jiayi-li23/proxann_data huggingface dataset:
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Immigration
Date: 2016-04-20 00:00:00

Restoring Respect for Immigrant Service in Uniform Act

This bill expresses the sense of Congress that the Department of Homeland Security should exercise its discretion (including through the use of exceptions to inadmissibility based upon family reunification, humanitarian, or public benefit grounds, temporary waiver of inadmissibility, or consent to reapply for admission) to admit to the United States an alien who is inadmissible, was previously subject to an order of removal or has been removed, is outside of the United States, and is seeking U.S. admission, if such alien:

 has been a member of the Armed Forces for at least 180 days and has not received an other-than honorable discharge; has not been convicted of a felony, a significant misdemeanor, or three or more misdemeanors that are not significant misdemeanors and that each occurred on a different date and arose out of separate conduct; and is not otherwise a threat to national security or public safety. The Immigration and Nationality Act is amended to exempt from deportation an alien who has been a member of the Armed Forces for at least 180 days and has not received an other-than honorable discharge, except in the case of an alien who:

 has been convicted of a felony, a significant misdemeanor, or three or more misdemeanors that are not significant misdemeanors and that each occurred on a different date and arose out of separate conduct; and is otherwise a threat to national security or public safety. "Significant misdemeanor" means a misdemeanor: (1) that is a crime of domestic violence, (2) that is a sexual assault, (3) that involved the unlawful possession of a firearm, or (4) for which the alien was sentenced to prison for more than 90 days.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Crime and law enforcement
Date: 2016-04-21 00:00:00

This bill amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to reauthorize the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) through FY2020. SCAAP provides payments to state, local, and tribal governments to offset the costs of incarcerating certain undocumented criminal aliens.

It expands the definition of “undocumented criminal alien” to include an alien who has been charged with a felony or two or more misdemeanors.

Additionally, the bill directs the Department of Justice to reimburse a state, local, or tribal government for costs to incarcerate a criminal alien whose immigration status cannot be verified by the Department of Homeland Security. (Currently, a criminal alien with lawful immigration status does not meet the criteria for SCAAP reimbursement.)
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Immigration
Date: 2016-04-28 00:00:00

Zero Tolerance for Illegal Entry Act

This bill directs the Department of Justice to require U.S. attorneys to prosecute to the fullest extent offenses involving improper entry by an alien or reentry of a removed alien.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Immigration
Date: 2016-04-28 00:00:00

Interior Immigration Enforcement Act

This bill amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide that an alien who is 18 or older, knowingly lacks lawful immigration status, and is present in the United States shall be fined and/or imprisoned for not more than six months for the first such offense and for not more than two years for a subsequent offense.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Crime and law enforcement
Date: 2016-04-28 00:00:00

Criminal Alien Detention and Removal Act

This bill amends the federal criminal code to require: (1) the supervised release of an individual following imprisonment for a felony conviction, and (2) the deportation of a deportable alien who is sentenced to supervised release.

Current law allows, but generally does not require: (1) the supervised release of an individual following imprisonment, whether for a felony or misdemeanor conviction; and (2) the deportation of a deportable alien as a condition of supervised release.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Immigration
Date: 2016-04-29 00:00:00

Central American Amnesty Termination Act of 2016

This bill prohibits any funds, resources, or fees available to the Department of Homeland Security or any other federal agency, including Immigration Examinations Fee Account deposits, from being used for the Central American Minors Refugee/Parole Program or any successor program.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Immigration
Date: 2016-05-12 00:00:00

Visa Integrity and Security Act of 2016

This bill amends the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to require that: (1) visa and admissions petitions and applications filed with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or a consular officer must contain all required signatures; (2) each immigrant visa application must be signed in the presence of a consular officer and verified by oath; (3) supporting documents that contain information in a foreign language may not be accepted without a certified English translation; and (4) any requested additional information must be provided in complete form before a petition or application is approved.

No petition or application may be approved unless a background check is completed to determine whether each petitioner/applicant or beneficiary/derivative is a national security threat or is otherwise ineligible for entry.

A background check shall include a review of social media activity.

No immigrant or nonimmigrant visa may be issued (with specified exceptions) until completion of a security advisory opinion for an alien: (1) who is a national of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Sudan, Yemen, or any other country that the Department of State determines appropriate; (2) who is a national of a country that the State Department has designated as a country whose nationals should be subject to a security advisory opinion; or (3) for whom the consular officer determines a security advisory opinion is appropriate.

