I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2417
To the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization
Act of 2008 to provide for the expedited removal of unaccompanied
alien children who are not victims of a severe form of trafficking in
persons and who do not have a fear of returning to their country
of nationality or last habitual residence, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH30, 2023
Mr. C
ARTERof Texas (for himself, Mr. BIGGS, and Mr. NEHLS) introduced
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection
Reauthorization Act of 2008 to provide for the expedited
removal of unaccompanied alien children who are not
victims of a severe form of trafficking in persons and
who do not have a fear of returning to their country
of nationality or last habitual residence, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protection of Children 4
Act of 2023’’. 5
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SEC. 2. 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 the exceptions under subsection 11
(a)(2),’’ and inserting ‘‘who does not meet 12
the criteria listed in paragraph (2)(A)’’; 13
and 14
(ii) in clause (i), by inserting before 15
the semicolon at the end the following: ‘‘, 16
which shall include a hearing before an im-17
migration judge not later than 14 days 18
after being screened under paragraph (4)’’; 19
(2) in subsection (b)— 20
(A) in paragraph (2)— 21
(i) in subparagraph (A), by inserting 22
before the semicolon the following: ‘‘be-23
lieved not to meet the criteria listed in sub-24
section (a)(2)(A)’’; and 25
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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, the following information: 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. 19
‘‘(VI) Contact information for 20
the 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
apprehended on or after the date that is 30 days after 18
the date of enactment of this Act. 19
SEC. 3. SPECIAL IMMIGRANT JUVENILE STATUS FOR IMMI-20
GRANTS UNABLE TO REUNITE WITH EITHER 21
PARENT. 22
Section 101(a)(27)(J) of the Immigration and Na-23
tionality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(27)(J)) is amended— 24
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(1) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘, and whose reuni-1
fication with 1 or both of the immigrant’s parents 2
is not viable due to abuse, neglect, abandonment, or 3
a similar basis found under State law’’; and 4
(2) in clause (iii)— 5
(A) in subclause (I), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 6
the end; 7
(B) in subclause (II), by inserting ‘‘and’’ 8
after the semicolon; and 9
(C) by adding at the end the following: 10
‘‘(III) an alien may not be grant-11
ed special immigrant status under this 12
subparagraph if the alien’s reunifica-13
tion with any one parent or legal 14
guardian is not precluded by abuse, 15
neglect, abandonment, or any similar 16
cause under State law;’’. 17
Æ
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