II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 505
To amend section 212(d)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to
reform immigration parole, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY16, 2023
Mr. G
RASSLEY(for himself, Mr. COTTON, Mr. CASSIDY, Mr. VANCE, Mr.
L
ANKFORD, Mr. TUBERVILLE, Mrs. BRITT, Mr. LEE, and Ms. ERNST)
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To amend section 212(d)(5) of the Immigration and Nation-
ality Act to reform immigration parole, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Immigration Parole 4
Reform Act of 2023’’. 5
SEC. 2. IMMIGRATION PAROLE REFORM. 6
Section 212(d)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality 7
Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(d)(5)) is amended to read as follows: 8
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‘‘(5)(A) Except as provided in subparagraphs (B) 1
and (C) and section 214(f), the Secretary of Homeland 2
Security, in the discretion of the Secretary, may tempo-3
rarily parole into the United States any alien applying for 4
admission to the United States who is not present in the 5
United States, under such conditions as the Secretary may 6
prescribe, on a case-by-case basis, and not according to 7
eligibility criteria describing an entire class of potential 8
parole recipients, for urgent humanitarian reasons or sig-9
nificant public benefit. Parole granted under this subpara-10
graph may not be regarded as an admission of the alien. 11
When the purposes of such parole have been served in the 12
opinion of the Secretary, the alien shall immediately re-13
turn or be returned to the custody from which the alien 14
was paroled. After such return, the case of the alien shall 15
be dealt with in the same manner as the case of any other 16
applicant for admission to the United States. 17
‘‘(B) The Secretary of Homeland Security may grant 18
parole to any alien who— 19
‘‘(i) is present in the United States without 20
lawful immigration status; 21
‘‘(ii) is the beneficiary of an approved petition 22
under section 203(a); 23
‘‘(iii) is not otherwise inadmissible or remov-24
able; and 25
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‘‘(iv) is the spouse or child of a member of the 1
Armed Forces serving on active duty. 2
‘‘(C) The Secretary of Homeland Security may grant 3
parole to any alien— 4
‘‘(i) who is a national of the Republic of Cuba 5
and is living in the Republic of Cuba; 6
‘‘(ii) who is the beneficiary of an approved peti-7
tion under section 203(a); 8
‘‘(iii) for whom an immigrant visa is not imme-9
diately available; 10
‘‘(iv) who meets all eligibility requirements for 11
an immigrant visa; 12
‘‘(v) who is not otherwise inadmissible; and 13
‘‘(vi) who is receiving a grant of parole in fur-14
therance of the commitment of the United States to 15
the minimum level of annual legal migration of 16
Cuban nationals to the United States specified in 17
the U.S.–Cuba Joint Communique´on Migration, 18
done at New York September 9, 1994, and re-19
affirmed in the Cuba-United States: Joint Statement 20
on Normalization of Migration, Building on the 21
Agreement of September 9, 1994, done at New York 22
May 2, 1995. 23
‘‘(D) For purposes of determining an alien’s eligi-24
bility for parole under subparagraph (A), an urgent hu-25
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manitarian reason shall be limited to circumstances in 1
which the alien establishes that— 2
‘‘(i)(I) the alien has a medical emergency; and 3
‘‘(II)(aa) the alien cannot obtain necessary 4
treatment in the foreign state in which the alien is 5
residing; or 6
‘‘(bb) the medical emergency is life-threatening 7
and there is insufficient time for the alien to be ad-8
mitted through the normal visa process; 9
‘‘(ii) the alien is the parent or legal guardian of 10
an alien described in clause (i) and the alien de-11
scribed in clause (i) is a minor; 12
‘‘(iii) the alien is needed in the United States 13
in order to donate an organ or other tissue for 14
transplant and there is insufficient time for the alien 15
to be admitted through the normal visa process; 16
‘‘(iv) the alien has a close family member in the 17
United States whose death is imminent and the alien 18
could not arrive in the United States in time to see 19
such family member alive if the alien were to be ad-20
mitted through the normal visa process; 21
‘‘(v) the alien is seeking to attend the funeral 22
of a close family member and the alien could not ar-23
rive in the United States in time to attend such fu-24
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neral if the alien were to be admitted through the 1
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 9
to the United States after temporary travel abroad. 10
‘‘(E) For purposes of determining an alien’s eligi-11
bility for parole under subparagraph (A), a significant 12
public benefit may be determined to result from the parole 13
of an alien only if— 14
‘‘(i) the alien has assisted (or will assist, wheth-15
er knowingly or not) the United States Government 16
