Us Congress 2023-2024 Regular Session

Us Congress House Bill HB2453 Compare Versions

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11 I
22 118THCONGRESS
33 1
44 STSESSION H. R. 2453
55 To amend section 212(d)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to
66 reform immigration parole, and for other purposes.
77 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
88 MARCH30, 2023
99 Mr. T
1010 IFFANYintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the
1111 Committee on the Judiciary
1212 A BILL
1313 To amend section 212(d)(5) of the Immigration and Nation-
1414 ality Act to reform immigration parole, and for other
1515 purposes.
1616 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
1717 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
1818 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
1919 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Immigration Parole 4
2020 Reform Act of 2023’’. 5
2121 SEC. 2. IMMIGRATION PAROLE REFORM. 6
2222 Section 212(d)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality 7
2323 Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(d)(5)) is amended to read as follows: 8
2424 ‘‘(5)(A) Except as provided in subparagraphs 9
2525 (B) and (C) and section 214(f), the Secretary of 10
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2828 •HR 2453 IH
2929 Homeland Security, in the discretion of the Sec-1
3030 retary, may temporarily parole into the United 2
3131 States any alien applying for admission to the 3
3232 United States who is not present in the United 4
3333 States, under such conditions as the Secretary may 5
3434 prescribe, on a case-by-case basis, and not according 6
3535 to eligibility criteria describing an entire class of po-7
3636 tential parole recipients, for urgent humanitarian 8
3737 reasons or significant public benefit. Parole granted 9
3838 under this subparagraph may not be regarded as an 10
3939 admission of the alien. When the purposes of such 11
4040 parole have been served in the opinion of the Sec-12
4141 retary, the alien shall immediately return or be re-13
4242 turned to the custody from which the alien was pa-14
4343 roled. After such return, the case of the alien shall 15
4444 be dealt with in the same manner as the case of any 16
4545 other applicant for admission to the United States. 17
4646 ‘‘(B) The Secretary of Homeland Security may 18
4747 grant parole to any alien who— 19
4848 ‘‘(i) is present in the United States without 20
4949 lawful immigration status; 21
5050 ‘‘(ii) is the beneficiary of an approved peti-22
5151 tion under section 203(a); 23
5252 ‘‘(iii) is not otherwise inadmissible or re-24
5353 movable; and 25
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5656 •HR 2453 IH
5757 ‘‘(iv) is the spouse or child of a member of 1
5858 the Armed Forces serving on active duty. 2
5959 ‘‘(C) The Secretary of Homeland Security may 3
6060 grant parole to any alien— 4
6161 ‘‘(i) who is a national of the Republic of 5
6262 Cuba and is living in the Republic of Cuba; 6
6363 ‘‘(ii) who is the beneficiary of an approved 7
6464 petition under section 203(a); 8
6565 ‘‘(iii) for whom an immigrant visa is not 9
6666 immediately available; 10
6767 ‘‘(iv) who meets all eligibility requirements 11
6868 for an immigrant visa; 12
6969 ‘‘(v) who is not otherwise inadmissible; and 13
7070 ‘‘(vi) who is receiving a grant of parole in 14
7171 furtherance of the commitment of the United 15
7272 States to the minimum level of annual legal mi-16
7373 gration of Cuban nationals to the United States 17
7474 specified in the U.S.-Cuba Joint Communique´ 18
7575 on Migration, done at New York September 9, 19
7676 1994, and reaffirmed in the Cuba-United 20
7777 States: Joint Statement on Normalization of 21
7878 Migration, Building on the Agreement of Sep-22
7979 tember 9, 1994, done at New York May 2, 23
8080 1995. 24
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8383 •HR 2453 IH
8484 ‘‘(D) The Secretary of Homeland Security may 1
8585 grant parole to an alien who is returned to a contig-2
8686 uous country under section 235(b)(2)(C) to allow 3
8787 the alien to attend the alien’s immigration hearing. 4
8888 The grant of parole shall not exceed the time re-5
8989 quired for the alien to be escorted to, and attend, 6
9090 the alien’s immigration hearing scheduled on the 7
9191 same calendar day as the grant, and to immediately 8
9292 thereafter be escorted back to the contiguous coun-9
9393 try. A grant of parole under this subparagraph shall 10
9494 not be considered for purposes of determining 11
9595 whether the alien is inadmissible under this Act. 12
9696 ‘‘(E) For purposes of determining an alien’s eli-13
