Refugee Program Integrity Restoration Act of 2016

Summary: Refugee Program Integrity Restoration Act of 2016 This bill amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to: (1) establish the number of annual refugee admissions at 60,000, (2) authorize the President to submit an adjustment recommendation to Congress for approval based upon humanitarian or national interest concerns, and (3) provide that the President must submit emergency refugee admission recommendations to Congress for approval. The President shall (currently, may) terminate the refugee status of a person not entitled to such status. Refugee status is terminated for an individual who applied for such status because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution in the country from which he or she sought refuge on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, but who has returned to such country absent changed conditions. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shall, when processing refugee applications from individuals seeking refuge from a &quot;country of particular concern,&quot; grant priority to minority religion applicants whose claims are based on persecution because of their religion. DHS may conduct recurrent background security checks of an admitted refugee until the refugee adjusts to permanent resident status. Waiver authorities are limited with respect to refugee inadmissibility and permanent resident status adjustment. With respect to refugee status adjustment to permanent resident: (1) required U.S. residency is increased to three years; (2) an in-person DHS interview is required; (3) five-year reexaminations are required for a refugee whose status adjustment is refused; and (4) deportability grounds, with an exception for public charge grounds, shall be grounds for refusal of status adjustment. Resettlement of any refugee may not be provided for in any state or locality where the governor, chief executive, or legislature has taken action disapproving such resettlement. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) shall complete a refugee processing fraud study. DHS shall: (1) establish a program to detect the use of fraudulent documents in refugee admissions applications, which shall include placement of fraud detection officers at screening locations; and (2) use digital recording technology to record USCIS refugee interviews.  A person may not be considered a refugee if such person fled from violence in his or her country of nationality (or of last habitual residence for a person with no nationality) if the violence: (1) was not specifically directed at the person; or (2) was specifically directed at the person but not because of that person's race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. Prior to U.S. refugee admission, DHS shall ensure that an alien is not a threat to U.S. national security based on a background check that includes a review of the alien's open source Internet interactions, including social media services.

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Refugee Program Integrity 
Restoration Act of 2016''.

SEC. 2. ANNUAL ADJUSTMENT OF THE NUMBER OF ADMISSIBLE REFUGEES.

    (a) In General.--Section 207(a)(2) of the Immigration and 
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1157(a)(2)) is amended by striking all that 
follows after ``shall be'' and inserting the following: ``60,000. The 
President may, after appropriate consultation, submit a recommendation 
to Congress for the revision of such number not later than 6 months 
prior to the beginning of such fiscal year, setting forth the 
justification for such revision due to humanitarian concerns or that 
such revision is otherwise in the national interest.''.
    (b) In Cases of Emergencies.--Section 207(b) of the Immigration and 
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1157(b)) is amended--
            (1) by striking ``the President may fix a number of 
        refugees'' and inserting the following: ``the President may 
        submit to Congress a recommended number of refugees''; and
            (2) by striking all that follows after ``to the emergency 
        refugee situation'' and inserting a period.

SEC. 3. TERMINATION OF REFUGEE STATUS.

    Section 207(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 
1157(c)), as amended by this Act, is further amended--
            (1) in paragraph (4)--
                    (A) by striking ``may'' each place it appears and 
                inserting ``shall'';
                    (B) by inserting after ``determines'' the 
                following: ``--'';
                    (C) by striking ``that the alien was not'' and 
                inserting the following:
                    ``(A) that the alien was not'';
                    (D) by striking the period at the end and inserting 
                ``; or''; and
                    (E) by adding at the end the following:
                    ``(B) that the alien, who applied for such status 
                because of persecution or a well-founded fear of 
                persecution in the country from which they sought 
                refuge on account of race, religion, nationality, 
                membership in a particular social group, or political 
                opinion, returned to such country absent changed 
                conditions therein.''; and
            (2) by inserting after paragraph (4) the following:
            ``(5) Each fiscal year, the Secretary shall submit to the 
        Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives and 
        the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate a report that 
        includes the number of terminations of status under paragraph 
        (4), disaggregated by whether the termination occurred pursuant 
        to subparagraph (A) or (B) of such paragraph.''.

