal course 7
of law enforcement or the normal course of 8
other official activities in the State or locality; 9
‘‘(B) that is required to indicate to the 10
complaining State or local agency within five 11
business days of the filing of such a complaint 12
by identifying whether the Secretary will fur-13
ther investigate the information provided; 14
‘‘(C) that is required to investigate those 15
complaints filed by State or local government 16
agencies that, on their face, have a substantial 17
probability of validity; 18
‘‘(D) that is required to notify the com-19
plaining State or local agency of the results of 20
any such investigation conducted; and 21
‘‘(E) that is required to report to the Con-22
gress annually the number of complaints re-23
ceived under this paragraph, the States and lo-24
calities that filed such complaints, and the reso-25
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lution of the complaints investigated by the Sec-1
retary.’’; and 2
(5) by amending paragraph (1) of subsection (f) 3
to read as follows: 4
‘‘(1) C
RIMINAL PENALTY.—Any person or enti-5
ty which engages in a pattern or practice of viola-6
tions of subsection (a) (1) or (2) shall be fined not 7
more than $5,000 for each unauthorized alien with 8
respect to which such a violation occurs, imprisoned 9
for not more than 18 months, or both, notwith-10
standing the provisions of any other Federal law re-11
lating to fine levels.’’. 12
SEC. 808. FRAUD AND MISUSE OF DOCUMENTS. 13
Section 1546(b) of title 18, United States Code, is 14
amended— 15
(1) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘identification 16
document,’’ and inserting ‘‘identification document 17
or document meant to establish work authorization 18
(including the documents described in section 19
274A(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act),’’; 20
and 21
(2) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘identification 22
document’’ and inserting ‘‘identification document or 23
document meant to establish work authorization (in-24
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cluding the documents described in section 274A(b) 1
of the Immigration and Nationality Act),’’. 2
SEC. 809. PROTECTION OF SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRA-3
TION PROGRAMS. 4
(a) F
UNDINGUNDERAGREEMENT.—Effective for 5
fiscal years beginning on or after October 1, 2023, the 6
Commissioner of Social Security and the Secretary of 7
Homeland Security shall enter into and maintain an 8
agreement which shall— 9
(1) provide funds to the Commissioner for the 10
full costs of the responsibilities of the Commissioner 11
under section 274A(d) of the Immigration and Na-12
tionality Act (8 U.S.C. 1324a(d)), as amended by 13
section 802 of this title, including— 14
(A) acquiring, installing, and maintaining 15
technological equipment and systems necessary 16
for the fulfillment of the responsibilities of the 17
Commissioner under such section 274A(d), but 18
only that portion of such costs that are attrib-19
utable exclusively to such responsibilities; and 20
(B) responding to individuals who contest 21
a tentative nonconfirmation provided by the em-22
ployment eligibility verification system estab-23
lished under such section; 24
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(2) provide such funds annually in advance of 1
the applicable quarter based on estimating method-2
ology agreed to by the Commissioner and the Sec-3
retary (except in such instances where the delayed 4
enactment of an annual appropriation may preclude 5
such quarterly payments); and 6
(3) require an annual accounting and reconcili-7
ation of the actual costs incurred and the funds pro-8
vided under the agreement, which shall be reviewed 9
by the Inspectors General of the Social Security Ad-10
ministration and the Department of Homeland Secu-11
rity. 12
(b) C
ONTINUATION OFEMPLOYMENTVERIFICATION 13
INABSENCE OFTIMELYAGREEMENT.—In any case in 14
which the agreement required under subsection (a) for any 15
fiscal year beginning on or after October 1, 2023, has not 16
been reached as of October 1 of such fiscal year, the latest 17
agreement between the Commissioner and the Secretary 18
of Homeland Security providing for funding to cover the 19
costs of the responsibilities of the Commissioner under 20
section 274A(d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act 21
(8 U.S.C. 1324a(d)) shall be deemed in effect on an in-22
terim basis for such fiscal year until such time as an 23
agreement required under subsection (a) is subsequently 24
reached, except that the terms of such interim agreement 25
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shall be modified by the Director of the Office of Manage-1
ment and Budget to adjust for inflation and any increase 2
or decrease in the volume of requests under the employ-3