9797 gibility for parole under subparagraph (A), an ur-14
9898 gent humanitarian reason shall be limited to cir-15
9999 cumstances in which the alien establishes that— 16
100100 ‘‘(i)(I) the alien has a medical emergency; 17
101101 and 18
102102 ‘‘(II)(aa) the alien cannot obtain necessary 19
103103 treatment in the foreign state in which the alien 20
104104 is residing; or 21
105105 ‘‘(bb) the medical emergency is life-threat-22
106106 ening and there is insufficient time for the alien 23
107107 to be admitted through the normal visa process; 24
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110110 •HR 2453 IH
111111 ‘‘(ii) the alien is the parent or legal guard-1
112112 ian of an alien described in clause (i) and the 2
113113 alien described in clause (i) is a minor; 3
114114 ‘‘(iii) the alien is needed in the United 4
115115 States in order to donate an organ or other tis-5
116116 sue for transplant and there is insufficient time 6
117117 for the alien to be admitted through the normal 7
118118 visa process; 8
119119 ‘‘(iv) the alien has a close family member 9
120120 in the United States whose death is imminent 10
121121 and the alien could not arrive in the United 11
122122 States in time to see such family member alive 12
123123 if the alien were to be admitted through the 13
124124 normal visa process; 14
125125 ‘‘(v) the alien is seeking to attend the fu-15
126126 neral of a close family member and the alien 16
127127 could not arrive in the United States in time to 17
128128 attend such funeral if the alien were to be ad-18
129129 mitted through the normal visa process; 19
130130 ‘‘(vi) the alien is an adopted child with an 20
131131 urgent medical condition who is in the legal 21
132132 custody of the petitioner for a final adoption-re-22
133133 lated visa and whose medical treatment is re-23
134134 quired before the expected award of a final 24
135135 adoption-related visa; or 25
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138138 •HR 2453 IH
139139 ‘‘(vii) the alien is a lawful applicant for ad-1
140140 justment of status under section 245 and is re-2
141141 turning to the United States after temporary 3
142142 travel abroad. 4
143143 ‘‘(F) For purposes of determining an alien’s eli-5
144144 gibility for parole under subparagraph (A), a signifi-6
145145 cant public benefit may be determined to result from 7
146146 the parole of an alien only if— 8
147147 ‘‘(i) the alien has assisted (or will assist, 9
148148 whether knowingly or not) the United States 10
149149 Government in a law enforcement matter; 11
150150 ‘‘(ii) the alien’s presence is required by the 12
151151 Government in furtherance of such law enforce-13
152152 ment matter; and 14
153153 ‘‘(iii) the alien is inadmissible, does not 15
154154 satisfy the eligibility requirements for admission 16
155155 as a nonimmigrant, or there is insufficient time 17
156156 for the alien to be admitted through the normal 18
157157 visa process. 19
158158 ‘‘(G) For purposes of determining an alien’s eli-20
159159 gibility for parole under subparagraph (A), the term 21
160160 ‘case-by-case basis’ means that the facts in each in-22
161161 dividual case are considered and parole is not grant-23
162162 ed based on membership in a defined class of aliens 24
163163 to be granted parole. The fact that aliens are consid-25
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166166 •HR 2453 IH
167167 ered for or granted parole one-by-one and not as a 1
168168 group is not sufficient to establish that the parole 2
169169 decision is made on a ‘case-by-case basis’. 3
170170 ‘‘(H) The Secretary of Homeland Security may 4
171171 not use the parole authority under this paragraph to 5
172172 parole an alien into the United States for any reason 6
173173 or purpose other than those described in subpara-7
174174 graphs (B), (C), (D), (E), and (F). 8
175175 ‘‘(I) An alien granted parole may not accept 9
176176 employment, except that an alien granted parole 10
177177 pursuant to subparagraph (B) or (C) is authorized 11
178178 to accept employment for the duration of the parole, 12
179179 as evidenced by an employment authorization docu-13
180180 ment issued by the Secretary of Homeland Security. 14
181181 ‘‘(J) Parole granted after a departure from the 15
182182 United States shall not be regarded as an admission 16
183183 of the alien. An alien granted parole, whether as an 17
184184 initial grant of parole or parole upon reentry into 18
185185 the United States, is not eligible to adjust status to 19
186186 lawful permanent residence or for any other immi-20
187187 gration benefit if the immigration status the alien 21
