Us Congress House Bill HB2640 Introduced / Bill

                    I 
118THCONGRESS 
1
STSESSION H. R. 2640 
To provide for reform of the asylum system and protection of the border. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL17, 2023 
Mr. M
CCLINTOCK(for himself and Mr. BIGGS) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition 
to the Committees on Ways and Means, Education and the Workforce, 
and Homeland Security, for a period to be subsequently determined by 
the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall with-
in the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To provide for reform of the asylum system and protection 
of the border. 
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
‘‘Border Security and Enforcement 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. 
TITLE I—ASYLUM REFORM AND BORDER PROTECTION 
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Sec. 101. Short title. 
Sec. 102. Safe third country. 
Sec. 103. Credible fear interviews. 
Sec. 104. Clarification of asylum eligibility. 
Sec. 105. Exceptions. 
Sec. 106. Employment authorization. 
Sec. 107. Asylum fees. 
Sec. 108. Rules for determining asylum eligibility. 
Sec. 109. Firm resettlement. 
Sec. 110. Notice concerning frivolous asylum applications. 
Sec. 111. Technical amendments. 
Sec. 112. Requirement for procedures relating to certain asylum applications. 
TITLE II—BORDER SAFETY AND MIGRANT PROTECTION 
Sec. 201. Short title. 
Sec. 202. Inspection of applicants for admission. 
TITLE III—ENSURING UNITED FAMILIES AT THE BORDER 
Sec. 301. Short title. 
Sec. 302. Clarification of standards for family detention. 
TITLE IV—PROTECTION OF CHILDREN 
Sec. 401. Short title. 
Sec. 402. Findings. 
Sec. 403. Repatriation of unaccompanied alien children. 
Sec. 404. Special immigrant juvenile status for immigrants unable to reunite 
with either parent. 
TITLE V—VISA OVERSTAYS PENALTIES 
Sec. 501. Short title. 
Sec. 502. Expanded penalties for illegal entry or presence. 
TITLE VI—IMMIGRATION PAROLE REFORM 
Sec. 601. Short title. 
Sec. 602. Immigration parole reform. 
Sec. 603. Implementation. 
Sec. 604. Cause of action. 
Sec. 605. Severability. 
TITLE VII—LEGAL WORKFORCE 
Sec. 701. Short title. 
Sec. 702. Employment eligibility verification process. 
Sec. 703. Employment eligibility verification system. 
Sec. 704. Recruitment, referral, and continuation of employment. 
Sec. 705. Good faith defense. 
Sec. 706. Preemption and States’ rights. 
Sec. 707. Repeal. 
Sec. 708. Penalties. 
Sec. 709. Fraud and misuse of documents. 
Sec. 710. Protection of Social Security Administration programs. 
Sec. 711. Fraud prevention. 
Sec. 712. Use of employment eligibility verification photo tool. 
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Sec. 713. Identity authentication employment eligibility verification pilot pro-
grams. 
Sec. 714. Inspector General audits. 
Sec. 715. Agriculture Workforce Study. 
TITLE I—ASYLUM REFORM AND 1
BORDER PROTECTION 2
SEC. 101. SHORT TITLE. 3
This title may be cited as the ‘‘Asylum Reform and 4
Border Protection Act of 2023’’. 5
SEC. 102. SAFE THIRD COUNTRY. 6
Section 208(a)(2)(A) of the Immigration and Nation-7
ality Act (8 U.S.C. 1158(a)(2)(A)) is amended— 8
(1) by striking ‘‘if the Attorney General deter-9
mines’’ and inserting ‘‘if the Attorney General or the 10
Secretary of Homeland Security determines—’’; 11
(2) by striking ‘‘that the alien may be removed’’ 12
and inserting the following: 13
‘‘(i) that the alien may be removed’’; 14
(3) by striking ‘‘, pursuant to a bilateral or 15
multilateral agreement, to’’ and inserting ‘‘to’’; 16
(4) by inserting ‘‘or the Secretary, on a case by 17
case basis,’’ before ‘‘finds that’’; 18
(5) by striking the period at the end and insert-19
ing ‘‘; or’’; and 20
(6) by adding at the end the following: 21
‘‘(ii) that the alien entered, attempted to enter, 22
or arrived in the United States after transiting 23
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through at least one country outside the alien’s 1
country of citizenship, nationality, or last lawful ha-2
bitual residence en route to the United States, un-3
less— 4
‘‘(I) the alien demonstrates that he or she 5
applied for protection from persecution or tor-6
ture in at least one country outside the alien’s 7
country of citizenship, nationality, or last lawful 8
habitual residence through which the alien 9
transited en route to the United States, and the 10
alien received a final judgment denying the 11
alien protection in each country; 12
‘‘(II) the alien demonstrates that he or she 13
was a victim of a severe form of trafficking in 14
which a commercial sex act was induced by 15
force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person 16
induced to perform such act was under the age 17
of 18 years; or in which the trafficking included 18
the recruitment, harboring, transportation, pro-19
vision, or obtaining of a person for labor or 20
services through the use of force, fraud, or coer-21
cion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary 22
servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery, 23
and was unable to apply for protection from 24
persecution in each country through which the 25
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alien transited en route to the United States as 1
a result of such severe form of trafficking; or 2
‘‘(III) the only countries through which the 3
alien transited en route to the United States 4
were, at the time of the transit, not parties to 5
the 1951 United Nations Convention relating to 6
the Status of Refugees, the 1967 Protocol Re-7
lating to the Status of Refugees, or the United 8
Nations Convention against Torture and Other 9
Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or 10
Punishment.’’. 11
SEC. 103. CREDIBLE FEAR INTERVIEWS. 12
Section 235(b)(1)(B)(v) of the Immigration and Na-13
tionality Act (8 U.S.C. 1225(b)(1)(B)(v)) is amended by 14
striking ‘‘there is a significant possibility’’ and all that fol-15
lows, and inserting ‘‘, taking into account the credibility 16
of the statements made by the alien in support of the 17
alien’s claim, as determined pursuant to section 18
208(b)(1)(B)(iii), and such other facts as are known to 19
the officer, the alien more likely than not could establish 20
eligibility for asylum under section 208, and it is more 21
likely than not that the statements made by, and on behalf 22
of, the alien in support of the alien’s claim are true.’’. 23
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SEC. 104. CLARIFICATION OF ASYLUM ELIGIBILITY. 1
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 208(b)(1)(A) of the Im-2
migration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1158(b)(1)(A)) 3
is amended by inserting after ‘‘section 101(a)(42)(A)’’ the 4
following: ‘‘(in accordance with the rules set forth in this 5
section), and is eligible to apply for asylum under sub-6
section (a)’’. 7
(b) P
LACE OFARRIVAL.—Section 208(a)(1) of the 8
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1158(a)(1)) 9
is amended— 10
(1) by striking ‘‘or who arrives in the United 11
States (whether or not at a designated port of ar-12
rival and including an alien who is brought to the 13
United States after having been interdicted in inter-14
national or United States waters),’’; and 15
(2) by inserting after ‘‘United States’’ the fol-16
lowing: ‘‘and has arrived in the United States at a 17
port of entry (including an alien who is brought to 18
the United States after having been interdicted in 19
international or United States waters),’’. 20
SEC. 105. EXCEPTIONS. 21
Paragraph (2) of section 208(b) of the Immigration 22
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1158(b)(2)) is amended to 23
read as follows: 24
‘‘(2) E
XCEPTIONS.— 25
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‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Paragraph (1) shall 1
not apply to an alien if the Secretary of Home-2
land Security or the Attorney General deter-3
mines that— 4
‘‘(i) the alien ordered, incited, as-5
sisted, or otherwise participated in the per-6
secution of any person on account of race, 7
religion, nationality, membership in a par-8
ticular social group, or political opinion; 9
‘‘(ii) the alien has been convicted of 10
any felony under Federal, State, tribal, or 11
local law; 12
‘‘(iii) the alien has been convicted of 13
any misdemeanor offense under Federal, 14
State, tribal, or local law involving— 15
‘‘(I) the unlawful possession or 16
use of an identification document, au-17
thentication feature, or false identi-18
fication document (as those terms and 19
phrases are defined in the jurisdiction 20
where the conviction occurred), unless 21
the alien can establish that the convic-22
tion resulted from circumstances 23
showing that— 24
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‘‘(aa) the document or fea-1
ture was presented before board-2
ing a common carrier; 3
‘‘(bb) the document or fea-4
ture related to the alien’s eligi-5
bility to enter the United States; 6
‘‘(cc) the alien used the doc-7
ument or feature to depart a 8
country wherein the alien has 9
claimed a fear of persecution; 10
and 11
‘‘(dd) the alien claimed a 12
fear of persecution without delay 13
upon presenting himself or her-14
self to an immigration officer 15
upon arrival at a United States 16
port of entry; 17
‘‘(II) the unlawful receipt of a 18
Federal public benefit (as defined in 19
section 401(c) of the Personal Re-20
sponsibility and Work Opportunity 21
Reconciliation Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 22
1611(c))), from a Federal entity, or 23
the unlawful receipt of similar public 24
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benefits from a State, tribal, or local 1
entity; or 2
‘‘(III) possession or trafficking of 3
a controlled substance or controlled 4
substance paraphernalia, as those 5
phrases are defined under the law of 6
the jurisdiction where the conviction 7
occurred, other than a single offense 8
involving possession for one’s own use 9
of 30 grams or less of marijuana (as 10
marijuana is defined under the law of 11
the jurisdiction where the conviction 12
occurred); 13
‘‘(iv) the alien has been convicted of 14
an offense arising under paragraph (1)(A) 15
or (2) of section 274(a), or under section 16
276; 17
‘‘(v) the alien has been convicted of a 18
Federal, State, tribal, or local crime that 19
the Attorney General or Secretary of 20
Homeland Security knows, or has reason 21
to believe, was committed in support, pro-22
motion, or furtherance of the activity of a 23
criminal street gang (as defined under the 24
law of the jurisdiction where the conviction 25
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occurred or in section 521(a) of title 18, 1
United States Code); 2
‘‘(vi) the alien has been convicted of 3
an offense for driving while intoxicated or 4
impaired, as those terms are defined under 5
the law of the jurisdiction where the con-6
viction occurred (including a conviction for 7
driving while under the influence of or im-8
paired by alcohol or drugs), without regard 9
to whether the conviction is classified as a 10
misdemeanor or felony under Federal, 11
State, tribal, or local law, in which such in-12
toxicated or impaired driving was a cause 13
of serious bodily injury or death of another 14
person; 15
‘‘(vii) the alien has been convicted of 16
more than one offense for driving while in-17
toxicated or impaired, as those terms are 18
defined under the law of the jurisdiction 19
where the conviction occurred (including a 20
conviction for driving while under the in-21
fluence of or impaired by alcohol or drugs), 22
without regard to whether the conviction is 23
classified as a misdemeanor or felony 24
under Federal, State, tribal, or local law; 25
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‘‘(viii) the alien has been convicted of 1
a crime— 2
‘‘(I) that involves conduct 3
amounting to a crime of stalking; 4
‘‘(II) of child abuse, child ne-5
glect, or child abandonment; or 6
‘‘(III) that involves conduct 7
amounting to a domestic assault or 8
battery offense, including— 9
‘‘(aa) a misdemeanor crime 10
of domestic violence, as described 11
in section 921(a)(33) of title 18, 12
United States Code; 13
‘‘(bb) a crime of domestic vi-14
olence, as described in section 15
40002(a)(12) of the Violence 16
Against Women Act of 1994 (34 17
U.S.C. 12291(a)(12)); or 18
‘‘(cc) any crime based on 19
conduct in which the alien har-20
assed, coerced, intimidated, vol-21
untarily or recklessly used (or 22
threatened to use) force or vio-23
lence against, or inflicted phys-24
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ical injury or physical pain, how-1
ever slight, upon a person— 2
‘‘(AA) who is a current 3
or former spouse of the 4
alien; 5
‘‘(BB) with whom the 6
alien shares a child; 7
‘‘(CC) who is cohabi-8
tating with, or who has 9
cohabitated with, the alien 10
as a spouse; 11
‘‘(DD) who is similarly 12
situated to a spouse of the 13
alien under the domestic or 14
family violence laws of the 15
jurisdiction where the of-16
fense occurred; or 17
‘‘(EE) who is protected 18
from that alien’s acts under 19
the domestic or family vio-20
lence laws of the United 21
States or of any State, tribal 22
government, or unit of local 23
government; 24
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‘‘(ix) the alien has engaged in acts of 1
battery or extreme cruelty upon a person 2
and the person— 3
‘‘(I) is a current or former 4
spouse of the alien; 5
‘‘(II) shares a child with the 6
alien; 7
‘‘(III) cohabitates or has 8
cohabitated with the alien as a spouse; 9
‘‘(IV) is similarly situated to a 10
spouse of the alien under the domestic 11
or family violence laws of the jurisdic-12
tion where the offense occurred; or 13
‘‘(V) is protected from that 14
alien’s acts under the domestic or 15
family violence laws of the United 16
States or of any State, tribal govern-17
ment, or unit of local government; 18
‘‘(x) the alien, having been convicted 19
by a final judgment of a particularly seri-20
ous crime, constitutes a danger to the com-21
munity of the United States; 22
‘‘(xi) there are serious reasons for be-23
lieving that the alien has committed a seri-24
ous nonpolitical crime outside the United 25
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States prior to the arrival of the alien in 1
the United States; 2
‘‘(xii) there are reasonable grounds 3
for regarding the alien as a danger to the 4
security of the United States; 5
‘‘(xiii) the alien is described in sub-6
clause (I), (II), (III), (IV), or (VI) of sec-7
tion 212(a)(3)(B)(i) or section 8
237(a)(4)(B) (relating to terrorist activ-9
ity), unless, in the case only of an alien in-10
admissible under subclause (IV) of section 11
212(a)(3)(B)(i), the Secretary of Home-12
land Security or the Attorney General de-13
termines, in the Secretary’s or the Attor-14
ney General’s discretion, that there are not 15
reasonable grounds for regarding the alien 16
as a danger to the security of the United 17
States; 18
‘‘(xiv) the alien was firmly resettled in 19
another country prior to arriving in the 20
United States; or 21
‘‘(xv) there are reasonable grounds for 22
concluding the alien could avoid persecu-23
tion by relocating to another part of the 24
alien’s country of nationality or, in the 25
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case of an alien having no nationality, an-1
other part of the alien’s country of last ha-2
bitual residence. 3
‘‘(B) S
PECIAL RULES.— 4
‘‘(i) P
ARTICULARLY SERIOUS CRIME ; 5
SERIOUS NONPOLITICAL CRIME OUTSIDE 6
THE UNITED STATES.— 7
‘‘(I) I
N GENERAL.—For purposes 8
of subparagraph (A)(x), the Attorney 9
General or Secretary of Homeland Se-10
curity, in their discretion, may deter-11
mine that a conviction constitutes a 12
particularly serious crime based on— 13
‘‘(aa) the nature of the con-14
viction; 15
‘‘(bb) the type of sentence 16
imposed; or 17
‘‘(cc) the circumstances and 18
underlying facts of the convic-19
tion. 20
‘‘(II) D
ETERMINATION.—In mak-21
ing a determination under subclause 22
(I), the Attorney General or Secretary 23
of Homeland Security may consider 24
all reliable information and is not lim-25
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ited to facts found by the criminal 1
court or provided in the underlying 2
record of conviction. 3
‘‘(III) T
REATMENT OF FELO -4
NIES.—In making a determination 5
under subclause (I), an alien who has 6
been convicted of a felony (as defined 7
under this section) or an aggravated 8
felony (as defined under section 9
101(a)(43)), shall be considered to 10
have been convicted of a particularly 11
serious crime. 12
‘‘(IV) I
NTERPOL RED NOTICE .— 13
In making a determination under sub-14
paragraph (A)(xi), an Interpol Red 15
Notice may constitute reliable evi-16
dence that the alien has committed a 17
serious nonpolitical crime outside the 18
United States. 19
‘‘(ii) C
RIMES AND EXCEPTIONS .— 20
‘‘(I) D
RIVING WHILE INTOXI -21
CATED OR IMPAIRED .—A finding 22
under subparagraph (A)(vi) does not 23
require the Attorney General or Sec-24
retary of Homeland Security to find 25
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the first conviction for driving while 1
intoxicated or impaired (including a 2
conviction for driving while under the 3
influence of or impaired by alcohol or 4
drugs) as a predicate offense. The At-5
torney General or Secretary of Home-6
land Security need only make a fac-7
tual determination that the alien pre-8
viously was convicted for driving while 9
intoxicated or impaired as those terms 10
are defined under the jurisdiction 11
where the conviction occurred (includ-12
ing a conviction for driving while 13
under the influence of or impaired by 14
alcohol or drugs). 15
‘‘(II) S
TALKING AND OTHER 16
CRIMES.—In making a determination 17
under subparagraph (A)(viii), includ-18
ing determining the existence of a do-19
mestic relationship between the alien 20
and the victim, the underlying conduct 21
of the crime may be considered, and 22
the Attorney General or Secretary of 23
Homeland Security is not limited to 24
