jiayi-li23/proxann_data huggingface dataset:
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Immigration
Date: 2015-01-28 00:00:00

Nuclear Family Priority Act 

Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to eliminate parents from the definition of "immediate relatives" with respect to those aliens not subject to worldwide immigration levels or numerical limitations.

Replaces existing family-sponsored immigrant categories with a single preference allocation for spouses and children of permanent resident aliens.

Reduces the number of, and revises the calculation for, fiscal year family-sponsored immigrant entrants.

Establishes a nonimmigrant visa category for an alien who is a parent of a U.S. citizen at least 21 years old.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Immigration
Date: 2015-01-28 00:00:00

American Entrepreneurship and Investment Act of 2015

 Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to make the EB-5 immigrant investor program permanent.

Increases the targeted employment area set-aside.

Directs the Secretary of Homeland Security to defer to state targeted employment area designations.

Directs the Secretary to: (1) establish a preapproval procedure for commercial enterprises that allows a regional center to apply for preapproval of a new commercial enterprise before an alien files a petition for classification by reason of investment in such enterprise; and (2) defer to certain prior favorable EB-5 determinations except in the case of fraud, material change, or legal deficiency.

Prohibits a person who has been found liable for specified criminal or civil activities from serving as an owner, director, or officer of a regional center.

Requires EB-5 petitions to be adjudicated within 180 days unless additional information is required.

Provides that the child of an alien investor whose conditional permanent resident status is terminated shall continue to be considered a child of the alien investor for purposes of a subsequent immigrant petition by the alien investor if the child remains unmarried and the alien investor's subsequent petition is filed within one year after termination of status.

Provides for a consolidated petition by an alien investor and his or her spouse and children.

Exempts spouses and children of EB-5 immigrants from EB-5 admissions limits.

Authorizes concurrent filing of EB-5 petitions and applications for status adjustment to conditional lawful permanent resident.

Eliminates the per-country limit for employment-based immigrants and increases the per-country limit for family-based immigrants.

Amends the Chinese Student Protection Act of 1992 to eliminate the requirement that the annual Chinese immigrant visas be reduced by a specified amount to offset status adjustments under that Act.

Subjects EB-5 petitions to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Immigration
Date: 2015-02-03 00:00:00

Landing Pass Extension Act of 2015

 Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to extend to up to 90 days the time period for which a conditional permit to land temporarily in the United States may be granted to an alien crewman.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2015-02-04 00:00:00

Amends the Internal Revenue Code to disallow the refundable portion of the child tax credit to taxpayers who use individual taxpayer identification numbers issued by the Internal Revenue Service instead of social security account numbers to claim such credit on their tax returns.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Immigration
Date: 2015-02-11 00:00:00

Religious Worker Visa Reciprocity Act of 2015

Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to prohibit the Secretary of Homeland Security from approving a petition for classification of an alien as a special immigrant religious worker/minister if the Secretary has determined that the alien's country of nationality:

 is identified as a Country of Particular Concern or a country where religious freedom is of significant interest in the 2013 International Religious Freedom Report, or does not extend reciprocal immigration treatment to U.S. nationals who are seeking resident status in order to work in a religious vocation or occupation.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Economics and public finance
Date: 2015-02-13 00:00:00

Startup Act

 Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to authorize the Secretary of Homeland Security to adjust to conditional permanent resident status up to 50,000 aliens who have earned a master's or doctorate degree in a science, technology, engineering, or mathematics field (STEM field) and permit such an alien to remain in the United States: (1) for up to one year after the expiration of the alien's student visa, if the alien is searching for STEM field employment; and (2) indefinitely if the alien remains actively engaged in a STEM field.

Removes a STEM alien's conditional status after five years of maintaining eligibility during the entire five-year period.

Authorizes the Secretary to issue conditional immigrant visas to up to 75,000 qualified alien entrepreneurs. Removes such conditional basis after four years of maintaining qualified entrepreneur status.

Eliminates the per-country numerical limitation for employment-based visas.

Increases the per country numerical limitation for family based immigrants from 7% to 15% of the total number of family-sponsored visas.

Amends the Chinese Student Protection Act of 1992 to eliminate the provision requiring the reduction of annual People's Republic of China immigrant visas to offset status adjustments under such Act.

Amends the Internal Revenue Code to: (1) provide a permanent full tax exclusion on gain from the sale or exchange of qualified small business stock held for more than five years, (2) repeal the minimum tax preference and the 28% capital gains rate on such stock, and (3) provide a limited tax credit for certain startup small businesses.