SEC. 4. PRIORITY CONSIDERATION FOR CERTAIN APPLICANTS FOR REFUGEE 
              STATUS.

    Section 207(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 
1157(c)), as amended by this Act, is further is amended--
            (1) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(6) When processing refugee applications from individuals 
        seeking refuge from a country listed as a `Country of 
        Particular Concern' in the annual report of the Commission on 
        International Religious Freedom under section 203 of the 
        International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 for the year prior 
        to the current year, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall 
        grant priority consideration to such applicants whose claims 
        are based on persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution 
        based on religion by reason of those applicants being 
        practitioners of a minority religion in the country from which 
        they sought refuge.''; and
            (2) by striking ``Attorney General'' each place it appears 
        and inserting ``Secretary of Homeland Security''.

SEC. 5. LIMITATION OF WAIVER AUTHORITY ON ADMISSION OF REFUGEES.

    Section 207(c)(3) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 
1157(c)(3)) is amended by striking ``any other provision of such 
section (other than paragraph (2)(C) or subparagraph (A), (B), (C), or 
(E) of paragraph (3))'' and inserting ``paragraph (1) of section 
212(a)''.

SEC. 6. RECURRENT SECURITY MONITORING.

    Section 207 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1157) 
is amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(g) The Secretary may conduct recurrent background security 
checks of an admitted refugee until such date as the refugee adjusts 
status under section 209.''.

SEC. 7. ADJUSTMENT OF STATUS OF REFUGEES.

    Section 209(a)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 
1159(a)(1)) is amended--
            (1) in subparagraph (B), by striking ``for at least one 
        year'' and inserting ``for 3 years''; and
            (2) by striking ``shall, at the end of such year period'' 
        and inserting ``shall, at the end of such period''.

SEC. 8. LIMITATION OF WAIVER AUTHORITY ON ADJUSTMENT OF STATUS OF 
              REFUGEES.

    (a) Grounds for Inadmissibility.--Section 209(c) of the Immigration 
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1159(c)) is amended by striking ``any 
other provision of such section (other than paragraph (2)(C) or 
subparagraph (A), (B), (C), or (E) of paragraph (3))'' and inserting 
``paragraph (1) of section 212(a)''.
    (b) Grounds of Deportability; In-Person Interview Required; 
Required Reexamination for Admission.--Section 209 of the Immigration 
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1159) is amended by adding at the end the 
following:
    ``(d) Coordination With Section 237.--An alien may not adjust 
status under this section if the alien is deportable under section 237, 
except that section 237(a)(5) shall not apply for purposes of this 
subsection.
    ``(e) In-Person Interview Requirements.--An alien may not adjust 
status under this section unless, at the time of application for 
adjustment, the alien establishes by clear and convincing evidence 
during an in-person interview with the Secretary of Homeland Security 
that the alien continues to meet the requirements of section 
101(a)(42).
    ``(f) Required Reexamination for Admission.--An alien who is 
admitted as a refugee who is denied admission under subsection (a)(1) 
shall, beginning on the date that is 5 years after such denial, and 
every 5 years thereafter, if that alien retains status as a refugee, 
return or be returned to the custody of the Department of Homeland 
Security for inspection and examination for admission to the United 
States as an immigrant in accordance with the provisions of sections 
235, 240, and 241.''.

SEC. 9. LIMITATION ON RESETTLEMENT.

    Section 412 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1522) 
is amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(g) Limitation on Resettlement.--Notwithstanding any other 
provision of this section, for a fiscal year, the resettlement of any 
refugee may not be provided for--
            ``(1) in any State where the Governor of that State, or the 
        State legislature, has taken any action formally disapproving 
        of resettlement in that State; or
            ``(2) in any locality where the chief executive of that 
        locality's government, or the local legislature, has taken any 
        action formally disapproving of resettlement in that 
        locality.''.

SEC. 10. BENEFIT FRAUD ASSESSMENT.

    Not later than 540 days after the date of enactment of this Act, 
the Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate of U.S. 
Citizenship and Immigration Services shall--
            (1) complete a study on the processing of refugees by 
        officers and employees of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration 
        Services including an identification of the most common ways in 
        which fraud occurs in such processing and recommendations for 
        the prevention of fraud in such processing; and
            (2) submit a report on such study to the Committee on the 
        Judiciary of the House of Representatives and the Committee on 
        the Judiciary of the Senate.