facts found by the criminal court or 25
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provided in the underlying record of 1
conviction. 2
‘‘(III) B
ATTERY OR EXTREME 3
CRUELTY.—In making a determina-4
tion under subparagraph (A)(ix), the 5
phrase ‘battery or extreme cruelty’ in-6
cludes— 7
‘‘(aa) any act or threatened 8
act of violence, including any 9
forceful detention, which results 10
or threatens to result in physical 11
or mental injury; 12
‘‘(bb) psychological or sexual 13
abuse or exploitation, including 14
rape, molestation, incest, or 15
forced prostitution, shall be con-16
sidered acts of violence; and 17
‘‘(cc) other abusive acts, in-18
cluding acts that, in and of them-19
selves, may not initially appear 20
violent, but that are a part of an 21
overall pattern of violence. 22
‘‘(IV) E
XCEPTION FOR VICTIMS 23
OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE .—An alien 24
who was convicted of an offense de-25
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scribed in clause (viii) or (ix) of sub-1
paragraph (A) is not ineligible for 2
asylum on that basis if the alien satis-3
fies the criteria under section 4
237(a)(7)(A). 5
‘‘(C) S
PECIFIC CIRCUMSTANCES .—Para-6
graph (1) shall not apply to an alien whose 7
claim is based on— 8
‘‘(i) personal animus or retribution, 9
including personal animus in which the al-10
leged persecutor has not targeted, or mani-11
fested an animus against, other members 12
of an alleged particular social group in ad-13
dition to the member who has raised the 14
claim at issue; 15
‘‘(ii) the applicant’s generalized dis-16
approval of, disagreement with, or opposi-17
tion to criminal, terrorist, gang, guerilla, 18
or other non-state organizations absent ex-19
pressive behavior in furtherance of a dis-20
crete cause against such organizations re-21
lated to control of a State or expressive be-22
havior that is antithetical to the State or 23
a legal unit of the State; 24
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‘‘(iii) the applicant’s resistance to re-1
cruitment or coercion by guerrilla, crimi-2
nal, gang, terrorist, or other non-state or-3
ganizations; 4
‘‘(iv) the targeting of the applicant for 5
criminal activity for financial gain based 6
on wealth or affluence or perceptions of 7
wealth or affluence; 8
‘‘(v) the applicant’s criminal activity; 9
or 10
‘‘(vi) the applicant’s perceived, past or 11
present, gang affiliation. 12
‘‘(D) D
EFINITIONS AND CLARIFICA -13
TIONS.— 14
‘‘(i) D
EFINITIONS.—For purposes of 15
this paragraph: 16
‘‘(I) F
ELONY.—The term ‘felony’ 17
means— 18
‘‘(aa) any crime defined as a 19
felony by the relevant jurisdiction 20
(Federal, State, tribal, or local) 21
of conviction; or 22
‘‘(bb) any crime punishable 23
by more than one year of impris-24
onment. 25
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‘‘(II) MISDEMEANOR.—The term 1
‘misdemeanor’ means— 2
‘‘(aa) any crime defined as a 3
misdemeanor by the relevant ju-4
risdiction (Federal, State, tribal, 5
or local) of conviction; or 6
‘‘(bb) any crime not punish-7
able by more than one year of 8
imprisonment. 9
‘‘(ii) C
LARIFICATIONS.— 10
‘‘(I) C
ONSTRUCTION.—For pur-11
poses of this paragraph, whether any 12
activity or conviction also may con-13
stitute a basis for removal is immate-14
rial to a determination of asylum eli-15
gibility. 16
‘‘(II) A
TTEMPT, CONSPIRACY, OR 17
SOLICITATION.—For purposes of this 18
paragraph, all references to a criminal 19
offense or criminal conviction shall be 20
deemed to include any attempt, con-21
spiracy, or solicitation to commit the 22
offense or any other inchoate form of 23
the offense. 24
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‘‘(III) EFFECT OF CERTAIN OR -1
DERS.— 2
‘‘(aa) I
N GENERAL .—No 3
order vacating a conviction, 4
modifying a sentence, clarifying a 5
sentence, or otherwise altering a 6
conviction or sentence shall have 7
any effect under this paragraph 8
unless the Attorney General or 9
Secretary of Homeland Security 10
determines that— 11
‘‘(AA) the court issuing 12
the order had jurisdiction 13
and authority to do so; and 14
‘‘(BB) the order was 15
not entered for rehabilitative 16
purposes or for purposes of 17
ameliorating the immigra-18
tion consequences of the 19
conviction or sentence. 20
‘‘(bb) A
MELIORATING IMMI-21
GRATION CONSEQUENCES .—For 22
purposes of item (aa)(BB), the 23
order shall be presumed to be for 24
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the purpose of ameliorating im-1
migration consequences if— 2
‘‘(AA) the order was 3
entered after the initiation 4
of any proceeding to remove 5
the alien from the United 6
States; or 7
‘‘(BB) the alien moved 8
for the order more than one 9
year after the date of the 10
original order of conviction 11
or sentencing, whichever is 12
later. 13
‘‘(cc) A
UTHORITY OF IMMI -14
GRATION JUDGE.—An immigra-15
tion judge is not limited to con-16
sideration only of material in-17
cluded in any order vacating a 18
conviction, modifying a sentence, 19
or clarifying a sentence to deter-20
mine whether such order should 21
be given any effect under this 22
paragraph, but may consider 23
such additional information as 24
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the immigration judge determines 1
appropriate. 2
‘‘(E) A
DDITIONAL LIMITATIONS .—The 3
Secretary of Homeland Security or the Attorney 4
General may by regulation establish additional 5
limitations and conditions, consistent with this 6
section, under which an alien shall be ineligible 7
for asylum under paragraph (1). 8
‘‘(F) N
O JUDICIAL REVIEW.—There shall 9
be no judicial review of a determination of the 10
Secretary of Homeland Security or the Attorney 11
General under subparagraph (A)(xiii).’’. 12
SEC. 106. EMPLOYMENT AUTHORIZATION. 13
Paragraph (2) of section 208(d) of the Immigration 14
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1158(d)) is amended to 15
read as follows: 16
‘‘(2) E
MPLOYMENT AUTHORIZATION .— 17
‘‘(A) A
UTHORIZATION PERMITTED .—An 18
applicant for asylum is not entitled to employ-19
ment authorization, but such authorization may 20
be provided under regulation by the Secretary 21
of Homeland Security. An applicant who is not 22
otherwise eligible for employment authorization 23
shall not be granted such authorization prior to 24
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the date that is 180 days after the date of filing 1
of the application for asylum. 2
‘‘(B) T
ERMINATION.—Each grant of em-3
ployment authorization under subparagraph 4
(A), and any renewal or extension thereof, shall 5
be valid for a period of 6 months, except that 6
such authorization, renewal, or extension shall 7
terminate prior to the end of such 6 month pe-8
riod as follows: 9
‘‘(i) Immediately following the denial 10
of an asylum application by an asylum offi-11
cer, unless the case is referred to an immi-12
gration judge. 13
‘‘(ii) 30 days after the date on which 14
an immigration judge denies an asylum ap-15
plication, unless the alien timely appeals to 16
the Board of Immigration Appeals. 17
‘‘(iii) Immediately following the denial 18
by the Board of Immigration Appeals of an 19
appeal of a denial of an asylum applica-20
tion. 21
‘‘(C) R
ENEWAL.—The Secretary of Home-22
land Security may not grant, renew, or extend 23
employment authorization to an alien if the 24
alien was previously granted employment au-25
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thorization under subparagraph (A), and the 1
employment authorization was terminated pur-2
suant to a circumstance described in subpara-3
graph (B)(i), (ii), or (iii), unless a Federal 4
court of appeals remands the alien’s case to the 5
Board of Immigration Appeals. 6
‘‘(D) I
NELIGIBILITY.—The Secretary of 7
Homeland Security may not grant employment 8
authorization to an alien under this paragraph 9
if the alien— 10
‘‘(i) is ineligible for asylum under sub-11
section (b)(2)(A); or 12
‘‘(ii) entered or attempted to enter the 13
United States at a place and time other 14
than lawfully through a United States port 15
of entry.’’. 16
SEC. 107. ASYLUM FEES. 17
Paragraph (3) of section 208(d) of the Immigration 18
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1158(d)) is amended to 19
read as follows: 20
‘‘(3) F
EES.— 21
‘‘(A) A
PPLICATION FEE.—A fee of not less 22
than $50 for each application for asylum shall 23
be imposed. Such fee shall not exceed the cost 24
of adjudicating the application. Such fee shall 25
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not apply to an unaccompanied alien child who 1
files an asylum application in proceedings under 2
section 240. 3
‘‘(B) E
MPLOYMENT AUTHORIZATION .—A 4
fee may also be imposed for the consideration 5
of an application for employment authorization 6
under this section and for adjustment of status 7
under section 209(b). Such a fee shall not ex-8
ceed the cost of adjudicating the application. 9
‘‘(C) P
AYMENT.—Fees under this para-10
graph may be assessed and paid over a period 11
of time or by installments. 12
‘‘(D) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—Nothing 13
in this paragraph shall be construed to limit the 14
authority of the Attorney General or Secretary 15
of Homeland Security to set adjudication and 16
naturalization fees in accordance with section 17
286(m).’’. 18
SEC. 108. RULES FOR DETERMINING ASYLUM ELIGIBILITY. 19
Section 208 of the Immigration and Nationality Act 20
(8 U.S.C. 1158) is amended by adding at the end the fol-21
lowing: 22
‘‘(f) R
ULES FOR DETERMININGASYLUMELIGI-23
BILITY.—In making a determination under subsection 24
(b)(1)(A) with respect to whether an alien is a refugee 25
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within the meaning of section 101(a)(42)(A), the following 1
shall apply: 2
‘‘(1) P
ARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUP .—The Sec-3
retary of Homeland Security or the Attorney Gen-4
eral shall not determine that an alien is a member 5
of a particular social group unless the alien articu-6
lates on the record, or provides a basis on the record 7
for determining, the definition and boundaries of the 8
alleged particular social group, establishes that the 9
particular social group exists independently from the 10
alleged persecution, and establishes that the alien’s 11
claim of membership in a particular social group 12
does not involve— 13
‘‘(A) past or present criminal activity or 14
association (including gang membership); 15
‘‘(B) presence in a country with general-16
ized violence or a high crime rate; 17
‘‘(C) being the subject of a recruitment ef-18
fort by criminal, terrorist, or persecutory 19
groups; 20
‘‘(D) the targeting of the applicant for 21
criminal activity for financial gain based on per-22
ceptions of wealth or affluence; 23
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‘‘(E) interpersonal disputes of which gov-1
ernmental authorities in the relevant society or 2
region were unaware or uninvolved; 3
‘‘(F) private criminal acts of which govern-4
mental authorities in the relevant society or re-5
gion were unaware or uninvolved; 6
‘‘(G) past or present terrorist activity or 7
association; 8
‘‘(H) past or present persecutory activity 9
or association; or 10
‘‘(I) status as an alien returning from the 11
United States. 12
‘‘(2) P
OLITICAL OPINION.—The Secretary of 13
Homeland Security or the Attorney General may not 14
determine that an alien holds a political opinion with 15
respect to which the alien is subject to persecution 16
if the political opinion is constituted solely by gener-17
alized disapproval of, disagreement with, or opposi-18
tion to criminal, terrorist, gang, guerilla, or other 19
non-state organizations and does not include expres-20
sive behavior in furtherance of a cause against such 21
organizations related to efforts by the State to con-22
trol such organizations or behavior that is antithet-23
ical to or otherwise opposes the ruling legal entity of 24
the State or a unit thereof. 25
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‘‘(3) PERSECUTION.—The Secretary of Home-1
land Security or the Attorney General may not de-2
termine that an alien has been subject to persecution 3
or has a well-founded fear of persecution based only 4
on— 5
‘‘(A) the existence of laws or government 6
policies that are unenforced or infrequently en-7
forced, unless there is credible evidence that 8
such a law or policy has been or would be ap-9
plied to the applicant personally; or 10
‘‘(B) the conduct of rogue foreign govern-11
ment officials acting outside the scope of their 12
official capacity. 13
‘‘(4) D
ISCRETIONARY DETERMINATION .— 14
‘‘(A) A
DVERSE DISCRETIONARY FAC -15
TORS.—The Secretary of Homeland Security or 16
the Attorney General may only grant asylum to 17
an alien if the alien establishes that he or she 18
warrants a favorable exercise of discretion. In 19
making such a determination, the Attorney 20
General or Secretary of Homeland Security 21
shall consider, if applicable, an alien’s use of 22
fraudulent documents to enter the United 23
States, unless the alien arrived in the United 24
States by air, sea, or land directly from the ap-25
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plicant’s home country without transiting 1
through any other country. 2
‘‘(B) F
AVORABLE EXERCISE OF DISCRE -3
TION NOT PERMITTED .—Except as provided in 4
subparagraph (C), the Attorney General or Sec-5
retary of Homeland Security shall not favorably 6
exercise discretion under this section for any 7
alien who— 8
‘‘(i) has accrued more than one year 9
of unlawful presence in the United States, 10
as defined in sections 212(a)(9)(B)(ii) and 11
(iii), prior to filing an application for asy-12
lum; 13
‘‘(ii) at the time the asylum applica-14
tion is filed with the immigration court or 15
is referred from the Department of Home-16
land Security, has— 17
‘‘(I) failed to timely file (or time-18
ly file a request for an extension of 19
time to file) any required Federal, 20
State, or local income tax returns; 21
‘‘(II) failed to satisfy any out-22
standing Federal, State, or local tax 23
obligations; or 24
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‘‘(III) income that would result 1
in tax liability under section 1 of the 2
Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and 3
that was not reported to the Internal 4
Revenue Service; 5
‘‘(iii) has had two or more prior asy-6
lum applications denied for any reason; 7
‘‘(iv) has withdrawn a prior asylum 8
application with prejudice or been found to 9
have abandoned a prior asylum application; 10
‘‘(v) failed to attend an interview re-11
garding his or her asylum application with 12
the Department of Homeland Security, un-13
less the alien shows by a preponderance of 14
the evidence that— 15
‘‘(I) exceptional circumstances 16
prevented the alien from attending the 17
interview; or 18
‘‘(II) the interview notice was not 19
mailed to the last address provided by 20
the alien or the alien’s representative 21
and neither the alien nor the alien’s 22
representative received notice of the 23
interview; or 24
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‘‘(vi) was subject to a final order of 1
removal, deportation, or exclusion and did 2
not file a motion to reopen to seek asylum 3
based on changed country conditions with-4
in one year of the change in country condi-5
tions. 6
‘‘(C) E
XCEPTIONS.—If one or more of the 7
adverse discretionary factors set forth in sub-8
paragraph (B) are present, the Attorney Gen-9
eral or the Secretary, may, notwithstanding 10
such subparagraph (B), favorably exercise dis-11
cretion under section 208— 12
‘‘(i) in extraordinary circumstances, 13
such as those involving national security or 14
foreign policy considerations; or 15
‘‘(ii) if the alien, by clear and con-16
vincing evidence, demonstrates that the de-17
nial of the application for asylum would re-18
sult in exceptional and extremely unusual 19
hardship to the alien. 20
‘‘(5) L
IMITATION.—If the Secretary or the At-21
torney General determines that an alien fails to sat-22
isfy the requirement under paragraph (1), the alien 23
may not be granted asylum based on membership in 24
a particular social group, and may not appeal the 25
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determination of the Secretary or Attorney General, 1
as applicable. A determination under this paragraph 2
shall not serve as the basis for any motion to reopen 3
or reconsider an application for asylum or with-4
holding of removal for any reason, including a claim 5
of ineffective assistance of counsel, unless the alien 6
complies with the procedural requirements for such 7
a motion and demonstrates that counsel’s failure to 8
define, or provide a basis for defining, a formulation 9
of a particular social group was both not a strategic 10
choice and constituted egregious conduct. 11
‘‘(6) S
TEREOTYPES.—Evidence offered in sup-12
port of an application for asylum that promotes cul-13
tural stereotypes about a country, its inhabitants, or 14
an alleged persecutor, including stereotypes based on 15
race, religion, nationality, or gender, shall not be ad-16
missible in adjudicating that application, except that 17
evidence that an alleged persecutor holds 18
stereotypical views of the applicant shall be admis-19
sible. 20
‘‘(7) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 21
‘‘(A) The term ‘membership in a particular 22
social group’ means membership in a group 23
that is— 24
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‘‘(i) composed of members who share 1
a common immutable characteristic; 2
‘‘(ii) defined with particularity; and 3
‘‘(iii) socially distinct within the soci-4
ety in question. 5
‘‘(B) The term ‘political opinion’ means an 6
ideal or conviction in support of the furtherance 7
of a discrete cause related to political control of 8
a state or a unit thereof. 9
‘‘(C) The term ‘persecution’ means the in-10
fliction of a severe level of harm constituting an 11
exigent threat by the government of a country 12
or by persons or an organization that the gov-13
ernment was unable or unwilling to control. 14
Such term does not include— 15
‘‘(i) generalized harm or violence that 16