ment eligibility verification system. In any case in which 4
an interim agreement applies for any fiscal year under this 5
subsection, the Commissioner and the Secretary shall, not 6
later than October 1 of such fiscal year, notify the Com-7
mittee on Ways and Means, the Committee on the Judici-8
ary, and the Committee on Appropriations of the House 9
of Representatives and the Committee on Finance, the 10
Committee on the Judiciary, and the Committee on Ap-11
propriations of the Senate of the failure to reach the 12
agreement required under subsection (a) for such fiscal 13
year. Until such time as the agreement required under 14
subsection (a) has been reached for such fiscal year, the 15
Commissioner and the Secretary shall, not later than the 16
end of each 90-day period after October 1 of such fiscal 17
year, notify such Committees of the status of negotiations 18
between the Commissioner and the Secretary in order to 19
reach such an agreement. 20
SEC. 810. FRAUD PREVENTION. 21
(a) B
LOCKINGMISUSEDSOCIALSECURITYACCOUNT 22
N
UMBERS.—The Secretary of Homeland Security, in con-23
sultation with the Commissioner of Social Security, shall 24
establish a program in which social security account num-25
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bers that have been identified to be subject to unusual 1
multiple use in the employment eligibility verification sys-2
tem established under section 274A(d) of the Immigration 3
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1324a(d)), as amended by 4
section 802 of this title, or that are otherwise suspected 5
or determined to have been compromised by identity fraud 6
or other misuse, shall be blocked from use for such system 7
purposes unless the individual using such number is able 8
to establish, through secure and fair additional security 9
procedures, that the individual is the legitimate holder of 10
the number. 11
(b) A
LLOWINGSUSPENSION OFUSE OFCERTAINSO-12
CIALSECURITYACCOUNTNUMBERS.—The Secretary of 13
Homeland Security, in consultation with the Commis-14
sioner of Social Security, shall establish a program which 15
shall provide a reliable, secure method by which victims 16
of identity fraud and other individuals may suspend or 17
limit the use of their social security account number or 18
other identifying information for purposes of the employ-19
ment eligibility verification system established under sec-20
tion 274A(d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 21
U.S.C. 1324a(d)), as amended by section 802 of this title. 22
The Secretary may implement the program on a limited 23
pilot program basis before making it fully available to all 24
individuals. 25
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(c) ALLOWINGPARENTSTOPREVENTTHEFT OF 1
T
HEIRCHILD’SIDENTITY.—The Secretary of Homeland 2
Security, in consultation with the Commissioner of Social 3
Security, shall establish a program which shall provide a 4
reliable, secure method by which parents or legal guard-5
ians may suspend or limit the use of the social security 6
account number or other identifying information of a 7
minor under their care for the purposes of the employment 8
eligibility verification system established under 274A(d) of 9
the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1324a(d)), 10
as amended by section 802 of this title. The Secretary may 11
implement the program on a limited pilot program basis 12
before making it fully available to all individuals. 13
SEC. 811. USE OF EMPLOYMENT ELIGIBILITY 14
VERIFICATION PHOTO TOOL. 15
An employer who uses the photo matching tool used 16
as part of the E-Verify System shall match the photo tool 17
photograph to both the photograph on the identity or em-18
ployment eligibility document provided by the employee 19
and to the face of the employee submitting the document 20
for employment verification purposes. 21
SEC. 812. IDENTITY AUTHENTICATION EMPLOYMENT ELIGI-22
BILITY VERIFICATION PILOT PROGRAMS. 23
Not later than 24 months after the date of the enact-24
ment of this Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security, 25
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after consultation with the Commissioner of Social Secu-1
rity and the Director of the National Institute of Stand-2
ards and Technology, shall establish by regulation not less 3
than 2 Identity Authentication Employment Eligibility 4
Verification pilot programs, each using a separate and dis-5
tinct technology (the ‘‘Authentication Pilots’’). The pur-6
pose of the Authentication Pilots shall be to provide for 7
identity authentication and employment eligibility 8
verification with respect to enrolled new employees which 9
shall be available to any employer that elects to participate 10
in either of the Authentication Pilots. Any participating 11
