110TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2399 
AN ACT 
To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act and title 
18, United States Code, to combat the crime of alien 
smuggling and related activities, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Alien Smuggling and 
Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds that— 
(1) Alien smuggling by land, air and sea is a 
transnational crime that violates the integrity of 
United States borders, compromises our Nation’s 
sovereignty, places the country at risk of terrorist 
activity, and contravenes the rule of law. 
(2) Aggressive enforcement activity against 
alien smuggling is needed to protect our borders and 
ensure the security of our Nation. The border secu-
rity and anti-smuggling efforts of the men and 
women on the Nation’s front line of defense are to 
be commended. Special recognition is due the De-
partment of Homeland Security through the United 
States Border Patrol, United States Coast Guard, 
Customs and Border Protection, and Immigration 
and Customs Enforcement, and the Department of 
Justice through the Federal Bureau of Investigation. 
(3) The law enforcement community must be 
given the statutory tools necessary to address this 
security threat. Only through effective alien smug-
gling statutes can the Justice Department, through 
the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Domes-
tic Security Section of the Criminal Division, pros-
ecute these cases successfully. 
(4) Alien smuggling has a destabilizing effect 
on border communities. State and local law enforce-
ment, medical personnel, social service providers, 
and the faith community play important roles in 
combating smuggling and responding to its effects. 
(5) Existing penalties for alien smuggling are 
insufficient to provide appropriate punishment for 
alien smugglers. 
(6) Existing alien smuggling laws often fail to 
reach the conduct of alien smugglers, transporters, 
recruiters, guides, and boat captains. 
(7) Existing laws concerning failure to heave to 
are insufficient to appropriately punish boat opera-
tors and crew who engage in the reckless transpor-
tation of aliens on the high seas and seek to evade 
capture. 
(8) Much of the conduct in alien smuggling 
rings 
occurs 
outside 
of 
the 
United 
States. 
Extraterritorial jurisdiction is needed to ensure that 
smuggling rings can be brought to justice for re-
cruiting, sending, and facilitating the movement of 
those who seek to enter the United States without 
lawful authority.
(9) Alien smuggling can include unsafe or reck-
lessly dangerous conditions that expose individuals 
to particularly high risk of injury or death. 
SEC. 3. CHECKS AGAINST TERRORIST WATCHLIST. 
The Department of Homeland Security shall, to the 
extent practicable, check against all available terrorist 
watchlists those alien smugglers and smuggled individuals 
who are interdicted at the land, air, and sea borders of 
the United States. 
SEC. 4. STRENGTHENING PROSECUTION AND PUNISHMENT 
OF ALIEN SMUGGLERS. 
Section 274(a) of the Immigration and Nationality 
Act (8 U.S.C. 1324(a)) is amended— 
(1) by amending the subsection heading to read 
as follows: ‘‘SMUGGLING OF UNLAWFUL AND TER-
RORIST ALIENS.—’’; 
(2) by redesignating clause (iv) of paragraph 
(1)(B) as clause (vii); 
(3) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘(1)(A)’’ and 
all that follows through clause (iii) of subparagraph 
(B) and inserting the following: 
‘‘(1)(A) Whoever, knowing or in reckless disregard of 
the fact that an individual is an alien who lacks lawful 
authority to come to, enter, or reside in the United States, 
knowingly—
‘‘(i) brings that individual to the United States 
in any manner whatsover regardless of any future 
official action which may be taken with respect to 
such alien; 
‘‘(ii) recruits, encourages, or induces that indi-
vidual to come to, enter, or reside in the United 
States; 
‘‘(iii) transports or moves that individual in the 
United States, in furtherance of their unlawful pres-
ence; or 
‘‘(iv) harbors, conceals, or shields from detec-
tion the individual in any place in the United States, 
including any building or any means of transpor-
tation; 
or attempts or conspires to do so, shall be punished as 
provided in subparagraph (C). 