arises out of civil, criminal, or military 17
strife in a country; 18
‘‘(ii) all treatment that the United 19
States regards as unfair, offensive, unjust, 20
unlawful, or unconstitutional; 21
‘‘(iii) intermittent harassment, includ-22
ing brief detentions; 23
‘‘(iv) threats with no actual effort to 24
carry out the threats, except that particu-25
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larized threats of severe harm of an imme-1
diate and menacing nature made by an 2
identified entity may constitute persecu-3
tion; or 4
‘‘(v) non-severe economic harm or 5
property damage.’’. 6
SEC. 109. FIRM RESETTLEMENT. 7
Section 208 of the Immigration and Nationality Act 8
(8 U.S.C. 1158), as amended by this Act, is further 9
amended by adding at the end the following: 10
‘‘(g) F
IRMRESETTLEMENT.—In determining wheth-11
er an alien was firmly resettled in another country prior 12
to arriving in the United States under subsection 13
(b)(2)(A)(xiv), the following shall apply: 14
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—An alien shall be consid-15
ered to have firmly resettled in another country if, 16
after the events giving rise to the alien’s asylum 17
claim— 18
‘‘(A) the alien resided in a country through 19
which the alien transited prior to arriving in or 20
entering the United States and— 21
‘‘(i) received or was eligible for any 22
permanent legal immigration status in that 23
country; 24
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‘‘(ii) resided in such a country with 1
any non-permanent but indefinitely renew-2
able legal immigration status (including 3
asylee, refugee, or similar status, but ex-4
cluding status of a tourist); or 5
‘‘(iii) resided in such a country and 6
could have applied for and obtained an im-7
migration status described in clause (ii); 8
‘‘(B) the alien physically resided volun-9
tarily, and without continuing to suffer persecu-10
tion or torture, in any one country for one year 11
or more after departing his country of nation-12
ality or last habitual residence and prior to ar-13
rival in or entry into the United States, except 14
for any time spent in Mexico by an alien who 15
is not a native or citizen of Mexico solely as a 16
direct result of being returned to Mexico pursu-17
ant to section 235(b)(2)(C) or of being subject 18
to metering; or 19
‘‘(C) the alien is a citizen of a country 20
other than the country in which the alien al-21
leges a fear of persecution, or was a citizen of 22
such a country in the case of an alien who re-23
nounces such citizenship, and the alien was 24
present in that country after departing his 25
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country of nationality or last habitual residence 1
and prior to arrival in or entry into the United 2
States; 3
‘‘(2) B
URDEN OF PROOF .—If an immigration 4
judge determines that an alien has firmly resettled 5
in another country under paragraph (1), the alien 6
shall bear the burden of proving the bar does not 7
apply. 8
‘‘(3) F
IRM RESETTLEMENT OF PARENT .—An 9
alien shall be presumed to have been firmly resettled 10
in another country if the alien’s parent was firmly 11
resettled in another country, the parent’s resettle-12
ment occurred before the alien turned 18 years of 13
age, and the alien resided with such parent at the 14
time of the firm resettlement, unless the alien estab-15
lishes that he or she could not have derived any per-16
manent legal immigration status or any non-perma-17
nent but indefinitely renewable legal immigration 18
status (including asylum, refugee, or similar status, 19
but excluding status of a tourist) from the alien’s 20
parent.’’. 21
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SEC. 110. NOTICE CONCERNING FRIVOLOUS ASYLUM AP-1
PLICATIONS. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 208(d)(4) of the Immi-3
gration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1158(d)(4)) is 4
amended— 5
(1) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), 6
by inserting ‘‘the Secretary of Homeland Security 7
or’’ before ‘‘the Attorney General’’; 8
(2) in subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘and of 9
the consequences, under paragraph (6), of knowingly 10
filing a frivolous application for asylum; and’’ and 11
inserting a semicolon; 12
(3) in subparagraph (B), by striking the period 13
and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 14
(4) by adding at the end the following: 15
‘‘(C) ensure that a written warning ap-16
pears on the asylum application advising the 17
alien of the consequences of filing a frivolous 18
application and serving as notice to the alien of 19
the consequence of filing a frivolous applica-20
tion.’’. 21
(b) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENT.—Section 208(d)(6) 22
of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 23
1158(d)(6)) is amended by striking ‘‘If the’’ and all that 24
follows and inserting: 25
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‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—If the Secretary of 1
Homeland Security or the Attorney General de-2
termines that an alien has knowingly made a 3
frivolous application for asylum and the alien 4
has received the notice under paragraph (4)(C), 5
the alien shall be permanently ineligible for any 6
benefits under this chapter, effective as the date 7
of the final determination of such an applica-8
tion. 9
‘‘(B) C
RITERIA.—An application is frivo-10
lous if the Secretary of Homeland Security or 11
the Attorney General determines, consistent 12
with subparagraph (C), that— 13
‘‘(i) it is so insufficient in substance 14
that it is clear that the applicant know-15
ingly filed the application solely or in part 16
to delay removal from the United States, 17
to seek employment authorization as an 18
applicant for asylum pursuant to regula-19
tions issued pursuant to paragraph (2), or 20
to seek issuance of a Notice to Appear in 21
order to pursue Cancellation of Removal 22
under section 240A(b); or 23
‘‘(ii) any of the material elements are 24
knowingly fabricated. 25
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‘‘(C) SUFFICIENT OPPORTUNITY TO CLAR -1
IFY.—In determining that an application is friv-2
olous, the Secretary or the Attorney General, 3
must be satisfied that the applicant, during the 4
course of the proceedings, has had sufficient op-5
portunity to clarify any discrepancies or implau-6
sible aspects of the claim. 7
‘‘(D) W
ITHHOLDING OF REMOVAL NOT 8
PRECLUDED.—For purposes of this section, a 9
finding that an alien filed a frivolous asylum 10
application shall not preclude the alien from 11
seeking withholding of removal under section 12
241(b)(3) or protection pursuant to the Con-13
vention Against Torture.’’. 14
SEC. 111. TECHNICAL AMENDMENTS. 15
Section 208 of the Immigration and Nationality Act 16
(8 U.S.C. 1158) is amended— 17
(1) in subsection (a)— 18
(A) in paragraph (2)(D), by inserting 19
‘‘Secretary of Homeland Security or the’’ before 20
‘‘Attorney General’’; and 21
(B) in paragraph (3), by inserting ‘‘Sec-22
retary of Homeland Security or the’’ before 23
‘‘Attorney General’’; 24
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(2) in subsection (b)(2), by inserting ‘‘Secretary 1
of Homeland Security or the’’ before ‘‘Attorney Gen-2
eral’’ each place such term appears; 3
(3) in subsection (c)— 4
(A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘Attor-5
ney General’’ each place such term appears and 6
inserting ‘‘Secretary of Homeland Security’’; 7
(B) in paragraph (2), in the matter pre-8
ceding subparagraph (A), by inserting ‘‘Sec-9
retary of Homeland Security or the’’ before 10
‘‘Attorney General’’; and 11
(C) in paragraph (3), by inserting ‘‘Sec-12
retary of Homeland Security or the’’ before 13
‘‘Attorney General’’; and 14
(4) in subsection (d)— 15
(A) in paragraph (1), by inserting ‘‘Sec-16
retary of Homeland Security or the’’ before 17
‘‘Attorney General’’ each place such term ap-18
pears; 19
(B) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘Attor-20
ney General’’ and inserting ‘‘Secretary of 21
Homeland Security’’; and 22
(C) in paragraph (5)— 23
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(i) in subparagraph (A), by striking 1
‘‘Attorney General’’ and inserting ‘‘Sec-2
retary of Homeland Security’’; and 3
(ii) in subparagraph (B), by inserting 4
‘‘Secretary of Homeland Security or the’’ 5
before ‘‘Attorney General’’. 6
SEC. 112. REQUIREMENT FOR PROCEDURES RELATING TO 7
CERTAIN ASYLUM APPLICATIONS. 8
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 30 days after the 9
date of the enactment of this Act, the Attorney General 10
shall establish procedures to expedite the adjudication of 11
asylum applications for aliens— 12
(1) who are subject to removal proceedings 13
under section 240 of the Immigration and Nation-14
ality Act (8 U.S.C. 1229a); and 15
(2) who are nationals of a Western Hemisphere 16
country sanctioned by the United States, as de-17
scribed in subsection (b), as of January 1, 2023. 18
(b) W
ESTERNHEMISPHERECOUNTRYSANCTIONED 19
BY THEUNITEDSTATESDESCRIBED.—Subsection (a) 20
shall apply only to an asylum application filed by an alien 21
who is a national of a Western Hemisphere country sub-22
ject to sanctions pursuant to— 23
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(1) the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Soli-1
darity (LIBERTAD) Act of 1996 (22 U.S.C. 6021 2
note); 3
(2) the Reinforcing Nicaragua’s Adherence to 4
Conditions for Electoral Reform Act of 2021 or the 5
RENACER Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 note); or 6
(3) Executive Order 13692 (80 Fed. Reg. 7
12747; declaring a national emergency with respect 8
to the situation in Venezuela). 9
(c) A
PPLICABILITY.—This section shall only apply to 10
an alien who files an application for asylum after the date 11
of the enactment of this Act. 12
TITLE II—BORDER SAFETY AND 13
MIGRANT PROTECTION 14
SEC. 201. SHORT TITLE. 15
This title may be cited as the ‘‘Border Safety and 16
Migrant Protection Act of 2023’’. 17
SEC. 202. 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 (6); 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 clause (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) R
EQUIRED SUSPENSION OF ENTRY OF 9
ALIENS.—Notwithstanding any other provision of 10
law, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall pro-11
hibit the entry of aliens who are inadmissible under 12
subparagraph (A) or (C) of section 212(a)(6) or 13
under section 212(a)(7) for any period during which 14
the Secretary cannot comply with the requirements 15
under section 212(b)(3)(B). 16
‘‘(5) E
NFORCEMENT BY STATE ATTORNEYS 17
GENERAL.—The attorney general of a State, or 18
other authorized State officer, alleging a violation of 19
the detention, return, removal, or suspension re-20
quirements under paragraph (1), (2), (3), or (4) 21
that affects such State or its residents, may bring 22
an action against the Secretary of Homeland Secu-23
rity on behalf of the residents of the State in an ap-24
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propriate United States district court to obtain ap-1
propriate injunctive relief.’’; and 2
(2) by adding at the end the following: 3
‘‘(e) A
UTHORITYTOPROHIBITINTRODUCTION OF 4
C
ERTAINALIENS.—If the Secretary of Homeland Security 5
determines, in his discretion, that the prohibition of the 6
introduction of aliens who are inadmissible under subpara-7
graph (A) or (C) of section 212(a)(6) or under section 8
212(a)(7) at an international land or maritime border of 9
the United States is necessary to achieve operational con-10
trol (as defined in section 2 of the Secure Fence Act of 11
2006 (8 U.S.C. 1701 note)) of such border, the Secretary 12
may prohibit, in whole or in part, the introduction of such 13
aliens at such border for such period of time as the Sec-14
retary determines is necessary for such purpose.’’. 15
TITLE III—ENSURING UNITED 16
FAMILIES AT THE BORDER 17
SEC. 301. SHORT TITLE. 18
This title may be cited as the ‘‘Ensuring United 19
Families at the Border Act’’. 20
SEC. 302. CLARIFICATION OF STANDARDS FOR FAMILY DE-21
TENTION. 22
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 235 of the William Wil-23
berforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization 24
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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 the date of the enactment of this Act. 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 IV—PROTECTION OF 1
CHILDREN 2
SEC. 401. SHORT TITLE. 3
This title may be cited as the ‘‘Protection of Children 4
Act of 2023’’. 5
SEC. 402. FINDINGS. 6
Congress makes the following findings: 7
(1) Implementation of the provisions of the 8
Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act 9
of 2008 that govern unaccompanied alien children 10
has incentivized multiple surges of unaccompanied 11
alien children arriving at the southwest border in the 12
years since the bill’s enactment. 13
(2) The provisions of the Trafficking Victims 14
Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 that govern 15
unaccompanied alien children treat unaccompanied 16
alien children from countries that are contiguous to 17
the United States disparately by swiftly returning 18
them to their home country absent indications of 19
trafficking or a credible fear of return, but allowing 20
for the release of unaccompanied alien children from 21
noncontiguous countries into the interior of the 22
United States, often to those individuals who paid to 23
smuggle them into the country in the first place. 24
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(3) The provisions of the Trafficking Victims 1
Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 governing 2
unaccompanied alien children have enriched the car-3
tels, who profit hundreds of millions of dollars each 4
year by smuggling unaccompanied alien children to 5
the southwest border, exploiting and sexually abus-6
ing many such unaccompanied alien children on the 7
perilous journey. 8
(4) Prior to 2008, the number of unaccom-9
panied alien children encountered at the southwest 10
border never exceeded 1,000 in a single year. 11
(5) The United States is currently in the midst 12
of the worst crisis of unaccompanied alien children 13
in our nation’s history, with over 350,000 such un-14
accompanied alien children encountered at the 15
southwest border since Joe Biden became President. 16
(6) In 2022, during the Biden Administration, 17
152,057 unaccompanied alien children were encoun-18
tered, the most ever in a single year and an over 19
400 percent increase compared to the last full fiscal 20
year of the Trump Administration in which 33,239 21
unaccompanied alien children were encountered. 22
(7) The Biden Administration has lost contact 23
with at least 85,000 unaccompanied alien children 24
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who entered the United States since Joe Biden took 1
office. 2
(8) The Biden Administration dismantled effec-3
tive safeguards put in place by the Trump Adminis-4
tration that protected unaccompanied alien children 5
from being abused by criminals or exploited for ille-6
gal and dangerous child labor. 7
(9) A recent New York Times investigation 8
found that unaccompanied alien children are being 9
exploited in the labor market and ‘‘are ending up in 10
some of the most punishing jobs in the country.’’. 11
(10) The Times investigation found unaccom-12
panied alien children, ‘‘under intense pressure to 13
earn money’’ in order to ‘‘send cash back to their 14
families while often being in debt to their sponsors 15
for smuggling fees, rent, and living expenses,’’ 16
feared ‘‘that they had become trapped in cir-17
cumstances they never could have imagined.’’. 18
(11) The Biden Administration’s Department of 19
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier 20
Becerra compared placing unaccompanied alien chil-21
dren with sponsors, to widgets in an assembly line, 22
stating that, ‘‘If Henry Ford had seen this in his 23
plant, he would have never become famous and rich. 24
This is not the way you do an assembly line.’’. 25
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(12) Department of Health and Human Serv-1
ices employees working under Secretary Xavier 2
Becerra’s leadership penned a July 2021 memo-3
randum expressing serious concern that ‘‘labor traf-4
ficking was increasing’’ and that the agency had be-5
come ‘‘one that rewards individuals for making quick 6
releases, and not one that rewards individuals for 7
preventing unsafe releases.’’. 8
(13) Despite this, Secretary Xavier Becerra 9
pressured then-Director of the Office of Refugee Re-10
settlement Cindy Huang to prioritize releases of un-11
accompanied alien children over ensuring their safe-12
ty, telling her ‘‘if she could not increase the number 13
of discharges he would find someone who could’’ and 14
then-Director Huang resigned one month later. 15
(14) In June 2014, the Obama-Biden Adminis-16
tration requested legal authority to exercise discre-17
tion in returning and removing unaccompanied alien 18
children from non-contiguous countries back to their 19
home countries. 20
(15) In August 2014, the House of Representa-21
tives passed H.R. 5320, which included the Protec-22
tion of Children Act. 23
(16) The Protection of Children Act of 2023 24
ends the disparate policies of the Trafficking Victims 25
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Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 by ensuring 1
the swift return of all unaccompanied alien children 2
to their country of origin if they are not victims of 3
trafficking and do not have a fear of return. 4
SEC. 403. REPATRIATION OF UNACCOMPANIED ALIEN CHIL-5
DREN. 6
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 235 of the William Wil-7
berforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization 8
Act of 2008 (8 U.S.C. 1232) is amended— 9
(1) in subsection (a)— 10
(A) in paragraph (2)— 11
(i) by amending the heading to read 12
as follows: ‘‘R
ULES FOR UNACCOMPANIED 13
ALIEN CHILDREN.—’’; 14
(ii) in subparagraph (A)— 15
(I) in the matter preceding clause 16