A petition or application for an immigrant visa based upon a biological relationship between the petitioner or applicant and the beneficiary or derivative must include genetic test results confirming such relationship.

DHS shall conduct an in-person interview with a person seeking any INA benefit, except for work authorization.

DHS shall: (1) submit and implement a plan for the use of advanced analytics software to ensure the proactive detection of fraud in immigration benefits applications and petitions and to ensure that any such applicant or petitioner does not pose a national security threat; and (2) complete a benefit fraud assessment for certain visa categories by FY2021.

The State Department may impose visa security surcharges.

The Homeland Security Act of 2002 is amended to require the assignment of DHS personnel to each diplomatic and consular post that issues visas.

INA is amended to require an alien seeking U.S. entry to establish by clear and convincing evidence (currently, to establish to the satisfaction of the consular officer or the Attorney General, respectively) that he or she is eligible to receive the document required for entry or that he or she is is not inadmissible.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Immigration
Date: 2016-05-12 00:00:00

Freedom of Religion Act of 2016

This bill amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide that an alien may not be denied admission to the United States because of his or her religion or lack of religious beliefs.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: International affairs
Date: 2016-05-13 00:00:00

Criminal Alien Deportation Enforcement Act of 2016

This bill amends the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to prohibit financial assistance to a foreign country that refuses or unreasonably delays the acceptance of an alien who: (1) is a citizen, subject, national, or resident of such country; and (2) has received a final order of removal from the United States.

A country shall be deemed to have refused or unreasonably delayed acceptance of an alien if it does not accept such alien within 90 days of receiving an authorized repatriation request.

The Department of Homeland Security shall submit a report to Congress every three months that: (1) lists the countries that refuse or unreasonably delay repatriation; and (2) includes the total number of aliens who were refused repatriation, organized by country, detention status, and criminal status.

 A listed country shall be subject to U.S. entry and financial assistance prohibitions unless it issues appropriate travel documents: (1) within 100 days after such report's submission for aliens convicted of a crime committed in the United States, and (2) within 200 days after such report's submission for all other aliens.

A victim (or an immediate family member thereof) of a crime committed by any alien who has been issued a final order of removal shall have standing in federal district court to enforce entry and financial prohibitions.

The Immigration and Nationality Act is amended to: (1) discontinue granting visas to a subject, national, or resident of a listed country unless the country has issued the appropriate travel documents pursuant to this bill; and (2) grant standing to enforce such provision in federal district court to a victim (or an immediate family member thereof) of a crime committed by any alien who has been issued a final order of removal.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Immigration
Date: 2016-05-16 00:00:00

Strong Visa Integrity Secures America Act

This bill amends the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to require the Department of State to assign, in a risk-based manner, State Department employees to at least 50 visa-issuing diplomatic and consular posts based upon the following criteria:

 the number of nationals of a country in which such posts are located who were identified in U.S. terrorist databases, such a country's counterterrorism cooperation with the United States, the adequacy of border and immigration control of such country, terrorist organization activity in such country, and the number of negative security advisory opinions regarding nationals of such country. Such employees shall, in addition to other duties, screen admissions applications against federal criminal, national security, and terrorism databases.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shall:

 establish within U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement a visa security advisory opinion unit to respond to State Department requests for visa security reviews; and provide, in a risk-based manner, for remote pre-adjudicated visa security assistance at at least 50 posts that are not assigned such employees. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) shall, within one year after enactment of this bill:

 screen electronic passports at U.S. entry airports by reading each passport's embedded chip, and utilize facial recognition or other biometric technology to screen travelers at such airports. Electronic passport screening shall apply to U.S. citizens, nationals of a visa waiver program country, and nationals of any other foreign country that issues electronic passports.

Facial recognition or other biometric technology screening shall apply to nationals of a visa waiver program country.

The CBP shall, in a risk-based manner, continuously screen individuals issued any visa and individuals who are visa waiver program nationals against criminal, national security, and terrorism databases.

The annual visa overstay report is revised.

