I
103D CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 3162
To provide for expedited asylum and exclusion procedures for certain aliens
and to provide for enhanced penalties for alien smuggling and asylum abuse.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
SEPTEMBER 28, 1993
Mr. NADLER (for himself and Mr. BECERRA) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To provide for expedited asylum and exclusion procedures
for certain aliens and to provide for enhanced penalties
for alien smuggling and asylum abuse.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; REFERENCES IN ACT; TABLE OF
CONTENTS.
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the
‘‘Asylum at Ports of Entry System Improvements Act of
1993’’.
(b) REFERENCES TO IMMIGRATION AND NATIONAL-
ITY ACT.—Except as otherwise expressly provided, when-
ever in this Act an amendment or repeal is expressed in
terms of an amendment to, or repeal of, a section or other
provision, the reference shall be considered to be made to
a section or other provision of the Immigration and Na-
tionality Act.
(c) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents of
this Act is as follows:
Sec. 1. Short title; references in Act.
Sec. 2. Expedited consideration and exclusion procedures for asylum claims by
persons with missing or fraudulent documents.
Sec. 3. Enhanced penalties for alien smuggling and asylum abuse.
Sec. 4. Definitions.
Sec. 5. Effective date.
SEC. 2. EXPEDITED CONSIDERATION AND EXCLUSION PRO-
CEDURES FOR ASYLUM CLAIMS BY PERSONS
WITH 
MISSING 
OR 
FRAUDULENT 
DOCU-
MENTS.
(a) ADMISSIONS FRAUD.—Section 212(a)(6)(C) (8
U.S.C. 1182(a)(6)(C)) is amended—
(1) in the section heading by striking ‘‘MIS-
REPRESENTATION’’ and inserting ‘‘FRAUD, MIS-
REPRESENTATION, AND FAILURE TO PRESENT
DOCUMENTS’’,
(2) in clause (i) by inserting ‘‘or clause (ii)’’
after ‘‘clause (i)’’;
(3) by redesignating clause (ii) as clause (iii),
and
(4) by inserting after clause (i) the following
new clause:
‘‘(ii) FRAUDULENT DOCUMENTS AND
FAILURE TO PRESENT DOCUMENTS.—
‘‘(I) Any alien who, in seeking
entry to the United States or board-
ing a common carrier for the purpose
of coming to the United States, pre-
sents any document which, in the de-
termination of the immigration officer
to whom the document is presented, is
forged, counterfeit, altered, falsely
made, stolen, or inapplicable to the
alien presenting the document, or oth-
erwise contains a misrepresentation of
a material fact, is excludable.
‘‘(II) Any alien who, in entering
the United States or boarding a com-
mon carrier for the purpose of coming
to the United States, presents a docu-
ment which relates or purports to re-
late to the alien’s eligibility to enter
the United States, and willfully fails
to present such document to an immi-
gration officer upon arrival at a port
of entry into the United States, is ex-
cludable.’’.
(b) EXPEDITED EXCLUSION PROCEDURES.—The Im-
migration and Nationality Act is amended by inserting
after section 235 the following new section:
‘‘EXPEDITED PROCEDURES FOR CERTAIN ASYLUM CASES
‘‘SEC. 235A. (a) SENIOR ASYLUM OFFICERS; SPE-
CIAL MOBILE ASYLUM TEAM.—
‘‘(1) SENIOR ASYLUM OFFICERS.—The Attorney
General shall designate a class of asylum officers
having at least 2 years of experience in asylum adju-
dications as senior asylum officers who shall perform
duties under this section at United States airports
and other ports of entry in the United States.
‘‘(2) SPECIAL MOBILE ASYLUM TEAM.—
‘‘(A) The Attorney General may, from time
to time, designate from among the senior asy-
lum officers provided for in paragraph (1) such
officers as the Attorney General considers nec-
essary to constitute a Special Mobile Asylum
Team to help manage large scale asylum situa-
tions or to conduct spot checks at United
States airports or other ports of entry in the
United States.
‘‘(B) Funds appropriated subject to section
404(b) shall be available to the Attorney Gen-
eral for mobilizing the Special Mobile Asylum
Team in emergency large scale asylum situa-
tions.
‘‘(b) EXAMINATION BY IMMIGRATION OFFICER.—
‘‘(1) Any alien who is believed by the examining
immigration officer, based on reasonable suspicion
grounded on articulable facts, to be excludable under
section 212(a)(6)(C) but who requests, or indicates
a desire for, asylum shall be detained for further in-
quiry to be conducted by a senior asylum officer
promptly after the alien’s arrival.
‘‘(2) Whenever any such officer has reason to
believe that an alien who is otherwise excludable
under section 212(a)(6)(C) of such Act may have a
claim to asylum, such officer shall inform the alien
of his right to apply for asylum and inquire of the
alien to determine if the alien desires to request asy-
lum.
‘‘(c) DETERMINATIONS BY SENIOR ASYLUM OFFI-
CER.—
‘‘(1) For each case under subsection (b), the
senior asylum officer shall determine only—
‘‘(A) whether the alien has a nonfrivolous
claim for asylum; and
‘‘(B) whether the alien has been firmly re-
settled in another nation.
‘‘(2) In each case under this subsection, the
alien shall have the opportunity to be represented by
counsel of his choosing (at no expense to the Gov-
ernment).