(i), by striking ‘‘who is a national or 17
habitual resident of a country that is 18
contiguous with the United States’’; 19
(II) in clause (i), by inserting 20
‘‘and’’ at the end; 21
(III) in clause (ii), by striking ‘‘; 22
and’’ and inserting a period; and 23
(IV) by striking clause (iii); and 24
(iii) in subparagraph (B)— 25
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(I) in the matter preceding clause 1
(i), by striking ‘‘(8 U.S.C. 1101 et 2
seq.) may—’’ and inserting ‘‘(8 3
U.S.C. 1101 et seq.)—’’; 4
(II) in clause (i), by inserting be-5
fore ‘‘permit such child to withdraw’’ 6
the following: ‘‘may’’; and 7
(III) in clause (ii), by inserting 8
before ‘‘return such child’’ the fol-9
lowing: ‘‘shall’’; and 10
(B) in paragraph (5)(D)— 11
(i) in the matter preceding clause (i), 12
by striking ‘‘, except for an unaccompanied 13
alien child from a contiguous country sub-14
ject to the exceptions under subsection 15
(a)(2),’’ and inserting ‘‘who does not meet 16
the criteria listed in paragraph (2)(A)’’; 17
and 18
(ii) in clause (i), by inserting before 19
the semicolon at the end the following: ‘‘, 20
which shall include a hearing before an im-21
migration judge not later than 14 days 22
after being screened under paragraph (4)’’; 23
(2) in subsection (b)— 24
(A) in paragraph (2)— 25
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(i) in subparagraph (A), by inserting 1
before the semicolon the following: ‘‘be-2
lieved not to meet the criteria listed in sub-3
section (a)(2)(A)’’; and 4
(ii) in subparagraph (B), by inserting 5
before the period the following: ‘‘and does 6
not meet the criteria listed in subsection 7
(a)(2)(A)’’; and 8
(B) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘an un-9
accompanied alien child in custody shall’’ and 10
all that follows, and inserting the following: ‘‘an 11
unaccompanied alien child in custody— 12
‘‘(A) in the case of a child who does not 13
meet the criteria listed in subsection (a)(2)(A), 14
shall transfer the custody of such child to the 15
Secretary of Health and Human Services not 16
later than 30 days after determining that such 17
child is an unaccompanied alien child who does 18
not meet such criteria; or 19
‘‘(B) in the case of a child who meets the 20
criteria listed in subsection (a)(2)(A), may 21
transfer the custody of such child to the Sec-22
retary of Health and Human Services after de-23
termining that such child is an unaccompanied 24
alien child who meets such criteria.’’; and 25
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(3) in subsection (c)— 1
(A) in paragraph (3), by inserting at the 2
end the following: 3
‘‘(D) I
NFORMATION ABOUT INDIVIDUALS 4
WITH WHOM CHILDREN ARE PLACED .— 5
‘‘(i) I
NFORMATION TO BE PROVIDED 6
TO HOMELAND SECURITY .—Before placing 7
a child with an individual, the Secretary of 8
Health and Human Services shall provide 9
to the Secretary of Homeland Security, re-10
garding the individual with whom the child 11
will be placed, information on— 12
‘‘(I) the name of the individual; 13
‘‘(II) the social security number 14
of the individual; 15
‘‘(III) the date of birth of the in-16
dividual; 17
‘‘(IV) the location of the individ-18
ual’s residence where the child will be 19
placed; 20
‘‘(V) the immigration status of 21
the individual, if known; and 22
‘‘(VI) contact information for the 23
individual. 24
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‘‘(ii) ACTIVITIES OF THE SECRETARY 1
OF HOMELAND SECURITY .—Not later than 2
30 days after receiving the information 3
listed in clause (i), the Secretary of Home-4
land Security, upon determining that an 5
individual with whom a child is placed is 6
unlawfully present in the United States 7
and not in removal proceedings pursuant 8
to chapter 4 of title II of the Immigration 9
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1221 et 10
seq.), shall initiate such removal pro-11
ceedings.’’; and 12
(B) in paragraph (5)— 13
(i) by inserting after ‘‘to the greatest 14
extent practicable’’ the following: ‘‘(at no 15
expense to the Government)’’; and 16
(ii) by striking ‘‘have counsel to rep-17
resent them’’ and inserting ‘‘have access to 18
counsel to represent them’’. 19
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 20
this section shall apply to any unaccompanied alien child 21
apprehended on or after the date that is 30 days after 22
the date of enactment of this Act. 23
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SEC. 404. 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
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TITLE V—VISA OVERSTAYS 1
PENALTIES 2
SEC. 501. SHORT TITLE. 3
This title may be cited as the ‘‘Visa Overstays Pen-4
alties Act’’. 5
SEC. 502. EXPANDED PENALTIES FOR ILLEGAL ENTRY OR 6
PRESENCE. 7
Section 275 of the Immigration and Nationality Act 8
(8 U.S.C. 1325) is amended— 9
(1) in subsection (a) by inserting after ‘‘for a 10
subsequent commission of any such offense’’ the fol-11
lowing: ‘‘or if the alien was previously convicted of 12
an offense under subsection (e)(2)(A)’’; 13
(2) in subsection (b)— 14
(A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘at least 15
$50 and not more than $250’’ and inserting 16
‘‘not less than $500 and not more than 17
$1,000’’; and 18
(B) in paragraph (2), by inserting after 19
‘‘in the case of an alien who has been previously 20
subject to a civil penalty under this subsection’’ 21
the following: ‘‘or subsection (e)(2)(B)’’; and 22
(3) by adding at the end the following: 23
‘‘(e) V
ISAOVERSTAYS.— 24
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‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—An alien who was admitted 1
as a nonimmigrant has violated this paragraph if the 2
alien, for an aggregate of 10 days or more, has 3
failed— 4
‘‘(A) to maintain the nonimmigrant status 5
in which the alien was admitted, or to which it 6
was changed under section 248, including com-7
plying with the period of stay authorized by the 8
Secretary of Homeland Security in connection 9
with such status; or 10
‘‘(B) to comply otherwise with the condi-11
tions of such nonimmigrant status. 12
‘‘(2) P
ENALTIES.—An alien who has violated 13
paragraph (1)— 14
‘‘(A) shall— 15
‘‘(i) for the first commission of such a 16
violation, be fined under title 18, United 17
States Code, or imprisoned not more than 18
6 months, or both; and 19
‘‘(ii) for a subsequent commission of 20
such a violation, or if the alien was pre-21
viously convicted of an offense under sub-22
section (a), be fined under such title 18, or 23
imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both; 24
and 25
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‘‘(B) in addition to, and not in lieu of, any 1
penalty under subparagraph (A) and any other 2
criminal or civil penalties that may be imposed, 3
shall be subject to a civil penalty of— 4
‘‘(i) not less than $500 and not more 5
than $1,000 for each violation; or 6
‘‘(ii) twice the amount specified in 7
clause (i), in the case of an alien who has 8
been previously subject to a civil penalty 9
under this subparagraph or subsection 10
(b).’’. 11
TITLE VI—IMMIGRATION 12
PAROLE REFORM 13
SEC. 601. SHORT TITLE. 14
This title may be cited as the ‘‘Immigration Parole 15
Reform Act of 2023’’. 16
SEC. 602. IMMIGRATION PAROLE REFORM. 17
Section 212(d)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality 18
Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(d)(5)) is amended to read as follows: 19
‘‘(5)(A) Except as provided in subparagraphs 20
(B) and (C) and section 214(f), the Secretary of 21
Homeland Security, in the discretion of the Sec-22
retary, may temporarily parole into the United 23
States any alien applying for admission to the 24
United States who is not present in the United 25
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States, under such conditions as the Secretary may 1
prescribe, on a case-by-case basis, and not according 2
to eligibility criteria describing an entire class of po-3
tential parole recipients, for urgent humanitarian 4
reasons or significant public benefit. Parole granted 5
under this subparagraph may not be regarded as an 6
admission of the alien. When the purposes of such 7
parole have been served in the opinion of the Sec-8
retary, the alien shall immediately return or be re-9
turned to the custody from which the alien was pa-10
roled. After such return, the case of the alien shall 11
be dealt with in the same manner as the case of any 12
other applicant for admission to the United States. 13
‘‘(B) The Secretary of Homeland Security may 14
grant parole to any alien who— 15
‘‘(i) is present in the United States without 16
lawful immigration status; 17
‘‘(ii) is the beneficiary of an approved peti-18
tion under section 203(a); 19
‘‘(iii) is not otherwise inadmissible or re-20
movable; and 21
‘‘(iv) is the spouse or child of a member of 22
the Armed Forces serving on active duty. 23
‘‘(C) The Secretary of Homeland Security may 24
grant parole to any alien— 25
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‘‘(i) who is a national of the Republic of 1
Cuba and is living in the Republic of Cuba; 2
‘‘(ii) who is the beneficiary of an approved 3
petition under section 203(a); 4
‘‘(iii) for whom an immigrant visa is not 5
immediately available; 6
‘‘(iv) who meets all eligibility requirements 7
for an immigrant visa; 8
‘‘(v) who is not otherwise inadmissible; and 9
‘‘(vi) who is receiving a grant of parole in 10
furtherance of the commitment of the United 11
States to the minimum level of annual legal mi-12
gration of Cuban nationals to the United States 13
specified in the U.S.-Cuba Joint Communique´ 14
on Migration, done at New York September 9, 15
1994, and reaffirmed in the Cuba-United 16
States: Joint Statement on Normalization of 17
Migration, Building on the Agreement of Sep-18
tember 9, 1994, done at New York May 2, 19
1995. 20
‘‘(D) The Secretary of Homeland Security may 21
grant parole to an alien who is returned to a contig-22
uous country under section 235(b)(2)(C) to allow 23
the alien to attend the alien’s immigration hearing. 24
The grant of parole shall not exceed the time re-25
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quired for the alien to be escorted to, and attend, 1
the alien’s immigration hearing scheduled on the 2
same calendar day as the grant, and to immediately 3
thereafter be escorted back to the contiguous coun-4
try. A grant of parole under this subparagraph shall 5
not be considered for purposes of determining 6
whether the alien is inadmissible under this Act. 7
‘‘(E) For purposes of determining an alien’s eli-8
gibility for parole under subparagraph (A), an ur-9
gent humanitarian reason shall be limited to cir-10
cumstances in which the alien establishes that— 11
‘‘(i)(I) the alien has a medical emergency; 12
and 13
‘‘(II)(aa) the alien cannot obtain necessary 14
treatment in the foreign state in which the alien 15
is residing; or 16
‘‘(bb) the medical emergency is life-threat-17
ening and there is insufficient time for the alien 18
to be admitted to the United States through the 19
normal visa process; 20
‘‘(ii) the alien is the parent or legal guard-21
ian of an alien described in clause (i) and the 22
alien described in clause (i) is a minor; 23
‘‘(iii) the alien is needed in the United 24
States in order to donate an organ or other tis-25
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sue for transplant and there is insufficient time 1
for the alien to be admitted to the United 2
States through the normal visa process; 3
‘‘(iv) the alien has a close family member 4
in the United States whose death is imminent 5
and the alien could not arrive in the United 6
States in time to see such family member alive 7
if the alien were to be admitted to the United 8
States through the normal visa process; 9
‘‘(v) the alien is seeking to attend the fu-10
neral of a close family member and the alien 11
could not arrive in the United States in time to 12
attend such funeral if the alien were to be ad-13
mitted to the United States through the normal 14
visa process; 15
‘‘(vi) the alien is an adopted child with an 16
urgent medical condition who is in the legal 17
custody of the petitioner for a final adoption-re-18
lated visa and whose medical treatment is re-19
quired before the expected award of a final 20
adoption-related visa; or 21
‘‘(vii) the alien is a lawful applicant for ad-22
justment of status under section 245 and is re-23
turning to the United States after temporary 24
travel abroad. 25
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‘‘(F) For purposes of determining an alien’s eli-1
gibility for parole under subparagraph (A), a signifi-2
cant public benefit may be determined to result from 3
the parole of an alien only if— 4
‘‘(i) the alien has assisted (or will assist, 5
whether knowingly or not) the United States 6
Government in a law enforcement matter; 7
‘‘(ii) the alien’s presence is required by the 8
Government in furtherance of such law enforce-9
ment matter; and 10
‘‘(iii) the alien is inadmissible, does not 11
satisfy the eligibility requirements for admission 12
as a nonimmigrant, or there is insufficient time 13
for the alien to be admitted to the United 14
States through the normal visa process. 15
‘‘(G) For purposes of determining an alien’s eli-16
gibility for parole under subparagraph (A), the term 17
‘case-by-case basis’ means that the facts in each in-18
dividual case are considered and parole is not grant-19
ed based on membership in a defined class of aliens 20
to be granted parole. The fact that aliens are consid-21
ered for or granted parole one-by-one and not as a 22
group is not sufficient to establish that the parole 23
decision is made on a ‘case-by-case basis’. 24
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‘‘(H) The Secretary of Homeland Security may 1
not use the parole authority under this paragraph to 2
parole an alien into the United States for any reason 3
or purpose other than those described in subpara-4
graphs (B), (C), (D), (E), and (F). 5
‘‘(I) An alien granted parole may not accept 6
employment, except that an alien granted parole 7
pursuant to subparagraph (B) or (C) is authorized 8
to accept employment for the duration of the parole, 9
as evidenced by an employment authorization docu-10
ment issued by the Secretary of Homeland Security. 11
‘‘(J) Parole granted after a departure from the 12
United States shall not be regarded as an admission 13
of the alien. An alien granted parole, whether as an 14
initial grant of parole or parole upon reentry into 15
the United States, is not eligible to adjust status to 16
lawful permanent residence or for any other immi-17
gration benefit if the immigration status the alien 18
had at the time of departure did not authorize the 19
alien to adjust status or to be eligible for such ben-20
efit. 21
‘‘(K)(i) Except as provided in clauses (ii) and 22
(iii), parole shall be granted to an alien under this 23
paragraph for the shorter of— 24
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‘‘(I) a period of sufficient length to accom-1
plish the activity described in subparagraph 2
(D), (E), or (F) for which the alien was grant-3
ed parole; or 4
‘‘(II) 1 year. 5
‘‘(ii) Grants of parole pursuant to subparagraph 6
(A) may be extended once, in the discretion of the 7
Secretary, for an additional period that is the short-8
er of— 9
‘‘(I) the period that is necessary to accom-10
plish the activity described in subparagraph (E) 11
or (F) for which the alien was granted parole; 12
or 13
‘‘(II) 1 year. 14
‘‘(iii) Aliens who have a pending application to 15
adjust status to permanent residence under section 16
245 may request extensions of parole under this 17
paragraph, in 1-year increments, until the applica-18
tion for adjustment has been adjudicated. Such pa-19
role shall terminate immediately upon the denial of 20
such adjustment application. 21
‘‘(L) Not later than 90 days after the last day 22
of each fiscal year, the Secretary of Homeland Secu-23
rity shall submit to the Committee on the Judiciary 24
of the Senate and the Committee on the Judiciary 25
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of the House of Representatives and make available 1
to the public, a report— 2
‘‘(i) identifying the total number of aliens 3
paroled into the United States under this para-4
graph during the previous fiscal year; and 5
‘‘(ii) containing information and data re-6
garding all aliens paroled during such fiscal 7
year, including— 8
‘‘(I) the duration of parole; 9
‘‘(II) the type of parole; and 10
‘‘(III) the current status of the aliens 11
so paroled.’’. 12
SEC. 603. IMPLEMENTATION. 13
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Except as provided in subsection 14
(b), this Act and the amendments made by this Act shall 15
take effect on the date that is 30 days after the date of 16
the enactment of this Act. 17
(b) E
XCEPTIONS.—Notwithstanding subsection (a), 18
each of the following exceptions apply: 19
(1) Any application for parole or advance parole 20
filed by an alien before the date of the enactment of 21
this Act shall be adjudicated under the law that was 22
in effect on the date on which the application was 23
properly filed and any approved advance parole shall 24
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remain valid under the law that was in effect on the 1
date on which the advance parole was approved. 2
(2) Section 212(d)(5)(J) of the Immigration 3
and Nationality Act, as added by section 2, shall 4
take effect on the date of the enactment of this Act. 5
(3) Aliens who were paroled into the United 6
States pursuant to section 212(d)(5)(A) of the Im-7
migration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 8
1182(d)(5)(A)) before January 1, 2023, shall con-9
tinue to be subject to the terms of parole that were 10
in effect on the date on which their respective parole 11
was approved. 12
SEC. 604. CAUSE OF ACTION. 13
Any person, State, or local government that experi-14
ences financial harm in excess of $1,000 due to a failure 15
of the Federal Government to lawfully apply the provisions 16
of this Act or the amendments made by this Act shall have 17
