Us Congress House Bill HB2640 Latest Draft

                            IB 
Union Calendar No. 31 
118THCONGRESS 
1
STSESSION H. R. 2640 
[Report No. 118–47, Part I] 
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 
M
AY5, 2023 
Additional sponsor: Mrs. L
ESKO 
M
AY5, 2023 
Reported from the Committee on the Judiciary with an amendment 
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] 
MAY5, 2023 
Committees on Ways and Means, Education and the Workforce, and Home-
land Security discharged; committed to the Committee of the Whole 
House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed 
[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on April 17, 2023] 
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A BILL 
To provide for reform of the asylum system and protection 
of the border. 
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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 
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. 
Sec. 203. Operational detention facilities. 
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. 
Sec. 405. Rule of construction. 
TITLE V—VISA OVERSTAYS PENALTIES 
Sec. 501. Short title. 
Sec. 502. Expanded penalties for illegal entry or presence. 
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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. 
Sec. 713. Identity authentication employment eligibility verification pilot pro-
grams. 
Sec. 714. Inspector General audits. 
Sec. 715. Agriculture Workforce Study. 
Sec. 716. Repealing regulations. 
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
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‘‘(i) that the alien may be removed’’; 1
(3) by striking ‘‘, pursuant to a bilateral or mul-2
tilateral agreement, to’’ and inserting ‘‘to’’; 3
(4) by inserting ‘‘or the Secretary, on a case by 4
case basis,’’ before ‘‘finds that’’; 5
(5) by striking the period at the end and insert-6
ing ‘‘; or’’; and 7
(6) by adding at the end the following: 8
‘‘(ii) that the alien entered, attempted to enter, 9
or arrived in the United States after transiting 10
through at least one country outside the alien’s coun-11
try of citizenship, nationality, or last lawful habitual 12
residence en route to the United States, unless— 13
‘‘(I) the alien demonstrates that he or she 14
applied for protection from persecution or tor-15
ture in at least one country outside the alien’s 16
country of citizenship, nationality, or last lawful 17
habitual residence through which the alien 18
transited en route to the United States, and the 19
alien received a final judgment denying the alien 20
protection in each country; 21
‘‘(II) the alien demonstrates that he or she 22
was a victim of a severe form of trafficking in 23
which a commercial sex act was induced by 24
force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person 25
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induced to perform such act was under the age 1
of 18 years; or in which the trafficking included 2
the recruitment, harboring, transportation, pro-3
vision, or obtaining of a person for labor or serv-4
ices through the use of force, fraud, or coercion 5
for the purpose of subjection to involuntary ser-6
vitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery, and 7
was unable to apply for protection from persecu-8
tion in each country through which the alien 9
transited en route to the United States as a re-10
sult of such severe form of trafficking; or 11
‘‘(III) the only countries through which the 12
alien transited en route to the United States 13
were, at the time of the transit, not parties to the 14
1951 United Nations Convention relating to the 15
Status of Refugees, the 1967 Protocol Relating to 16
the Status of Refugees, or the United Nations 17
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, In-18
human or Degrading Treatment or Punish-19
ment.’’. 20
SEC. 103. CREDIBLE FEAR INTERVIEWS. 21
Section 235(b)(1)(B)(v) of the Immigration and Na-22
tionality Act (8 U.S.C. 1225(b)(1)(B)(v)) is amended by 23
striking ‘‘there is a significant possibility’’ and all that fol-24
lows, and inserting ‘‘, taking into account the credibility 25
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of the statements made by the alien in support of the alien’s 1
claim, as determined pursuant to section 208(b)(1)(B)(iii), 2
and such other facts as are known to the officer, the alien 3
more likely than not could establish eligibility for asylum 4
under section 208, and it is more likely than not that the 5
statements made by, and on behalf of, the alien in support 6
of the alien’s claim are true.’’. 7
SEC. 104. CLARIFICATION OF ASYLUM ELIGIBILITY. 8
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 208(b)(1)(A) of the Immi-9
gration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1158(b)(1)(A)) is 10
amended by inserting after ‘‘section 101(a)(42)(A)’’ the fol-11
lowing: ‘‘(in accordance with the rules set forth in this sec-12
tion), and is eligible to apply for asylum under subsection 13
(a)’’. 14
(b) P
LACE OFARRIVAL.—Section 208(a)(1) of the Im-15
migration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1158(a)(1)) is 16
amended— 17
(1) by striking ‘‘or who arrives in the United 18
States (whether or not at a designated port of arrival 19
and including an alien who is brought to the United 20
States after having been interdicted in international 21
or United States waters),’’; and 22
(2) by inserting after ‘‘United States’’ the fol-23
lowing: ‘‘and has arrived in the United States at a 24
port of entry (including an alien who is brought to 25
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the United States after having been interdicted in 1
international or United States waters),’’. 2
SEC. 105. EXCEPTIONS. 3
Paragraph (2) of section 208(b) of the Immigration 4
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1158(b)(2)) is amended to 5
read as follows: 6
‘‘(2) E
XCEPTIONS.— 7
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Paragraph (1) shall 8
not apply to an alien if the Secretary of Home-9
land Security or the Attorney General deter-10
mines that— 11
‘‘(i) the alien ordered, incited, assisted, 12
or otherwise participated in the persecution 13
of any person on account of race, religion, 14
nationality, membership in a particular so-15
cial group, or political opinion; 16
‘‘(ii) the alien has been convicted of 17
any felony under Federal, State, tribal, or 18
local law; 19
‘‘(iii) the alien has been convicted of 20
any misdemeanor offense under Federal, 21
State, tribal, or local law involving— 22
‘‘(I) the unlawful possession or 23
use of an identification document, au-24
thentication feature, or false identifica-25
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tion document (as those terms and 1
phrases are defined in the jurisdiction 2
where the conviction occurred), unless 3
the alien can establish that the convic-4
tion resulted from circumstances show-5
ing that— 6
‘‘(aa) the document or fea-7
ture was presented before boarding 8
a common carrier; 9
‘‘(bb) the document or feature 10
related to the alien’s eligibility to 11
enter the United States; 12
‘‘(cc) the alien used the docu-13
ment or feature to depart a coun-14
try wherein the alien has claimed 15
a fear of persecution; and 16
‘‘(dd) the alien claimed a 17
fear of persecution without delay 18
upon presenting himself or herself 19
to an immigration officer upon 20
arrival at a United States port of 21
entry; 22
‘‘(II) the unlawful receipt of a 23
Federal public benefit (as defined in 24
section 401(c) of the Personal Respon-25
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sibility and Work Opportunity Rec-1
onciliation Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 2
1611(c))), from a Federal entity, or the 3
unlawful receipt of similar public ben-4
efits from a State, tribal, or local enti-5
ty; or 6
‘‘(III) possession or trafficking of 7
a controlled substance or controlled 8
substance paraphernalia, as those 9
phrases are defined under the law of 10
the jurisdiction where the conviction 11
occurred, other than a single offense in-12
volving possession for one’s own use of 13
30 grams or less of marijuana (as 14
marijuana is defined under the law of 15
the jurisdiction where the conviction 16
occurred); 17
‘‘(iv) the alien has been convicted of an 18
offense arising under paragraph (1)(A) or 19
(2) of section 274(a), or under section 276; 20
‘‘(v) the alien has been convicted of a 21
Federal, State, tribal, or local crime that 22
the Attorney General or Secretary of Home-23
land Security knows, or has reason to be-24
lieve, was committed in support, promotion, 25
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or furtherance of the activity of a criminal 1
street gang (as defined under the law of the 2
jurisdiction where the conviction occurred 3
or in section 521(a) of title 18, United 4
States Code); 5
‘‘(vi) the alien has been convicted of an 6
offense for driving while intoxicated or im-7
paired, as those terms are defined under the 8
law of the jurisdiction where the conviction 9
occurred (including a conviction for driving 10
while under the influence of or impaired by 11
alcohol or drugs), without regard to whether 12
the conviction is classified as a mis-13
demeanor or felony under Federal, State, 14
tribal, or local law, in which such intoxi-15
cated or impaired driving was a cause of 16
serious bodily injury or death of another 17
person; 18
‘‘(vii) the alien has been convicted of 19
more than one offense for driving while in-20
toxicated or impaired, as those terms are 21
defined under the law of the jurisdiction 22
where the conviction occurred (including a 23
conviction for driving while under the influ-24
ence of or impaired by alcohol or drugs), 25
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without regard to whether the conviction is 1
classified as a misdemeanor or felony under 2
Federal, State, tribal, or local law; 3
‘‘(viii) the alien has been convicted of 4
a crime— 5
‘‘(I) that involves conduct 6
amounting to a crime of stalking; 7
‘‘(II) of child abuse, child neglect, 8
or child abandonment; or 9
‘‘(III) that involves conduct 10
amounting to a domestic assault or 11
battery offense, including— 12
‘‘(aa) a misdemeanor crime 13
of domestic violence, as described 14
in section 921(a)(33) of title 18, 15
United States Code; 16
‘‘(bb) a crime of domestic vi-17
olence, as described in section 18
40002(a)(12) of the Violence 19
Against Women Act of 1994 (34 20
U.S.C. 12291(a)(12)); or 21
‘‘(cc) any crime based on 22
conduct in which the alien har-23
assed, coerced, intimidated, volun-24
tarily or recklessly used (or 25
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threatened to use) force or violence 1
against, or inflicted physical in-2
jury or physical pain, however 3
slight, upon a person— 4
‘‘(AA) who is a current 5
or former spouse of the alien; 6
‘‘(BB) with whom the 7
alien shares a child; 8
‘‘(CC) who is cohabi-9
tating with, or who has 10
cohabitated with, the alien as 11
a spouse; 12
‘‘(DD) who is similarly 13
situated to a spouse of the 14
alien under the domestic or 15
family violence laws of the 16
jurisdiction where the offense 17
occurred; or 18
‘‘(EE) who is protected 19
from that alien’s acts under 20
the domestic or family vio-21
lence laws of the United 22
States or of any State, tribal 23
government, or unit of local 24
government; 25
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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 spouse 4
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 alien’s 14
acts under the domestic or family vio-15
lence laws of the United States or of 16
any State, tribal government, or unit 17
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 for 3
regarding the alien as a danger to the secu-4
rity of the United States; 5
‘‘(xiii) the alien is described in sub-6
clause (I), (II), (III), (IV), or (VI) of section 7
212(a)(3)(B)(i) or section 237(a)(4)(B) (re-8
lating to terrorist activity), unless, in the 9
case only of an alien inadmissible under 10
subclause (IV) of section 212(a)(3)(B)(i), 11
the Secretary of Homeland Security or the 12
Attorney General determines, in the Sec-13
retary’s or the Attorney General’s discre-14
tion, that there are not reasonable grounds 15
for regarding the alien as a danger to the 16
security of the United States; 17
‘‘(xiv) the alien was firmly resettled in 18
another country prior to arriving in the 19
United States; or 20
‘‘(xv) there are reasonable grounds for 21
concluding the alien could avoid persecution 22
by relocating to another part of the alien’s 23
country of nationality or, in the case of an 24
alien having no nationality, another part of 25
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the alien’s country of last habitual resi-1
dence. 2
‘‘(B) S
PECIAL RULES.— 3
‘‘(i) P
ARTICULARLY SERIOUS CRIME ; 4
SERIOUS NONPOLITICAL CRIME OUTSIDE 5
THE UNITED STATES.— 6
‘‘(I) I
N GENERAL.—For purposes 7
of subparagraph (A)(x), the Attorney 8
General or Secretary of Homeland Se-9
curity, in their discretion, may deter-10
mine that a conviction constitutes a 11
particularly serious crime based on— 12
‘‘(aa) the nature of the con-13
viction; 14
‘‘(bb) the type of sentence im-15
posed; or 16
‘‘(cc) the circumstances and 17
underlying facts of the conviction. 18
‘‘(II) D
ETERMINATION.—In mak-19
ing a determination under subclause 20
(I), the Attorney General or Secretary 21
of Homeland Security may consider all 22
reliable information and is not limited 23
to facts found by the criminal court or 24
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provided in the underlying record of 1
conviction. 2
‘‘(III) T
REATMENT OF FELO -3
NIES.—In making a determination 4
under subclause (I), an alien who has 5
been convicted of a felony (as defined 6
under this section) or an aggravated 7
felony (as defined under section 8
101(a)(43)), shall be considered to have 9
been convicted of a particularly serious 10
crime. 11
‘‘(IV) I
NTERPOL RED NOTICE.—In 12
making a determination under sub-13
paragraph (A)(xi), an Interpol Red 14
Notice may constitute reliable evidence 15
that the alien has committed a serious 16
nonpolitical crime outside the United 17
States. 18
‘‘(ii) C
RIMES AND EXCEPTIONS.— 19
‘‘(I) D
RIVING WHILE INTOXICATED 20
OR IMPAIRED.—A finding under sub-21
paragraph (A)(vi) does not require the 22
Attorney General or Secretary of 23
Homeland Security to find the first 24
conviction for driving while intoxi-25
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cated or impaired (including a convic-1
tion for driving while under the influ-2
ence of or impaired by alcohol or 3
drugs) as a predicate offense. The At-4
torney General or Secretary of Home-5
land Security need only make a fac-6
tual determination that the alien pre-7
viously was convicted for driving while 8
intoxicated or impaired as those terms 9
are defined under the jurisdiction 10
where the conviction occurred (includ-11
ing a conviction for driving while 12
under the influence of or impaired by 13
alcohol or drugs). 14
‘‘(II) S
TALKING AND OTHER 15
CRIMES.—In making a determination 16
under subparagraph (A)(viii), includ-17
ing determining the existence of a do-18
mestic relationship between the alien 19
and the victim, the underlying conduct 20
of the crime may be considered, and 21
the Attorney General or Secretary of 22
Homeland Security is not limited to 23
facts found by the criminal court or 24
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provided in the underlying record of 1
conviction. 2
‘‘(III) B
ATTERY OR EXTREME 3
CRUELTY.—In making a determination 4
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 or 10
threatens to result in physical or 11
mental injury; 12
‘‘(bb) psychological or sexual 13
abuse or exploitation, including 14
rape, molestation, incest, or forced 15
prostitution, shall be considered 16
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 OF 23
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE.—An alien who 24
was convicted of an offense described in 25
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clause (viii) or (ix) of subparagraph 1
(A) is not ineligible for asylum on that 2
basis if the alien satisfies the criteria 3
under section 237(a)(7)(A). 4
‘‘(C) S
PECIFIC CIRCUMSTANCES .—Para-5
graph (1) shall not apply to an alien whose 6
claim is based on— 7
‘‘(i) personal animus or retribution, 8
including personal animus in which the al-9
leged persecutor has not targeted, or mani-10
fested an animus against, other members of 11
an alleged particular social group in addi-12
tion to the member who has raised the claim 13
at issue; 14
‘‘(ii) the applicant’s generalized dis-15
approval of, disagreement with, or opposi-16
tion to criminal, terrorist, gang, guerilla, or 17
other non-state organizations absent expres-18
sive behavior in furtherance of a discrete 19
cause against such organizations related to 20
control of a State or expressive behavior 21
that is antithetical to the State or a legal 22
unit of the State; 23
‘‘(iii) the applicant’s resistance to re-24
cruitment or coercion by guerrilla, crimi-25
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nal, gang, terrorist, or other non-state orga-1
nizations; 2
‘‘(iv) the targeting of the applicant for 3
criminal activity for financial gain based 4
on wealth or affluence or perceptions of 5
wealth or affluence; 6
‘‘(v) the applicant’s criminal activity; 7
or 8
‘‘(vi) the applicant’s perceived, past or 9
present, gang affiliation. 10
‘‘(D) D
EFINITIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS.— 11
‘‘(i) D
EFINITIONS.—For purposes of 12
this paragraph: 13
‘‘(I) F
ELONY.—The term ‘felony’ 14
means— 15
‘‘(aa) any crime defined as a 16
felony by the relevant jurisdiction 17
(Federal, State, tribal, or local) of 18
conviction; or 19
‘‘(bb) any crime punishable 20
by more than one year of impris-21
onment. 22
‘‘(II) M
ISDEMEANOR.—The term 23
‘misdemeanor’ means— 24
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‘‘(aa) any crime defined as a 1
misdemeanor by the relevant ju-2
risdiction (Federal, State, tribal, 3
or local) of conviction; or 4
‘‘(bb) any crime not punish-5
able by more than one year of im-6
prisonment. 7
‘‘(ii) C
LARIFICATIONS.— 8
‘‘(I) C
ONSTRUCTION.—For pur-9
poses of this paragraph, whether any 10
activity or conviction also may con-11
stitute a basis for removal is immate-12
rial to a determination of asylum eli-13
gibility. 14
‘‘(II) A
TTEMPT, CONSPIRACY, OR 15
SOLICITATION.—For purposes of this 16
paragraph, all references to a criminal 17
offense or criminal conviction shall be 18
deemed to include any attempt, con-19
spiracy, or solicitation to commit the 20
offense or any other inchoate form of 21
the offense. 22
‘‘(III) E
FFECT OF CERTAIN OR -23
DERS.— 24
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‘‘(aa) IN GENERAL .—No 1
order vacating a conviction, modi-2
fying a sentence, clarifying a sen-3
tence, or otherwise altering a con-4
viction or sentence shall have any 5