‘‘(d) INELIGIBILITY FOR ASYLUM AND EXCLUSION.—
(1)(A) If the senior asylum officer determines that the
alien’s claim to asylum is frivolous or that the alien has
been firmly resettled in another nation, the officer shall
find the alien ineligible for asylum and shall order the
alien excluded from the United States. The alien shall be
held in detention pending final disposition of the alien’s
case, except where the Attorney General determines that
the alien’s detention is not in the public interest.
‘‘(B) Any alien ordered excluded under subparagraph
(A) shall be ineligible for withholding of deportation under
section 243.
‘‘(2) The exclusion of an alien in the United States
under paragraph (1) shall be directed by the Attorney
General to a country promptly designated by the alien if
that country is willing to accept the alien into its territory,
unless the Attorney General concludes that deportation to
such country would be prejudicial to the interests of the
United States. No alien shall be permitted to make more
than one such designation. If the government of the coun-
try designated by the alien fails to advise the Attorney
General within 5 days following the original inquiry wheth-
er that government will or will not accept such alien into
its territory, then the Attorney General may thereafter
disregard such designation.
‘‘(e) PETITION FOR REVIEW.—An alien adversely af-
fected by an order of a senior asylum officer under this
section may, within 48 hours after such order is issued,
file a petition for review of the order in a proceeding before
an asylum immigration judge. Such review shall be the
sole and exclusive administrative review of such order.
‘‘(f) ADMINISTRATIVE REVIEW.—An asylum immi-
gration judge, shall promptly hold an administrative hear-
ing which shall be limited to the issues set forth in sub-
section (g).
‘‘(g) SCOPE OF REVIEW.—The issues referred to in
subsection (f) are—
‘‘(1) whether the applicant is an alien;
‘‘(2) whether the applicant has sought entry to
the United States with fraudulent documents or with
no documents;
‘‘(3) whether the applicant’s request for asylum
is frivolous; and
‘‘(4) whether the applicant has been firmly re-
settled in another nation.
‘‘(h) ASYLUM
ADJUDICATION
IN
CERTAIN
CIR-
CUMSTANCES.—A senior asylum officer may refer an alien
not excludable under subsection (d) for asylum adjudica-
tion by the Executive Office of Immigration Review while
an exclusion proceeding is pending if such proceeding can-
not be scheduled within 90 days.
‘‘(i) JUDICIAL REVIEW.—No court shall have juris-
diction to review, except by petition for habeas corpus, any
individual determination made with respect to an alien
found excludable from the United States under subsection
(d). In any such case, review by habeas corpus shall be
limited to examination on the questions set forth in sub-
section (g).’’.
(c) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents
of such Act is amended by inserting after the item relating
to section 235 the following new item:
‘‘Sec. 235A. Expedited procedures for certain asylum cases.’’.
(d) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by
this section shall apply to aliens who arrive in, or seek
admission to, the United States on or after the date of
enactment of this Act.
SEC. 3. ENHANCED PENALTIES FOR ALIEN SMUGGLING
AND ASYLUM ABUSE.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 274(a)(1) (8 U.S.C.
1324(a)(1)) is amended—
(1) by inserting ‘‘for the purpose of commercial
advantage or private financial gain’’ after ‘‘Any per-
son who’’;
(2) by striking ‘‘five years’’ and inserting ‘‘10
years’’; and
(3) by inserting before the period at the end of
such paragraph ‘‘(or 20 years, or both, in the case
of such a violation in which the person is determined
to knowingly or recklessly have caused serious bodily
injury to, or have placed in jeopardy the life of, any
alien involved in the offense)’’.
(b) EFFECTIVE DATES.—The amendment made by
subsection (a) shall apply to violations occurring on or
after the date of the enactment of this Act.
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.
Section 101(a) (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)) is amended by
adding at the end the following new paragraphs:
‘‘(47) The term ‘frivolous’ means, with respect to a
claim for asylum, a claim that—
‘‘(A) the grounds of the claim are outside the
scope of the definition of a refugee under this sec-
tion,
‘‘(B) the claim is totally lacking in substance,
or
‘‘(C) the claim is manifestly lacking in any
credibility.
‘‘(48) The term ‘firmly resettled’ means, after an
alien’s entry into a country of refuge, the alien’s receipt
of an offer of permanent resident status, citizenship, or
some other type of permanent resettlement unless the
alien establishes that—
‘‘(A) the entry into that country was a nec-
essary consequence of the flight from persecution,
that the alien remained in the country only as long
as was necessary to arrange onward travel, and that
the alien did not establish significant ties in that
country; or
‘‘(B) the conditions of residence in that country
were so substantially and consciously restricted by
the authorities of the country that the alien was not
in fact resettled, taking into account the conditions
under which other residents of that country live, the
type of housing made available to the alien, whether
permanent or temporary, the types and extent of
employment available to the alien, whether perma-
nent or temporary, and the extent to which the alien
received permission to hold property and to enjoy
other rights and privileges ordinarily available to
other residents in the country such as travel docu-
mentation (including documentation for a right of
entry or reentry), education, public relief, or natu-
ralization.’’.
SEC. 5. EFFECTIVE DATE.
Except as otherwise provided, the amendments made
by this Act shall take effect 90 days after the date of the
enactment of this Act.
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