employer may cancel the employer’s participation in the 12
Authentication Pilot after one year after electing to par-13
ticipate without prejudice to future participation. The Sec-14
retary shall report to the Committee on the Judiciary of 15
the House of Representatives and the Committee on the 16
Judiciary of the Senate the Secretary’s findings on the 17
Authentication Pilots, including the authentication tech-18
nologies chosen, not later than 12 months after com-19
mencement of the Authentication Pilots. 20
SEC. 813. INSPECTOR GENERAL AUDITS. 21
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 22
date of the enactment of this Act, the Inspector General 23
of the Social Security Administration shall complete audits 24
of the following categories in order to uncover evidence 25
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of individuals who are not authorized to work in the 1
United States: 2
(1) Workers who dispute wages reported on 3
their social security account number when they be-4
lieve someone else has used such number and name 5
to report wages. 6
(2) Children’s social security account numbers 7
used for work purposes. 8
(3) Employers whose workers present signifi-9
cant numbers of mismatched social security account 10
numbers or names for wage reporting. 11
(b) S
UBMISSION.—The Inspector General of the So-12
cial Security Administration shall submit the audits com-13
pleted under subsection (a) to the Committee on Ways and 14
Means of the House of Representatives and the Committee 15
on Finance of the Senate for review of the evidence of 16
individuals who are not authorized to work in the United 17
States. The Chairmen of those Committees shall then de-18
termine information to be shared with the Secretary of 19
Homeland Security so that such Secretary can investigate 20
the unauthorized employment demonstrated by such evi-21
dence. 22
SEC. 814. AGRICULTURE WORKFORCE STUDY. 23
Not later than 36 months after the date of the enact-24
ment of this Act, the Secretary of the Department of 25
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Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of 1
the Department of Agriculture, shall submit to the Com-2
mittee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives 3
and the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate, a re-4
port that includes the following: 5
(1) The number of individuals in the agricul-6
tural workforce. 7
(2) The number of United States citizens in the 8
agricultural workforce. 9
(3) The number of aliens in the agricultural 10
workforce who are authorized to work in the United 11
States. 12
(4) The number of aliens in the agricultural 13
workforce who are not authorized to work in the 14
United States. 15
(5) Wage growth in each of the previous ten 16
years, disaggregated by agricultural sector. 17
(6) The percentage of total agricultural indus-18
try costs represented by agricultural labor during 19
each of the last ten years. 20
(7) The percentage of agricultural costs in-21
vested in mechanization during each of the last ten 22
years. 23
(8) Recommendations, other than a path to 24
legal status for aliens not authorized to work in the 25
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United States, for ensuring United States agricul-1
tural employers have a workforce sufficient to cover 2
industry needs, including recommendations to— 3
(A) increase investments in mechanization; 4
(B) increase the domestic workforce; and 5
(C) reform the H–2A program. 6
SEC. 815. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON FURTHER IMPLEMENTA-7
TION. 8
It is the sense of Congress that in implementing the 9
E-Verify Program, the Secretary of Homeland Security 10
shall ensure any adverse impact on the Nation’s agricul-11
tural workforce, operations, and food security are consid-12
ered and addressed. 13
SEC. 816. REPEALING REGULATIONS. 14
The rules relating to ‘‘Temporary Agricultural Em-15
ployment of H–2A Nonimmigrants in the United States’’ 16
(87 Fed. Reg. 61660 (Oct. 12, 2022)) and to ‘‘Adverse 17
Effect Wage Rate Methodology for the Temporary Em-18
ployment of H–2A Nonimmigrants in Non-Range Occupa-19
tions in the United States’’ (88 Fed. Reg. 12760 (Feb. 20
28, 2023)) shall have no force or effect, may not be re-21
issued in substantially the same form, and any new rules 22
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that are substantially the same as such rules may not be 1
issued. 2
Passed the House of Representatives May 11, 2023. 
Attest: CHERYL L. JOHNSON, 
Clerk. 
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71 
118
TH
CONGRESS 
1
ST
S
ESSION
 
H. R. 2 
AN ACT 
To secure the borders of the United States, and for 
other purposes. 
M
AY
16, 2023 
Read the second time and placed on the calendar 
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