188188 had at the time of departure did not authorize the 22
189189 alien to adjust status or to be eligible for such ben-23
190190 efit. 24
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193193 •HR 2453 IH
194194 ‘‘(K)(i) Except as provided in clauses (ii) and 1
195195 (iii), parole shall be granted to an alien under this 2
196196 paragraph for the shorter of— 3
197197 ‘‘(I) a period of sufficient length to accom-4
198198 plish the activity described in subparagraph 5
199199 (D), (E), or (F) for which the alien was grant-6
200200 ed parole; or 7
201201 ‘‘(II) 1 year. 8
202202 ‘‘(ii) Grants of parole pursuant to subparagraph 9
203203 (A) may be extended once, in the discretion of the 10
204204 Secretary, for an additional period that is the short-11
205205 er of— 12
206206 ‘‘(I) the period that is necessary to accom-13
207207 plish the activity described in subparagraph (E) 14
208208 or (F) for which the alien was granted parole; 15
209209 or 16
210210 ‘‘(II) 1 year. 17
211211 ‘‘(iii) Aliens who have a pending application to 18
212212 adjust status to permanent residence under section 19
213213 245 may request extensions of parole under this 20
214214 paragraph, in 1-year increments, until the applica-21
215215 tion for adjustment has been adjudicated. Such pa-22
216216 role shall terminate immediately upon the denial of 23
217217 such adjustment application. 24
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220220 •HR 2453 IH
221221 ‘‘(L) Not later than 90 days after the last day 1
222222 of each fiscal year, the Secretary of Homeland Secu-2
223223 rity shall submit to the Committee on the Judiciary 3
224224 of the Senate and the Committee on the Judiciary 4
225225 of the House of Representatives and make available 5
226226 to the public, a report— 6
227227 ‘‘(i) identifying the total number of aliens 7
228228 paroled into the United States under this para-8
229229 graph during the previous fiscal year; and 9
230230 ‘‘(ii) containing information and data re-10
231231 garding all aliens paroled during such fiscal 11
232232 year, including— 12
233233 ‘‘(I) the duration of parole; 13
234234 ‘‘(II) the type of parole; and 14
235235 ‘‘(III) the current status of the aliens 15
236236 so paroled.’’. 16
237237 SEC. 3. IMPLEMENTATION. 17
238238 (a) I
239239 NGENERAL.—Except as provided in subsection 18
240240 (b), this Act and the amendments made by this Act shall 19
241241 take effect on the date that is 30 days after the date of 20
242242 the enactment of this Act. 21
243243 (b) E
244244 XCEPTIONS.—Notwithstanding subsection (a), 22
245245 each of the following exceptions apply: 23
246246 (1) Any application for parole or advance parole 24
247247 filed by an alien before the date of the enactment of 25
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250250 •HR 2453 IH
251251 this Act shall be adjudicated under the law that was 1
252252 in effect on the date on which the application was 2
253253 properly filed and any approved advance parole shall 3
254254 remain valid under the law that was in effect on the 4
255255 date on which the advance parole was approved. 5
256256 (2) Section 212(d)(5)(J) of the Immigration 6
257257 and Nationality Act, as added by section 2, shall 7
258258 take effect on the date of the enactment of this Act. 8
259259 (3) Aliens who were paroled into the United 9
260260 States pursuant to section 212(d)(5)(A) of the Im-10
261261 migration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 11
262262 1182(d)(5)(A)) before January 1, 2023, shall con-12
263263 tinue to be subject to the terms of parole that were 13
264264 in effect on the date on which their respective parole 14
265265 was approved. 15
266266 SEC. 4. CAUSE OF ACTION. 16
267267 Any person, State, or local government that experi-17
268268 ences financial harm in excess of $1,000 due to a failure 18
269269 of the Federal Government to lawfully apply the provisions 19
270270 of this Act or the amendments made by this Act shall have 20
271271 standing to bring a civil action against the Federal Gov-21
272272 ernment in an appropriate district court of the United 22
273273 States for appropriate relief. 23
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276276 •HR 2453 IH
277277 SEC. 5. SEVERABILITY. 1
278278 If any provision of this Act or any amendment by 2
279279 this Act, or the application of such provision or amend-3
280280 ment to any person or circumstance, is held to be uncon-4
281281 stitutional, the remainder of this Act and the application 5
282282 of such provision or amendment to any other person or 6
283283 circumstance shall not be affected. 7
284284 Æ
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