standing to bring a civil action against the Federal Gov-18
ernment in an appropriate district court of the United 19
States for appropriate relief. 20
SEC. 605. SEVERABILITY. 21
If any provision of this Act or any amendment by 22
this Act, or the application of such provision or amend-23
ment to any person or circumstance, is held to be uncon-24
stitutional, the remainder of this Act and the application 25
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of such provision or amendment to any other person or 1
circumstance shall not be affected. 2
TITLE VII—LEGAL WORKFORCE 3
SEC. 701. SHORT TITLE. 4
This title may be cited as the ‘‘Legal Workforce Act’’. 5
SEC. 702. EMPLOYMENT ELIGIBILITY VERIFICATION PROC-6
ESS. 7
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 274A(b) of the Immigra-8
tion and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1324a(b)) is amended 9
to read as follows: 10
‘‘(b) E
MPLOYMENT ELIGIBILITYVERIFICATION 11
P
ROCESS.— 12
‘‘(1) N
EW HIRES, RECRUITMENT, AND REFER-13
RAL.—The requirements referred to in paragraphs 14
(1)(B) and (3) of subsection (a) are, in the case of 15
a person or other entity hiring, recruiting, or refer-16
ring an individual for employment in the United 17
States, the following: 18
‘‘(A) A
TTESTATION AFTER EXAMINATION 19
OF DOCUMENTATION .— 20
‘‘(i) A
TTESTATION.—During the 21
verification period (as defined in subpara-22
graph (E)), the person or entity shall at-23
test, under penalty of perjury and on a 24
form, including electronic and telephonic 25
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formats, designated or established by the 1
Secretary by regulation not later than 6 2
months after the date of the enactment of 3
the Legal Workforce Act, that it has 4
verified that the individual is not an unau-5
thorized alien by— 6
‘‘(I) obtaining from the indi-7
vidual the individual’s social security 8
account number or United States 9
passport number and recording the 10
number on the form (if the individual 11
claims to have been issued such a 12
number), and, if the individual does 13
not attest to United States nationality 14
under subparagraph (B), obtaining 15
such identification or authorization 16
number established by the Depart-17
ment of Homeland Security for the 18
alien as the Secretary of Homeland 19
Security may specify, and recording 20
such number on the form; and 21
‘‘(II) examining— 22
‘‘(aa) a document relating to 23
the individual presenting it de-24
scribed in clause (ii); or 25
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‘‘(bb) a document relating to 1
the individual presenting it de-2
scribed in clause (iii) and a docu-3
ment relating to the individual 4
presenting it described in clause 5
(iv). 6
‘‘(ii) D
OCUMENTS EVIDENCING EM -7
PLOYMENT AUTHORIZATION AND ESTAB -8
LISHING IDENTITY .—A document de-9
scribed in this subparagraph is an individ-10
ual’s— 11
‘‘(I) unexpired United States 12
passport or passport card; 13
‘‘(II) unexpired permanent resi-14
dent card that contains a photograph; 15
‘‘(III) unexpired employment au-16
thorization card that contains a pho-17
tograph; 18
‘‘(IV) in the case of a non-19
immigrant alien authorized to work 20
for a specific employer incident to sta-21
tus, a foreign passport with Form I– 22
94 or Form I–94A, or other docu-23
mentation as designated by the Sec-24
retary specifying the alien’s non-25
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immigrant status as long as the pe-1
riod of status has not yet expired and 2
the proposed employment is not in 3
conflict with any restrictions or limita-4
tions identified in the documentation; 5
‘‘(V) passport from the Fed-6
erated States of Micronesia (FSM) or 7
the Republic of the Marshall Islands 8
(RMI) with Form I–94 or Form I– 9
94A, or other documentation as des-10
ignated by the Secretary, indicating 11
nonimmigrant admission under the 12
Compact of Free Association Between 13
the United States and the FSM or 14
RMI; or 15
‘‘(VI) other document designated 16
by the Secretary of Homeland Secu-17
rity, if the document— 18
‘‘(aa) contains a photograph 19
of the individual and biometric 20
identification data from the indi-21
vidual and such other personal 22
identifying information relating 23
to the individual as the Secretary 24
of Homeland Security finds, by 25
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regulation, sufficient for purposes 1
of this clause; 2
‘‘(bb) is evidence of author-3
ization of employment in the 4
United States; and 5
‘‘(cc) contains security fea-6
tures to make it resistant to tam-7
pering, counterfeiting, and fraud-8
ulent use. 9
‘‘(iii) D
OCUMENTS EVIDENCING EM -10
PLOYMENT AUTHORIZATION .—A document 11
described in this subparagraph is an indi-12
vidual’s social security account number 13
card (other than such a card which speci-14
fies on the face that the issuance of the 15
card does not authorize employment in the 16
United States). 17
‘‘(iv) D
OCUMENTS ESTABLISHING 18
IDENTITY OF INDIVIDUAL .—A document 19
described in this subparagraph is— 20
‘‘(I) an individual’s unexpired 21
State issued driver’s license or identi-22
fication card if it contains a photo-23
graph and information such as name, 24
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date of birth, gender, height, eye 1
color, and address; 2
‘‘(II) an individual’s unexpired 3
U.S. military identification card; 4
‘‘(III) an individual’s unexpired 5
Native American tribal identification 6
document issued by a tribal entity rec-7
ognized by the Bureau of Indian Af-8
fairs; or 9
‘‘(IV) in the case of an individual 10
under 18 years of age, a parent or 11
legal guardian’s attestation under 12
penalty of law as to the identity and 13
age of the individual. 14
‘‘(v) A
UTHORITY TO PROHIBIT USE OF 15
CERTAIN DOCUMENTS .—If the Secretary of 16
Homeland Security finds, by regulation, 17
that any document described in clause (i), 18
(ii), or (iii) as establishing employment au-19
thorization or identity does not reliably es-20
tablish such authorization or identity or is 21
being used fraudulently to an unacceptable 22
degree, the Secretary may prohibit or place 23
conditions on its use for purposes of this 24
paragraph. 25
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‘‘(vi) SIGNATURE.—Such attestation 1
may be manifested by either a handwritten 2
or electronic signature. 3
‘‘(B) I
NDIVIDUAL ATTESTATION OF EM -4
PLOYMENT AUTHORIZATION .—During the veri-5
fication period (as defined in subparagraph 6
(E)), the individual shall attest, under penalty 7
of perjury on the form designated or established 8
for purposes of subparagraph (A), that the indi-9
vidual is a citizen or national of the United 10
States, an alien lawfully admitted for perma-11
nent residence, or an alien who is authorized 12
under this Act or by the Secretary of Homeland 13
Security to be hired, recruited, or referred for 14
such employment. Such attestation may be 15
manifested by either a handwritten or electronic 16
signature. The individual shall also provide that 17
individual’s social security account number or 18
United States passport number (if the indi-19
vidual claims to have been issued such a num-20
ber), and, if the individual does not attest to 21
United States nationality under this subpara-22
graph, such identification or authorization num-23
ber established by the Department of Homeland 24
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Security for the alien as the Secretary may 1
specify. 2
‘‘(C) R
ETENTION OF VERIFICATION FORM 3
AND VERIFICATION.— 4
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—After completion 5
of such form in accordance with subpara-6
graphs (A) and (B), the person or entity 7
shall— 8
‘‘(I) retain a paper, microfiche, 9
microfilm, or electronic version of the 10
form and make it available for inspec-11
tion by officers of the Department of 12
Homeland Security, the Department 13
of Justice, or the Department of 14
Labor during a period beginning on 15
the date of the recruiting or referral 16
of the individual, or, in the case of the 17
hiring of an individual, the date on 18
which the verification is completed, 19
and ending— 20
‘‘(aa) in the case of the re-21
cruiting or referral of an indi-22
vidual, 3 years after the date of 23
the recruiting or referral; and 24
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‘‘(bb) in the case of the hir-1
ing of an individual, the later of 2
3 years after the date the verifi-3
cation is completed or one year 4
after the date the individual’s 5
employment is terminated; and 6
‘‘(II) during the verification pe-7
riod (as defined in subparagraph (E)), 8
make an inquiry, as provided in sub-9
section (d), using the verification sys-10
tem to seek verification of the identity 11
and employment eligibility of an indi-12
vidual. 13
‘‘(ii) C
ONFIRMATION.— 14
‘‘(I) C
ONFIRMATION RE -15
CEIVED.—If the person or other entity 16
receives an appropriate confirmation 17
of an individual’s identity and work 18
eligibility under the verification sys-19
tem within the time period specified, 20
the person or entity shall record on 21
the form an appropriate code that is 22
provided under the system and that 23
indicates a final confirmation of such 24
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identity and work eligibility of the in-1
dividual. 2
‘‘(II) T
ENTATIVE NONCONFIRMA -3
TION RECEIVED.—If the person or 4
other entity receives a tentative non-5
confirmation of an individual’s iden-6
tity or work eligibility under the 7
verification system within the time pe-8
riod specified, the person or entity 9
shall so inform the individual for 10
whom the verification is sought. If the 11
individual does not contest the non-12
confirmation within the time period 13
specified, the nonconfirmation shall be 14
considered final. The person or entity 15
shall then record on the form an ap-16
propriate code which has been pro-17
vided under the system to indicate a 18
final nonconfirmation. If the indi-19
vidual does contest the nonconfirma-20
tion, the individual shall utilize the 21
process for secondary verification pro-22
vided under subsection (d). The non-23
confirmation will remain tentative 24
until a final confirmation or noncon-25
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firmation is provided by the verifica-1
tion system within the time period 2
specified. In no case shall an employer 3
terminate employment of an individual 4
because of a failure of the individual 5
to have identity and work eligibility 6
confirmed under this section until a 7
nonconfirmation becomes final. Noth-8
ing in this clause shall apply to a ter-9
mination of employment for any rea-10
son other than because of such a fail-11
ure. In no case shall an employer re-12
scind the offer of employment to an 13
individual because of a failure of the 14
individual to have identity and work 15
eligibility confirmed under this sub-16
section until a nonconfirmation be-17
comes final. Nothing in this subclause 18
shall apply to a recission of the offer 19
of employment for any reason other 20
than because of such a failure. 21
‘‘(III) F
INAL CONFIRMATION OR 22
NONCONFIRMATION RECEIVED .—If a 23
final confirmation or nonconfirmation 24
is provided by the verification system 25
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regarding an individual, the person or 1
entity shall record on the form an ap-2
propriate code that is provided under 3
the system and that indicates a con-4
firmation or nonconfirmation of iden-5
tity and work eligibility of the indi-6
vidual. 7
‘‘(IV) E
XTENSION OF TIME .—If 8
the person or other entity in good 9
faith attempts to make an inquiry 10
during the time period specified and 11
the verification system has registered 12
that not all inquiries were received 13
during such time, the person or entity 14
may make an inquiry in the first sub-15
sequent working day in which the 16
verification system registers that it 17
has received all inquiries. If the 18
verification system cannot receive in-19
quiries at all times during a day, the 20
person or entity merely has to assert 21
that the entity attempted to make the 22
inquiry on that day for the previous 23
sentence to apply to such an inquiry, 24
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and does not have to provide any ad-1
ditional proof concerning such inquiry. 2
‘‘(V) C
ONSEQUENCES OF NON -3
CONFIRMATION.— 4
‘‘(aa) T
ERMINATION OR NO-5
TIFICATION OF CONTINUED EM -6
PLOYMENT.—If the person or 7
other entity has received a final 8
nonconfirmation regarding an in-9
dividual, the person or entity 10
may terminate employment of the 11
individual (or decline to recruit 12
or refer the individual). If the 13
person or entity does not termi-14
nate employment of the indi-15
vidual or proceeds to recruit or 16
refer the individual, the person or 17
entity shall notify the Secretary 18
of Homeland Security of such 19
fact through the verification sys-20
tem or in such other manner as 21
the Secretary may specify. 22
‘‘(bb) F
AILURE TO NO -23
TIFY.—If the person or entity 24
fails to provide notice with re-25
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spect to an individual as required 1
under item (aa), the failure is 2
deemed to constitute a violation 3
of subsection (a)(1)(A) with re-4
spect to that individual. 5
‘‘(VI) C
ONTINUED EMPLOYMENT 6
AFTER FINAL NONCONFIRMATION .—If 7
the person or other entity continues to 8
employ (or to recruit or refer) an indi-9
vidual after receiving final noncon-10
firmation, a rebuttable presumption is 11
created that the person or entity has 12
violated subsection (a)(1)(A). 13
‘‘(D) E
FFECTIVE DATES OF NEW PROCE -14
DURES.— 15
‘‘(i) H
IRING.—Except as provided in 16
clause (iii), the provisions of this para-17
graph shall apply to a person or other enti-18
ty hiring an individual for employment in 19
the United States as follows: 20
‘‘(I) With respect to employers 21
having 10,000 or more employees in 22
the United States on the date of the 23
enactment of the Legal Workforce 24
Act, on the date that is 6 months 25
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after the date of the enactment of 1
such Act. 2
‘‘(II) With respect to employers 3
having 500 or more employees in the 4
United States, but less than 10,000 5
employees in the United States, on 6
the date of the enactment of the 7
Legal Workforce Act, on the date that 8
is 12 months after the date of the en-9
actment of such Act. 10
‘‘(III) With respect to employers 11
having 20 or more employees in the 12
United States, but less than 500 em-13
ployees in the United States, on the 14
date of the enactment of the Legal 15
Workforce Act, on the date that is 18 16
months after the date of the enact-17
ment of such Act. 18
‘‘(IV) With respect to employers 19
having one or more employees in the 20
United States, but less than 20 em-21
ployees in the United States, on the 22
date of the enactment of the Legal 23
Workforce Act, on the date that is 24 24
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months after the date of the enact-1
ment of such Act. 2
‘‘(ii) R
ECRUITING AND REFERRING .— 3
Except as provided in clause (iii), the pro-4
visions of this paragraph shall apply to a 5
person or other entity recruiting or refer-6
ring an individual for employment in the 7
United States on the date that is 12 8
months after the date of the enactment of 9
the Legal Workforce Act. 10
‘‘(iii) A
GRICULTURAL LABOR OR SERV -11
ICES.—With respect to an employee per-12
forming agricultural labor or services, this 13
paragraph shall not apply with respect to 14
the verification of the employee until the 15
date that is 36 months after the date of 16
the enactment of the Legal Workforce Act. 17
For purposes of the preceding sentence, 18
the term ‘agricultural labor or services’ has 19
the meaning given such term by the Sec-20
retary of Agriculture in regulations and in-21
cludes agricultural labor as defined in sec-22
tion 3121(g) of the Internal Revenue Code 23
of 1986, agriculture as defined in section 24
3(f) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 25
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1938 (29 U.S.C. 203(f)), the handling, 1
planting, drying, packing, packaging, proc-2
essing, freezing, or grading prior to deliv-3
ery for storage of any agricultural or horti-4
cultural commodity in its unmanufactured 5
state, all activities required for the prepa-6
ration, processing or manufacturing of a 7
product of agriculture (as such term is de-8
fined in such section 3(f)) for further dis-9
tribution, and activities similar to all the 10
foregoing as they relate to fish or shellfish 11
facilities. An employee described in this 12
clause shall not be counted for purposes of 13
clause (i). 14
‘‘(iv) E
XTENSIONS.— 15
‘‘(I) O
N REQUEST.—Upon re-16
quest by an employer having 50 or 17
fewer employees, the Secretary shall 18
allow a one-time 6-month extension of 19
the effective date set out in this sub-20
paragraph applicable to such em-21
ployer. Such request shall be made to 22
the Secretary and shall be made prior 23
to such effective date. 24
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‘‘(II) FOLLOWING REPORT .—If 1
the study under section 715 of the 2
Legal Workforce Act has been sub-3
mitted in accordance with such sec-4
tion, the Secretary of Homeland Secu-5
rity may extend the effective date set 6
out in clause (iii) on a one-time basis 7
for 12 months. 8
‘‘(v) T
RANSITION RULE.—Subject to 9
paragraph (4), the following shall apply to 10
a person or other entity hiring, recruiting, 11
or referring an individual for employment 12
in the United States until the effective 13
date or dates applicable under clauses (i) 14
through (iii): 15
‘‘(I) This subsection, as in effect 16
before the enactment of the Legal 17
Workforce Act. 18
‘‘(II) Subtitle A of title IV of the 19
Illegal Immigration Reform and Im-20
migrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 21
U.S.C. 1324a note), as in effect be-22
fore the effective date in section 7(c) 23
of the Legal Workforce Act. 24
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‘‘(III) Any other provision of 1