effect under this paragraph unless 6
the Attorney General or Secretary 7
of Homeland Security determines 8
that— 9
‘‘(AA) the court issuing 10
the order had jurisdiction 11
and authority to do so; and 12
‘‘(BB) the order was not 13
entered for rehabilitative 14
purposes or for purposes of 15
ameliorating the immigra-16
tion consequences of the con-17
viction or sentence. 18
‘‘(bb) A
MELIORATING IMMI-19
GRATION CONSEQUENCES .—For 20
purposes of item (aa)(BB), the 21
order shall be presumed to be for 22
the purpose of ameliorating immi-23
gration consequences if— 24
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‘‘(AA) the order was en-1
tered after the initiation of 2
any proceeding to remove the 3
alien from the United States; 4
or 5
‘‘(BB) the alien moved 6
for the order more than one 7
year after the date of the 8
original order of conviction 9
or sentencing, whichever is 10
later. 11
‘‘(cc) A
UTHORITY OF IMMI -12
GRATION JUDGE.—An immigra-13
tion judge is not limited to con-14
sideration only of material in-15
cluded in any order vacating a 16
conviction, modifying a sentence, 17
or clarifying a sentence to deter-18
mine whether such order should be 19
given any effect under this para-20
graph, but may consider such ad-21
ditional information as the immi-22
gration judge determines appro-23
priate. 24
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‘‘(E) ADDITIONAL LIMITATIONS.—The Sec-1
retary of Homeland Security or the Attorney 2
General may by regulation establish additional 3
limitations and conditions, consistent with this 4
section, under which an alien shall be ineligible 5
for asylum under paragraph (1). 6
‘‘(F) N
O JUDICIAL REVIEW.—There shall be 7
no judicial review of a determination of the Sec-8
retary of Homeland Security or the Attorney 9
General under subparagraph (A)(xiii).’’. 10
SEC. 106. EMPLOYMENT AUTHORIZATION. 11
Paragraph (2) of section 208(d) of the Immigration 12
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1158(d)) is amended to read 13
as follows: 14
‘‘(2) E
MPLOYMENT AUTHORIZATION .— 15
‘‘(A) A
UTHORIZATION PERMITTED .—An ap-16
plicant for asylum is not entitled to employment 17
authorization, but such authorization may be 18
provided under regulation by the Secretary of 19
Homeland Security. An applicant who is not 20
otherwise eligible for employment authorization 21
shall not be granted such authorization prior to 22
the date that is 180 days after the date of filing 23
of the application for asylum. 24
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‘‘(B) TERMINATION.—Each grant of em-1
ployment authorization under subparagraph (A), 2
and any renewal or extension thereof, shall be 3
valid for a period of 6 months, except that such 4
authorization, renewal, or extension shall termi-5
nate prior to the end of such 6 month period as 6
follows: 7
‘‘(i) Immediately following the denial 8
of an asylum application by an asylum of-9
ficer, unless the case is referred to an immi-10
gration judge. 11
‘‘(ii) 30 days after the date on which 12
an immigration judge denies an asylum ap-13
plication, unless the alien timely appeals to 14
the Board of Immigration Appeals. 15
‘‘(iii) Immediately following the denial 16
by the Board of Immigration Appeals of an 17
appeal of a denial of an asylum applica-18
tion. 19
‘‘(C) R
ENEWAL.—The Secretary of Home-20
land Security may not grant, renew, or extend 21
employment authorization to an alien if the 22
alien was previously granted employment au-23
thorization under subparagraph (A), and the em-24
ployment authorization was terminated pursu-25
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ant to a circumstance described in subparagraph 1
(B)(i), (ii), or (iii), unless a Federal court of ap-2
peals remands the alien’s case to the Board of 3
Immigration Appeals. 4
‘‘(D) I
NELIGIBILITY.—The Secretary of 5
Homeland Security may not grant employment 6
authorization to an alien under this paragraph 7
if the alien— 8
‘‘(i) is ineligible for asylum under sub-9
section (b)(2)(A); or 10
‘‘(ii) entered or attempted to enter the 11
United States at a place and time other 12
than lawfully through a United States port 13
of entry.’’. 14
SEC. 107. ASYLUM FEES. 15
Paragraph (3) of section 208(d) of the Immigration 16
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1158(d)) is amended to read 17
as follows: 18
‘‘(3) F
EES.— 19
‘‘(A) A
PPLICATION FEE.—A fee of not less 20
than $50 for each application for asylum shall 21
be imposed. Such fee shall not exceed the cost of 22
adjudicating the application. Such fee shall not 23
apply to an unaccompanied alien child who files 24
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an asylum application in proceedings under sec-1
tion 240. 2
‘‘(B) E
MPLOYMENT AUTHORIZATION .—A fee 3
may also be imposed for the consideration of an 4
application for employment authorization under 5
this section and for adjustment of status under 6
section 209(b). Such a fee shall not exceed the 7
cost of adjudicating the application. 8
‘‘(C) P
AYMENT.—Fees under this paragraph 9
may be assessed and paid over a period of time 10
or by installments. 11
‘‘(D) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in 12
this paragraph shall be construed to limit the 13
authority of the Attorney General or Secretary of 14
Homeland Security to set adjudication and nat-15
uralization fees in accordance with section 16
286(m).’’. 17
SEC. 108. RULES FOR DETERMINING ASYLUM ELIGIBILITY. 18
Section 208 of the Immigration and Nationality Act 19
(8 U.S.C. 1158) is amended by adding at the end the fol-20
lowing: 21
‘‘(f) R
ULES FOR DETERMININGASYLUMELIGI-22
BILITY.—In making a determination under subsection 23
(b)(1)(A) with respect to whether an alien is a refugee with-24
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in the meaning of section 101(a)(42)(A), the following shall 1
apply: 2
‘‘(1) P
ARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUP .—The Sec-3
retary of Homeland Security or the Attorney General 4
shall not determine that an alien is a member of a 5
particular social group unless the alien articulates on 6
the record, or provides a basis on the record for deter-7
mining, the definition and boundaries of the alleged 8
particular social group, establishes that the particular 9
social group exists independently from the alleged 10
persecution, and establishes that the alien’s claim of 11
membership in a particular social group does not in-12
volve— 13
‘‘(A) past or present criminal activity or 14
association (including gang membership); 15
‘‘(B) presence in a country with generalized 16
violence or a high crime rate; 17
‘‘(C) being the subject of a recruitment effort 18
by criminal, terrorist, or persecutory groups; 19
‘‘(D) the targeting of the applicant for 20
criminal activity for financial gain based on 21
perceptions of wealth or affluence; 22
‘‘(E) interpersonal disputes of which gov-23
ernmental authorities in the relevant society or 24
region were unaware or uninvolved; 25
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‘‘(F) private criminal acts of which govern-1
mental authorities in the relevant society or re-2
gion were unaware or uninvolved; 3
‘‘(G) past or present terrorist activity or as-4
sociation; 5
‘‘(H) past or present persecutory activity or 6
association; or 7
‘‘(I) status as an alien returning from the 8
United States. 9
‘‘(2) P
OLITICAL OPINION.—The Secretary of 10
Homeland Security or the Attorney General may not 11
determine that an alien holds a political opinion with 12
respect to which the alien is subject to persecution if 13
the political opinion is constituted solely by general-14
ized disapproval of, disagreement with, or opposition 15
to criminal, terrorist, gang, guerilla, or other non- 16
state organizations and does not include expressive 17
behavior in furtherance of a cause against such orga-18
nizations related to efforts by the State to control such 19
organizations or behavior that is antithetical to or 20
otherwise opposes the ruling legal entity of the State 21
or a unit thereof. 22
‘‘(3) P
ERSECUTION.—The Secretary of Home-23
land Security or the Attorney General may not deter-24
mine that an alien has been subject to persecution or 25
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has a well-founded fear of persecution based only 1
on— 2
‘‘(A) the existence of laws or government 3
policies that are unenforced or infrequently en-4
forced, unless there is credible evidence that such 5
a law or policy has been or would be applied to 6
the applicant personally; or 7
‘‘(B) the conduct of rogue foreign govern-8
ment officials acting outside the scope of their of-9
ficial capacity. 10
‘‘(4) D
ISCRETIONARY DETERMINATION .— 11
‘‘(A) A
DVERSE DISCRETIONARY FACTORS .— 12
The Secretary of Homeland Security or the At-13
torney General may only grant asylum to an 14
alien if the alien establishes that he or she war-15
rants a favorable exercise of discretion. In mak-16
ing such a determination, the Attorney General 17
or Secretary of Homeland Security shall con-18
sider, if applicable, an alien’s use of fraudulent 19
documents to enter the United States, unless the 20
alien arrived in the United States by air, sea, or 21
land directly from the applicant’s home country 22
without transiting through any other country. 23
‘‘(B) F
AVORABLE EXERCISE OF DISCRETION 24
NOT PERMITTED.—Except as provided in sub-25
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paragraph (C), the Attorney General or Sec-1
retary of Homeland Security shall not favorably 2
exercise discretion under this section for any 3
alien who— 4
‘‘(i) has accrued more than one year of 5
unlawful presence in the United States, as 6
defined in sections 212(a)(9)(B)(ii) and 7
(iii), prior to filing an application for asy-8
lum; 9
‘‘(ii) at the time the asylum applica-10
tion is filed with the immigration court or 11
is referred from the Department of Home-12
land Security, has— 13
‘‘(I) failed to timely file (or time-14
ly file a request for an extension of 15
time to file) any required Federal, 16
State, or local income tax returns; 17
‘‘(II) failed to satisfy any out-18
standing Federal, State, or local tax 19
obligations; or 20
‘‘(III) income that would result in 21
tax liability under section 1 of the In-22
ternal Revenue Code of 1986 and that 23
was not reported to the Internal Rev-24
enue Service; 25
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‘‘(iii) has had two or more prior asy-1
lum applications denied for any reason; 2
‘‘(iv) has withdrawn a prior asylum 3
application with prejudice or been found to 4
have abandoned a prior asylum applica-5
tion; 6
‘‘(v) failed to attend an interview re-7
garding his or her asylum application with 8
the Department of Homeland Security, un-9
less the alien shows by a preponderance of 10
the evidence that— 11
‘‘(I) exceptional circumstances 12
prevented the alien from attending the 13
interview; or 14
‘‘(II) the interview notice was not 15
mailed to the last address provided by 16
the alien or the alien’s representative 17
and neither the alien nor the alien’s 18
representative received notice of the 19
interview; or 20
‘‘(vi) was subject to a final order of re-21
moval, deportation, or exclusion and did 22
not file a motion to reopen to seek asylum 23
based on changed country conditions within 24
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one year of the change in country condi-1
tions. 2
‘‘(C) E
XCEPTIONS.—If one or more of the 3
adverse discretionary factors set forth in sub-4
paragraph (B) are present, the Attorney General 5
or the Secretary, may, notwithstanding such sub-6
paragraph (B), favorably exercise discretion 7
under section 208— 8
‘‘(i) in extraordinary circumstances, 9
such as those involving national security or 10
foreign policy considerations; or 11
‘‘(ii) if the alien, by clear and con-12
vincing evidence, demonstrates that the de-13
nial of the application for asylum would re-14
sult in exceptional and extremely unusual 15
hardship to the alien. 16
‘‘(5) L
IMITATION.—If the Secretary or the Attor-17
ney General determines that an alien fails to satisfy 18
the requirement under paragraph (1), the alien may 19
not be granted asylum based on membership in a par-20
ticular social group, and may not appeal the deter-21
mination of the Secretary or Attorney General, as ap-22
plicable. A determination under this paragraph shall 23
not serve as the basis for any motion to reopen or re-24
consider an application for asylum or withholding of 25
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removal for any reason, including a claim of ineffec-1
tive assistance of counsel, unless the alien complies 2
with the procedural requirements for such a motion 3
and demonstrates that counsel’s failure to define, or 4
provide a basis for defining, a formulation of a par-5
ticular social group was both not a strategic choice 6
and constituted egregious conduct. 7
‘‘(6) S
TEREOTYPES.—Evidence offered in sup-8
port of an application for asylum that promotes cul-9
tural stereotypes about a country, its inhabitants, or 10
an alleged persecutor, including stereotypes based on 11
race, religion, nationality, or gender, shall not be ad-12
missible in adjudicating that application, except that 13
evidence that an alleged persecutor holds stereotypical 14
views of the applicant shall be admissible. 15
‘‘(7) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 16
‘‘(A) The term ‘membership in a particular 17
social group’ means membership in a group that 18
is— 19
‘‘(i) composed of members who share a 20
common immutable characteristic; 21
‘‘(ii) defined with particularity; and 22
‘‘(iii) socially distinct within the soci-23
ety in question. 24
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‘‘(B) The term ‘political opinion’ means an 1
ideal or conviction in support of the furtherance 2
of a discrete cause related to political control of 3
a state or a unit thereof. 4
‘‘(C) The term ‘persecution’ means the in-5
fliction of a severe level of harm constituting an 6
exigent threat by the government of a country or 7
by persons or an organization that the govern-8
ment was unable or unwilling to control. Such 9
term does not include— 10
‘‘(i) generalized harm or violence that 11
arises out of civil, criminal, or military 12
strife in a country; 13
‘‘(ii) all treatment that the United 14
States regards as unfair, offensive, unjust, 15
unlawful, or unconstitutional; 16
‘‘(iii) intermittent harassment, includ-17
ing brief detentions; 18
‘‘(iv) threats with no actual effort to 19
carry out the threats, except that particu-20
larized threats of severe harm of an imme-21
diate and menacing nature made by an 22
identified entity may constitute persecution; 23
or 24
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‘‘(v) non-severe economic harm or 1
property damage.’’. 2
SEC. 109. FIRM RESETTLEMENT. 3
Section 208 of the Immigration and Nationality Act 4
(8 U.S.C. 1158), as amended by this Act, is further amend-5
ed by adding at the end the following: 6
‘‘(g) F
IRMRESETTLEMENT.—In determining whether 7
an alien was firmly resettled in another country prior to 8
arriving in the United States under subsection 9
(b)(2)(A)(xiv), the following shall apply: 10
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—An alien shall be considered 11
to have firmly resettled in another country if, after 12
the events giving rise to the alien’s asylum claim— 13
‘‘(A) the alien resided in a country through 14
which the alien transited prior to arriving in or 15
entering the United States and— 16
‘‘(i) received or was eligible for any 17
permanent legal immigration status in that 18
country; 19
‘‘(ii) resided in such a country with 20
any non-permanent but indefinitely renew-21
able legal immigration status (including 22
asylee, refugee, or similar status, but exclud-23
ing status of a tourist); or 24
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‘‘(iii) resided in such a country and 1
could have applied for and obtained an im-2
migration status described in clause (ii); 3
‘‘(B) the alien physically resided volun-4
tarily, and without continuing to suffer persecu-5
tion or torture, in any one country for one year 6
or more after departing his country of nation-7
ality or last habitual residence and prior to ar-8
rival in or entry into the United States, except 9
for any time spent in Mexico by an alien who 10
is not a native or citizen of Mexico solely as a 11
direct result of being returned to Mexico pursu-12
ant to section 235(b)(3) or of being subject to me-13
tering; or 14
‘‘(C) the alien is a citizen of a country other 15
than the country in which the alien alleges a fear 16
of persecution, or was a citizen of such a country 17
in the case of an alien who renounces such citi-18
zenship, and the alien was present in that coun-19
try after departing his country of nationality or 20
last habitual residence and prior to arrival in or 21
entry into the United States; 22
‘‘(2) B
URDEN OF PROOF .—If an immigration 23
judge determines that an alien has firmly resettled in 24
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another country under paragraph (1), the alien shall 1
bear the burden of proving the bar does not apply. 2
‘‘(3) F
IRM RESETTLEMENT OF PARENT .—An 3
alien shall be presumed to have been firmly resettled 4
in another country if the alien’s parent was firmly 5
resettled in another country, the parent’s resettlement 6
occurred before the alien turned 18 years of age, and 7
the alien resided with such parent at the time of the 8
firm resettlement, unless the alien establishes that he 9
or she could not have derived any permanent legal 10
immigration status or any non-permanent but indefi-11
nitely renewable legal immigration status (including 12
asylum, refugee, or similar status, but excluding sta-13
tus of a tourist) from the alien’s parent.’’. 14
SEC. 110. NOTICE CONCERNING FRIVOLOUS ASYLUM APPLI-15
CATIONS. 16
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 208(d)(4) of the Immigra-17
tion and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1158(d)(4)) is amend-18
ed— 19
(1) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), 20
by inserting ‘‘the Secretary of Homeland Security or’’ 21
before ‘‘the Attorney General’’; 22
(2) in subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘and of the 23
consequences, under paragraph (6), of knowingly fil-24
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ing a frivolous application for asylum; and’’ and in-1
serting a semicolon; 2
(3) in subparagraph (B), by striking the period 3
and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 4
(4) by adding at the end the following: 5
‘‘(C) ensure that a written warning appears 6
on the asylum application advising the alien of 7
the consequences of filing a frivolous application 8
and serving as notice to the alien of the con-9
sequence of filing a frivolous application.’’. 10
(b) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENT.—Section 208(d)(6) of 11
the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1158(d)(6)) 12