Directs the Secretary of Commerce to use certain federal agency extramural budget funds to award grants to institutions of higher education for initiatives to improve commercialization and transfer of technology.

 Requires the head of any federal or independent regulatory agency, before issuing a notice of rule making in connection with the issuance of a proposed major rule, to complete a review that, among other things, analyzes the problem that the rule intends to address, and identifies and analyzes the rule's expected impact on state, local, and tribal governments, as well as on the ability of new businesses to form and expand. Requires a cost-benefit analysis before rule issuance.

Directs the Secretary of Commerce to regularly compile: (1) information from each of the states and the District of Columbia on laws that affect the formation and growth of new businesses, and (2) quantitative and qualitative information on U.S. businesses that are not more than one year old.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Immigration
Date: 2015-02-20 00:00:00

Partner with Korea Act

Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to create an E-4 treaty trader visa category for up to 15,000 nationals of the Republic of Korea (South Korea) each fiscal year who are coming to the United States solely to perform specialty occupation services and with respect to whom the Secretary of Labor has certified to the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Secretary of State that the intending employer has filed an attestation concerning U.S. worker protections with the Secretary of Labor.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Immigration
Date: 2015-02-26 00:00:00

Protecting Immigrants From Legal Exploitation Act of 2015

 Amends the federal criminal code to subject a person to fine, imprisonment, or both, who: (1) knowingly or recklessly executes a scheme in connection with any federal immigration law-related matter to defraud a person, or to obtain money or anything else of value from a person by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises; or (2) knowingly and falsely represents that such person is an attorney or an accredited representative in any federal immigration law-related matter.

Directs the Attorney General (DOJ) and the Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS), to promulgate regulations, forms, and procedures defining the circumstances in which: (1) persons submitting immigration-related applications, petitions, motions, or other written materials must identify who (other than immediate family members) assisted them in preparing or translating such submissions; and (2) any person who received compensation (other than a normal fee for copying, mailing, or similar services) in connection with the preparation or submission of such materials must sign the form as a preparer and provide identifying information.

Authorizes the Attorney General to bring a civil injunction against an immigration service provider engaging in fraudulent conduct that substantially interferes with the administration of the immigration laws or who willfully misrepresents such provider's legal authority to provide representation before DOJ or DHS.

Authorizes an alien to withdraw an immigration-related application or other submission if the alien: (1) submits information indicating that the application or submission was prepared or submitted by an individual engaged in the unauthorized practice of law or immigration practitioner fraud, and (2) attests that he or she had no prior knowledge that the application or submission was prepared or submitted by such an individual.

Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to waive the bar on reentry for an alien who left the United States based on the erroneous advice of an individual engaged in the unauthorized practice of law or immigration practitioner fraud.

Directs the Secretary and the Attorney General, through the Director of the Office for Immigration Review, to carry out an outreach program to educate aliens regarding who may provide legal services and representation in immigration proceedings.

Directs the Secretary and the Attorney General to establish, within the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Executive Office for Immigration Review, programs to award grants to eligible nonprofit organizations for direct legal services to aliens.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Immigration
Date: 2015-02-27 00:00:00

Legal Workforce Act

Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to direct the Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) to establish an employment eligibility verification system (EEVS), patterned after the E-Verify system. (Eliminates the current paper-based I-9 system.)

Requires an employer to attest, during the verification period and under penalty of perjury, that the employer has verified that an individual is not an unauthorized alien by: (1) obtaining and recording the individual's social security account number, and (2) examining specified documents that establish such individual's identity and employment authorization.

Requires an individual to attest that he or she is a U.S. citizen or national, a lawful permanent resident, or an alien authorized to work in the United States.

Establishes a phased-in EEVS participation deadline (six months to two years) for different categories of employers, including agricultural employers.

Requires reverification of the following workers who have not been verified under E-verify: (1) federal, state, or local government employees; (2) certain employees who require a federal security clearance; and (3) certain employees assigned to work in the United States under a federal or state contract.

Authorizes an employer to voluntarily reverify employees. (Requires any such reverification to be applied to all individuals so employed).

Includes employment recruitment and referral within the scope of EEVS. Requires EEVS use by union halls and nonprofit employment agencies.

Requires EEVS to provide employers with: (1) temporary verification or nonverification within 3 working days of an inquiry; and (2) in the case of nonverification, a final verification or nonverification within 10 working days.