SEC. 11. DOCUMENT FRAUD DETECTION PROGRAM.

    Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the 
Secretary of Homeland Security shall establish a program for detecting 
the use of fraudulent documents in applications for admission as a 
refugee, including--
            (1) placement of Fraud Detection and National Security 
        officials who are under the direction of the Fraud Detection 
        and National Security Directorate of U.S. Citizenship and 
        Immigration Services at initial refugee screening in 
        conjunction with the resettlement agency and with the authority 
        to hold a refugee application in abeyance until any fraud or 
        national security concerns are resolved; and
            (2) creation of a searchable database of scanned and 
        categorized documents proffered by applicants at initial 
        refugee screening to allow for discovery of fraud trends and 
        random translation verification within such documents.

SEC. 12. RECORDING OF INTERVIEWS TO PROTECT REFUGEES AND PREVENT FRAUD.

    (a) In General.--The Secretary of Homeland Security shall use 
digital recording technology to record each interview of an alien 
applying for admission as a refugee under section 207 of the 
Immigration and Nationality Act by an officer or employee of the U.S. 
Citizenship and Immigration Services.
    (b) Auditing of Translations.--The Secretary shall randomly select 
a number of interviews conducted, with the assistance of an 
interpreter, during each refugee circuit ride, equal to 20 percent of 
the total number of interviews conducted with the assistance of an 
interpreter during such circuit ride and review each such selected 
interview in order to determine whether any interpreter who 
participated in the interview incorrectly interpreted any portion of 
the interview (other than a de minimis error in translation). Such 
reviews shall take place prior to approval or denial of any application 
for admission as a refugee submitted at that location.
    (c) In Cases of Mistranslations.--If the Secretary determines that 
the interpreter incorrectly interpreted any portion of the interview 
(other than a de minimis error in translation)--
            (1) the interpreter shall be barred from subsequently 
        serving as an interpreter for immigration purposes; and
            (2) no action shall be taken regarding the application 
        until the applicant has been reinterviewed.

SEC. 13. LIMITATION ON QUALIFICATION AS A REFUGEE.

    Section 101(a)(42) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 
1101(a)(42)) is amended by inserting ``For purposes of this paragraph, 
a person may not be considered a refugee solely or in part because the 
person is displaced due to, or is fleeing from, violence in the country 
of such person's nationality or, in the case of a person having no 
nationality, the country in which such person last habitually resided, 
if that violence is not specifically directed at the person, or, if it 
is directed specifically at the person, it is not directed at the 
person on account of that person's race, religion, nationality, 
membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.'' before 
``The term `refugee' does not include''.

SEC. 14. SECURITY REQUIREMENTS FOR REFUGEES.

    Prior to admitting to the United States as a refugee under section 
207 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1157) an alien, 
the Secretary of Homeland Security shall ensure that the alien does not 
pose a threat to the national security of the United States based on a 
background check that the Secretary conducts, which includes a review 
of the alien's open source interactions on and posting of material to 
the Internet (including social media services).

SEC. 15. GAO REPORT ON U.S. REFUGEE ADMISSIONS PROGRAM.

    Not later than 18 months after the date of enactment of this Act, 
the Comptroller General of the United States shall conduct a review and 
report to Congress on the following:
            (1) The security of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, 
        including an examination of--
                    (A) how the U.S. Government conducts security 
                screening and background checks, including the agencies 
                or U.S. Government partners involved and the systems 
                and databases used;
                    (B) how the U.S. Government determines whether 
                applicants are eligible for refugee resettlement and 
                admissible to the United States; and
                    (C) the number of individuals who were admitted 
                into the United States as refugees and subsequently 
                convicted as a result of a terrorism-related 
                investigation by the U.S. Government since fiscal year 
                2006.
            (2) Federally funded benefit programs for which aliens 
        admitted into the United States under section 207 of the 
        Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1157) are eligible, 
        as well as what is known about their participation in these 
        programs.