‘‘(B) Whoever, knowing that an individual is an alien, 
brings that individual to the United States in any manner 
whatsoever at a place other than a designated port of 
entry or place other than as designated by the Secretary 
of Homeland Security, regardless of whether such alien 
has received prior official authorization to come to, enter, 
or reside in the United States and regardless of any future 
official action which may be taken with respect to such
alien, or attempts or conspires to do so, shall be punished 
as provided in subparagraph (C). 
‘‘(C) A violator of this paragraph shall, for each alien 
in respect to whom such a violation occurs— 
‘‘(i) unless the offense is otherwise described in 
another clause of this subparagraph, be fined under 
title 18, United States Code or imprisoned not more 
than 5 years, or both; 
‘‘(ii) if the offense involved the transit of the 
defendant’s spouse, child, sibling, parent, grand-
parent, or niece or nephew, and the offense is not 
described in any of clauses (iii) through (vii), be 
fined under title 18, United States Code or impris-
oned not more than 1 year, or both; 
‘‘(iii) if the offense is a violation of paragraphs 
(1)(A)(ii), (iii), or (iv), or paragraph (1)(B), and 
was committed for the purpose of profit, commercial 
advantage, or private financial gain, be fined under 
title 18, United States Code or imprisoned not more 
than 10 years, or both; 
‘‘(iv) if the offense is a violation of paragraph 
(1)(A)(i) and was committed for the purpose of prof-
it, commercial advantage, or private financial gain, 
or if the offense was committed with the intent or 
reason to believe that the individual unlawfully
brought into the United States will commit an of-
fense against the United States or any State that is 
punishable by imprisonment for more than 1 year, 
be fined under title 18, United States Code, and im-
prisoned, in the case of a first or second violation, 
not less than 3 nor more than 10 years, and for any 
other violation, not less than 5 nor more than 15 
years; and 
‘‘(v) if the offense results in serious bodily in-
jury (as defined in section 1365 of title 18, United 
States Code) or places in jeopardy the life of any 
person, be fined under title 18, United States Code 
or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both; 
‘‘(vi) if the offense involved an individual who 
the defendant knew was engaged in or intended to 
engage in terrorist activity (as defined in section 
212(a)(3)(B)), be fined under title 18, United States 
Code or imprisoned not more than 30 years, or both; 
and’’; 
(4) in the clause (vii) so redesignated by para-
graph (2) of this subsection (which now becomes 
clause (vii) of the new subparagraph (C))— 
(A) by striking ‘‘in the case’’ and all that 
follows through ‘‘(v) resulting’’ and inserting 
‘‘if the offense results’’; and
(B) by inserting ‘‘and if the offense in-
volves kidnaping, an attempt to kidnap, the 
conduct required for aggravated sexual abuse 
(as defined in section 2241 without regard to 
where it takes place), or an attempt to commit 
such abuse, or an attempt to kill, be fined 
under such title or imprisoned for any term of 
years or life, or both’’ after ‘‘or both’’; and 
(5) by striking existing subparagraph (C) of 
paragraph (1) (without affecting the new subpara-
graph (C) added by the amendments made by this 
Act) and all that follows through paragraph (2) and 
inserting the following: 
‘‘(2)(A) There is extraterritorial jurisdiction over the 
offenses described in paragraph (1). 
‘‘(B) In a prosecution for a violation of, or an attempt 
or 
conspiracy 
to 
violate 
subsection 
(a)(1)(A)(i), 
(a)(1)(A)(ii), or (a)(1)(B), that occurs on the high seas, 
no defense based on necessity can be raised unless the de-
fendant— 
‘‘(i) as soon as practicable, reported to the 
Coast Guard the circumstances of the necessity, and 
if a rescue is claimed, the name, description, registry 
number, and location of the vessel engaging in the 
rescue; and
‘‘(ii) did not bring, attempt to bring, or in any 
manner intentionally facilitate the entry of any alien 
into the land territory of the United States without 
lawful authority, unless exigent circumstances ex-
isted that placed the life of that alien in danger, in 
which case the reporting requirement set forth in 
clause (i) of this subparagraph is satisfied by noti-
fying the Coast Guard as soon as practicable after 
delivering the alien to emergency medical or law en-
forcement personnel ashore. 