is amended by striking ‘‘If the’’ and all that follows and 13
inserting: 14
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—If the Secretary of 15
Homeland Security or the Attorney General de-16
termines that an alien has knowingly made a 17
frivolous application for asylum and the alien 18
has received the notice under paragraph (4)(C), 19
the alien shall be permanently ineligible for any 20
benefits under this chapter, effective as the date 21
of the final determination of such an applica-22
tion. 23
‘‘(B) C
RITERIA.—An application is frivo-24
lous if the Secretary of Homeland Security or 25
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the Attorney General determines, consistent with 1
subparagraph (C), that— 2
‘‘(i) it is so insufficient in substance 3
that it is clear that the applicant knowingly 4
filed the application solely or in part to 5
delay removal from the United States, to 6
seek employment authorization as an appli-7
cant for asylum pursuant to regulations 8
issued pursuant to paragraph (2), or to seek 9
issuance of a Notice to Appear in order to 10
pursue Cancellation of Removal under sec-11
tion 240A(b); or 12
‘‘(ii) any of the material elements are 13
knowingly fabricated. 14
‘‘(C) S
UFFICIENT OPPORTUNITY TO CLAR -15
IFY.—In determining that an application is friv-16
olous, the Secretary or the Attorney General, 17
must be satisfied that the applicant, during the 18
course of the proceedings, has had sufficient op-19
portunity to clarify any discrepancies or im-20
plausible aspects of the claim. 21
‘‘(D) W
ITHHOLDING OF REMOVAL NOT PRE -22
CLUDED.—For purposes of this section, a finding 23
that an alien filed a frivolous asylum applica-24
tion shall not preclude the alien from seeking 25
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withholding of removal under section 241(b)(3) 1
or protection pursuant to the Convention 2
Against Torture.’’. 3
SEC. 111. TECHNICAL AMENDMENTS. 4
Section 208 of the Immigration and Nationality Act 5
(8 U.S.C. 1158) is amended— 6
(1) in subsection (a)— 7
(A) in paragraph (2)(D), by inserting ‘‘Sec-8
retary of Homeland Security or the’’ before ‘‘At-9
torney General’’; and 10
(B) in paragraph (3), by inserting ‘‘Sec-11
retary of Homeland Security or the’’ before ‘‘At-12
torney General’’; 13
(2) in subsection (c)— 14
(A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘Attorney 15
General’’ each place such term appears and in-16
serting ‘‘Secretary of Homeland Security’’; 17
(B) in paragraph (2), in the matter pre-18
ceding subparagraph (A), by inserting ‘‘Sec-19
retary of Homeland Security or the’’ before ‘‘At-20
torney General’’; and 21
(C) in paragraph (3), by inserting ‘‘Sec-22
retary of Homeland Security or the’’ before ‘‘At-23
torney General’’; and 24
(3) in subsection (d)— 25
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(A) in paragraph (1), by inserting ‘‘Sec-1
retary of Homeland Security or the’’ before ‘‘At-2
torney General’’ each place such term appears; 3
and 4
(B) in paragraph (5)— 5
(i) in subparagraph (A), by striking 6
‘‘Attorney General’’ and inserting ‘‘Sec-7
retary of Homeland Security’’; and 8
(ii) in subparagraph (B), by inserting 9
‘‘Secretary of Homeland Security or the’’ 10
before ‘‘Attorney General’’. 11
SEC. 112. REQUIREMENT FOR PROCEDURES RELATING TO 12
CERTAIN ASYLUM APPLICATIONS. 13
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 30 days after the 14
date of the enactment of this Act, the Attorney General shall 15
establish procedures to expedite the adjudication of asylum 16
applications for aliens— 17
(1) who are subject to removal proceedings under 18
section 240 of the Immigration and Nationality Act 19
(8 U.S.C. 1229a); and 20
(2) who are nationals of a Western Hemisphere 21
country sanctioned by the United States, as described 22
in subsection (b), as of January 1, 2023. 23
(b) W
ESTERNHEMISPHERECOUNTRYSANCTIONED BY 24
THEUNITEDSTATESDESCRIBED.—Subsection (a) shall 25
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apply only to an asylum application filed by an alien who 1
is a national of a Western Hemisphere country subject to 2
sanctions pursuant to— 3
(1) the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Soli-4
darity (LIBERTAD) Act of 1996 (22 U.S.C. 6021 5
note); 6
(2) the Reinforcing Nicaragua’s Adherence to 7
Conditions for Electoral Reform Act of 2021 or the 8
RENACER Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 note); or 9
(3) Executive Order 13692 (80 Fed. Reg. 12747; 10
declaring a national emergency with respect to the 11
situation in Venezuela). 12
(c) A
PPLICABILITY.—This section shall only apply to 13
an alien who files an application for asylum after the date 14
of the enactment of this Act. 15
TITLE II—BORDER SAFETY AND 16
MIGRANT PROTECTION 17
SEC. 201. SHORT TITLE. 18
This title may be cited as the ‘‘Border Security and 19
Enforcement Act of 2023’’. 20
SEC. 202. INSPECTION OF APPLICANTS FOR ADMISSION. 21
Section 235 of the Immigration and Nationality Act 22
(8 U.S.C. 1225) is amended— 23
(1) in subsection (b)— 24
(A) in paragraph (1)— 25
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(i) in subparagraph (A)— 1
(I) in clauses (i) and (ii), by 2
striking ‘‘section 212(a)(6)(C)’’ insert-3
ing ‘‘subparagraph (A) or (C) of sec-4
tion 212(a)(6)’’; and 5
(II) by adding at the end the fol-6
lowing: 7
‘‘(iv) I
NELIGIBILITY FOR PAROLE.—An 8
alien described in clause (i) or (ii) shall not 9
be eligible for parole except as expressly au-10
thorized pursuant to section 212(d)(5), or 11
for parole or release pursuant to section 12
236(a).’’; and 13
(ii) in subparagraph (B)— 14
(I) in clause (ii), by striking 15
‘‘asylum.’’ and inserting ‘‘asylum and 16
shall not be released (including pursu-17
ant to parole or release pursuant to 18
section 236(a) but excluding as ex-19
pressly authorized pursuant to section 20
212(d)(5)) other than to be removed or 21
returned to a country as described in 22
paragraph (3).’’; and 23
(II) in clause (iii)(IV)— 24
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(aa) in the header by strik-1
ing ‘‘
DETENTION’’ and inserting 2
‘‘
DETENTION, RETURN, OR RE-3
MOVAL’’; and 4
(bb) by adding at the end the 5
following: ‘‘The alien shall not be 6
released (including pursuant to 7
parole or release pursuant to sec-8
tion 236(a) but excluding as ex-9
pressly authorized pursuant to 10
section 212(d)(5)) other than to be 11
removed or returned to a country 12
as described in paragraph (3).’’; 13
(B) in paragraph (2)— 14
(i) in subparagraph (A)— 15
(I) by striking ‘‘Subject to sub-16
paragraphs (B) and (C),’’ and insert-17
ing ‘‘Subject to subparagraph (B) and 18
paragraph (3),’’; and 19
(II) by adding at the end the fol-20
lowing: ‘‘The alien shall not be released 21
(including pursuant to parole or re-22
lease pursuant to section 236(a) but ex-23
cluding as expressly authorized pursu-24
ant to section 212(d)(5)) other than to 25
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be removed or returned to a country as 1
described in paragraph (3).’’; and 2
(ii) by striking subparagraph (C); 3
(C) by redesignating paragraph (3) as 4
paragraph (5); and 5
(D) by inserting after paragraph (2) the fol-6
lowing: 7
‘‘(3) R
ETURN TO FOREIGN TERRITORY CONTIG -8
UOUS TO THE UNITED STATES .— 9
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary of Home-10
land Security may return to a foreign territory 11
contiguous to the United States any alien arriv-12
ing on land from that territory (whether or not 13
at a designated port of entry) pending a pro-14
ceeding under section 240 or review of a deter-15
mination under subsection (b)(1)(B)(iii)(III). 16
‘‘(B) M
ANDATORY RETURN.—If at any time 17
the Secretary of Homeland Security cannot— 18
‘‘(i) comply with its obligations to de-19
tain an alien as required under clause (ii) 20
and (iii)(IV) of subsection (b)(1)(B) and 21
subsection (b)(2)(A); or 22
‘‘(ii) remove an alien to a country de-23
scribed in section 208(a)(2)(A), 24
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the Secretary of Homeland Security shall, with-1
out exception, including pursuant to parole or 2
release pursuant to section 236(a) but excluding 3
as expressly authorized pursuant to section 4
212(d)(5), return to a foreign territory contig-5
uous to the United States any alien arriving on 6
land from that territory (whether or not at a 7
designated port of entry) pending a proceeding 8
under section 240 or review of a determination 9
under subsection (b)(1)(B)(iii)(III). 10
‘‘(4) E
NFORCEMENT BY STATE ATTORNEYS GEN -11
ERAL.—The attorney general of a State, or other au-12
thorized State officer, alleging a violation of the de-13
tention, return, or removal requirements under para-14
graph (1), (2), or (3) that affects such State or its 15
residents, may bring an action against the Secretary 16
of Homeland Security on behalf of the residents of the 17
State in an appropriate United States district court 18
to obtain appropriate injunctive relief.’’; and 19
(2) by adding at the end the following: 20
‘‘(e) A
UTHORITY TOPROHIBITINTRODUCTION OFCER-21
TAINALIENS.—If the Secretary of Homeland Security de-22
termines, in his discretion, that the prohibition of the intro-23
duction of aliens who are inadmissible under subparagraph 24
(A) or (C) of section 212(a)(6) or under section 212(a)(7) 25
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at an international land or maritime border of the United 1
States is necessary to achieve operational control (as de-2
fined in section 2 of the Secure Fence Act of 2006 (8 U.S.C. 3
1701 note)) of such border, the Secretary may prohibit, in 4
whole or in part, the introduction of such aliens at such 5
border for such period of time as the Secretary determines 6
is necessary for such purpose.’’. 7
SEC. 203. OPERATIONAL DETENTION FACILITIES. 8
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than September 30, 2023, 9
the Secretary of Homeland Security shall take all necessary 10
actions to reopen or restore all U.S. Immigration and Cus-11
toms Enforcement detention facilities that were in oper-12
ation on January 20, 2021, that subsequently closed or with 13
respect to which the use was altered, reduced, or discon-14
tinued after January 20, 2021. In carrying out the require-15
ment under this subsection, the Secretary may use the au-16
thority under section 103(a)(11) of the Immigration and 17
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1103(a)(11)). 18
(b) S
PECIFICFACILITIES.—The requirement under 19
subsection (a) shall include at a minimum, reopening, or 20
restoring, the following facilities: 21
(1) Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia. 22
(2) C. Carlos Carreiro Immigration Detention 23
Center in Bristol County, Massachusetts. 24
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(3) Etowah County Detention Center in Gads-1
den, Alabama. 2
(4) Glades County Detention Center in Moore 3
Haven, Florida. 4
(5) South Texas Family Residential Center. 5
(c) E
XCEPTION.— 6
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-7
graphs (2) and (3), the Secretary of Homeland Secu-8
rity is authorized to obtain equivalent capacity for 9
detention facilities at locations other than those listed 10
in subsection (b). 11
(2) L
IMITATION.—The Secretary may not take 12
action under paragraph (1) unless the capacity ob-13
tained would result in a reduction of time and cost 14
relative to the cost and time otherwise required to ob-15
tain such capacity. 16
(3) S
OUTH TEXAS FAMILY RESIDENTIAL CEN -17
TER.—The exception under paragraph (1) shall not 18
apply to the South Texas Family Residential Center. 19
The Secretary shall take all necessary steps to modify 20
and operate the South Texas Family Residential Cen-21
ter in the same manner and capability it was oper-22
ating on January 20, 2021. 23
(d) P
ERIODICREPORT.—Not later than 90 days after 24
the date of enactment of this Act, and every 90 days there-25
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after until September 30, 2027, the Secretary of Homeland 1
Security shall submit to the appropriate congressional com-2
mittees a detailed plan for and a status report on— 3
(1) compliance with the deadline under sub-4
section (a); 5
(2) the increase in detention capabilities re-6
quired by this section— 7
(A) for the 90 day period immediately pre-8
ceding the date such report is submitted; and 9
(B) for the period beginning on the first 10
day of the fiscal year during which the report is 11
submitted, and ending on the date such report is 12
submitted; 13
(3) the number of detention beds that were used 14
and the number of available detention beds that were 15
not used during— 16
(A) the 90 day period immediately pre-17
ceding the date such report is submitted; and 18
(B) the period beginning on the first day of 19
the fiscal year during which the report is sub-20
mitted, and ending on the date such report is 21
submitted; 22
(4) the number of aliens released due to a lack 23
of available detention beds; and 24
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(5) the resources the Department of Homeland 1
Security needs in order to comply with the require-2
ments under this section. 3
(e) N
OTIFICATION.—The Secretary of Homeland Secu-4
rity shall notify Congress, and include with such notifica-5
tion a detailed description of the resources the Department 6
of Homeland Security needs in order to detain all aliens 7
whose detention is mandatory or nondiscretionary under 8
the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et 9
seq.)— 10
(1) not later than 5 days after all U.S. Immi-11
gration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities 12
reach 90 percent of capacity; 13
(2) not later than 5 days after all U.S. Immi-14
gration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities 15
reach 95 percent of capacity; and 16
(3) not later than 5 days after all U.S. Immi-17
gration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities 18
reach full capacity. 19
(f) A
PPROPRIATECONGRESSIONALCOMMITTEES.— 20
The term ‘‘appropriate congressional committees’’ means— 21
(1) the Committee on the Judiciary of the House 22
of Representatives; 23
(2) the Committee on Appropriations of the 24
House of Representatives; 25
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(3) the Committee on the Judiciary of the Sen-1
ate; and 2
(4) the Committee on Appropriations of the Sen-3
ate. 4
TITLE III—ENSURING UNITED 5
FAMILIES AT THE BORDER 6
SEC. 301. SHORT TITLE. 7
This title may be cited as the ‘‘Ensuring United Fami-8
lies at the Border Act’’. 9
SEC. 302. CLARIFICATION OF STANDARDS FOR FAMILY DE-10
TENTION. 11
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 235 of the William Wilber-12
force Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 13
2008 (8 U.S.C. 1232) is amended by adding at the end the 14
following: 15
‘‘(j) C
ONSTRUCTION.— 16
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other 17
provision of law, judicial determination, consent de-18
cree, or settlement agreement, the detention of any 19
alien child who is not an unaccompanied alien child 20
shall be governed by sections 217, 235, 236, and 241 21
of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 22
1187, 1225, 1226, and 1231). There is no presump-23
tion that an alien child who is not an unaccompanied 24
alien child should not be detained. 25
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‘‘(2) FAMILY DETENTION.—The Secretary of 1
Homeland Security shall— 2
‘‘(A) maintain the care and custody of an 3
alien, during the period during which the 4
charges described in clause (i) are pending, 5
who— 6
‘‘(i) is charged only with a mis-7
demeanor offense under section 275(a) of the 8
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 9
1325(a)); and 10
‘‘(ii) entered the United States with the 11
alien’s child who has not attained 18 years 12
of age; and 13
‘‘(B) detain the alien with the alien’s 14
child.’’. 15
(b) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Congress 16
that the amendments in this section to section 235 of the 17
William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reau-18
thorization Act of 2008 (8 U.S.C. 1232) are intended to 19
satisfy the requirements of the Settlement Agreement in Flo-20
res v. Meese, No. 85–4544 (C.D. Cal), as approved by the 21
court on January 28, 1997, with respect to its interpreta-22
tion in Flores v. Johnson, 212 F. Supp. 3d 864 (C.D. Cal. 23
2015), that the agreement applies to accompanied minors. 24
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(c) EFFECTIVEDATE.—The amendment made by sub-1
section (a) shall take effect on the date of the enactment 2
of this Act and shall apply to all actions that occur before, 3
on, or after the date of the enactment of this Act. 4
(d) P
REEMPTION OF STATELICENSINGREQUIRE-5
MENTS.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, judi-6
cial determination, consent decree, or settlement agreement, 7
no State may require that an immigration detention facil-8
ity used to detain children who have not attained 18 years 9
of age, or families consisting of one or more of such children 10
and the parents or legal guardians of such children, that 11
is located in that State, be licensed by the State or any 12
political subdivision thereof. 13
TITLE IV—PROTECTION OF 14
CHILDREN 15
SEC. 401. SHORT TITLE. 16
This title may be cited as the ‘‘Protection of Children 17
Act of 2023’’. 18
SEC. 402. FINDINGS. 19
Congress makes the following findings: 20
(1) Implementation of the provisions of the Traf-21
ficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 22
2008 that govern unaccompanied alien children has 23
incentivized multiple surges of unaccompanied alien 24
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children arriving at the southwest border in the years 1
since the bill’s enactment. 2
(2) The provisions of the Trafficking Victims 3
Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 that govern 4
unaccompanied alien children treat unaccompanied 5
alien children from countries that are contiguous to 6
the United States disparately by swiftly returning 7
them to their home country absent indications of traf-8
ficking or a credible fear of return, but allowing for 9
the release of unaccompanied alien children from non-10
contiguous countries into the interior of the United 11
States, often to those individuals who paid to smuggle 12
them into the country in the first place. 13
(3) The provisions of the Trafficking Victims 14
Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 governing un-15
accompanied alien children have enriched the cartels, 16
who profit hundreds of millions of dollars each year 17
by smuggling unaccompanied alien children to the 18
southwest border, exploiting and sexually abusing 19
many such unaccompanied alien children on the per-20
ilous journey. 21
(4) Prior to 2008, the number of unaccompanied 22
alien children encountered at the southwest border 23
never exceeded 1,000 in a single year. 24
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(5) The United States is currently in the midst 1
