Title: Refugee Program Integrity Restoration Act of 2017
Policy area: Immigration

Summary:
Refugee Program Integrity Restoration Act of 2017
This bill amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to: (1) establish the number of annual refugee admissions at 50,000, (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 "country of particular concern," 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 in which 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 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 publicly available Internet interactions, including social media services.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2826 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>






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) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                             the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 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 Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Refugee Program Integrity 
Restoration Act of 2017''.

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: ``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 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'' the second place it appears 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.'';
            (2) by striking ``Attorney General'' each place it appears 
        and inserting ``Secretary of Homeland Security''; and
            (3) in subsection (c)(1), by striking ``Attorney 
        General's'' and inserting ``Secretary of Homeland Security's''.

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) Background Security Checks.--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 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 resettlement in that 
        locality.''.

SEC. 10. BENEFIT FRAUD ASSESSMENT.

    Not later than 540 days after the date of the 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 the 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 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 enactment of this 
Act, the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security each 
shall implement the recommendations applicable to their respective 
department set out in the Government Accountability Office reports 
entitled ``State and Its Partners Have Implemented Several 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).

SEC. 16. GAO REPORT ON U.S. REFUGEE ADMISSIONS PROGRAM.

    Not later than 18 months after the date of the 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.
                                 <all>