Title: Child Citizen Protection Act
Policy area: Immigration

Summary:
Child Citizen Protection Act
This bill amends the Immigration and Nationality Act, in the case of an alien subject to removal, deportation, or exclusion and who is the parent of a U.S. citizen child, to authorize an immigration judge to decline to order such removal if the judge determines that action to be against the child's best interests.
Such discretion shall not apply to an alien when the judge determines that the alien: (1) is excludable or deportable on security grounds, or (2) has engaged in sex trafficking or severe forms of trafficking in persons.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2508 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2508

To provide discretionary authority to an immigration judge to determine 
  that an alien parent of a United States citizen child should not be 
     ordered removed, deported, or excluded from the United States.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 17, 2017

  Mr. Serrano (for himself, Mr. McGovern, Mr. Soto, Ms. McCollum, Ms. 
 Jackson Lee, Ms. Judy Chu of California, Mr. Kilmer, Mr. Raskin, Mr. 
     Gutierrez, Mr. Evans, Ms. Norton, Mr. Vargas, Mr. Nadler, Ms. 
Velazquez, and Mr. Smith of Washington) introduced the following bill; 
          which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To provide discretionary authority to an immigration judge to determine 
  that an alien parent of a United States citizen child should not be 
     ordered removed, deported, or excluded from the United States.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Child Citizen Protection Act''.

SEC. 2. DISCRETIONARY AUTHORITY WITH RESPECT TO REMOVAL, DEPORTATION, 
              OR EXCLUSION OF PARENTS OF CITIZEN CHILDREN.

    Section 240(c)(4) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 
1229a(c)(4)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
                    ``(D) Discretion of judge in case of citizen 
                child.--In the case of an alien subject to removal, 
                deportation, or exclusion who is the parent of a child 
                who is a citizen of the United States, the immigration 
                judge may exercise discretion to decline to order the 
                alien removed, deported or excluded from the United 
                States if the judge determines that such removal, 
                deportation, or exclusion is clearly against the best 
                interests of the child, except that this subparagraph 
                shall not apply to any alien who the judge determines--
                            ``(i) is described in section 212(a)(3) or 
                        237(a)(4); or
                            ``(ii) has engaged in conduct described in 
                        paragraph (9) or (10) of section 103 of the 
                        Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (22 
                        U.S.C. 7102).''.
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