of the worst crisis of unaccompanied alien children in 2
our nation’s history, with over 350,000 such unac-3
companied alien children encountered at the south-4
west border since Joe Biden became President. 5
(6) In 2022, during the Biden Administration, 6
152,057 unaccompanied alien children were encoun-7
tered, the most ever in a single year and an over 400 8
percent increase compared to the last full fiscal year 9
of the Trump Administration in which 33,239 unac-10
companied alien children were encountered. 11
(7) The Biden Administration has lost contact 12
with at least 85,000 unaccompanied alien children 13
who entered the United States since Joe Biden took 14
office. 15
(8) The Biden Administration dismantled effec-16
tive safeguards put in place by the Trump Adminis-17
tration that protected unaccompanied alien children 18
from being abused by criminals or exploited for illegal 19
and dangerous child labor. 20
(9) A recent New York Times investigation found 21
that unaccompanied alien children are being ex-22
ploited in the labor market and ‘‘are ending up in 23
some of the most punishing jobs in the country.’’ 24
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(10) The Times investigation found unaccom-1
panied alien children, ‘‘under intense pressure to earn 2
money’’ in order to ‘‘send cash back to their families 3
while often being in debt to their sponsors for smug-4
gling fees, rent, and living expenses,’’ feared ‘‘that 5
they had become trapped in circumstances they never 6
could have imagined.’’ 7
(11) The Biden Administration’s Department of 8
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier 9
Becerra compared placing unaccompanied alien chil-10
dren with sponsors, to widgets in an assembly line, 11
stating that, ‘‘If Henry Ford had seen this in his 12
plant, he would have never become famous and rich. 13
This is not the way you do an assembly line.’’ 14
(12) Department of Health and Human Services 15
employees working under Secretary Xavier Becerra’s 16
leadership penned a July 2021 memorandum express-17
ing serious concern that ‘‘labor trafficking was in-18
creasing’’ and that the agency had become ‘‘one that 19
rewards individuals for making quick releases, and 20
not one that rewards individuals for preventing un-21
safe releases.’’ 22
(13) Despite this, Secretary Xavier Becerra pres-23
sured then-Director of the Office of Refugee Resettle-24
ment Cindy Huang to prioritize releases of unaccom-25
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panied alien children over ensuring their safety, tell-1
ing her ‘‘if she could not increase the number of dis-2
charges he would find someone who could’’ and then- 3
Director Huang resigned one month later. 4
(14) In June 2014, the Obama-Biden Adminis-5
tration requested legal authority to exercise discretion 6
in returning and removing unaccompanied alien chil-7
dren from non-contiguous countries back to their 8
home countries. 9
(15) In August 2014, the House of Representa-10
tives passed H.R. 5320, which included the Protection 11
of Children Act. 12
(16) The Protection of Children Act of 2023 ends 13
the disparate policies of the Trafficking Victims Pro-14
tection Reauthorization Act of 2008 by ensuring the 15
swift return of all unaccompanied alien children to 16
their country of origin if they are not victims of traf-17
ficking and do not have a fear of return. 18
SEC. 403. REPATRIATION OF UNACCOMPANIED ALIEN CHIL-19
DREN. 20
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 235 of the William Wilber-21
force Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 22
2008 (8 U.S.C. 1232) is amended— 23
(1) in subsection (a)— 24
(A) in paragraph (2)— 25
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(i) by amending the heading to read as 1
follows: ‘‘R
ULES FOR UNACCOMPANIED 2
ALIEN CHILDREN.—’’; 3
(ii) in subparagraph (A)— 4
(I) in the matter preceding clause 5
(i), by striking ‘‘who is a national or 6
habitual resident of a country that is 7
contiguous with the United States’’; 8
(II) in clause (i), by inserting 9
‘‘and’’ at the end; 10
(III) in clause (ii), by striking ‘‘; 11
and’’ and inserting a period; and 12
(IV) by striking clause (iii); and 13
(iii) in subparagraph (B)— 14
(I) in the matter preceding clause 15
(i), by striking ‘‘(8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.) 16
may—’’ and inserting ‘‘(8 U.S.C. 1101 17
et seq.)—’’; 18
(II) in clause (i), by inserting be-19
fore ‘‘permit such child to withdraw’’ 20
the following: ‘‘may’’; and 21
(III) in clause (ii), by inserting 22
before ‘‘return such child’’ the fol-23
lowing: ‘‘shall’’; and 24
(B) in paragraph (5)(D)— 25
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(i) in the matter preceding clause (i), 1
by striking ‘‘, except for an unaccompanied 2
alien child from a contiguous country sub-3
ject to exceptions under subsection (a)(2),’’ 4
and inserting ‘‘who does not meet the cri-5
teria listed in paragraph (2)(A)’’; and 6
(ii) in clause (i), by inserting before 7
the semicolon at the end the following: ‘‘, 8
which shall include a hearing before an im-9
migration judge not later than 14 days 10
after being screened under paragraph (4)’’; 11
(2) in subsection (b)— 12
(A) in paragraph (2)— 13
(i) in subparagraph (A), by inserting 14
before the semicolon the following: ‘‘believed 15
not to meet the criteria listed in subsection 16
(a)(2)(A)’’; and 17
(ii) in subparagraph (B), by inserting 18
before the period the following: ‘‘and does 19
not meet the criteria listed in subsection 20
(a)(2)(A)’’; and 21
(B) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘an un-22
accompanied alien child in custody shall’’ and 23
all that follows, and inserting the following: ‘‘an 24
unaccompanied alien child in custody— 25
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‘‘(A) in the case of a child who does not 1
meet the criteria listed in subsection (a)(2)(A), 2
shall transfer the custody of such child to the 3
Secretary of Health and Human Services not 4
later than 30 days after determining that such 5
child is an unaccompanied alien child who does 6
not meet such criteria; or 7
‘‘(B) in the case of a child who meets the 8
criteria listed in subsection (a)(2)(A), may 9
transfer the custody of such child to the Sec-10
retary of Health and Human Services after de-11
termining that such child is an unaccompanied 12
alien child who meets such criteria.’’; and 13
(3) in subsection (c)— 14
(A) in paragraph (3), by inserting at the 15
end the following: 16
‘‘(D) I
NFORMATION ABOUT INDIVIDUALS 17
WITH WHOM CHILDREN ARE PLACED .— 18
‘‘(i) I
NFORMATION TO BE PROVIDED TO 19
HOMELAND SECURITY .—Before placing a 20
child with an individual, the Secretary of 21
Health and Human Services shall provide 22
to the Secretary of Homeland Security, re-23
garding the individual with whom the child 24
will be placed, information on— 25
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‘‘(I) the name of the individual; 1
‘‘(II) the social security number of 2
the individual; 3
‘‘(III) the date of birth of the in-4
dividual; 5
‘‘(IV) the location of the individ-6
ual’s residence where the child will be 7
placed; 8
‘‘(V) the immigration status of the 9
individual, if known; and 10
‘‘(VI) contact information for the 11
individual. 12
‘‘(ii) A
CTIVITIES OF THE SECRETARY 13
OF HOMELAND SECURITY .—Not later than 14
30 days after receiving the information list-15
ed in clause (i), the Secretary of Homeland 16
Security, upon determining that an indi-17
vidual with whom a child is placed is un-18
lawfully present in the United States and 19
not in removal proceedings pursuant to 20
chapter 4 of title II of the Immigration and 21
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1221 et seq.), 22
shall initiate such removal proceedings.’’; 23
and 24
(B) in paragraph (5)— 25
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(i) by inserting after ‘‘to the greatest 1
extent practicable’’ the following: ‘‘(at no ex-2
pense to the Government)’’; and 3
(ii) by striking ‘‘have counsel to rep-4
resent them’’ and inserting ‘‘have access to 5
counsel to represent them’’. 6
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by this 7
section shall apply to any unaccompanied alien child ap-8
prehended on or after the date that is 30 days after the 9
date of enactment of this Act. 10
SEC. 404. SPECIAL IMMIGRANT JUVENILE STATUS FOR IM-11
MIGRANTS UNABLE TO REUNITE WITH EI-12
THER PARENT. 13
Section 101(a)(27)(J) of the Immigration and Nation-14
ality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(27)(J)) is amended— 15
(1) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘, and whose reuni-16
fication with 1 or both of the immigrant’s parents is 17
not viable due to abuse, neglect, abandonment, or a 18
similar basis found under State law’’; and 19
(2) in clause (iii)— 20
(A) in subclause (I), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 21
the end; 22
(B) in subclause (II), by inserting ‘‘and’’ 23
after the semicolon; and 24
(C) by adding at the end the following: 25
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‘‘(III) an alien may not be grant-1
ed special immigrant status under this 2
subparagraph if the alien’s reunifica-3
tion with any one parent or legal 4
guardian is not precluded by abuse, 5
neglect, abandonment, or any similar 6
cause under State law;’’. 7
SEC. 405. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 8
Nothing in this title shall be construed to limit the fol-9
lowing procedures or practices relating to an unaccom-10
panied alien child (as defined in section 462(g)(2) of the 11
Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 279(g)(2))): 12
(1) Screening of such a child for a credible fear 13
of return to his or her country of origin. 14
(2) Screening of such a child to determine wheth-15
er he or she was a victim of trafficking. 16
(3) Department of Health and Human Services 17
policy in effect on the date of the enactment of this 18
Act requiring a home study for such a child if he or 19
she is under 12 years of age. 20
TITLE V—VISA OVERSTAYS 21
PENALTIES 22
SEC. 501. SHORT TITLE. 23
This title may be cited as the ‘‘Visa Overstays Pen-24
alties Act’’. 25
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SEC. 502. EXPANDED PENALTIES FOR ILLEGAL ENTRY OR 1
PRESENCE. 2
Section 275 of the Immigration and Nationality Act 3
(8 U.S.C. 1325) is amended— 4
(1) in subsection (a) by inserting after ‘‘for a 5
subsequent commission of any such offense’’ the fol-6
lowing: ‘‘or if the alien was previously convicted of an 7
offense under subsection (e)(2)(A)’’; 8
(2) in subsection (b)— 9
(A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘at least 10
$50 and not more than $250’’ and inserting ‘‘not 11
less than $500 and not more than $1,000’’; and 12
(B) in paragraph (2), by inserting after ‘‘in 13
the case of an alien who has been previously sub-14
ject to a civil penalty under this subsection’’ the 15
following: ‘‘or subsection (e)(2)(B)’’; and 16
(3) by adding at the end the following: 17
‘‘(e) V
ISAOVERSTAYS.— 18
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—An alien who was admitted 19
as a nonimmigrant has violated this paragraph if the 20
alien, for an aggregate of 10 days or more, has 21
failed— 22
‘‘(A) to maintain the nonimmigrant status 23
in which the alien was admitted, or to which it 24
was changed under section 248, including com-25
plying with the period of stay authorized by the 26
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Secretary of Homeland Security in connection 1
with such status; or 2
‘‘(B) to comply otherwise with the condi-3
tions of such nonimmigrant status. 4
‘‘(2) P
ENALTIES.—An alien who has violated 5
paragraph (1)— 6
‘‘(A) shall— 7
‘‘(i) for the first commission of such a 8
violation, be fined under title 18, United 9
States Code, or imprisoned not more than 6 10
months, or both; and 11
‘‘(ii) for a subsequent commission of 12
such a violation, or if the alien was pre-13
viously convicted of an offense under sub-14
section (a), be fined under such title 18, or 15
imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both; 16
and 17
‘‘(B) in addition to, and not in lieu of, any 18
penalty under subparagraph (A) and any other 19
criminal or civil penalties that may be imposed, 20
shall be subject to a civil penalty of— 21
‘‘(i) not less than $500 and not more 22
than $1,000 for each violation; or 23
‘‘(ii) twice the amount specified in 24
clause (i), in the case of an alien who has 25
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been previously subject to a civil penalty 1
under this subparagraph or subsection (b).’’. 2
TITLE VI—IMMIGRATION 3
PAROLE REFORM 4
SEC. 601. SHORT TITLE. 5
This title may be cited as the ‘‘Immigration Parole 6
Reform Act of 2023’’. 7
SEC. 602. IMMIGRATION PAROLE REFORM. 8
Section 212(d)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality 9
Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(d)(5)) is amended to read as follows: 10
‘‘(5)(A) Except as provided in subparagraphs (B) and 11
(C) and section 214(f), the Secretary of Homeland Security, 12
in the discretion of the Secretary, may temporarily parole 13
into the United States any alien applying for admission 14
to the United States who is not present in the United States, 15
under such conditions as the Secretary may prescribe, on 16
a case-by-case basis, and not according to eligibility criteria 17
describing an entire class of potential parole recipients, for 18
urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit. 19
Parole granted under this subparagraph may not be re-20
garded as an admission of the alien. When the purposes 21
of such parole have been served in the opinion of the Sec-22
retary, the alien shall immediately return or be returned 23
to the custody from which the alien was paroled. After such 24
return, the case of the alien shall be dealt with in the same 25
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manner as the case of any other applicant for admission 1
to the United States. 2
‘‘(B) The Secretary of Homeland Security may grant 3
parole to any alien who— 4
‘‘(i) is present in the United States without law-5
ful immigration status; 6
‘‘(ii) is the beneficiary of an approved petition 7
under section 203(a); 8
‘‘(iii) is not otherwise inadmissible or removable; 9
and 10
‘‘(iv) is the spouse or child of a member of the 11
Armed Forces serving on active duty. 12
‘‘(C) The Secretary of Homeland Security may grant 13
parole to any alien— 14
‘‘(i) who is a national of the Republic of Cuba 15
and is living in the Republic of Cuba; 16
‘‘(ii) who is the beneficiary of an approved peti-17
tion under section 203(a); 18
‘‘(iii) for whom an immigrant visa is not imme-19
diately available; 20
‘‘(iv) who meets all eligibility requirements for 21
an immigrant visa; 22
‘‘(v) who is not otherwise inadmissible; and 23
‘‘(vi) who is receiving a grant of parole in fur-24
therance of the commitment of the United States to 25
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the minimum level of annual legal migration of 1
Cuban nationals to the United States specified in the 2
U.S.–Cuba Joint Communique´on Migration, done at 3
New York September 9, 1994, and reaffirmed in the 4
Cuba-United States: Joint Statement on Normaliza-5
tion of Migration, Building on the Agreement of Sep-6
tember 9, 1994, done at New York May 2, 1995. 7
‘‘(D) The Secretary of Homeland Security may grant 8
parole to an alien who is returned to a contiguous country 9
under section 235(b)(3) to allow the alien to attend the 10
alien’s immigration hearing. The grant of parole shall not 11
exceed the time required for the alien to be escorted to, and 12
attend, the alien’s immigration hearing scheduled on the 13
same calendar day as the grant, and to immediately there-14
after be escorted back to the contiguous country. A grant 15
of parole under this subparagraph shall not be considered 16
for purposes of determining whether the alien is inadmis-17
sible under this Act. 18
‘‘(E) For purposes of determining an alien’s eligibility 19
for parole under subparagraph (A), an urgent humani-20
tarian reason shall be limited to circumstances in which 21
the alien establishes that— 22
‘‘(i)(I) the alien has a medical emergency; and 23
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‘‘(II)(aa) the alien cannot obtain necessary treat-1
ment in the foreign state in which the alien is resid-2
ing; or 3
‘‘(bb) the medical emergency is life-threatening 4
and there is insufficient time for the alien to be ad-5
mitted to the United States through the normal visa 6
process; 7
‘‘(ii) the alien is the parent or legal guardian of 8
an alien described in clause (i) and the alien de-9
scribed in clause (i) is a minor; 10
‘‘(iii) the alien is needed in the United States in 11
order to donate an organ or other tissue for trans-12
plant and there is insufficient time for the alien to 13
be admitted to the United States through the normal 14
visa process; 15
‘‘(iv) the alien has a close family member in the 16
United States whose death is imminent and the alien 17
could not arrive in the United States in time to see 18
such family member alive if the alien were to be ad-19
mitted to the United States through the normal visa 20
process; 21
‘‘(v) the alien is seeking to attend the funeral of 22
a close family member and the alien could not arrive 23
in the United States in time to attend such funeral 24
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if the alien were to be admitted to the United States 1
through the normal visa process; 2
‘‘(vi) the alien is an adopted child with an ur-3
gent medical condition who is in the legal custody of 4
the petitioner for a final adoption-related visa and 5
whose medical treatment is required before the ex-6
pected award of a final adoption-related visa; or 7
‘‘(vii) the alien is a lawful applicant for adjust-8
ment of status under section 245 and is returning to 9
the United States after temporary travel abroad. 10
‘‘(F) For purposes of determining an alien’s eligibility 11
for parole under subparagraph (A), a significant public 12
benefit may be determined to result from the parole of an 13
alien only if— 14
‘‘(i) the alien has assisted (or will assist, whether 15
knowingly or not) the United States Government in 16
a law enforcement matter; 17
‘‘(ii) the alien’s presence is required by the Gov-18
ernment in furtherance of such law enforcement mat-19
ter; and 20
‘‘(iii) the alien is inadmissible, does not satisfy 21
the eligibility requirements for admission as a non-22
immigrant, or there is insufficient time for the alien 23
to be admitted to the United States through the nor-24
mal visa process. 25
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‘‘(G) For purposes of determining an alien’s eligibility 1
for parole under subparagraph (A), the term ‘case-by-case 2
basis’ means that the facts in each individual case are con-3
sidered and parole is not granted based on membership in 4
a defined class of aliens to be granted parole. The fact that 5