DHS shall: (1) ensure that certain foreign student information is available at each U.S. port of entry to CBP officers who conduct primary inspections of aliens seeking U.S. admission; (2) review the social media accounts of visa applicants who are citizens of, or who reside in, high-risk countries; and (3) review open source information of visa applicants.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Immigration
Date: 2016-06-07 00:00:00

Immigration for a Competitive America Act of 2016

 This bill amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to reduce the annual cap for family-sponsored immigrants and increase the annual cap for certain employment-sponsored immigrants.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shall establish an employment eligibility verification system (EEVS), patterned after the E-Verify system. (The current paper-based I-9 system is eliminated.)

 An employer shall verify that an individual is not an unauthorized alien by: (1) obtaining the individual's social security account number, and (2) examining an individual's identity and work authorization documents.

 An individual shall 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.

 The bill establishes a phased-in EEVS participation deadline for different categories of employers, including agricultural employers.

 The bill requires reverification of certain workers who have not been verified under E-verify.

 An employer may voluntarily reverify employees.

Employment recruitment and referral are included within the scope of EEVS.

 The bill 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.

 DHS shall establish: (1) 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) an Identity Authentication Employment Eligibility Verification pilot program to provide employers with identity authentication and employment verification of enrolled new employees.

 The Internal Revenue Code is amended to: (1) deny an earned income tax credit and a child care credit to an alien receiving work authorization pursuant to a deferred removal action; and (2) require an individual to include his or her social security number on his or her tax return in order to receive a child tax credit.

The Department of State shall suspend all U.S. foreign assistance to Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, except for assistance under the international narcotic control law enforcement program.

 The annual H-2B visa (temporary nonagricultural workers) cap is increased.

 A specified Department of Labor rule regarding temporary employment certification for nonimmigrant seasonal agricultural workers and enforcement of employer contractual obligations applicable to such workers shall cease to have effect and an earlier Labor rule relating to such matters shall resume effect.

No visa may be issued under this bill unless DHS certifies to Congress that the issuance of such visa would not result in a U.S. security threat.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Immigration
Date: 2016-06-09 00:00:00

Fourteenth Amendment Protection Act of 2016

This bill prohibits a state or political subdivision, notwithstanding a U.S. citizen's age, the immigration status of the citizen's custodial parent or legal guardian, or such parent's or guardian's ability to present a document establishing his or her lawful permanent resident status, from:

 depriving such citizen or the parent or legal guardian acting on behalf of such citizen of any federal, state, or local benefit to which the citizen is lawfully entitled; prohibiting such citizen, parent, or legal guardian from accessing any legal document to which such citizen is lawfully entitled or eligible to apply for; or taking any action or omitting to take any action that deprives the citizen of any right, privilege, or immunity under the Constitution or laws of the United States.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Immigration
Date: 2016-06-10 00:00:00

Foreign ID Review Act of 2016

This bill requires the Department of Justice to review every two years all forms of identification issued to foreign nationals in the United States by the governments of Mexico, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, including consular-issued identification and passports, to determine if such forms of identification are sufficiently secure to verify the bearer's identity for purposes such as opening a financial institution account and obtaining any lawful benefit for the bearer's child.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Immigration
Date: 2016-06-10 00:00:00

Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2016

This bill amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to grant automatic citizenship to all qualifying children adopted by a U.S. citizen parent, regardless of the date on which the adoption was finalized.

An individual born outside of the United States who was adopted by a U.S. citizen parent shall automatically become a U.S. citizen when the following conditions have been fulfilled:

 the individual was adopted by a U.S. citizen before the individual reached age 18, the individual was physically present in the United States in the citizen parent's legal custody pursuant to a lawful admission before the individual reached age 18, the individual never acquired U.S. citizenship before the enactment of this Act, and the individual was lawfully residing in the United States on the date of enactment of this Act. An individual who meets such criteria, except for lawfully residing in the United States on the date of enactment of this Act, shall automatically become a U.S. citizen on the date on which the individual is physically present in the United States pursuant to a lawful admission.

 A visa may not be issued to such an individual unless:

 the individual was subjected to a criminal background check; and the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State coordinated with law enforcement agencies to ensure that appropriate action is taken regarding any unresolved criminal activity.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Immigration
Date: 2016-07-05 00:00:00

Sarah's Law

This bill amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to require the detention of an alien: (1) who was not inspected and admitted into the United States, who held a revoked nonimmigrant visa (or other nonimmigrant admission document), or who is deportable for failing to maintain nonimmigrant status; and (2) who has been charged in the United States with a crime that resulted in the death or serious bodily injury of another person.

