I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2826 
To provide for an annual adjustment of the number of admissible refugees, 
and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 8, 2017 
Mr. LABRADOR (for himself, Mr. GOODLATTE, and Mr. SMITH of Texas) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Ju-
diciary 
A BILL 
To provide for an annual adjustment of the number of 
admissible refugees, 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 ‘‘Refugee Program In-
tegrity Restoration Act of 2017’’. 
SEC. 2. ANNUAL ADJUSTMENT OF THE NUMBER OF ADMIS-
SIBLE REFUGEES. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 207(a)(2) of the Immi-
gration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1157(a)(2)) is 
amended by striking all that follows after ‘‘shall be’’ and 
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inserting the following: ‘‘50,000. 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 humani-
tarian 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 num-
ber 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’’ the second place it ap-
pears 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 ap-
pears and inserting ‘‘shall’’; 
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(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 fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(5) Each fiscal year, the Secretary shall submit to 
the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Rep-
resentatives 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.’’. 
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SEC. 4. PRIORITY CONSIDERATION FOR CERTAIN APPLI-
CANTS 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 indi-
viduals seeking refuge from a country listed as a ‘Country 
of Particular Concern’ in the annual report of the Com-
mission 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 minor-
ity religion in the country from which they sought ref-
uge.’’; 
(2) by striking ‘‘Attorney General’’ each place 
it appears and inserting ‘‘Secretary of Homeland Se-
curity’’; and 
(3) in subsection (c)(1), by striking ‘‘Attorney 
General’s’’ and inserting ‘‘Secretary of Homeland 
Security’s’’. 
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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 fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(g) BACKGROUND SECURITY CHECKS.—The Sec-
retary may conduct recurrent background security checks 
of an admitted refugee until such date as the refugee ad-
justs 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 pe-
riod’’. 
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SEC. 8. LIMITATION OF WAIVER AUTHORITY ON ADJUST-
MENT 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 subpara-
graph (A), (B), (C), or (E) of paragraph (3))’’ and insert-
ing ‘‘paragraph (1) of section 212(a)’’. 
(b) GROUNDS
OF
DEPORTABILITY; IN-PERSON 
INTERVIEW REQUIRED; REQUIRED REEXAMINATION FOR 
ADMISSION.—Section 209 of the Immigration and Nation-
ality 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 estab-
lishes by clear and convincing evidence during an in-per-
son interview with the Secretary of Homeland Security 
that the alien continues to meet the requirements of sec-
tion 101(a)(42). 
‘‘(f) REQUIRED REEXAMINATION FOR ADMISSION.— 
An alien who is admitted as a refugee who is denied ad-
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mission 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 Home-
land Security for inspection and examination for admis-
sion 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 fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(g) LIMITATION
ON
RESETTLEMENT.—Notwith-
standing any other provision of this section, for a fiscal 
year, the resettlement of any refugee may not be provided 
for— 
‘‘(1) in any State in which the Governor of that 
State or the State legislature have 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 reset-
tlement in that locality.’’. 
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SEC. 10. BENEFIT FRAUD ASSESSMENT. 
Not later than 540 days after the date of the enact-
ment of this Act, the Fraud Detection and National Secu-
rity Directorate of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Serv-
ices shall— 
(1) complete a study on the processing of refu-
gees by officers and employees of the U.S. Citizen-
ship and Immigration Services including an identi-
fication of the most common ways in which fraud oc-
curs in such processing and recommendations for 
the prevention of fraud in such processing; and 
(2) submit a report on such study to the Com-
mittee on the Judiciary of the House of Representa-
tives and the Committee on the Judiciary of the 
Senate. 
SEC. 11. DOCUMENT FRAUD DETECTION PROGRAM. 
Not later than 2 years after the date of the enact-
ment 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, in-
cluding— 
(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 ini-
tial refugee screening in conjunction with the reset-
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tlement agency and with the authority to hold a ref-
ugee application in abeyance until any fraud or na-
tional 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 REFU-
GEES AND PREVENT FRAUD. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Homeland Secu-
rity 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 Im-
migration 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 
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in translation). Such reviews shall take place prior to ap-
proval or denial of any application for admission as a ref-
ugee submitted at that location. 
(c) IN CASES OF MISTRANSLATIONS.—If the Sec-
retary determines that the interpreter incorrectly inter-
preted any portion of the interview (other than a de mini-
mis error in translation)— 
(1) the interpreter shall be barred from subse-
quently serving as an interpreter for immigration 
purposes; and 
(2) no action shall be taken regarding the appli-
cation until the applicant has been reinterviewed. 
SEC. 13. LIMITATION ON QUALIFICATION AS A REFUGEE. 
Section 101(a)(42) of the Immigration and Nation-
ality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(42)) is amended by inserting 
‘‘For purposes of this paragraph, a person may not be con-
sidered 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 
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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 Se-
curity 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 in-
cludes a review of the alien’s publicly available interactions 
on and posting of material to the Internet (including social 
media services). 
SEC. 15. IMPLEMENTATION OF GAO RECOMMENDATIONS. 
Not later than 180 days after the date of the enact-
ment of this Act, the Secretary of State and the Secretary 
of Homeland Security each shall implement the rec-
ommendations applicable to their respective department 
set out in the Government Accountability Office reports 
entitled ‘‘State and Its Partners Have Implemented Sev-
eral Antifraud Measures but Could Further Reduce the 
Risk of Staff Fraud’’ (GAO–17–446SU) and ‘‘Actions 
Needed by State Department and DHS to Further 
Strengthen Applicant Screening Process and Assess 
Fraud Risks’’ (GAO–17–444SU). 
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SEC. 16. GAO REPORT ON U.S. REFUGEE ADMISSIONS PRO-
GRAM. 
Not later than 18 months after the date of the enact-
ment 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 Admis-
sions Program, including an examination of— 
(A) how the U.S. Government conducts se-
curity screening and background checks, includ-
ing 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 reset-
tlement 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 ter-
rorism-related investigation by the U.S. Govern-
ment 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 
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(8 U.S.C. 1157) are eligible, as well as what is 
known about their participation in these programs. 
Æ 
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