aliens are considered for or granted parole one-by-one and 6
not as a group is not sufficient to establish that the parole 7
decision is made on a ‘case-by-case basis’. 8
‘‘(H) The Secretary of Homeland Security may not 9
use the parole authority under this paragraph to parole an 10
alien into the United States for any reason or purpose other 11
than those described in subparagraphs (B), (C), (D), (E), 12
and (F). 13
‘‘(I) An alien granted parole may not accept employ-14
ment, except that an alien granted parole pursuant to sub-15
paragraph (B) or (C) is authorized to accept employment 16
for the duration of the parole, as evidenced by an employ-17
ment authorization document issued by the Secretary of 18
Homeland Security. 19
‘‘(J) Parole granted after a departure from the United 20
States shall not be regarded as an admission of the alien. 21
An alien granted parole, whether as an initial grant of pa-22
role or parole upon reentry into the United States, is not 23
eligible to adjust status to lawful permanent residence or 24
for any other immigration benefit if the immigration status 25
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the alien had at the time of departure did not authorize 1
the alien to adjust status or to be eligible for such benefit. 2
‘‘(K)(i) Except as provided in clauses (ii) and (iii), 3
parole shall be granted to an alien under this paragraph 4
for the shorter of— 5
‘‘(I) a period of sufficient length to accomplish 6
the activity described in subparagraph (D), (E), or 7
(F) for which the alien was granted parole; or 8
‘‘(II) 1 year. 9
‘‘(ii) Grants of parole pursuant to subparagraph (A) 10
may be extended once, in the discretion of the Secretary, 11
for an additional period that is the shorter of— 12
‘‘(I) the period that is necessary to accomplish 13
the activity described in subparagraph (E) or (F) for 14
which the alien was granted parole; or 15
‘‘(II) 1 year. 16
‘‘(iii) Aliens who have a pending application to adjust 17
status to permanent residence under section 245 may re-18
quest extensions of parole under this paragraph, in 1-year 19
increments, until the application for adjustment has been 20
adjudicated. Such parole shall terminate immediately upon 21
the denial of such adjustment application. 22
‘‘(L) Not later than 90 days after the last day of each 23
fiscal year, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall sub-24
mit to the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate and 25
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the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representa-1
tives and make available to the public, a report— 2
‘‘(i) identifying the total number of aliens pa-3
roled into the United States under this paragraph 4
during the previous fiscal year; and 5
‘‘(ii) containing information and data regarding 6
all aliens paroled during such fiscal year, includ-7
ing— 8
‘‘(I) the duration of parole; 9
‘‘(II) the type of parole; and 10
‘‘(III) the current status of the aliens so pa-11
roled.’’. 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 the 16
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 and 3
Nationality Act, as added by section 2, shall take ef-4
fect 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 Immi-7
gration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(d)(5)(A)) 8
before January 1, 2023, shall continue to be subject 9
to the terms of parole that were in effect on the date 10
on which their respective parole was approved. 11
SEC. 604. CAUSE OF ACTION. 12
Any person, State, or local government that experi-13
ences financial harm in excess of $1,000 due to a failure 14
of the Federal Government to lawfully apply the provisions 15
of this Act or the amendments made by this Act shall have 16
standing to bring a civil action against the Federal Govern-17
ment in an appropriate district court of the United States 18
for appropriate relief. 19
SEC. 605. SEVERABILITY. 20
If any provision of this Act or any amendment by this 21
Act, or the application of such provision or amendment to 22
any person or circumstance, is held to be unconstitutional, 23
the remainder of this Act and the application of such provi-24
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sion or amendment to any other person or circumstance 1
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
MPLOYMENTELIGIBILITYVERIFICATIONPROC-11
ESS.— 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 a 15
person or other entity hiring, recruiting, or referring 16
an individual for employment in the United States, 17
the following: 18
‘‘(A) A
TTESTATION AFTER EXAMINATION OF 19
DOCUMENTATION.— 20
‘‘(i) A
TTESTATION.—During the 21
verification period (as defined in subpara-22
graph (E)), the person or entity shall attest, 23
under penalty of perjury and on a form, in-24
cluding electronic format, designated or es-25
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tablished by the Secretary by regulation not 1
later than 6 months after the date of the en-2
actment of the Legal Workforce Act, that it 3
has verified that the individual is not an 4
unauthorized alien by— 5
‘‘(I) obtaining from the individual 6
the individual’s social security account 7
number or United States passport 8
number and recording the number on 9
the form (if the individual claims to 10
have been issued such a number), and, 11
if the individual does not attest to 12
United States nationality under sub-13
paragraph (B), obtaining such identi-14
fication or authorization number estab-15
lished by the Department of Homeland 16
Security for the alien as the Secretary 17
of Homeland Security may specify, 18
and recording such number on the 19
form; and 20
‘‘(II) examining— 21
‘‘(aa) a document relating to 22
the individual presenting it de-23
scribed in clause (ii); or 24
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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 described 9
in this subparagraph is an individual’s— 10
‘‘(I) unexpired United States 11
passport or passport card; 12
‘‘(II) unexpired permanent resi-13
dent card that contains a photograph; 14
‘‘(III) unexpired employment au-15
thorization card that contains a photo-16
graph; 17
‘‘(IV) in the case of a non-18
immigrant alien authorized to work for 19
a specific employer incident to status, 20
a foreign passport with Form I–94 or 21
Form I–94A, or other documentation 22
as designated by the Secretary speci-23
fying the alien’s nonimmigrant status 24
as long as the period of status has not 25
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yet expired and the proposed employ-1
ment is not in conflict with any re-2
strictions or limitations identified in 3
the documentation; 4
‘‘(V) passport from the Federated 5
States of Micronesia (FSM) or the Re-6
public of the Marshall Islands (RMI) 7
with Form I–94 or Form I–94A, or 8
other documentation as designated by 9
the Secretary, indicating non-10
immigrant admission under the Com-11
pact of Free Association Between the 12
United States and the FSM or RMI; or 13
‘‘(VI) other document designated 14
by the Secretary of Homeland Secu-15
rity, if the document— 16
‘‘(aa) contains a photograph 17
of the individual and biometric 18
identification data from the indi-19
vidual and such other personal 20
identifying information relating 21
to the individual as the Secretary 22
of Homeland Security finds, by 23
regulation, sufficient for purposes 24
of this clause; 25
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‘‘(bb) is evidence of author-1
ization of employment in the 2
United States; and 3
‘‘(cc) contains security fea-4
tures to make it resistant to tam-5
pering, counterfeiting, and fraud-6
ulent use. 7
‘‘(iii) D
OCUMENTS EVIDENCING EM -8
PLOYMENT AUTHORIZATION .—A document 9
described in this subparagraph is an indi-10
vidual’s social security account number 11
card (other than such a card which specifies 12
on the face that the issuance of the card does 13
not authorize employment in the United 14
States). 15
‘‘(iv) D
OCUMENTS ESTABLISHING 16
IDENTITY OF INDIVIDUAL.—A document de-17
scribed in this subparagraph is— 18
‘‘(I) an individual’s unexpired 19
State issued driver’s license or identi-20
fication card if it contains a photo-21
graph and information such as name, 22
date of birth, gender, height, eye color, 23
and address; 24
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‘‘(II) an individual’s unexpired 1
U.S. military identification card; 2
‘‘(III) an individual’s unexpired 3
Native American tribal identification 4
document issued by a tribal entity rec-5
ognized by the Bureau of Indian Af-6
fairs; or 7
‘‘(IV) in the case of an individual 8
under 18 years of age, a parent or 9
legal guardian’s attestation under pen-10
alty of law as to the identity and age 11
of the individual. 12
‘‘(v) A
UTHORITY TO PROHIBIT USE OF 13
CERTAIN DOCUMENTS .—If the Secretary of 14
Homeland Security finds, by regulation, 15
that any document described in clause (i), 16
(ii), or (iii) as establishing employment au-17
thorization or identity does not reliably es-18
tablish such authorization or identity or is 19
being used fraudulently to an unacceptable 20
degree, the Secretary may prohibit or place 21
conditions on its use for purposes of this 22
paragraph. 23
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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 EMPLOY -4
MENT AUTHORIZATION.—During the verification 5
period (as defined in subparagraph (E)), the in-6
dividual shall attest, under penalty of perjury on 7
the form designated or established for purposes of 8
subparagraph (A), that the individual is a cit-9
izen or national of the United States, an alien 10
lawfully admitted for permanent residence, or an 11
alien who is authorized under this Act or by the 12
Secretary of Homeland Security to be hired, re-13
cruited, or referred for such employment. Such 14
attestation may be manifested by either a hand-15
written or electronic signature. The individual 16
shall also provide that individual’s social secu-17
rity account number or United States passport 18
number (if the individual claims to have been 19
issued such a number), and, if the individual 20
does not attest to United States nationality 21
under this subparagraph, such identification or 22
authorization number established by the Depart-23
ment of Homeland Security for the alien as the 24
Secretary may specify. 25
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‘‘(C) RETENTION OF VERIFICATION FORM 1
AND VERIFICATION.— 2
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—After completion of 3
such form in accordance with subpara-4
graphs (A) and (B), the person or entity 5
shall— 6
‘‘(I) retain a paper or electronic 7
version of the form and make it avail-8
able for inspection by officers of the 9
Department of Homeland Security, the 10
Department of Justice, or the Depart-11
ment of Labor during a period begin-12
ning on the date of the recruiting or 13
referral of the individual, or, in the 14
case of the hiring of an individual, the 15
date on which the verification is com-16
pleted, and ending— 17
‘‘(aa) in the case of the re-18
cruiting or referral of an indi-19
vidual, 3 years after the date of 20
the recruiting or referral; and 21
‘‘(bb) in the case of the hir-22
ing of an individual, the later of 23
3 years after the date the verifica-24
tion is completed or one year after 25
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the date the individual’s employ-1
ment is terminated; and 2
‘‘(II) during the verification pe-3
riod (as defined in subparagraph (E)), 4
make an inquiry, as provided in sub-5
section (d), using the verification sys-6
tem to seek verification of the identity 7
and employment eligibility of an indi-8
vidual. 9
‘‘(ii) C
ONFIRMATION.— 10
‘‘(I) C
ONFIRMATION RECEIVED .— 11
If the person or other entity receives an 12
appropriate confirmation of an indi-13
vidual’s identity and work eligibility 14
under the verification system within 15
the time period specified, the person or 16
entity shall record on the form an ap-17
propriate code that is provided under 18
the system and that indicates a final 19
confirmation of such identity and work 20
eligibility of the individual. 21
‘‘(II) T
ENTATIVE NONCONFIRMA -22
TION RECEIVED.—If the person or 23
other entity receives a tentative non-24
confirmation of an individual’s iden-25
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tity or work eligibility under the 1
verification system within the time pe-2
riod specified, the person or entity 3
shall so inform the individual for 4
whom the verification is sought. If the 5
individual does not contest the noncon-6
firmation within the time period speci-7
fied, the nonconfirmation shall be con-8
sidered final. The person or entity 9
shall then record on the form an ap-10
propriate code which has been provided 11
under the system to indicate a final 12
nonconfirmation. If the individual does 13
contest the nonconfirmation, the indi-14
vidual shall utilize the process for sec-15
ondary verification provided under 16
subsection (d). The nonconfirmation 17
will remain tentative until a final con-18
firmation or nonconfirmation is pro-19
vided by the verification system within 20
the time period specified. In no case 21
shall an employer terminate employ-22
ment of an individual because of a 23
failure of the individual to have iden-24
tity and work eligibility confirmed 25
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under this section until a noncon-1
firmation becomes final. Nothing in 2
this clause shall apply to a termi-3
nation of employment for any reason 4
other than because of such a failure. In 5
no case shall an employer rescind the 6
offer of employment to an individual 7
because of a failure of the individual to 8
have identity and work eligibility con-9
firmed under this subsection until a 10
nonconfirmation becomes final. Noth-11
ing in this subclause shall apply to a 12
recission of the offer of employment for 13
any reason other than because of such 14
a failure. 15
‘‘(III) F
INAL CONFIRMATION OR 16
NONCONFIRMATION RECEIVED .—If a 17
final confirmation or nonconfirmation 18
is provided by the verification system 19
regarding an individual, the person or 20
entity shall record on the form an ap-21
propriate code that is provided under 22
the system and that indicates a con-23
firmation or nonconfirmation of iden-24
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tity and work eligibility of the indi-1
vidual. 2
‘‘(IV) E
XTENSION OF TIME .—If 3
the person or other entity in good faith 4
attempts to make an inquiry during 5
the time period specified and the 6
verification system has registered that 7
not all inquiries were received during 8
such time, the person or entity may 9
make an inquiry in the first subse-10
quent working day in which the 11
verification system registers that it has 12
received all inquiries. If the 13
verification system cannot receive in-14
quiries at all times during a day, the 15
person or entity merely has to assert 16
that the entity attempted to make the 17
inquiry on that day for the previous 18
sentence to apply to such an inquiry, 19
and does not have to provide any addi-20
tional proof concerning such inquiry. 21
‘‘(V) C
ONSEQUENCES OF NONCON -22
FIRMATION.— 23
‘‘(aa) T
ERMINATION OR NO-24
TIFICATION OF CONTINUED EM -25
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PLOYMENT.—If the person or 1
other entity has received a final 2
nonconfirmation regarding an in-3
dividual, the person or entity may 4
terminate employment of the indi-5
vidual (or decline to recruit or 6
refer the individual). If the person 7
or entity does not terminate em-8
ployment of the individual or pro-9
ceeds to recruit or refer the indi-10
vidual, the person or entity shall 11
notify the Secretary of Homeland 12
Security of such fact through the 13
verification system or in such 14
other manner as the Secretary 15
may specify. 16
‘‘(bb) F
AILURE TO NOTIFY.— 17
If the person or entity fails to 18
provide notice with respect to an 19
individual as required under item 20
(aa), the failure is deemed to con-21
stitute a violation of subsection 22
(a)(1)(A) with respect to that in-23
dividual. 24
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‘‘(VI) CONTINUED EMPLOYMENT 1
AFTER FINAL NONCONFIRMATION .—If 2
the person or other entity continues to 3
employ (or to recruit or refer) an indi-4
vidual after receiving final noncon-5
firmation, a rebuttable presumption is 6
created that the person or entity has 7
violated subsection (a)(1)(A). 8
‘‘(D) E
FFECTIVE DATES OF NEW PROCE -9
DURES.— 10
‘‘(i) H
IRING.—Except as provided in 11
clause (iii), the provisions of this paragraph 12
shall apply to a person or other entity hir-13
ing an individual for employment in the 14
United States as follows: 15
‘‘(I) With respect to employers 16
having 10,000 or more employees in 17
the United States on the date of the en-18
actment of the Legal Workforce Act, on 19
the date that is 6 months after the date 20
of the enactment of such Act. 21
‘‘(II) With respect to employers 22
having 500 or more employees in the 23
United States, but less than 10,000 em-24
ployees in the United States, on the 25
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•HR 2640 RH
date of the enactment of the Legal 1
Workforce Act, on the date that is 12 2
months after the date of the enactment 3
of such Act. 4
‘‘(III) With respect to employers 5
having 20 or more employees in the 6
United States, but less than 500 em-7
ployees in the United States, on the 8
date of the enactment of the Legal 9
Workforce Act, on the date that is 18 10
months after the date of the enactment 11
of such Act. 12
‘‘(IV) With respect to employers 13
having one or more employees in the 14
United States, but less than 20 em-15
ployees in the United States, on the 16
date of the enactment of the Legal 17
Workforce Act, on the date that is 24 18
months after the date of the enactment 19
of such Act. 20
‘‘(ii) R
ECRUITING AND REFERRING .— 21
Except as provided in clause (iii), the pro-22
visions of this paragraph shall apply to a 23
person or other entity recruiting or refer-24
ring an individual for employment in the 25
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United States on the date that is 12 months 1
after the date of the enactment of the Legal 2
Workforce Act. 3
‘‘(iii) A
GRICULTURAL LABOR OR SERV -4
ICES.—With respect to an employee per-5
forming agricultural labor or services, this 6
paragraph shall not apply with respect to 7
the verification of the employee until the 8
date that is 36 months after the date of the 9
enactment of the Legal Workforce Act. For 10
purposes of the preceding sentence, the term 11
‘agricultural labor or services’ has the 12
meaning given such term by the Secretary 13
of Agriculture in regulations and includes 14
agricultural labor as defined in section 15
3121(g) of the Internal Revenue Code of 16
1986, agriculture as defined in section 3(f) 17
of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 18
(29 U.S.C. 203(f)), the handling, planting, 19