in a law enforcement matter; 17
‘‘(ii) the alien’s presence is required by the Gov-18
ernment in furtherance of such law enforcement 19
matter; 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 through the normal visa process. 24
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‘‘(F) For purposes of determining an alien’s eligi-1
bility for parole under subparagraph (A), the term ‘case- 2
by-case basis’ means that the facts in each individual case 3
are considered and parole is not granted based on mem-4
bership in a defined class of aliens to be granted parole. 5
The fact that aliens are considered for or granted parole 6
one-by-one and not as a group is not sufficient to establish 7
that the parole decision is made on a ‘case-by-case basis’. 8
‘‘(G) The Secretary of Homeland Security may not 9
use the parole authority under this paragraph to parole 10
an alien into the United States for any reason or purpose 11
other than those described in subparagraphs (B), (C), (D), 12
and (E). 13
‘‘(H) 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
‘‘(I) Parole granted after a departure from the 20
United States shall not be regarded as an admission of 21
the alien. An alien granted parole, whether as an initial 22
grant of parole or parole upon reentry into the United 23
States, is not eligible to adjust status to lawful permanent 24
residence or for any other immigration benefit if the immi-25
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gration status the alien had at the time of departure did 1
not authorize the alien to adjust status or to be eligible 2
for such benefit. 3
‘‘(J)(i) Except as provided in clauses (ii) and (iii), 4
parole shall be granted to an alien under this paragraph 5
for the shorter of— 6
‘‘(I) a period of sufficient length to accomplish 7
the activity described in subparagraph (D) or (E) 8
for which the alien was granted parole; or 9
‘‘(II) 1 year. 10
‘‘(ii) Grants of parole pursuant to subparagraph (A) 11
may be extended once, in the discretion of the Secretary, 12
for an additional period that is the shorter of— 13
‘‘(I) the period that is necessary to accomplish 14
the activity described in subparagraph (D) or (E) 15
for which the alien was granted parole; or 16
‘‘(II) 1 year. 17
‘‘(iii) Aliens who have a pending application to adjust 18
status to permanent residence under section 245 may re-19
quest extensions of parole under this paragraph, in 1-year 20
increments, until the application for adjustment has been 21
adjudicated. Such parole shall terminate immediately upon 22
the denial of such adjustment application. 23
‘‘(K) Not later than 90 days after the last day of 24
each fiscal year, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall 25
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submit to the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate 1
and the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Rep-2
resentatives and make available to the public, a report— 3
‘‘(i) identifying the total number of aliens pa-4
roled into the United States under this paragraph 5
during the previous fiscal year; and 6
‘‘(ii) containing information and data regarding 7
all aliens paroled during such fiscal year, includ-8
ing— 9
‘‘(I) the duration of parole; 10
‘‘(II) the type of parole; and 11
‘‘(III) the current status of the aliens so 12
paroled.’’. 13
SEC. 3. IMPLEMENTATION. 14
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Except as provided in subsection 15
(b), this Act and the amendments made by this Act shall 16
take effect on the date that is 30 days after the date of 17
the enactment of this Act. 18
(b) E
XCEPTIONS.—Notwithstanding subsection (a)— 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)(I) of the Immigration and 3
Nationality Act, as added by section 2(b), shall take 4
effect on the date of the enactment of this Act; and 5
(3) aliens who were paroled into the United 6
States pursuant to section 212(d)(5)(A) of the Im-7
migration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 8
1182(d)(5)(A)) before January 1, 2023, shall con-9
tinue to be subject to the terms of parole that were 10
in effect on the date on which their respective parole 11
was approved. 12
SEC. 4. CAUSE OF ACTION. 13
Any person, State, or local government that experi-14
ences financial harm in excess of $1,000 due to a failure 15
of the Federal Government to lawfully apply the provisions 16
of this Act or the amendments made by this Act shall have 17
standing to bring a civil action against the Federal Gov-18
ernment in an appropriate district court of the United 19
States. 20
SEC. 5. SEVERABILITY. 21
If any provision of this Act or any amendment by 22
this Act, or the application of such provision or amend-23
ment to any person or circumstance, is held to be uncon-24
stitutional, the remainder of this Act and the application 25
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of such provision or amendment to any other person or 1
circumstance shall not be affected. 2
Æ
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