Sets forth provisions regarding: (1) an employer utilizing a good faith defense, (2) preemption of state or local law, (3) employer penalties, and (4) worker remedies for EEVS errors.

Provides for the establishment of programs to: (1) block the use of misused social security numbers, and (2) suspend or limit the use of Social Security numbers of victims of identity fraud.

 Requires an employer who uses the photo matching tool as part of the E-Verify system to match the photo tool photograph to both the photograph on the identity or employment eligibility document provided by the employee and to the face of the employee submitting the document.

Directs the Secretary to: (1) establish a program under which parents or legal guardians may suspend or limit the use of the social security account number or other identifying information of a minor for the purposes of the employment eligibility verification system, and (2) establish an Identity Authentication Employment Eligibility Verification pilot program to provide employers with identity authentication and employment verification of enrolled new employees.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: International affairs
Date: 2015-02-27 00:00:00

Protection of Children Act of 2015

 This bill amends the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 to eliminate the special repatriation requirements for unaccompanied alien children (UAC) who are nationals or residents of a country contiguous to the United States. (The same removal requirements are applied to all UACs who are not victims of a severe form of trafficking in persons and who do not have a fear of returning to their country of nationality or last habitual residence.)

An immigration officer who finds an inadmissible UAC at a land border or port of entry shall return the child to his or her country of nationality or of last habitual residence. (Such authority is now only discretionary.)

 The Department of State is authorized to negotiate agreements between the United States and other countries for the repatriation of children. (Under current law the State Department is required to negotiate agreements between the United States and countries contiguous to the United States for the repatriation of children.)

An unaccompanied child who is not a victim of a severe form of trafficking in persons, and does not have a fear of returning to his or her country of nationality or last habitual residence, but who is:

 in removal proceedings shall have a hearing before an immigration judge within 14 days, in federal custody shall be transferred to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) custody within 30 days, and in HHS or Department of Homeland Security (DHS) custody shall have access to legal counsel at no cost to the government. HHS, before placing a child with an individual, shall provide DHS with the individual's name, Social Security number, date of birth, residence location, and immigration status, if known.

DHS shall investigate the immigration status of the individual with whom the child is placed, and initiate removal proceedings if that individual is unlawfully present in the United States.

Such requirements are applied to any unauthorized child apprehended on or after June 15, 2012.

The Immigration and Nationality Act is amended with respect to: (1) special immigrant juvenile status, and (2) jurisdiction of asylum applications.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2015-03-04 00:00:00

Denying Amnesty Bonuses Act

This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to deny the earned income tax credit to a taxpayer or a taxpayer's spouse who, in any taxable year, received temporary deportation relief and work authorization in accordance with any program not specifically established by Congress.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2015-03-04 00:00:00

Deny Amnesty Credits Act of 2015 

This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to deny the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit to any illegal alien who has received employment authorization under a program for deferred action on removal that has not been not specifically authorized by law.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2015-03-17 00:00:00

Fairness for Farmers Act of 2015

Amends the Internal Revenue Code to exclude nonimmigrant agricultural seasonal workers from the definition of "full-time employee" for purposes of the employer mandate to provide employees with minimum essential health care coverage.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: International affairs
Date: 2015-03-24 00:00:00

Protecting Religious Minorities Persecuted by ISIS Act of 2015

This bill directs the Secretary of State to establish or use existing refugee processing mechanisms in Iraq and in other countries through which aliens from Iraq or Syria who have been persecuted, or have a credible fear of being persecuted, by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS/ISIL), or a similar group, based on gender or religious or ethnic membership may apply directly to the United States Refugee Admissions Program for priority 2 refugee admission to the United States.

The processing mechanisms shall ensure that background and security checks are conducted, including the use of biographic and biometric data.

The Secretary of State shall: (1) report to Congress a plan to expedite the processing of refugee admissions applications for such aliens, and (2) implement the plan within 180 days of enactment of this Act.

It is U.S. policy that when conflict arises the United States should:

 undertake efforts with the international community to protect local populations and enable them to remain safely in their home countries or in neighboring host countries until they can be safely repatriated; and facilitate third country resettlement if necessary, including U.S. resettlement when such refugees are of special humanitarian concern to the United States.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Immigration
Date: 2015-03-26 00:00:00

Vulnerable Immigrant Voice Act 

Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to require that counsel at the government's expense in a removal or related appeal proceeding shall be provided only for an alien who is: (1) an unaccompanied child, or (2) unable to represent himself or herself due to a serious mental disability.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Immigration
Date: 2015-03-26 00:00:00

Executive Amnesty Prevention Act

This bill prohibits the use of funds to implement specified memoranda from the President, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), or other related memoranda.