drying, packing, packaging, processing, 20
freezing, or grading prior to delivery for 21
storage of any agricultural or horticultural 22
commodity in its unmanufactured state, all 23
activities required for the preparation, proc-24
essing or manufacturing of a product of ag-25
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•HR 2640 RH
riculture (as such term is defined in such 1
section 3(f)) for further distribution, and 2
activities similar to all the foregoing as they 3
relate to fish or shellfish facilities. An em-4
ployee described in this clause shall not be 5
counted for purposes of clause (i). 6
‘‘(iv) E
XTENSIONS.— 7
‘‘(I) O
N REQUEST.—Upon request 8
by an employer having 50 or fewer em-9
ployees, the Secretary shall allow a 10
one-time 6-month extension of the effec-11
tive date set out in this subparagraph 12
applicable to such employer. Such re-13
quest shall be made to the Secretary 14
and shall be made prior to such effec-15
tive date. 16
‘‘(II) F
OLLOWING REPORT.—If the 17
study under section 715 of the Legal 18
Workforce Act has been submitted in 19
accordance with such section, the Sec-20
retary of Homeland Security may ex-21
tend the effective date set out in clause 22
(iii) on a one-time basis for 12 months. 23
‘‘(v) T
RANSITION RULE.—Subject to 24
paragraph (4), the following shall apply to 25
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a person or other entity hiring, recruiting, 1
or referring an individual for employment 2
in the United States until the effective date 3
or dates applicable under clauses (i) 4
through (iii): 5
‘‘(I) This subsection, as in effect 6
before the enactment of the Legal Work-7
force Act. 8
‘‘(II) Subtitle A of title IV of the 9
Illegal Immigration Reform and Im-10
migrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 11
U.S.C. 1324a note), as in effect before 12
the effective date in section 707(c) of 13
the Legal Workforce Act. 14
‘‘(III) Any other provision of Fed-15
eral law requiring the person or entity 16
to participate in the E-Verify Program 17
described in section 403(a) of the Ille-18
gal Immigration Reform and Immi-19
grant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 20
U.S.C. 1324a note), as in effect before 21
the effective date in section 707(c) of 22
the Legal Workforce Act, including Ex-23
ecutive Order 13465 (8 U.S.C. 1324a 24
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•HR 2640 RH
note; relating to Government procure-1
ment). 2
‘‘(E) V
ERIFICATION PERIOD DEFINED.— 3
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—For purposes of 4
this paragraph: 5
‘‘(I) In the case of recruitment or 6
referral, the term ‘verification period’ 7
means the period ending on the date 8
recruiting or referring commences. 9
‘‘(II) In the case of hiring, the 10
term ‘verification period’ means the 11
period beginning on the date on which 12
an offer of employment is extended and 13
ending on the date that is three busi-14
ness days after the date of hire, except 15
as provided in clause (iii). The offer of 16
employment may be conditioned in ac-17
cordance with clause (ii). 18
‘‘(ii) J
OB OFFER MAY BE CONDI -19
TIONAL.—A person or other entity may 20
offer a prospective employee an employment 21
position that is conditioned on final 22
verification of the identity and employment 23
eligibility of the employee using the proce-24
dures established under this paragraph. 25
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‘‘(iii) SPECIAL RULE.—Notwithstand-1
ing clause (i)(II), in the case of an alien 2
who is authorized for employment and who 3
provides evidence from the Social Security 4
Administration that the alien has applied 5
for a social security account number, the 6
verification period ends three business days 7
after the alien receives the social security 8
account number. 9
‘‘(2) R
EVERIFICATION FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH 10
LIMITED WORK AUTHORIZATION .— 11
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in 12
subparagraph (B), a person or entity shall make 13
an inquiry, as provided in subsection (d), using 14
the verification system to seek reverification of 15
the identity and employment eligibility of all in-16
dividuals with a limited period of work author-17
ization employed by the person or entity during 18
the three business days after the date on which 19
the employee’s work authorization expires as fol-20
lows: 21
‘‘(i) With respect to employers having 22
10,000 or more employees in the United 23
States on the date of the enactment of the 24
Legal Workforce Act, beginning on the date 25
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•HR 2640 RH
that is 6 months after the date of the enact-1
ment of such Act. 2
‘‘(ii) With respect to employers having 3
500 or more employees in the United States, 4
but less than 10,000 employees in the 5
United States, on the date of the enactment 6
of the Legal Workforce Act, beginning on the 7
date that is 12 months after the date of the 8
enactment of such Act. 9
‘‘(iii) With respect to employers having 10
20 or more employees in the United States, 11
but less than 500 employees in the United 12
States, on the date of the enactment of the 13
Legal Workforce Act, beginning on the date 14
that is 18 months after the date of the en-15
actment of such Act. 16
‘‘(iv) With respect to employers having 17
one or more employees in the United States, 18
but less than 20 employees in the United 19
States, on the date of the enactment of the 20
Legal Workforce Act, beginning on the date 21
that is 24 months after the date of the en-22
actment of such Act. 23
‘‘(B) A
GRICULTURAL LABOR OR SERV -24
ICES.—With respect to an employee performing 25
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•HR 2640 RH
agricultural labor or services, or an employee re-1
cruited or referred by a farm labor contractor (as 2
defined in section 3 of the Migrant and Seasonal 3
Agricultural Worker Protection Act (29 U.S.C. 4
1801)), subparagraph (A) shall not apply with 5
respect to the reverification of the employee until 6
the date that is 36 months after the date of the 7
enactment of the Legal Workforce Act. For pur-8
poses of the preceding sentence, the term ‘agricul-9
tural labor or services’ has the meaning given 10
such term by the Secretary of Agriculture in reg-11
ulations and includes agricultural labor as de-12
fined in section 3121(g) of the Internal Revenue 13
Code of 1986, agriculture as defined in section 14
3(f) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 15
U.S.C. 203(f)), the handling, planting, drying, 16
packing, packaging, processing, freezing, or grad-17
ing prior to delivery for storage of any agricul-18
tural or horticultural commodity in its unmanu-19
factured state, all activities required for the 20
preparation, processing, or manufacturing of a 21
product of agriculture (as such term is defined 22
in such section 3(f)) for further distribution, and 23
activities similar to all the foregoing as they re-24
late to fish or shellfish facilities. An employee de-25
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•HR 2640 RH
scribed in this subparagraph shall not be counted 1
for purposes of subparagraph (A). 2
‘‘(C) R
EVERIFICATION.—Paragraph 3
(1)(C)(ii) shall apply to reverifications pursuant 4
to this paragraph on the same basis as it applies 5
to verifications pursuant to paragraph (1), ex-6
cept that employers shall— 7
‘‘(i) use a form designated or estab-8
lished by the Secretary by regulation for 9
purposes of this paragraph; and 10
‘‘(ii) retain a paper or electronic 11
version of the form and make it available 12
for inspection by officers of the Department 13
of Homeland Security, the Department of 14
Justice, or the Department of Labor during 15
the period beginning on the date the 16
reverification commences and ending on the 17
date that is the later of 3 years after the 18
date of such reverification or 1 year after 19
the date the individual’s employment is ter-20
minated. 21
‘‘(3) P
REVIOUSLY HIRED INDIVIDUALS .— 22
‘‘(A) O
N A MANDATORY BASIS FOR CERTAIN 23
EMPLOYEES.— 24
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‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Not later than the 1
date that is 6 months after the date of the 2
enactment of the Legal Workforce Act, an 3
employer shall make an inquiry, as pro-4
vided in subsection (d), using the 5
verification system to seek verification of the 6
identity and employment eligibility of any 7
individual described in clause (ii) employed 8
by the employer whose employment eligi-9
bility has not been verified under the E- 10
Verify Program described in section 403(a) 11
of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Im-12
migrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 13
U.S.C. 1324a note). 14
‘‘(ii) I
NDIVIDUALS DESCRIBED .—An 15
individual described in this clause is any of 16
the following: 17
‘‘(I) An employee of any unit of a 18
Federal, State, or local government. 19
‘‘(II) An employee who requires a 20
Federal security clearance working in 21
a Federal, State, or local government 22
building, a military base, a nuclear 23
energy site, a weapons site, or an air-24
port or other facility that requires 25
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workers to carry a Transportation 1
Worker Identification Credential 2
(TWIC). 3
‘‘(III) An employee assigned to 4
perform work in the United States 5
under a Federal contract, except that 6
this subclause— 7
‘‘(aa) is not applicable to in-8
dividuals who have a clearance 9
under Homeland Security Presi-10
dential Directive 12 (HSPD 12 11
clearance), are administrative or 12
overhead personnel, or are work-13
ing solely on contracts that pro-14
vide Commercial Off The Shelf 15
goods or services as set forth by 16
the Federal Acquisition Regu-17
latory Council, unless they are 18
subject to verification under sub-19
clause (II); and 20
‘‘(bb) only applies to con-21
tracts over the simple acquisition 22
threshold as defined in section 23
2.101 of title 48, Code of Federal 24
Regulations. 25
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‘‘(B) ON A MANDATORY BASIS FOR MUL -1
TIPLE USERS OF SAME SOCIAL SECURITY AC -2
COUNT NUMBER.—In the case of an employer 3
who is required by this subsection to use the 4
verification system described in subsection (d), or 5
has elected voluntarily to use such system, the 6
employer shall make inquiries to the system in 7
accordance with the following: 8
‘‘(i) The Commissioner of Social Secu-9
rity shall notify annually employees (at the 10
employee address listed on the Wage and 11
Tax Statement) who submit a social secu-12
rity account number to which more than 13
one employer reports income and for which 14
there is a pattern of unusual multiple use. 15
The notification letter shall identify the 16
number of employers to which income is 17
being reported as well as sufficient informa-18
tion notifying the employee of the process to 19
contact the Social Security Administration 20
Fraud Hotline if the employee believes the 21
employee’s identity may have been stolen. 22
The notice shall not share information pro-23
tected as private, in order to avoid any re-24
cipient of the notice from being in the posi-25
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tion to further commit or begin committing 1
identity theft. 2
‘‘(ii) If the person to whom the social 3
security account number was issued by the 4
Social Security Administration has been 5
identified and confirmed by the Commis-6
sioner, and indicates that the social security 7
account number was used without their 8
knowledge, the Secretary and the Commis-9
sioner shall lock the social security account 10
number for employment eligibility 11
verification purposes and shall notify the 12
employers of the individuals who wrongfully 13
submitted the social security account num-14
ber that the employee may not be work eli-15
gible. 16
‘‘(iii) Each employer receiving such 17
notification of an incorrect social security 18
account number under clause (ii) shall use 19
the verification system described in sub-20
section (d) to check the work eligibility sta-21
tus of the applicable employee within 10 22
business days of receipt of the notification. 23
‘‘(C) O
N A VOLUNTARY BASIS.—Subject to 24
paragraph (2), and subparagraphs (A) through 25
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(C) of this paragraph, beginning on the date that 1
is 30 days after the date of the enactment of the 2
Legal Workforce Act, an employer may make an 3
inquiry, as provided in subsection (d), using the 4
verification system to seek verification of the 5
identity and employment eligibility of any indi-6
vidual employed by the employer. If an employer 7
chooses voluntarily to seek verification of any in-8
dividual employed by the employer, the employer 9
shall seek verification of all individuals em-10
ployed at the same geographic location or, at the 11
option of the employer, all individuals employed 12
within the same job category, as the employee 13
with respect to whom the employer seeks volun-14
tarily to use the verification system. An employ-15
er’s decision about whether or not voluntarily to 16
seek verification of its current workforce under 17
this subparagraph may not be considered by any 18
government agency in any proceeding, investiga-19
tion, or review provided for in this Act. 20
‘‘(D) V
ERIFICATION.—Paragraph (1)(C)(ii) 21
shall apply to verifications pursuant to this 22
paragraph on the same basis as it applies to 23
verifications pursuant to paragraph (1), except 24
that employers shall— 25
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‘‘(i) use a form designated or estab-1
lished by the Secretary by regulation for 2
purposes of this paragraph; and 3
‘‘(ii) retain a paper or electronic 4
version of the form and make it available 5
for inspection by officers of the Department 6
of Homeland Security, the Department of 7
Justice, or the Department of Labor during 8
the period beginning on the date the 9
verification commences and ending on the 10
date that is the later of 3 years after the 11
date of such verification or 1 year after the 12
date the individual’s employment is termi-13
nated. 14
‘‘(4) E
ARLY COMPLIANCE.— 15
‘‘(A) F
ORMER E-VERIFY REQUIRED USERS , 16
INCLUDING FEDERAL CONTRACTORS .—Notwith-17
standing the deadlines in paragraphs (1) and 18
(2), beginning on the date of the enactment of the 19
Legal Workforce Act, the Secretary is authorized 20
to commence requiring employers required to 21
participate in the E-Verify Program described in 22
section 403(a) of the Illegal Immigration Reform 23
and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 24
U.S.C. 1324a note), including employers re-25
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quired to participate in such program by reason 1
of Federal acquisition laws (and regulations pro-2
mulgated under those laws, including the Federal 3
Acquisition Regulation), to commence compli-4
ance with the requirements of this subsection 5
(and any additional requirements of such Fed-6
eral acquisition laws and regulation) in lieu of 7
any requirement to participate in the E-Verify 8
Program. 9
‘‘(B) F
ORMER E-VERIFY VOLUNTARY USERS 10
AND OTHERS DESIRING EARLY COMPLIANCE .— 11
Notwithstanding the deadlines in paragraphs (1) 12
and (2), beginning on the date of the enactment 13
of the Legal Workforce Act, the Secretary shall 14
provide for the voluntary compliance with the re-15
quirements of this subsection by employers volun-16
tarily electing to participate in the E-Verify 17
Program described in section 403(a) of the Ille-18
gal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Re-19
sponsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1324a note) 20
before such date, as well as by other employers 21
seeking voluntary early compliance. 22
‘‘(5) C
OPYING OF DOCUMENTATION PER -23
MITTED.—Notwithstanding any other provision of 24
law, the person or entity may copy a document pre-25
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sented by an individual pursuant to this subsection 1
and may retain the copy, but only (except as other-2
wise permitted under law) for the purpose of com-3
plying with the requirements of this subsection. 4
‘‘(6) L
IMITATION ON USE OF FORMS .—A form 5
designated or established by the Secretary of Home-6
land Security under this subsection and any informa-7
tion contained in or appended to such form, may not 8
be used for purposes other than for enforcement of this 9
Act and any other provision of Federal criminal law. 10
‘‘(7) G
OOD FAITH COMPLIANCE.— 11
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Except as otherwise 12
provided in this subsection, a person or entity is 13
considered to have complied with a requirement 14
of this subsection notwithstanding a technical or 15
procedural failure to meet such requirement if 16
there was a good faith attempt to comply with 17
the requirement. 18
‘‘(B) E
XCEPTION IF FAILURE TO CORRECT 19
AFTER NOTICE.—Subparagraph (A) shall not 20
apply if— 21
‘‘(i) the failure is not de minimus; 22
‘‘(ii) the Secretary of Homeland Secu-23
rity has explained to the person or entity 24
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the basis for the failure and why it is not 1
de minimus; 2
‘‘(iii) the person or entity has been 3
provided a period of not less than 30 cal-4
endar days (beginning after the date of the 5
explanation) within which to correct the 6
failure; and 7
‘‘(iv) the person or entity has not cor-8
rected the failure voluntarily within such 9
period. 10
‘‘(C) E
XCEPTION FOR PATTERN OR PRAC -11
TICE VIOLATORS.—Subparagraph (A) shall not 12
apply to a person or entity that has engaged or 13
is engaging in a pattern or practice of violations 14
of subsection (a)(1)(A) or (a)(2). 15
‘‘(8) S
INGLE EXTENSION OF DEADLINES UPON 16
CERTIFICATION.—In a case in which the Secretary of 17
Homeland Security has certified to the Congress that 18
the employment eligibility verification system re-19
quired under subsection (d) will not be fully oper-20
ational by the date that is 6 months after the date of 21
the enactment of the Legal Workforce Act, each dead-22
line established under this section for an employer to 23
make an inquiry using such system shall be extended 24
by 6 months. No other extension of such a deadline 25
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shall be made except as authorized under paragraph 1
(1)(D)(iv).’’. 2
(b) D
ATE OFHIRE.—Section 274A(h) of the Immigra-3
tion and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1324a(h)) is amended 4
by adding at the end the following: 5
‘‘(4) D
EFINITION OF DATE OF HIRE.—As used in 6
this section, the term ‘date of hire’ means the date of 7
actual commencement of employment for wages or 8
other remuneration, unless otherwise specified.’’. 9
SEC. 703. EMPLOYMENT ELIGIBILITY VERIFICATION SYS-10
TEM. 11
Section 274A(d) of the Immigration and Nationality 12
Act (8 U.S.C. 1324a(d)) is amended to read as follows: 13
‘‘(d) E
MPLOYMENTELIGIBILITYVERIFICATIONSYS-14
TEM.— 15