‘‘(C) It is a defense to a violation of, or an attempt 
or conspiracy to violate, clause (iii) or (iv) of subsection 
(a)(1)(A) for a religious denomination having a bona fide 
nonprofit, religious organization in the United States, or 
the agents or officer of such denomination or organization, 
to encourage, invite, call, allow, or enable an alien who 
is present in the United States to perform the vocation 
of a minister or missionary for the denomination or orga-
nization in the United States as a volunteer who is not 
compensated as an employee, notwithstanding the provi-
sion of room, board, travel, medical assistance, and other 
basic living expenses, provided the minister or missionary 
has been a member of the denomination for at least one 
year.
‘‘(D) For purposes of this paragraph and paragraph 
(1)— 
‘‘(i) the term ‘United States’ means the several 
States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth 
of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the United 
States Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of the 
Northern Mariana Islands, and any other territory 
or possession of the United States; and 
‘‘(ii) the term ‘lawful authority’ means permis-
sion, authorization, or waiver that is expressly pro-
vided for in the immigration laws of the United 
States or the regulations prescribed under those 
laws and does not include any such authority se-
cured by fraud or otherwise obtained in violation of 
law or authority that has been sought but not ap-
proved.’’. 
SEC. 5. MARITIME LAW ENFORCEMENT. 
(a) PENALTIES.—Subsection (b) of section 2237 of 
title 18, United States Code, is amended to read as fol-
lows: 
‘‘(b)(1) Whoever intentionally violates this section 
shall, unless the offense is described in paragraph (2), be 
fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than 5 
years, or both. 
‘‘(2) If the offense—
‘‘(A) is committed in the course of a violation 
of section 274 of the Immigration and Nationality 
Act (alien smuggling); chapter 77 (peonage, slavery, 
and trafficking in persons), section 111 (shipping), 
111A (interference with vessels), 113 (stolen prop-
erty), or 117 (transportation for illegal sexual activ-
ity) of this title; chapter 705 (maritime drug law en-
forcement) of title 46, or title II of the Act of June 
15, 1917 (Chapter 30; 40 Stat. 220), the offender 
shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not 
more than 10 years, or both; 
‘‘(B) results in serious bodily injury (as defined 
in section 1365 of this title) or transportation under 
inhumane conditions, the offender shall be fined 
under this title, imprisoned not more than 15 years, 
or both; or 
‘‘(C) results in death or involves kidnaping, an 
attempt to kidnap, the conduct required for aggra-
vated sexual abuse (as defined in section 2241 with-
out regard to where it takes place), or an attempt 
to commit such abuse, or an attempt to kill, be fined 
under such title or imprisoned for any term of years 
or life, or both.’’. 
(b) LIMITATION ON NECESSITY DEFENSE.—Section 
2237(c) of title 18, United States Code, is amended—
(1) by inserting ‘‘(1)’’ after ‘‘(c)’’; 
(2) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(2) In a prosecution for a violation of this section, 
no defense based on necessity can be raised unless the de-
fendant— 
‘‘(A) as soon as practicable upon reaching 
shore, delivered the person with respect to which the 
necessity arose to emergency medical or law enforce-
ment personnel; 
‘‘(B) as soon as practicable, reported to the 
Coast Guard the circumstances of the necessity re-
sulting giving rise to the defense; and 
‘‘(C) did not bring, attempt to bring, or in any 
manner intentionally facilitate the entry of any alien, 
as that term is defined in section 101(a)(3) of the 
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 
(a)(3)), into the land territory of the United States 
without 
lawful 
authority, 
unless 
exigent 
cir-
cumstances existed that placed the life of that alien 
in danger, in which case the reporting requirement 
of subparagraph (B) is satisfied by notifying the 
Coast Guard as soon as practicable after delivering 
that person to emergency medical or law enforce-
ment personnel ashore.’’.