Federal law requiring the person or 2
entity to participate in the E–Verify 3
Program described in section 403(a) 4
of the Illegal Immigration Reform and 5
Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 6
(8 U.S.C. 1324a note), as in effect be-7
fore the effective date in section 7(c) 8
of the Legal Workforce Act, including 9
Executive Order 13465 (8 U.S.C. 10
1324a note; relating to Government 11
procurement). 12
‘‘(E) V
ERIFICATION PERIOD DEFINED .— 13
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—For purposes of 14
this paragraph: 15
‘‘(I) In the case of recruitment or 16
referral, the term ‘verification period’ 17
means the period ending on the date 18
recruiting or referring commences. 19
‘‘(II) In the case of hiring, the 20
term ‘verification period’ means the 21
period beginning on the date on which 22
an offer of employment is extended 23
and ending on the date that is three 24
business days after the date of hire, 25
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except as provided in clause (iii). The 1
offer of employment may be condi-2
tioned in accordance with clause (ii). 3
‘‘(ii) J
OB OFFER MAY BE CONDI -4
TIONAL.—A person or other entity may 5
offer a prospective employee an employ-6
ment position that is conditioned on final 7
verification of the identity and employment 8
eligibility of the employee using the proce-9
dures established under this paragraph. 10
‘‘(iii) S
PECIAL RULE.—Notwithstand-11
ing clause (i)(II), in the case of an alien 12
who is authorized for employment and who 13
provides evidence from the Social Security 14
Administration that the alien has applied 15
for a social security account number, the 16
verification period ends three business days 17
after the alien receives the social security 18
account number. 19
‘‘(2) R
EVERIFICATION FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH 20
LIMITED WORK AUTHORIZATION .— 21
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in 22
subparagraph (B), a person or entity shall 23
make an inquiry, as provided in subsection (d), 24
using the verification system to seek reverifica-25
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tion of the identity and employment eligibility 1
of all individuals with a limited period of work 2
authorization employed by the person or entity 3
during the three business days after the date on 4
which the employee’s work authorization expires 5
as follows: 6
‘‘(i) With respect to employers having 7
10,000 or more employees in the United 8
States on the date of the enactment of the 9
Legal Workforce Act, beginning on the 10
date that is 6 months after the date of the 11
enactment of such Act. 12
‘‘(ii) With respect to employers having 13
500 or more employees in the United 14
States, but less than 10,000 employees in 15
the United States, on the date of the en-16
actment of the Legal Workforce Act, be-17
ginning on the date that is 12 months 18
after the date of the enactment of such 19
Act. 20
‘‘(iii) With respect to employers hav-21
ing 20 or more employees in the United 22
States, but less than 500 employees in the 23
United States, on the date of the enact-24
ment of the Legal Workforce Act, begin-25
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•HR 2640 IH
ning on the date that is 18 months after 1
the date of the enactment of such Act. 2
‘‘(iv) With respect to employers hav-3
ing one or more employees in the United 4
States, but less than 20 employees in the 5
United States, on the date of the enact-6
ment of the Legal Workforce Act, begin-7
ning on the date that is 24 months after 8
the date of the enactment of such Act. 9
‘‘(B) A
GRICULTURAL LABOR OR SERV -10
ICES.—With respect to an employee performing 11
agricultural labor or services, or an employee 12
recruited or referred by a farm labor contractor 13
(as defined in section 3 of the Migrant and Sea-14
sonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (29 15
U.S.C. 1801)), subparagraph (A) shall not 16
apply with respect to the reverification of the 17
employee until the date that is 36 months after 18
the date of the enactment of the Legal Work-19
force Act. For purposes of the preceding sen-20
tence, the term ‘agricultural labor or services’ 21
has the meaning given such term by the Sec-22
retary of Agriculture in regulations and in-23
cludes agricultural labor as defined in section 24
3121(g) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, 25
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agriculture as defined in section 3(f) of the 1
Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 2
203(f)), the handling, planting, drying, packing, 3
packaging, processing, freezing, or grading 4
prior to delivery for storage of any agricultural 5
or horticultural commodity in its unmanufac-6
tured state, all activities required for the prepa-7
ration, processing, or manufacturing of a prod-8
uct of agriculture (as such term is defined in 9
such section 3(f)) for further distribution, and 10
activities similar to all the foregoing as they re-11
late to fish or shellfish facilities. An employee 12
described in this subparagraph shall not be 13
counted for purposes of subparagraph (A). 14
‘‘(C) R
EVERIFICATION.—Paragraph 15
(1)(C)(ii) shall apply to reverifications pursuant 16
to this paragraph on the same basis as it ap-17
plies to verifications pursuant to paragraph (1), 18
except that employers shall— 19
‘‘(i) use a form designated or estab-20
lished by the Secretary by regulation for 21
purposes of this paragraph; and 22
‘‘(ii) retain a paper, microfiche, micro-23
film, or electronic version of the form and 24
make it available for inspection by officers 25
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of the Department of Homeland Security, 1
the Department of Justice, or the Depart-2
ment of Labor during the period beginning 3
on the date the reverification commences 4
and ending on the date that is the later of 5
3 years after the date of such reverification 6
or 1 year after the date the individual’s 7
employment is terminated. 8
‘‘(3) P
REVIOUSLY HIRED INDIVIDUALS .— 9
‘‘(A) O
N A MANDATORY BASIS FOR CER -10
TAIN EMPLOYEES.— 11
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than the 12
date that is 6 months after the date of the 13
enactment of the Legal Workforce Act, an 14
employer shall make an inquiry, as pro-15
vided in subsection (d), using the 16
verification system to seek verification of 17
the identity and employment eligibility of 18
any individual described in clause (ii) em-19
ployed by the employer whose employment 20
eligibility has not been verified under the 21
E–Verify Program described in section 22
403(a) of the Illegal Immigration Reform 23
and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 24
(8 U.S.C. 1324a note). 25
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‘‘(ii) INDIVIDUALS DESCRIBED .—An 1
individual described in this clause is any of 2
the following: 3
‘‘(I) An employee of any unit of 4
a Federal, State, or local government. 5
‘‘(II) An employee who requires a 6
Federal security clearance working in 7
a Federal, State, or local government 8
building, a military base, a nuclear 9
energy site, a weapons site, or an air-10
port or other facility that requires 11
workers to carry a Transportation 12
Worker Identification Credential 13
(TWIC). 14
‘‘(III) An employee assigned to 15
perform work in the United States 16
under a Federal contract, except that 17
this subclause— 18
‘‘(aa) is not applicable to in-19
dividuals who have a clearance 20
under Homeland Security Presi-21
dential Directive 12 (HSPD 12 22
clearance), are administrative or 23
overhead personnel, or are work-24
ing solely on contracts that pro-25
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vide Commercial Off The Shelf 1
goods or services as set forth by 2
the Federal Acquisition Regu-3
latory Council, unless they are 4
subject to verification under sub-5
clause (II); and 6
‘‘(bb) only applies to con-7
tracts over the simple acquisition 8
threshold as defined in section 9
2.101 of title 48, Code of Federal 10
Regulations. 11
‘‘(B) O
N A MANDATORY BASIS FOR MUL -12
TIPLE USERS OF SAME SOCIAL SECURITY AC -13
COUNT NUMBER .—In the case of an employer 14
who is required by this subsection to use the 15
verification system described in subsection (d), 16
or has elected voluntarily to use such system, 17
the employer shall make inquiries to the system 18
in accordance with the following: 19
‘‘(i) The Commissioner of Social Secu-20
rity shall notify annually employees (at the 21
employee address listed on the Wage and 22
Tax Statement) who submit a social secu-23
rity account number to which more than 24
one employer reports income and for which 25
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there is a pattern of unusual multiple use. 1
The notification letter shall identify the 2
number of employers to which income is 3
being reported as well as sufficient infor-4
mation notifying the employee of the proc-5
ess to contact the Social Security Adminis-6
tration Fraud Hotline if the employee be-7
lieves the employee’s identity may have 8
been stolen. The notice shall not share in-9
formation protected as private, in order to 10
avoid any recipient of the notice from 11
being in the position to further commit or 12
begin committing identity theft. 13
‘‘(ii) If the person to whom the social 14
security account number was issued by the 15
Social Security Administration has been 16
identified and confirmed by the Commis-17
sioner, and indicates that the social secu-18
rity account number was used without 19
their knowledge, the Secretary and the 20
Commissioner shall lock the social security 21
account number for employment eligibility 22
verification purposes and shall notify the 23
employers of the individuals who wrong-24
fully submitted the social security account 25
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number that the employee may not be 1
work eligible. 2
‘‘(iii) Each employer receiving such 3
notification of an incorrect social security 4
account number under clause (ii) shall use 5
the verification system described in sub-6
section (d) to check the work eligibility sta-7
tus of the applicable employee within 10 8
business days of receipt of the notification. 9
‘‘(C) O
N A VOLUNTARY BASIS.—Subject to 10
paragraph (2), and subparagraphs (A) through 11
(C) of this paragraph, beginning on the date 12
that is 30 days after the date of the enactment 13
of the Legal Workforce Act, an employer may 14
make an inquiry, as provided in subsection (d), 15
using the verification system to seek verification 16
of the identity and employment eligibility of any 17
individual employed by the employer. If an em-18
ployer chooses voluntarily to seek verification of 19
any individual employed by the employer, the 20
employer shall seek verification of all individ-21
uals employed at the same geographic location 22
or, at the option of the employer, all individuals 23
employed within the same job category, as the 24
employee with respect to whom the employer 25
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seeks voluntarily to use the verification system. 1
An employer’s decision about whether or not 2
voluntarily to seek verification of its current 3
workforce under this subparagraph may not be 4
considered by any government agency in any 5
proceeding, investigation, or review provided for 6
in this Act. 7
‘‘(D) V
ERIFICATION.—Paragraph 8
(1)(C)(ii) shall apply to verifications pursuant 9
to this paragraph on the same basis as it ap-10
plies to verifications pursuant to paragraph (1), 11
except that employers shall— 12
‘‘(i) use a form designated or estab-13
lished by the Secretary by regulation for 14
purposes of this paragraph; and 15
‘‘(ii) retain a paper, microfiche, micro-16
film, or electronic version of the form and 17
make it available for inspection by officers 18
of the Department of Homeland Security, 19
the Department of Justice, or the Depart-20
ment of Labor during the period beginning 21
on the date the verification commences and 22
ending on the date that is the later of 3 23
years after the date of such verification or 24
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1 year after the date the individual’s em-1
ployment is terminated. 2
‘‘(4) E
ARLY COMPLIANCE.— 3
‘‘(A) F
ORMER E–VERIFY REQUIRED USERS , 4
INCLUDING FEDERAL CONTRACTORS .—Notwith-5
standing the deadlines in paragraphs (1) and 6
(2), beginning on the date of the enactment of 7
the Legal Workforce Act, the Secretary is au-8
thorized to commence requiring employers re-9
quired to participate in the E–Verify Program 10
described in section 403(a) of the Illegal Immi-11
gration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility 12
Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1324a note), including 13
employers required to participate in such pro-14
gram by reason of Federal acquisition laws 15
(and regulations promulgated under those laws, 16
including the Federal Acquisition Regulation), 17
to commence compliance with the requirements 18
of this subsection (and any additional require-19
ments of such Federal acquisition laws and reg-20
ulation) in lieu of any requirement to partici-21
pate in the E–Verify Program. 22
‘‘(B) F
ORMER E–VERIFY VOLUNTARY 23
USERS AND OTHERS DESIRING EARLY COMPLI -24
ANCE.—Notwithstanding the deadlines in para-25
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graphs (1) and (2), beginning on the date of 1
the enactment of the Legal Workforce Act, the 2
Secretary shall provide for the voluntary com-3
pliance with the requirements of this subsection 4
by employers voluntarily electing to participate 5
in the E–Verify Program described in section 6
403(a) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and 7
Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 8
1324a note) before such date, as well as by 9
other employers seeking voluntary early compli-10
ance. 11
‘‘(5) C
OPYING OF DOCUMENTATION PER -12
MITTED.—Notwithstanding any other provision of 13
law, the person or entity may copy a document pre-14
sented by an individual pursuant to this subsection 15
and may retain the copy, but only (except as other-16
wise permitted under law) for the purpose of com-17
plying with the requirements of this subsection. 18
‘‘(6) L
IMITATION ON USE OF FORMS .—A form 19
designated or established by the Secretary of Home-20
land Security under this subsection and any infor-21
mation contained in or appended to such form, may 22
not be used for purposes other than for enforcement 23
of this Act and any other provision of Federal crimi-24
nal law. 25
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‘‘(7) GOOD FAITH COMPLIANCE .— 1
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Except as otherwise 2
provided in this subsection, a person or entity 3
is considered to have complied with a require-4
ment of this subsection notwithstanding a tech-5
nical or procedural failure to meet such require-6
ment if there was a good faith attempt to com-7
ply with the requirement. 8
‘‘(B) E
XCEPTION IF FAILURE TO CORRECT 9
AFTER NOTICE.—Subparagraph (A) shall not 10
apply if— 11
‘‘(i) the failure is not de minimus; 12
‘‘(ii) the Secretary of Homeland Secu-13
rity has explained to the person or entity 14
the basis for the failure and why it is not 15
de minimus; 16
‘‘(iii) the person or entity has been 17
provided a period of not less than 30 cal-18
endar days (beginning after the date of the 19
explanation) within which to correct the 20
failure; and 21
‘‘(iv) the person or entity has not cor-22
rected the failure voluntarily within such 23
period. 24
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‘‘(C) EXCEPTION FOR PATTERN OR PRAC -1
TICE VIOLATORS.—Subparagraph (A) shall not 2
apply to a person or entity that has or is engag-3
ing in a pattern or practice of violations of sub-4
section (a)(1)(A) or (a)(2). 5
‘‘(8) S
INGLE EXTENSION OF DEADLINES UPON 6
CERTIFICATION.—In a case in which the Secretary 7
of Homeland Security has certified to the Congress 8
that the employment eligibility verification system 9
required under subsection (d) will not be fully oper-10
ational by the date that is 6 months after the date 11
of the enactment of the Legal Workforce Act, each 12
deadline established under this section for an em-13
ployer to make an inquiry using such system shall 14
be extended by 6 months. No other extension of such 15
a deadline shall be made except as authorized under 16
paragraph (1)(D)(iv).’’. 17
(b) D
ATE OFHIRE.—Section 274A(h) of the Immi-18
gration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1324a(h)) is 19
amended by adding at the end the following: 20
‘‘(4) D
EFINITION OF DATE OF HIRE .—As used 21
in this section, the term ‘date of hire’ means the 22
date of actual commencement of employment for 23
wages or other remuneration, unless otherwise speci-24
fied.’’. 25
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SEC. 703. EMPLOYMENT ELIGIBILITY VERIFICATION SYS-1
TEM. 2
Section 274A(d) of the Immigration and Nationality 3
Act (8 U.S.C. 1324a(d)) is amended to read as follows: 4
‘‘(d) E
MPLOYMENTELIGIBILITYVERIFICATIONSYS-5
TEM.— 6
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Patterned on the employ-7
ment eligibility confirmation system established 8
under section 404 of the Illegal Immigration Reform 9
and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 10
1324a note), the Secretary of Homeland Security 11
shall establish and administer a verification system 12
through which the Secretary (or a designee of the 13
Secretary, which may be a nongovernmental enti-14
ty)— 15
‘‘(A) responds to inquiries made by per-16
sons at any time through a toll-free telephone 17
line and other toll-free electronic media con-18
cerning an individual’s identity and whether the 19
individual is authorized to be employed; and 20
‘‘(B) maintains records of the inquiries 21
that were made, of verifications provided (or 22
not provided), and of the codes provided to in-23
quirers as evidence of their compliance with 24
their obligations under this section. 25
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‘‘(2) INITIAL RESPONSE.—The verification sys-1