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Patterned on the employ-16
ment eligibility confirmation system established under 17
section 404 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and 18
Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 19
1324a note), the Secretary of Homeland Security 20
shall establish and administer a verification system 21
through which the Secretary (or a designee of the Sec-22
retary, which may be a nongovernmental entity)— 23
‘‘(A) responds to inquiries made by persons 24
at any time through a toll-free electronic media 25
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concerning an individual’s identity and whether 1
the individual is authorized to be employed; and 2
‘‘(B) maintains records of the inquiries that 3
were made, of verifications provided (or not pro-4
vided), and of the codes provided to inquirers as 5
evidence of their compliance with their obliga-6
tions under this section. 7
‘‘(2) I
NITIAL RESPONSE.—The verification sys-8
tem shall provide confirmation or a tentative noncon-9
firmation of an individual’s identity and employment 10
eligibility within 3 working days of the initial in-11
quiry. If providing confirmation or tentative noncon-12
firmation, the verification system shall provide an 13
appropriate code indicating such confirmation or 14
such nonconfirmation. 15
‘‘(3) S
ECONDARY CONFIRMATION PROCESS IN 16
CASE OF TENTATIVE NONCONFIRMATION .—In cases of 17
tentative nonconfirmation, the Secretary shall specify, 18
in consultation with the Commissioner of Social Se-19
curity, an available secondary verification process to 20
confirm the validity of information provided and to 21
provide a final confirmation or nonconfirmation not 22
later than 10 working days after the date on which 23
the notice of the tentative nonconfirmation is received 24
by the employee. The Secretary, in consultation with 25
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the Commissioner, may extend this deadline once on 1
a case-by-case basis for a period of 10 working days, 2
and if the time is extended, shall document such ex-3
tension within the verification system. The Secretary, 4
in consultation with the Commissioner, shall notify 5
the employee and employer of such extension. The 6
Secretary, in consultation with the Commissioner, 7
shall create a standard process of such extension and 8
notification and shall make a description of such 9
process available to the public. When final confirma-10
tion or nonconfirmation is provided, the verification 11
system shall provide an appropriate code indicating 12
such confirmation or nonconfirmation. 13
‘‘(4) D
ESIGN AND OPERATION OF SYSTEM .—The 14
verification system shall be designed and operated— 15
‘‘(A) to maximize its reliability and ease of 16
use by persons and other entities consistent with 17
insulating and protecting the privacy and secu-18
rity of the underlying information; 19
‘‘(B) to respond to all inquiries made by 20
such persons and entities on whether individuals 21
are authorized to be employed and to register all 22
times when such inquiries are not received; 23
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‘‘(C) with appropriate administrative, tech-1
nical, and physical safeguards to prevent unau-2
thorized disclosure of personal information; 3
‘‘(D) to have reasonable safeguards against 4
the system’s resulting in unlawful discrimina-5
tory practices based on national origin or citi-6
zenship status, including— 7
‘‘(i) the selective or unauthorized use of 8
the system to verify eligibility; or 9
‘‘(ii) the exclusion of certain individ-10
uals from consideration for employment as 11
a result of a perceived likelihood that addi-12
tional verification will be required, beyond 13
what is required for most job applicants; 14
‘‘(E) to maximize the prevention of identity 15
theft use in the system; and 16
‘‘(F) to limit the subjects of verification to 17
the following individuals: 18
‘‘(i) Individuals hired, referred, or re-19
cruited, in accordance with paragraph (1) 20
or (4) of subsection (b). 21
‘‘(ii) Employees and prospective em-22
ployees, in accordance with paragraph (1), 23
(2), (3), or (4) of subsection (b). 24
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‘‘(iii) Individuals seeking to confirm 1
their own employment eligibility on a vol-2
untary basis. 3
‘‘(5) R
ESPONSIBILITIES OF COMMISSIONER OF 4
SOCIAL SECURITY.—As part of the verification sys-5
tem, the Commissioner of Social Security, in con-6
sultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security 7
(and any designee of the Secretary selected to estab-8
lish and administer the verification system), shall es-9
tablish a reliable, secure method, which, within the 10
time periods specified under paragraphs (2) and (3), 11
compares the name and social security account num-12
ber provided in an inquiry against such information 13
maintained by the Commissioner in order to validate 14
(or not validate) the information provided regarding 15
an individual whose identity and employment eligi-16
bility must be confirmed, the correspondence of the 17
name and number, and whether the individual has 18
presented a social security account number that is not 19
valid for employment. The Commissioner shall not 20
disclose or release social security information (other 21
than such confirmation or nonconfirmation) under 22
the verification system except as provided for in this 23
section or section 205(c)(2)(I) of the Social Security 24
Act. 25
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‘‘(6) RESPONSIBILITIES OF SECRETARY OF 1
HOMELAND SECURITY .—As part of the verification 2
system, the Secretary of Homeland Security (in con-3
sultation with any designee of the Secretary selected 4
to establish and administer the verification system), 5
shall establish a reliable, secure method, which, within 6
the time periods specified under paragraphs (2) and 7
(3), compares the name and alien identification or 8
authorization number (or any other information as 9
determined relevant by the Secretary) which are pro-10
vided in an inquiry against such information main-11
tained or accessed by the Secretary in order to vali-12
date (or not validate) the information provided, the 13
correspondence of the name and number, whether the 14
alien is authorized to be employed in the United 15
States, or to the extent that the Secretary determines 16
to be feasible and appropriate, whether the records 17
available to the Secretary verify the identity or status 18
of a national of the United States. 19
‘‘(7) U
PDATING INFORMATION .—The Commis-20
sioner of Social Security and the Secretary of Home-21
land Security shall update their information in a 22
manner that promotes the maximum accuracy and 23
shall provide a process for the prompt correction of 24
erroneous information, including instances in which 25
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it is brought to their attention in the secondary 1
verification process described in paragraph (3). 2
‘‘(8) L
IMITATION ON USE OF THE VERIFICATION 3
SYSTEM AND ANY RELATED SYSTEMS .— 4
‘‘(A) N
O NATIONAL IDENTIFICATION 5
CARD.—Nothing in this section shall be con-6
strued to authorize, directly or indirectly, the 7
issuance or use of national identification cards 8
or the establishment of a national identification 9
card. 10
‘‘(B) C
RITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE .—The 11
Secretary may authorize or direct any person or 12
entity responsible for granting access to, pro-13
tecting, securing, operating, administering, or 14
regulating part of the critical infrastructure (as 15
defined in section 1016(e) of the Critical Infra-16
structure Protection Act of 2001 (42 U.S.C. 17
5195c(e))) to use the verification system to the 18
extent the Secretary determines that such use 19
will assist in the protection of the critical infra-20
structure. 21
‘‘(9) R
EMEDIES.—If an individual alleges that 22
the individual would not have been dismissed from a 23
job or would have been hired for a job but for an error 24
of the verification mechanism, the individual may 25
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seek compensation only through the mechanism of the 1
Federal Tort Claims Act, and injunctive relief to cor-2
rect such error. No class action may be brought under 3
this paragraph.’’. 4
SEC. 704. RECRUITMENT, REFERRAL, AND CONTINUATION 5
OF EMPLOYMENT. 6
(a) A
DDITIONALCHANGES TORULES FORRECRUIT-7
MENT, REFERRAL, ANDCONTINUATION OFEMPLOYMENT.— 8
Section 274A(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act 9
(8 U.S.C. 1324a(a)) is amended— 10
(1) in paragraph (1)(A), by striking ‘‘for a fee’’; 11
(2) in paragraph (1), by amending subpara-12
graph (B) to read as follows: 13
‘‘(B) to hire, continue to employ, or to re-14
cruit or refer for employment in the United 15
States an individual without complying with the 16
requirements of subsection (b).’’; and 17
(3) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘after hiring 18
an alien for employment in accordance with para-19
graph (1),’’ and inserting ‘‘after complying with 20
paragraph (1),’’. 21
(b) D
EFINITION.—Section 274A(h) of the Immigration 22
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1324a(h)), as amended by 23
section 2(b) of this Act, is further amended by adding at 24
the end the following: 25
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‘‘(5) DEFINITION OF RECRUIT OR REFER .—As 1
used in this section, the term ‘refer’ means the act of 2
sending or directing a person who is in the United 3
States or transmitting documentation or information 4
to another, directly or indirectly, with the intent of 5
obtaining employment in the United States for such 6
person. Only persons or entities referring for remu-7
neration (whether on a retainer or contingency basis) 8
are included in the definition, except that union hir-9
ing halls that refer union members or nonunion indi-10
viduals who pay union membership dues are included 11
in the definition whether or not they receive remu-12
neration, as are labor service entities or labor service 13
agencies, whether public, private, for-profit, or non-14
profit, that refer, dispatch, or otherwise facilitate the 15
hiring of laborers for any period of time by a third 16
party. As used in this section, the term ‘recruit’ 17
means the act of soliciting a person who is in the 18
United States, directly or indirectly, and referring the 19
person to another with the intent of obtaining em-20
ployment for that person. Only persons or entities re-21
ferring for remuneration (whether on a retainer or 22
contingency basis) are included in the definition, ex-23
cept that union hiring halls that refer union members 24
or nonunion individuals who pay union membership 25
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dues are included in this definition whether or not 1
they receive remuneration, as are labor service entities 2
or labor service agencies, whether public, private, for- 3
profit, or nonprofit that recruit, dispatch, or other-4
wise facilitate the hiring of laborers for any period of 5
time by a third party.’’. 6
(c) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by this 7
section shall take effect on the date that is 1 year after the 8
date of the enactment of this Act, except that the amend-9
ments made by subsection (a) shall take effect 6 months 10
after the date of the enactment of this Act insofar as such 11
amendments relate to continuation of employment. 12
SEC. 705. GOOD FAITH DEFENSE. 13
Section 274A(a)(3) of the Immigration and Nation-14
ality Act (8 U.S.C. 1324a(a)(3)) is amended to read as fol-15
lows: 16
‘‘(3) G
OOD FAITH DEFENSE.— 17
‘‘(A) D
EFENSE.—An employer (or person or 18
entity that hires, employs, recruits, or refers (as 19
defined in subsection (h)(5)), or is otherwise obli-20
gated to comply with this section) who estab-21
lishes that it has complied in good faith with the 22
requirements of subsection (b)— 23
‘‘(i) shall not be liable to a job appli-24
cant, an employee, the Federal Government, 25
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or a State or local government, under Fed-1
eral, State, or local criminal or civil law for 2
any employment-related action taken with 3
respect to a job applicant or employee in 4
good-faith reliance on information provided 5
through the system established under sub-6
section (d); and 7
‘‘(ii) has established compliance with 8
its obligations under subparagraphs (A) 9
and (B) of paragraph (1) and subsection (b) 10
absent a showing by the Secretary of Home-11
land Security, by clear and convincing evi-12
dence, that the employer had knowledge that 13
an employee is an unauthorized alien. 14
‘‘(B) M
ITIGATION ELEMENT.—For purposes 15
of subparagraph (A)(i), if an employer proves by 16
a preponderance of the evidence that the em-17
ployer uses a reasonable, secure, and established 18
technology to authenticate the identity of the new 19
employee, that fact shall be taken into account 20
for purposes of determining good faith use of the 21
system established under subsection (d). 22
‘‘(C) F
AILURE TO SEEK AND OBTAIN 23
VERIFICATION.—Subject to the effective dates and 24
other deadlines applicable under subsection (b), 25
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in the case of a person or entity in the United 1
States that hires, or continues to employ, an in-2
dividual, or recruits or refers an individual for 3
employment, the following requirements 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 under 9
subsection (d) and in accordance with 10
the timeframes established under sub-11
section (b), seeking verification of the 12
identity and work eligibility of the in-13
dividual, the defense under subpara-14
graph (A) shall not be considered to 15
apply with respect to any employment, 16
except as provided in subclause (II). 17
‘‘(II) S
PECIAL RULE FOR FAILURE 18
OF VERIFICATION MECHANISM .—If such 19
a person or entity in good faith at-20
tempts to make an inquiry in order to 21
qualify for the defense under subpara-22
graph (A) and the verification mecha-23
nism has registered that not all inquir-24
ies were responded to during the rel-25
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evant time, the person or entity can 1
make an inquiry until the end of the 2
first subsequent working day in which 3
the verification mechanism registers no 4
nonresponses and qualify for such de-5
fense. 6
‘‘(ii) F
AILURE TO OBTAIN 7
VERIFICATION.—If the person or entity has 8
made the inquiry described in clause (i)(I) 9
but has not received an appropriate 10
verification of such identity and work eligi-11
bility under such mechanism within the 12
time period specified under subsection 13
(d)(2) after the time the verification inquiry 14
was received, the defense under subpara-15
graph (A) shall not be considered to apply 16
with respect to any employment after the 17
end of such time period.’’. 18
SEC. 706. PREEMPTION AND STATES’ RIGHTS. 19
Section 274A(h)(2) of the Immigration and Nation-20
ality Act (8 U.S.C. 1324a(h)(2)) is amended to read as fol-21
lows: 22
‘‘(2) P
REEMPTION.— 23
‘‘(A) S
INGLE, NATIONAL POLICY.—The pro-24
visions of this section preempt any State or local 25
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law, ordinance, policy, or rule, including any 1
criminal or civil fine or penalty structure, inso-2
far as they may now or hereafter relate to the 3
hiring, continued employment, or status 4
verification for employment eligibility purposes, 5
of unauthorized aliens. 6
‘‘(B) S
TATE ENFORCEMENT OF FEDERAL 7
LAW.— 8
‘‘(i) B
USINESS LICENSING.—A State, 9
locality, municipality, or political subdivi-10
sion may exercise its authority over busi-11
ness licensing and similar laws as a pen-12
alty for failure to use the verification sys-13
tem described in subsection (d) to verify em-14
ployment eligibility when and as required 15
under subsection (b). 16
‘‘(ii) G
ENERAL RULES.—A State, at its 17
own cost, may enforce the provisions of this 18
section, but only insofar as such State fol-19
lows the Federal regulations implementing 20
this section, applies the Federal penalty 21
structure set out in this section, and com-22
plies with all Federal rules and guidance 23
concerning implementation of this section. 24
Such State may collect any fines assessed 25
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under this section. An employer may not be 1
subject to enforcement, including audit and 2
investigation, by both a Federal agency and 3
a State for the same violation under this 4
section. Whichever entity, the Federal agen-5
cy or the State, is first to initiate the en-6
forcement action, has the right of first re-7
fusal to proceed with the enforcement ac-8
tion. The Secretary must provide copies of 9
all guidance, training, and field instruc-10
tions provided to Federal officials imple-11
menting the provisions of this section to 12
each State.’’. 13
SEC. 707. REPEAL. 14
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subtitle A of title IV of the Illegal 15
Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 16
1996 (8 U.S.C. 1324a note) is repealed. 17
(b) R
EFERENCES.—Any reference in any Federal law, 18
Executive order, rule, regulation, or delegation of authority, 19
or any document of, or pertaining to, the Department of 20
Homeland Security, Department of Justice, or the Social 21
Security Administration, to the employment eligibility con-22
firmation system established under section 404 of the Illegal 23
Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 24
1996 (8 U.S.C. 1324a note) is deemed to refer to the employ-25
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ment eligibility confirmation system established under sec-1
tion 274A(d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as 2
amended by section 3 of this Act. 3
(c) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—This section shall take effect 4
on the date that is 30 months after the date of the enactment 5
of this Act. 6
(d) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of sections, in 7
section 1(d) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immi-8
grant Responsibility Act of 1996, is amended by striking 9
the items relating to subtitle A of title IV. 10
SEC. 708. PENALTIES. 11
Section 274A of the Immigration and Nationality Act 12
(8 U.S.C. 1324a) is amended— 13
(1) in subsection (e)(1)— 14
(A) by striking ‘‘Attorney General’’ each 15
place such term appears and inserting ‘‘Sec-16
retary of Homeland Security’’; and 17
(B) in subparagraph (D), by striking 18
‘‘Service’’ and inserting ‘‘Department of Home-19
land Security’’; 20
(2) in subsection (e)(4)— 21
(A) in subparagraph (A), in the matter be-22
fore clause (i), by inserting ‘‘, subject to para-23
graph (10),’’ after ‘‘in an amount’’; 24
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(B) in subparagraph (A)(i), by striking 1
‘‘not less than $250 and not more than $2,000’’ 2
and inserting ‘‘not less than $2,500 and not 3
more than $5,000’’; 4