No deposit in the Immigration Examinations Fee Account may be used to implement, administer, or enforce the policies in such memoranda.

Such memoranda or substantially similar policy changes are declared to have no statutory or constitutional basis and therefore no legal effect.

No funds or fees made available to the Secretary or to any federal official may be used to grant any federal benefit to any alien pursuant to any of such policy changes.

The Immigration and Nationality Act is amended to: (1) exclude from the definition of "unauthorized alien," with respect to employment, any alien otherwise admitted to and lawfully present in the United States; and (2) consider any alien without lawful status to be an unauthorized alien whose employment is unlawful.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Social welfare
Date: 2015-03-26 00:00:00

No Social Security for Illegal Immigrants Act of 2015

 Amends title II (Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) of the Social Security Act to exclude from creditable wages and self-employment income any wages earned for services by aliens performed in the United States, and self-employment income derived from a trade or business conducted in the United States, while the alien was not authorized to be so employed or to perform a function or service in such a trade or business.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Immigration
Date: 2015-04-15 00:00:00

Family Farm Relief Act of 2015

 Directs the Secretary of Agriculture (USDA) to establish a process for receiving H-2A nonimmigrant visas (temporary agricultural workers) which shall ensure that that petitioners may file such petitions over the Internet or in paper form. (Transfers administration of the H-2A program from the Department of Labor to USDA.)

Includes year-round livestock workers, including dairy workers, in the H-2A category with a maximum three-year period of admissions which may be renewed three months after the end of each such period.

Revises H-2A certification provisions.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Immigration
Date: 2015-04-16 00:00:00

E-2 Visa Improvement Act of 2015

This bill amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to permit a nonimmigrant E-2 alien (treaty investor) who has been in the United States in such status for at least 10 years and has created full-time employment for at least 2 individuals to apply for immediate employment-based immigrant status.

Up to 10,000 such visas may be made available each fiscal year.

 Sons and daughters of E-2 aliens (or aliens seeking such status) can remain on their parent's visa as a child until age 26. Employment authorization may be granted at age 18.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: International affairs
Date: 2015-04-21 00:00:00

Grant Residency for Additional Doctors Act of 2015 or the GRAD Act of 2015

Directs the Secretary of State to:

 designate a Department of State officer or employee whose sole responsibility during the months of March, April, May, June, and any other period of time determined by the Secretary, shall be to facilitate the expedited review of J-visa applications of aliens applying for U.S. admission to participate in a graduate medical education or training program; and provide appropriate Foreign Service officers with training related to medical graduates and medical graduate programs in the countries in which they are serving.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2015-04-23 00:00:00

Encourage New Legalized Immigrants to Start Training Act or the ENLIST Act

Authorizes the enlistment in the Armed Forces of aliens unlawfully present in the United States on December 31, 2011, who: (1) have been continuously present in the United States since such date; (2) were younger than 15 years of age when they initially entered the United States; and (3) are otherwise eligible for original enlistment in a regular component of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard.

Requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to adjust the status of an alien enlisted under such authority to the status of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence under provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act applicable to aliens who entered the United States prior to January 1, 1972.

Rescinds such lawful permanent resident status if the alien is separated from the Armed Forces under other than honorable conditions before serving the term of enlistment.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Immigration
Date: 2015-04-27 00:00:00

Nepal Temporary Protected Status Act of 2015

Expresses the sense of Congress that the extraordinary and temporary conditions caused by the magnitude 7.8 earthquake, its aftershocks, and additional damage in Nepal qualifies Nepal for designation under section 244 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, pursuant to which nationals of Nepal would be eligible for temporary protected status in the United States.

Extends 18-month temporary protected status to a national of Nepal who: (1) has been continuously physically present in the United States since April 25, 2015, (2) is admissible as an immigrant and not ineligible for temporary protected status, and (3) registers for temporary protected status in a manner that the Secretary of Homeland Security shall establish.

Permits such an alien to travel abroad if the alien establishes to the satisfaction of the Secretary that emergency and extenuating circumstances beyond the alien's control require his or her departure for a brief, temporary trip abroad.