tem shall provide confirmation or a tentative non-2
confirmation of an individual’s identity and employ-3
ment eligibility within 3 working days of the initial 4
inquiry. If providing confirmation or tentative non-5
confirmation, the verification system shall provide an 6
appropriate code indicating such confirmation or 7
such nonconfirmation. 8
‘‘(3) S
ECONDARY CONFIRMATION PROCESS IN 9
CASE OF TENTATIVE NONCONFIRMATION .—In cases 10
of tentative nonconfirmation, the Secretary shall 11
specify, in consultation with the Commissioner of 12
Social Security, an available secondary verification 13
process to confirm the validity of information pro-14
vided and to provide a final confirmation or noncon-15
firmation not later than 10 working days after the 16
date on which the notice of the tentative noncon-17
firmation is received by the employee. The Secretary, 18
in consultation with the Commissioner, may extend 19
this deadline once on a case-by-case basis for a pe-20
riod of 10 working days, and if the time is extended, 21
shall document such extension within the verification 22
system. The Secretary, in consultation with the 23
Commissioner, shall notify the employee and em-24
ployer of such extension. The Secretary, in consulta-25
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tion with the Commissioner, shall create a standard 1
process of such extension and notification and shall 2
make a description of such process available to the 3
public. When final confirmation or nonconfirmation 4
is provided, the verification system shall provide an 5
appropriate code indicating such confirmation or 6
nonconfirmation. 7
‘‘(4) D
ESIGN AND OPERATION OF SYSTEM .— 8
The verification system shall be designed and oper-9
ated— 10
‘‘(A) to maximize its reliability and ease of 11
use by persons and other entities consistent 12
with insulating and protecting the privacy and 13
security of the underlying information; 14
‘‘(B) to respond to all inquiries made by 15
such persons and entities on whether individ-16
uals are authorized to be employed and to reg-17
ister all times when such inquiries are not re-18
ceived; 19
‘‘(C) with appropriate administrative, tech-20
nical, and physical safeguards to prevent unau-21
thorized disclosure of personal information; 22
‘‘(D) to have reasonable safeguards against 23
the system’s resulting in unlawful discrimina-24
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tory practices based on national origin or citi-1
zenship status, including— 2
‘‘(i) the selective or unauthorized use 3
of the system to verify eligibility; or 4
‘‘(ii) the exclusion of certain individ-5
uals from consideration for employment as 6
a result of a perceived likelihood that addi-7
tional verification will be required, beyond 8
what is required for most job applicants; 9
‘‘(E) to maximize the prevention of iden-10
tity theft use in the system; and 11
‘‘(F) to limit the subjects of verification to 12
the following individuals: 13
‘‘(i) Individuals hired, referred, or re-14
cruited, in accordance with paragraph (1) 15
or (4) of subsection (b). 16
‘‘(ii) Employees and prospective em-17
ployees, in accordance with paragraph (1), 18
(2), (3), or (4) of subsection (b). 19
‘‘(iii) Individuals seeking to confirm 20
their own employment eligibility on a vol-21
untary basis. 22
‘‘(5) R
ESPONSIBILITIES OF COMMISSIONER OF 23
SOCIAL SECURITY.—As part of the verification sys-24
tem, the Commissioner of Social Security, in con-25
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sultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security 1
(and any designee of the Secretary selected to estab-2
lish and administer the verification system), shall es-3
tablish a reliable, secure method, which, within the 4
time periods specified under paragraphs (2) and (3), 5
compares the name and social security account num-6
ber provided in an inquiry against such information 7
maintained by the Commissioner in order to validate 8
(or not validate) the information provided regarding 9
an individual whose identity and employment eligi-10
bility must be confirmed, the correspondence of the 11
name and number, and whether the individual has 12
presented a social security account number that is 13
not valid for employment. The Commissioner shall 14
not disclose or release social security information 15
(other than such confirmation or nonconfirmation) 16
under the verification system except as provided for 17
in this section or section 205(c)(2)(I) of the Social 18
Security Act. 19
‘‘(6) R
ESPONSIBILITIES OF SECRETARY OF 20
HOMELAND SECURITY .—As part of the verification 21
system, the Secretary of Homeland Security (in con-22
sultation with any designee of the Secretary selected 23
to establish and administer the verification system), 24
shall establish a reliable, secure method, which, with-25
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in the time periods specified under paragraphs (2) 1
and (3), compares the name and alien identification 2
or authorization number (or any other information 3
as determined relevant by the Secretary) which are 4
provided in an inquiry against such information 5
maintained or accessed by the Secretary in order to 6
validate (or not validate) the information provided, 7
the correspondence of the name and number, wheth-8
er the alien is authorized to be employed in the 9
United States, or to the extent that the Secretary 10
determines to be feasible and appropriate, whether 11
the records available to the Secretary verify the 12
identity or status of a national of the United States. 13
‘‘(7) U
PDATING INFORMATION .—The Commis-14
sioner of Social Security and the Secretary of Home-15
land Security shall update their information in a 16
manner that promotes the maximum accuracy and 17
shall provide a process for the prompt correction of 18
erroneous information, including instances in which 19
it is brought to their attention in the secondary 20
verification process described in paragraph (3). 21
‘‘(8) L
IMITATION ON USE OF THE 22
VERIFICATION SYSTEM AND ANY RELATED SYS -23
TEMS.— 24
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‘‘(A) NO NATIONAL IDENTIFICATION 1
CARD.—Nothing in this section shall be con-2
strued to authorize, directly or indirectly, the 3
issuance or use of national identification cards 4
or the establishment of a national identification 5
card. 6
‘‘(B) C
RITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE .—The 7
Secretary may authorize or direct any person or 8
entity responsible for granting access to, pro-9
tecting, securing, operating, administering, or 10
regulating part of the critical infrastructure (as 11
defined in section 1016(e) of the Critical Infra-12
structure Protection Act of 2001 (42 U.S.C. 13
5195c(e))) to use the verification system to the 14
extent the Secretary determines that such use 15
will assist in the protection of the critical infra-16
structure. 17
‘‘(9) R
EMEDIES.—If an individual alleges that 18
the individual would not have been dismissed from 19
a job but for an error of the verification mechanism, 20
the individual may seek compensation only through 21
the mechanism of the Federal Tort Claims Act, and 22
injunctive relief to correct such error. No class ac-23
tion may be brought under this paragraph.’’. 24
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SEC. 704. RECRUITMENT, REFERRAL, AND CONTINUATION 1
OF EMPLOYMENT. 2
(a) A
DDITIONALCHANGES TORULES FORRECRUIT-3
MENT, REFERRAL, ANDCONTINUATION OF EMPLOY-4
MENT.—Section 274A(a) of the Immigration and Nation-5
ality Act (8 U.S.C. 1324a(a)) is amended— 6
(1) in paragraph (1)(A), by striking ‘‘for a fee’’; 7
(2) in paragraph (1), by amending subpara-8
graph (B) to read as follows: 9
‘‘(B) to hire, continue to employ, or to re-10
cruit or refer for employment in the United 11
States an individual without complying with the 12
requirements of subsection (b).’’; and 13
(3) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘after hiring 14
an alien for employment in accordance with para-15
graph (1),’’ and inserting ‘‘after complying with 16
paragraph (1),’’. 17
(b) D
EFINITION.—Section 274A(h) of the Immigra-18
tion and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1324a(h)), as amended 19
by section 2(b) of this Act, is further amended by adding 20
at the end the following: 21
‘‘(5) D
EFINITION OF RECRUIT OR REFER .—As 22
used in this section, the term ‘refer’ means the act 23
of sending or directing a person who is in the United 24
States or transmitting documentation or information 25
to another, directly or indirectly, with the intent of 26
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obtaining employment in the United States for such 1
person. Only persons or entities referring for remu-2
neration (whether on a retainer or contingency 3
basis) are included in the definition, except that 4
union hiring halls that refer union members or non-5
union individuals who pay union membership dues 6
are included in the definition whether or not they re-7
ceive remuneration, as are labor service entities or 8
labor service agencies, whether public, private, for- 9
profit, or nonprofit, that refer, dispatch, or other-10
wise facilitate the hiring of laborers for any period 11
of time by a third party. As used in this section, the 12
term ‘recruit’ means the act of soliciting a person 13
who is in the United States, directly or indirectly, 14
and referring the person to another with the intent 15
of obtaining employment for that person. Only per-16
sons or entities referring for remuneration (whether 17
on a retainer or contingency basis) are included in 18
the definition, except that union hiring halls that 19
refer union members or nonunion individuals who 20
pay union membership dues are included in this defi-21
nition whether or not they receive remuneration, as 22
are labor service entities or labor service agencies, 23
whether public, private, for-profit, or nonprofit that 24
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•HR 2640 IH
recruit, dispatch, or otherwise facilitate the hiring of 1
laborers for any period of time by a third party.’’. 2
(c) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 3
this section shall take effect on the date that is 1 year 4
after the date of the enactment of this Act, except that 5
the amendments made by subsection (a) shall take effect 6
6 months after the date of the enactment of this Act inso-7
far as such amendments relate to continuation of employ-8
ment. 9
SEC. 705. GOOD FAITH DEFENSE. 10
Section 274A(a)(3) of the Immigration and Nation-11
ality Act (8 U.S.C. 1324a(a)(3)) is amended to read as 12
follows: 13
‘‘(3) G
OOD FAITH DEFENSE.— 14
‘‘(A) D
EFENSE.—An employer (or person 15
or entity that hires, employs, recruits, or refers 16
(as defined in subsection (h)(5)), or is otherwise 17
obligated to comply with this section) who es-18
tablishes that it has complied in good faith with 19
the requirements of subsection (b)— 20
‘‘(i) shall not be liable to a job appli-21
cant, an employee, the Federal Govern-22
ment, or a State or local government, 23
under Federal, State, or local criminal or 24
civil law for any employment-related action 25
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•HR 2640 IH
taken with respect to a job applicant or 1
employee in good-faith reliance on informa-2
tion provided through the system estab-3
lished under subsection (d); and 4
‘‘(ii) has established compliance with 5
its obligations under subparagraphs (A) 6
and (B) of paragraph (1) and subsection 7
(b) absent a showing by the Secretary of 8
Homeland Security, by clear and con-9
vincing evidence, that the employer had 10
knowledge that an employee is an unau-11
thorized alien. 12
‘‘(B) M
ITIGATION ELEMENT .—For pur-13
poses of subparagraph (A)(i), if an employer 14
proves by a preponderance of the evidence that 15
the employer uses a reasonable, secure, and es-16
tablished technology to authenticate the identity 17
of the new employee, that fact shall be taken 18
into account for purposes of determining good 19
faith use of the system established under sub-20
section (d). 21
‘‘(C) F
AILURE TO SEEK AND OBTAIN 22
VERIFICATION.—Subject to the effective dates 23
and other deadlines applicable under subsection 24
(b), in the case of a person or entity in the 25
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United States that hires, or continues to em-1
ploy, an individual, or recruits or refers an indi-2
vidual for employment, the following require-3
ments apply: 4
‘‘(i) F
AILURE TO SEEK 5
VERIFICATION.— 6
‘‘(I) I
N GENERAL.—If the person 7
or entity has not made an inquiry, 8
under the mechanism established 9
under subsection (d) and in accord-10
ance with the timeframes established 11
under subsection (b), seeking 12
verification of the identity and work 13
eligibility of the individual, the de-14
fense under subparagraph (A) shall 15
not be considered to apply with re-16
spect to any employment, except as 17
provided in subclause (II). 18
‘‘(II) S
PECIAL RULE FOR FAIL -19
URE OF VERIFICATION MECHANISM .— 20
If such a person or entity in good 21
faith attempts to make an inquiry in 22
order to qualify for the defense under 23
subparagraph (A) and the verification 24
mechanism has registered that not all 25
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inquiries were responded to during the 1
relevant time, the person or entity can 2
make an inquiry until the end of the 3
first subsequent working day in which 4
the verification mechanism registers 5
no nonresponses and qualify for such 6
defense. 7
‘‘(ii) F
AILURE TO OBTAIN 8
VERIFICATION.—If the person or entity 9
has made the inquiry described in clause 10
(i)(I) but has not received an appropriate 11
verification of such identity and work eligi-12
bility under such mechanism within the 13
time period specified under subsection 14
(d)(2) after the time the verification in-15
quiry was received, the defense under sub-16
paragraph (A) shall not be considered to 17
apply with respect to any employment after 18
the end of such time period.’’. 19
SEC. 706. PREEMPTION AND STATES’ RIGHTS. 20
Section 274A(h)(2) of the Immigration and Nation-21
ality Act (8 U.S.C. 1324a(h)(2)) is amended to read as 22
follows: 23
‘‘(2) P
REEMPTION.— 24
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‘‘(A) SINGLE, NATIONAL POLICY .—The 1
provisions of this section preempt any State or 2
local law, ordinance, policy, or rule, including 3
any criminal or civil fine or penalty structure, 4
insofar as they may now or hereafter relate to 5
the hiring, continued employment, or status 6
verification for employment eligibility purposes, 7
of unauthorized aliens. 8
‘‘(B) S
TATE ENFORCEMENT OF FEDERAL 9
LAW.— 10
‘‘(i) B
USINESS LICENSING.—A State, 11
locality, municipality, or political subdivi-12
sion may exercise its authority over busi-13
ness licensing and similar laws as a pen-14
alty for failure to use the verification sys-15
tem described in subsection (d) to verify 16
employment eligibility when and as re-17
quired under subsection (b). 18
‘‘(ii) G
ENERAL RULES.—A State, at 19
its own cost, may enforce the provisions of 20
this section, but only insofar as such State 21
follows the Federal regulations imple-22
menting this section, applies the Federal 23
penalty structure set out in this section, 24
and complies with all Federal rules and 25
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guidance concerning implementation of this 1
section. Such State may collect any fines 2
assessed under this section. An employer 3
may not be subject to enforcement, includ-4
ing audit and investigation, by both a Fed-5
eral agency and a State for the same viola-6
tion under this section. Whichever entity, 7
the Federal agency or the State, is first to 8
initiate the enforcement action, has the 9
right of first refusal to proceed with the 10
enforcement action. The Secretary must 11
provide copies of all guidance, training, 12
and field instructions provided to Federal 13
officials implementing the provisions of 14
this section to each State.’’. 15
SEC. 707. REPEAL. 16
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subtitle A of title IV of the Illegal 17
Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 18
1996 (8 U.S.C. 1324a note) is repealed. 19
(b) R
EFERENCES.—Any reference in any Federal 20
law, Executive order, rule, regulation, or delegation of au-21
thority, or any document of, or pertaining to, the Depart-22
ment of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, or the 23
Social Security Administration, to the employment eligi-24
bility confirmation system established under section 404 25
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of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Respon-1
sibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1324a note) is deemed to 2
refer to the employment eligibility confirmation system es-3
tablished under section 274A(d) of the Immigration and 4
Nationality Act, as amended by section 3 of this Act. 5
(c) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—This section shall take effect 6
on the date that is 30 months after the date of the enact-7
ment of this Act. 8
(d) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of sections, 9
in section 1(d) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Im-10
migrant Responsibility Act of 1996, is amended by strik-11
ing the items relating to subtitle A of title IV. 12
SEC. 708. PENALTIES. 13
Section 274A of the Immigration and Nationality Act 14
(8 U.S.C. 1324a) is amended— 15
(1) in subsection (e)(1)— 16
(A) by striking ‘‘Attorney General’’ each 17
place such term appears and inserting ‘‘Sec-18
retary of Homeland Security’’; and 19
(B) in subparagraph (D), by striking 20
‘‘Service’’ and inserting ‘‘Department of Home-21
land Security’’; 22
(2) in subsection (e)(4)— 23
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(A) in subparagraph (A), in the matter be-1
fore clause (i), by inserting ‘‘, subject to para-2
graph (10),’’ after ‘‘in an amount’’; 3
(B) in subparagraph (A)(i), by striking 4
‘‘not less than $250 and not more than 5