(C) in subparagraph (A)(ii), by striking 5
‘‘not less than $2,000 and not more than $5,000’’ 6
and inserting ‘‘not less than $5,000 and not 7
more than $10,000’’; 8
(D) in subparagraph (A)(iii), by striking 9
‘‘not less than $3,000 and not more than 10
$10,000’’ and inserting ‘‘not less than $10,000 11
and not more than $25,000’’; and 12
(E) by moving the margin of the continu-13
ation text following subparagraph (B) two ems 14
to the left and by amending subparagraph (B) to 15
read as follows: 16
‘‘(B) may require the person or entity to 17
take such other remedial action as is appro-18
priate.’’; 19
(3) in subsection (e)(5)— 20
(A) in the paragraph heading, strike ‘‘
PA-21
PERWORK’’; 22
(B) by inserting ‘‘, subject to paragraphs 23
(10) through (12),’’ after ‘‘in an amount’’; 24
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(C) by striking ‘‘$100’’ and inserting 1
‘‘$1,000’’; 2
(D) by striking ‘‘$1,000’’ and inserting 3
‘‘$25,000’’; and 4
(E) by adding at the end the following: 5
‘‘Failure by a person or entity to utilize the em-6
ployment eligibility verification system as re-7
quired by law, or providing information to the 8
system that the person or entity knows or reason-9
ably believes to be false, shall be treated as a vio-10
lation of subsection (a)(1)(A).’’; 11
(4) by adding at the end of subsection (e) the fol-12
lowing: 13
‘‘(10) E
XEMPTION FROM PENALTY FOR GOOD 14
FAITH VIOLATION.—In the case of imposition of a 15
civil penalty under paragraph (4)(A) with respect to 16
a violation of subsection (a)(1)(A) or (a)(2) for hiring 17
or continuation of employment or recruitment or re-18
ferral by person or entity and in the case of imposi-19
tion of a civil penalty under paragraph (5) for a vio-20
lation of subsection (a)(1)(B) for hiring or recruit-21
ment or referral by a person or entity, the penalty 22
otherwise imposed may be waived or reduced if the vi-23
olator establishes that the violator acted in good faith. 24
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‘‘(11) MITIGATION ELEMENT.—For purposes of 1
paragraph (4), the size of the business shall be taken 2
into account when assessing the level of civil money 3
penalty. 4
‘‘(12) A
UTHORITY TO DEBAR EMPLOYERS FOR 5
CERTAIN VIOLATIONS.— 6
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—If a person or entity is 7
determined by the Secretary of Homeland Secu-8
rity to be a repeat violator of paragraph (1)(A) 9
or (2) of subsection (a), or is convicted of a 10
crime under this section, such person or entity 11
may be considered for debarment from the re-12
ceipt of Federal contracts, grants, or cooperative 13
agreements in accordance with the debarment 14
standards and pursuant to the debarment proce-15
dures set forth in the Federal Acquisition Regu-16
lation. 17
‘‘(B) D
OES NOT HAVE CONTRACT , GRANT, 18
AGREEMENT.—If the Secretary of Homeland Se-19
curity or the Attorney General wishes to have a 20
person or entity considered for debarment in ac-21
cordance with this paragraph, and such a person 22
or entity does not hold a Federal contract, grant, 23
or cooperative agreement, the Secretary or Attor-24
ney General shall refer the matter to the Admin-25
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istrator of General Services to determine whether 1
to list the person or entity on the List of Parties 2
Excluded from Federal Procurement, and if so, 3
for what duration and under what scope. 4
‘‘(C) H
AS CONTRACT, GRANT, AGREE-5
MENT.—If the Secretary of Homeland Security 6
or the Attorney General wishes to have a person 7
or entity considered for debarment in accordance 8
with this paragraph, and such person or entity 9
holds a Federal contract, grant, or cooperative 10
agreement, the Secretary or Attorney General 11
shall advise all agencies or departments holding 12
a contract, grant, or cooperative agreement with 13
the person or entity of the Government’s interest 14
in having the person or entity considered for de-15
barment, and after soliciting and considering the 16
views of all such agencies and departments, the 17
Secretary or Attorney General may refer the 18
matter to any appropriate lead agency to deter-19
mine whether to list the person or entity on the 20
List of Parties Excluded from Federal Procure-21
ment, and if so, for what duration and under 22
what scope. 23
‘‘(D) R
EVIEW.—Any decision to debar a 24
person or entity in accordance with this para-25
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graph shall be reviewable pursuant to part 9.4 of 1
the Federal Acquisition Regulation. 2
‘‘(13) O
FFICE FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERN -3
MENT COMPLAINTS.—The Secretary of Homeland Se-4
curity shall establish an office— 5
‘‘(A) to which State and local government 6
agencies may submit information indicating po-7
tential violations of subsection (a), (b), or (g)(1) 8
that were generated in the normal course of law 9
enforcement or the normal course of other official 10
activities in the State or locality; 11
‘‘(B) that is required to indicate to the com-12
plaining State or local agency within five busi-13
ness days of the filing of such a complaint by 14
identifying whether the Secretary will further in-15
vestigate the information provided; 16
‘‘(C) that is required to investigate those 17
complaints filed by State or local government 18
agencies that, on their face, have a substantial 19
probability of validity; 20
‘‘(D) that is required to notify the com-21
plaining State or local agency of the results of 22
any such investigation conducted; and 23
‘‘(E) that is required to report to the Con-24
gress annually the number of complaints received 25
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under this paragraph, the States and localities 1
that filed such complaints, and the resolution of 2
the complaints investigated by the Secretary.’’; 3
and 4
(5) by amending paragraph (1) of subsection (f) 5
to read as follows: 6
‘‘(1) C
RIMINAL PENALTY.—Any person or entity 7
which engages in a pattern or practice of violations 8
of subsection (a) (1) or (2) shall be fined not more 9
than $5,000 for each unauthorized alien with respect 10
to which such a violation occurs, imprisoned for not 11
more than 18 months, or both, notwithstanding the 12
provisions of any other Federal law relating to fine 13
levels.’’. 14
SEC. 709. FRAUD AND MISUSE OF DOCUMENTS. 15
Section 1546(b) of title 18, United States Code, is 16
amended— 17
(1) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘identification 18
document,’’ and inserting ‘‘identification document or 19
document meant to establish work authorization (in-20
cluding the documents described in section 274A(b) of 21
the Immigration and Nationality Act),’’; and 22
(2) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘identification 23
document’’ and inserting ‘‘identification document or 24
document meant to establish work authorization (in-25
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cluding the documents described in section 274A(b) of 1
the Immigration and Nationality Act),’’. 2
SEC. 710. PROTECTION OF SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRA-3
TION PROGRAMS. 4
(a) F
UNDINGUNDERAGREEMENT.—Effective for fis-5
cal years beginning on or after October 1, 2023, the Com-6
missioner of Social Security and the Secretary of Homeland 7
Security shall enter into and maintain an agreement which 8
shall— 9
(1) provide funds to the Commissioner for the 10
full costs of the responsibilities of the Commissioner 11
under section 274A(d) of the Immigration and Na-12
tionality Act (8 U.S.C. 1324a(d)), as amended by sec-13
tion 3 of this Act, including (but not limited to)— 14
(A) acquiring, installing, and maintaining 15
technological equipment and systems necessary 16
for the fulfillment of the responsibilities of the 17
Commissioner under such section 274A(d), but 18
only that portion of such costs that are attrib-19
utable exclusively to such responsibilities; and 20
(B) responding to individuals who contest a 21
tentative nonconfirmation provided by the em-22
ployment eligibility verification system estab-23
lished under such section; 24
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(2) provide such funds annually in advance of 1
the applicable quarter based on estimating method-2
ology agreed to by the Commissioner and the Sec-3
retary (except in such instances where the delayed en-4
actment of an annual appropriation may preclude 5
such quarterly payments); and 6
(3) require an annual accounting and reconcili-7
ation of the actual costs incurred and the funds pro-8
vided under the agreement, which shall be reviewed by 9
the Inspectors General of the Social Security Admin-10
istration and the Department of Homeland Security. 11
(b) C
ONTINUATION OFEMPLOYMENTVERIFICATION IN 12
A
BSENCE OFTIMELYAGREEMENT.—In any case in which 13
the agreement required under subsection (a) for any fiscal 14
year beginning on or after October 1, 2023, has not been 15
reached as of October 1 of such fiscal year, the latest agree-16
ment between the Commissioner and the Secretary of Home-17
land Security providing for funding to cover the costs of 18
the responsibilities of the Commissioner under section 19
274A(d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 20
1324a(d)) shall be deemed in effect on an interim basis for 21
such fiscal year until such time as an agreement required 22
under subsection (a) is subsequently reached, except that the 23
terms of such interim agreement shall be modified by the 24
Director of the Office of Management and Budget to adjust 25
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for inflation and any increase or decrease in the volume 1
of requests under the employment eligibility verification 2
system. In any case in which an interim agreement applies 3
for any fiscal year under this subsection, the Commissioner 4
and the Secretary shall, not later than October 1 of such 5
fiscal year, notify the Committee on Ways and Means, the 6
Committee on the Judiciary, and the Committee on Appro-7
priations of the House of Representatives and the Com-8
mittee on Finance, the Committee on the Judiciary, and 9
the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate of the fail-10
ure to reach the agreement required under subsection (a) 11
for such fiscal year. Until such time as the agreement re-12
quired under subsection (a) has been reached for such fiscal 13
year, the Commissioner and the Secretary shall, not later 14
than the end of each 90-day period after October 1 of such 15
fiscal year, notify such Committees of the status of negotia-16
tions between the Commissioner and the Secretary in order 17
to reach such an agreement. 18
SEC. 711. FRAUD PREVENTION. 19
(a) B
LOCKINGMISUSEDSOCIALSECURITYACCOUNT 20
N
UMBERS.—The Secretary of Homeland Security, in con-21
sultation with the Commissioner of Social Security, shall 22
establish a program in which social security account num-23
bers that have been identified to be subject to unusual mul-24
tiple use in the employment eligibility verification system 25
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established under section 274A(d) of the Immigration and 1
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1324a(d)), as amended by section 2
3 of this Act, or that are otherwise suspected or determined 3
to have been compromised by identity fraud or other misuse, 4
shall be blocked from use for such system purposes unless 5
the individual using such number is able to establish, 6
through secure and fair additional security procedures, that 7
the individual is the legitimate holder of the number. 8
(b) A
LLOWINGSUSPENSION OFUSE OFCERTAINSO-9
CIALSECURITYACCOUNTNUMBERS.—The Secretary of 10
Homeland Security, in consultation with the Commissioner 11
of Social Security, shall establish a program which shall 12
provide a reliable, secure method by which victims of iden-13
tity fraud and other individuals may suspend or limit the 14
use of their social security account number or other identi-15
fying information for purposes of the employment eligibility 16
verification system established under section 274A(d) of the 17
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1324a(d)), as 18
amended by section 3 of this Act. The Secretary may imple-19
ment the program on a limited pilot program basis before 20
making it fully available to all individuals. 21
(c) A
LLOWINGPARENTSTOPREVENTTHEFT OF 22
T
HEIRCHILD’SIDENTITY.—The Secretary of Homeland 23
Security, in consultation with the Commissioner of Social 24
Security, shall establish a program which shall provide a 25
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reliable, secure method by which parents or legal guardians 1
may suspend or limit the use of the social security account 2
number or other identifying information of a minor under 3
their care for the purposes of the employment eligibility 4
verification system established under 274A(d) of the Immi-5
gration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1324a(d)), as 6
amended by section 3 of this Act. The Secretary may imple-7
ment the program on a limited pilot program basis before 8
making it fully available to all individuals. 9
SEC. 712. USE OF EMPLOYMENT ELIGIBILITY VERIFICATION 10
PHOTO TOOL. 11
An employer who uses the photo matching tool used 12
as part of the E-Verify System shall match the photo tool 13
photograph to both the photograph on the identity or em-14
ployment eligibility document provided by the employee 15
and to the face of the employee submitting the document 16
for employment verification purposes. 17
SEC. 713. IDENTITY AUTHENTICATION EMPLOYMENT ELIGI-18
BILITY VERIFICATION PILOT PROGRAMS. 19
Not later than 24 months after the date of the enact-20
ment of this Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security, after 21
consultation with the Commissioner of Social Security and 22
the Director of the National Institute of Standards and 23
Technology, shall establish by regulation not less than 2 24
Identity Authentication Employment Eligibility 25
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Verification pilot programs, each using a separate and dis-1
tinct technology (the ‘‘Authentication Pilots’’). The purpose 2
of the Authentication Pilots shall be to provide for identity 3
authentication and employment eligibility verification with 4
respect to enrolled new employees which shall be available 5
to any employer that elects to participate in either of the 6
Authentication Pilots. Any participating employer may 7
cancel the employer’s participation in the Authentication 8
Pilot after one year after electing to participate without 9
prejudice to future participation. The Secretary shall report 10
to the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Rep-11
resentatives and the Committee on the Judiciary of the Sen-12
ate the Secretary’s findings on the Authentication Pilots, 13
including the authentication technologies chosen, not later 14
than 12 months after commencement of the Authentication 15
Pilots. 16
SEC. 714. INSPECTOR GENERAL AUDITS. 17
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the date 18
of the enactment of this Act, the Inspector General of the 19
Social Security Administration shall complete audits of the 20
following categories in order to uncover evidence of individ-21
uals who are not authorized to work in the United States: 22
(1) Workers who dispute wages reported on their 23
social security account number when they believe 24
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someone else has used such number and name to re-1
port wages. 2
(2) Children’s social security account numbers 3
used for work purposes. 4
(3) Employers whose workers present significant 5
numbers of mismatched social security account num-6
bers or names for wage reporting. 7
(b) S
UBMISSION.—The Inspector General of the Social 8
Security Administration shall submit the audits completed 9
under subsection (a) to the Committee on Ways and Means 10
of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Fi-11
nance of the Senate for review of the evidence of individuals 12
who are not authorized to work in the United States. The 13
Chairmen of those Committees shall then determine infor-14
mation to be shared with the Secretary of Homeland Secu-15
rity so that such Secretary can investigate the unauthorized 16
employment demonstrated by such evidence. 17
SEC. 715. AGRICULTURE WORKFORCE STUDY. 18
Not later than 36 months after the date of enactment, 19
the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, in 20
consultation with the Secretary of the Department of Agri-21
culture, shall submit to the Committee on the Judiciary of 22
the House of Representatives and the Committee on the Ju-23
diciary of the Senate, a report that includes the following: 24
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(1) The number of individuals in the agricul-1
tural workforce. 2
(2) The number of U.S. citizens in the agricul-3
tural workforce. 4
(3) The number of aliens in the agricultural 5
workforce who are authorized to work in the United 6
States. 7
(4) The number of aliens in the agricultural 8
workforce who are not authorized to work in the 9
United States. 10
(5) Wage growth in each of the previous ten 11
years, disaggregated by agricultural sector. 12
(6) The percentage of total agricultural industry 13
costs represented by agricultural labor during each of 14
the last ten years. 15
(7) The percentage of agricultural costs invested 16
in mechanization during each of the last ten years. 17
(8) Recommendations, other than a path to legal 18
status for aliens not authorized to work in the United 19
States, for ensuring U.S. agricultural employers have 20
a workforce sufficient to cover industry needs, includ-21
ing recommendations to— 22
(A) increase investments in mechanization; 23
(B) increase the domestic workforce; and 24
(C) reform the H-2A program. 25
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SEC. 716. REPEALING REGULATIONS. 1
The rules relating to ‘‘Temporary Agricultural Em-2
ployment of H-2A Nonimmigrants in the United States’’ 3
(87 Fed. Reg. 61660 (Oct. 12, 2022)) and to ‘‘Adverse Effect 4
Wage Rate Methodology for the Temporary Employment of 5
H-2A Nonimmigrants in Non-Range Occupations in the 6
United States’’ (88 Fed. Reg. 12760 (Feb. 28, 2023)) shall 7
have no force or effect, may not be reissued in substantially 8
the same form, and any new rules that are substantially 9
the same as such rules may not be issued. 10
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31 
118
TH
CONGRESS 
1
ST
S
ESSION
 
H. R. 2640 
[Report No. 118–47, Part I] 
A BILL 
To provide for reform of the asylum system and 
protection of the border. 
M
AY
5, 2023 
Reported from the Committee on the Judiciary with an 
amendment 
M
AY
5, 2023 
Committees on Ways and Means, Education and the 
Workforce, and Homeland Security discharged; com-
mitted to the Committee of the Whole House on the 
State of the Union and ordered to be printed 
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