 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shall make reasonable efforts to:

 obtain information about the identity of any victims of the crimes for which such alien was charged or convicted; and provide the victim, or a parent, guardian, spouse, or closest living relative of a deceased victim, with information about such alien, including name, date of birth, nationality, immigration status, criminal history, and a description of any related removal efforts.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Immigration
Date: 2016-07-06 00:00:00

Sarah's Law

This bill amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to require the detention of an alien: (1) who was not inspected and admitted into the United States, who held a revoked nonimmigrant visa (or other nonimmigrant admission document), or who is deportable for failing to maintain nonimmigrant status; and (2) who has been charged in the United States with a crime that resulted in the death or serious bodily injury of another person.

 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shall make reasonable efforts to:

 obtain information about the identity of any victims of the crimes for which such alien was charged or convicted; and provide the victim, or a parent, guardian, spouse, or closest living relative of a deceased victim, with information about such alien, including name, date of birth, nationality, immigration status, criminal history, and a description of any related removal efforts.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Immigration
Date: 2016-07-07 00:00:00

Stop Dangerous Sanctuary Cities Act

This bill prohibits a sanctuary jurisdiction from receiving grants under certain Economic Development Assistance Programs and the Community Development Block Grant Program. A sanctuary jurisdiction is a state or political subdivision that has a statute, policy, or practice in effect that prohibits or restricts: (1) information sharing about an individual's immigration status, or (2) compliance with a lawfully issued detainer request or notification of release request.

A state or political subdivision that complies with a detainer is deemed to be an agent of the Department of Homeland Security and is authorized to take actions to comply with the detainer.

The bill limits the liability of a state or political subdivision, or an officer or employee of such state or political subdivision, for actions in compliance with the detainer.
Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Immigration
Date: 2016-07-07 00:00:00

H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act of 2016 

This bill amends the the Immigration and Nationality Act to revise employer and government requirements regarding visas for nonimmigrant aliens rated H-1B (specialty occupation) and L-1 (intracompany transfer to the United States from abroad).

H-1B employer application requirements are revised.

 The bill establishes an H-1B visa allocation system, with first priority reserved for aliens who have earned an advanced degree in a field of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) from a U.S. institution of higher education.

The bill requires completion of a U.S. degree (or an equivalent foreign degree) as a qualification for "specialty occupation" eligibility, eliminating experience in a specialty as an equivalent to the completion of such a degree.

 The bill prescribes an H-1B labor condition application fee.

 The Department of Labor may issue subpoenas and seek appropriate injunctive relief and specific performance of contractual obligations to ensure H-1B employer compliance.

The period of authorized admission for an H-1B nonimmigrant is reduced from six to three years, with a three-year extension available for aliens with extraordinary ability or with advanced degrees, or professors.

The bill denies an H-1B visa to any alien normally classifiable as an H-1 nonimmigrant who seeks U.S. admission to provide services in a specialty occupation.

Labor may investigate applications for fraud and conduct H-1B compliance audits.

Labor shall conduct annual audits of companies with more than 100 employees who work in the United States if more than 15% of those employees are H-1B nonimmigrants.

The bill increases certain employer penalties, including the penalty for displacing a U.S. worker.

An employer that violates any H-1B requirement shall be liable to the harmed employee for lost wages and benefits.

 The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services shall give Labor any information in materials submitted by H-1B employers as part of the petition adjudication process that indicates employer noncompliance with H-1B visa program requirements.

Labor may hire 200 additional employees to administer H-1B programs.

The bill prohibits an employer, unless it receives a waiver from Labor, from hiring an L-1 nonimmigrant for more than one year who will: (1) serve in a capacity involving specialized knowledge, and (2) be stationed primarily at the worksite of an employer other than the petitioning employer.

 No employer may replace a U.S. worker with an L-1 worker.

 The bill prescribes L-1 requirements regarding: (1) employer petitions for employment at a new office, (2) wage rates and working conditions, and (3) employer penalties.

 Labor may initiate an L-1 employer investigation.

 Authority to administer L-1 visa blanket petitions is transferred from the Department of Justice to the Department of Homeland Security.