$2,000’’ and inserting ‘‘not less than $2,500 6
and not more than $5,000’’; 7
(C) in subparagraph (A)(ii), by striking 8
‘‘not less than $2,000 and not more than 9
$5,000’’ and inserting ‘‘not less than $5,000 10
and not more than $10,000’’; 11
(D) in subparagraph (A)(iii), by striking 12
‘‘not less than $3,000 and not more than 13
$10,000’’ and inserting ‘‘not less than $10,000 14
and not more than $25,000’’; and 15
(E) by moving the margin of the continu-16
ation text following subparagraph (B) two ems 17
to the left and by amending subparagraph (B) 18
to read as follows: 19
‘‘(B) may require the person or entity to 20
take such other remedial action as is appro-21
priate.’’; 22
(3) in subsection (e)(5)— 23
(A) in the paragraph heading, strike ‘‘
PA-24
PERWORK’’; 25
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(B) by inserting ‘‘, subject to paragraphs 1
(10) through (12),’’ after ‘‘in an amount’’; 2
(C) by striking ‘‘$100’’ and inserting 3
‘‘$1,000’’; 4
(D) by striking ‘‘$1,000’’ and inserting 5
‘‘$25,000’’; and 6
(E) by adding at the end the following: 7
‘‘Failure by a person or entity to utilize the em-8
ployment eligibility verification system as re-9
quired by law, or providing information to the 10
system that the person or entity knows or rea-11
sonably believes to be false, shall be treated as 12
a violation of subsection (a)(1)(A).’’; 13
(4) by adding at the end of subsection (e) the 14
following: 15
‘‘(10) E
XEMPTION FROM PENALTY FOR GOOD 16
FAITH VIOLATION.—In the case of imposition of a 17
civil penalty under paragraph (4)(A) with respect to 18
a violation of subsection (a)(1)(A) or (a)(2) for hir-19
ing or continuation of employment or recruitment or 20
referral by person or entity and in the case of impo-21
sition of a civil penalty under paragraph (5) for a 22
violation of subsection (a)(1)(B) for hiring or re-23
cruitment or referral by a person or entity, the pen-24
alty otherwise imposed may be waived or reduced if 25
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the violator establishes that the violator acted in 1
good faith. 2
‘‘(11) M
ITIGATION ELEMENT.—For purposes of 3
paragraph (4), the size of the business shall be 4
taken into account when assessing the level of civil 5
money penalty. 6
‘‘(12) A
UTHORITY TO DEBAR EMPLOYERS FOR 7
CERTAIN VIOLATIONS.— 8
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—If a person or entity 9
is determined by the Secretary of Homeland Se-10
curity to be a repeat violator of paragraph 11
(1)(A) or (2) of subsection (a), or is convicted 12
of a crime under this section, such person or 13
entity may be considered for debarment from 14
the receipt of Federal contracts, grants, or co-15
operative agreements in accordance with the de-16
barment standards and pursuant to the debar-17
ment procedures set forth in the Federal Acqui-18
sition Regulation. 19
‘‘(B) D
OES NOT HAVE CONTRACT , GRANT, 20
AGREEMENT.—If the Secretary of Homeland 21
Security or the Attorney General wishes to have 22
a person or entity considered for debarment in 23
accordance with this paragraph, and such a 24
person or entity does not hold a Federal con-25
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tract, grant, or cooperative agreement, the Sec-1
retary or Attorney General shall refer the mat-2
ter to the Administrator of General Services to 3
determine whether to list the person or entity 4
on the List of Parties Excluded from Federal 5
Procurement, and if so, for what duration and 6
under what scope. 7
‘‘(C) H
AS CONTRACT, GRANT, AGREE-8
MENT.—If the Secretary of Homeland Security 9
or the Attorney General wishes to have a per-10
son or entity considered for debarment in ac-11
cordance with this paragraph, and such person 12
or entity holds a Federal contract, grant, or co-13
operative agreement, the Secretary or Attorney 14
General shall advise all agencies or departments 15
holding a contract, grant, or cooperative agree-16
ment with the person or entity of the Govern-17
ment’s interest in having the person or entity 18
considered for debarment, and after soliciting 19
and considering the views of all such agencies 20
and departments, the Secretary or Attorney 21
General may refer the matter to any appro-22
priate lead agency to determine whether to list 23
the person or entity on the List of Parties Ex-24
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cluded from Federal Procurement, and if so, for 1
what duration and under what scope. 2
‘‘(D) R
EVIEW.—Any decision to debar a 3
person or entity in accordance with this para-4
graph shall be reviewable pursuant to part 9.4 5
of the Federal Acquisition Regulation. 6
‘‘(13) O
FFICE FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERN -7
MENT COMPLAINTS .—The Secretary of Homeland 8
Security shall establish an office— 9
‘‘(A) to which State and local government 10
agencies may submit information indicating po-11
tential violations of subsection (a), (b), or 12
(g)(1) that were generated in the normal course 13
of law enforcement or the normal course of 14
other official activities in the State or locality; 15
‘‘(B) that is required to indicate to the 16
complaining State or local agency within five 17
business days of the filing of such a complaint 18
by identifying whether the Secretary will fur-19
ther investigate the information provided; 20
‘‘(C) that is required to investigate those 21
complaints filed by State or local government 22
agencies that, on their face, have a substantial 23
probability of validity; 24
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‘‘(D) that is required to notify the com-1
plaining State or local agency of the results of 2
any such investigation conducted; and 3
‘‘(E) that is required to report to the Con-4
gress annually the number of complaints re-5
ceived under this paragraph, the States and lo-6
calities that filed such complaints, and the reso-7
lution of the complaints investigated by the Sec-8
retary.’’; and 9
(5) by amending paragraph (1) of subsection (f) 10
to read as follows: 11
‘‘(1) C
RIMINAL PENALTY.—Any person or enti-12
ty which engages in a pattern or practice of viola-13
tions of subsection (a) (1) or (2) shall be fined not 14
more than $5,000 for each unauthorized alien with 15
respect to which such a violation occurs, imprisoned 16
for not more than 18 months, or both, notwith-17
standing the provisions of any other Federal law re-18
lating to fine levels.’’. 19
SEC. 709. FRAUD AND MISUSE OF DOCUMENTS. 20
Section 1546(b) of title 18, United States Code, is 21
amended— 22
(1) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘identification 23
document,’’ and inserting ‘‘identification document 24
or document meant to establish work authorization 25
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(including the documents described in section 1
274A(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act),’’; 2
and 3
(2) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘identification 4
document’’ and inserting ‘‘identification document or 5
document meant to establish work authorization (in-6
cluding the documents described in section 274A(b) 7
of the Immigration and Nationality Act),’’. 8
SEC. 710. PROTECTION OF SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRA-9
TION PROGRAMS. 10
(a) F
UNDINGUNDERAGREEMENT.—Effective for 11
fiscal years beginning on or after October 1, 2023, the 12
Commissioner of Social Security and the Secretary of 13
Homeland Security shall enter into and maintain an 14
agreement which shall— 15
(1) provide funds to the Commissioner for the 16
full costs of the responsibilities of the Commissioner 17
under section 274A(d) of the Immigration and Na-18
tionality Act (8 U.S.C. 1324a(d)), as amended by 19
section 3 of this Act, including (but not limited 20
to)— 21
(A) acquiring, installing, and maintaining 22
technological equipment and systems necessary 23
for the fulfillment of the responsibilities of the 24
Commissioner under such section 274A(d), but 25
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only that portion of such costs that are attrib-1
utable exclusively to such responsibilities; and 2
(B) responding to individuals who contest 3
a tentative nonconfirmation provided by the em-4
ployment eligibility verification system estab-5
lished under such section; 6
(2) provide such funds annually in advance of 7
the applicable quarter based on estimating method-8
ology agreed to by the Commissioner and the Sec-9
retary (except in such instances where the delayed 10
enactment of an annual appropriation may preclude 11
such quarterly payments); and 12
(3) require an annual accounting and reconcili-13
ation of the actual costs incurred and the funds pro-14
vided under the agreement, which shall be reviewed 15
by the Inspectors General of the Social Security Ad-16
ministration and the Department of Homeland Secu-17
rity. 18
(b) C
ONTINUATION OFEMPLOYMENTVERIFICATION 19
INABSENCE OFTIMELYAGREEMENT.—In any case in 20
which the agreement required under subsection (a) for any 21
fiscal year beginning on or after October 1, 2023, has not 22
been reached as of October 1 of such fiscal year, the latest 23
agreement between the Commissioner and the Secretary 24
of Homeland Security providing for funding to cover the 25
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costs of the responsibilities of the Commissioner under 1
section 274A(d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act 2
(8 U.S.C. 1324a(d)) shall be deemed in effect on an in-3
terim basis for such fiscal year until such time as an 4
agreement required under subsection (a) is subsequently 5
reached, except that the terms of such interim agreement 6
shall be modified by the Director of the Office of Manage-7
ment and Budget to adjust for inflation and any increase 8
or decrease in the volume of requests under the employ-9
ment eligibility verification system. In any case in which 10
an interim agreement applies for any fiscal year under this 11
subsection, the Commissioner and the Secretary shall, not 12
later than October 1 of such fiscal year, notify the Com-13
mittee on Ways and Means, the Committee on the Judici-14
ary, and the Committee on Appropriations of the House 15
of Representatives and the Committee on Finance, the 16
Committee on the Judiciary, and the Committee on Ap-17
propriations of the Senate of the failure to reach the 18
agreement required under subsection (a) for such fiscal 19
year. Until such time as the agreement required under 20
subsection (a) has been reached for such fiscal year, the 21
Commissioner and the Secretary shall, not later than the 22
end of each 90-day period after October 1 of such fiscal 23
year, notify such Committees of the status of negotiations 24
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between the Commissioner and the Secretary in order to 1
reach such an agreement. 2
SEC. 711. FRAUD PREVENTION. 3
(a) B
LOCKINGMISUSEDSOCIALSECURITYACCOUNT 4
N
UMBERS.—The Secretary of Homeland Security, in con-5
sultation with the Commissioner of Social Security, shall 6
establish a program in which social security account num-7
bers that have been identified to be subject to unusual 8
multiple use in the employment eligibility verification sys-9
tem established under section 274A(d) of the Immigration 10
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1324a(d)), as amended by 11
section 3 of this Act, or that are otherwise suspected or 12
determined to have been compromised by identity fraud 13
or other misuse, shall be blocked from use for such system 14
purposes unless the individual using such number is able 15
to establish, through secure and fair additional security 16
procedures, that the individual is the legitimate holder of 17
the number. 18
(b) A
LLOWINGSUSPENSION OFUSE OFCERTAINSO-19
CIALSECURITYACCOUNTNUMBERS.—The Secretary of 20
Homeland Security, in consultation with the Commis-21
sioner of Social Security, shall establish a program which 22
shall provide a reliable, secure method by which victims 23
of identity fraud and other individuals may suspend or 24
limit the use of their social security account number or 25
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other identifying information for purposes of the employ-1
ment eligibility verification system established under sec-2
tion 274A(d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 3
U.S.C. 1324a(d)), as amended by section 3 of this Act. 4
The Secretary may implement the program on a limited 5
pilot program basis before making it fully available to all 6
individuals. 7
(c) A
LLOWINGPARENTSTOPREVENTTHEFT OF 8
T
HEIRCHILD’SIDENTITY.—The Secretary of Homeland 9
Security, in consultation with the Commissioner of Social 10
Security, shall establish a program which shall provide a 11
reliable, secure method by which parents or legal guard-12
ians may suspend or limit the use of the social security 13
account number or other identifying information of a 14
minor under their care for the purposes of the employment 15
eligibility verification system established under 274A(d) of 16
the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1324a(d)), 17
as amended by section 3 of this Act. The Secretary may 18
implement the program on a limited pilot program basis 19
before making it fully available to all individuals. 20
SEC. 712. USE OF EMPLOYMENT ELIGIBILITY 21
VERIFICATION PHOTO TOOL. 22
An employer who uses the photo matching tool used 23
as part of the E–Verify System shall match the photo tool 24
photograph to both the photograph on the identity or em-25
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ployment eligibility document provided by the employee 1
and to the face of the employee submitting the document 2
for employment verification purposes. 3
SEC. 713. IDENTITY AUTHENTICATION EMPLOYMENT ELIGI-4
BILITY VERIFICATION PILOT PROGRAMS. 5
Not later than 24 months after the date of the enact-6
ment of this Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security, 7
after consultation with the Commissioner of Social Secu-8
rity and the Director of the National Institute of Stand-9
ards and Technology, shall establish by regulation not less 10
than 2 Identity Authentication Employment Eligibility 11
Verification pilot programs, each using a separate and dis-12
tinct technology (the ‘‘Authentication Pilots’’). The pur-13
pose of the Authentication Pilots shall be to provide for 14
identity authentication and employment eligibility 15
verification with respect to enrolled new employees which 16
shall be available to any employer that elects to participate 17
in either of the Authentication Pilots. Any participating 18
employer may cancel the employer’s participation in the 19
Authentication Pilot after one year after electing to par-20
ticipate without prejudice to future participation. The Sec-21
retary shall report to the Committee on the Judiciary of 22
the House of Representatives and the Committee on the 23
Judiciary of the Senate the Secretary’s findings on the 24
Authentication Pilots, including the authentication tech-25
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nologies chosen, not later than 12 months after com-1
mencement of the Authentication Pilots. 2
SEC. 714. INSPECTOR GENERAL AUDITS. 3
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 4
date of the enactment of this Act, the Inspector General 5
of the Social Security Administration shall complete audits 6
of the following categories in order to uncover evidence 7
of individuals who are not authorized to work in the 8
United States: 9
(1) Workers who dispute wages reported on 10
their social security account number when they be-11
lieve someone else has used such number and name 12
to report wages. 13
(2) Children’s social security account numbers 14
used for work purposes. 15
(3) Employers whose workers present signifi-16
cant numbers of mismatched social security account 17
numbers or names for wage reporting. 18
(b) S
UBMISSION.—The Inspector General of the So-19
cial Security Administration shall submit the audits com-20
pleted under subsection (a) to the Committee on Ways and 21
Means of the House of Representatives and the Committee 22
on Finance of the Senate for review of the evidence of 23
individuals who are not authorized to work in the United 24
States. The Chairmen of those Committees shall then de-25
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termine information to be shared with the Secretary of 1
Homeland Security so that such Secretary can investigate 2
the unauthorized employment demonstrated by such evi-3
dence. 4
SEC. 715. AGRICULTURE WORKFORCE STUDY. 5
Not later than 36 months after the date of enact-6
ment, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Secu-7
rity, in consultation with the Secretary of the Department 8
of Agriculture, shall submit to the Committee on the Judi-9
ciary of the House of Representatives and the Committee 10
on the Judiciary of the Senate, a report that includes the 11
following: 12
(1) The number of individuals in the agricul-13
tural workforce. 14
(2) The number of U.S. citizens in the agricul-15
tural workforce. 16
(3) The number of aliens in the agricultural 17
workforce who are authorized to work in the United 18
States. 19
(4) The number of aliens in the agricultural 20
workforce who are not authorized to work in the 21
United States. 22
(5) Wage growth in each of the previous ten 23
years, disaggregated by agricultural sector. 24
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(6) The percentage of total agricultural indus-1
try costs represented by agricultural labor during 2
each of the last ten years. 3
(7) The percentage of agricultural costs in-4
vested in mechanization during each of the last ten 5
years. 6
(8) Recommendations, other than a path to 7
legal status for aliens not authorized to work in the 8
United States, for ensuring U.S. agricultural em-9
ployers have a workforce sufficient to cover industry 10
needs, including recommendations to— 11
(A) increase investments in mechanization; 12
(B) increase the domestic workforce; and 13
(C) reform the H–2A program. 14
Æ 
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