Topic: Immigration — Immigration
Subject: Immigration
Date: 2013-05-23 00:00:00

Keeping the Promise of IRCA Act - Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to require 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. Subjects an individual who knowingly uses the social security number or other identification of another person to criminal penalties.

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

Sets forth EEVS responsibilities of the Commissioner of Social Security (SSA) and the Secretary.

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

Directs the Secretary to work with the states to establish a common data set and data exchange protocol for electronic birth and death registration systems.

 Directs the Secretary to check against all available terrorist watch lists those alien smugglers and smuggled individuals who are interdicted at U.S. land, air, and sea borders.

Revises alien smuggling and related criminal offense and penalty provisions.

Provides extraterritorial jurisdiction over such offenses.

Limits a defense of necessity for knowingly bringing an illegal alien into the United States from the high seas.

Exempts from certain of such violations a bona fide nonprofit, religious organization in the United States that enables an alien who is present in the United States to serve as a volunteer minister or missionary for such organization in the United States.

Prohibits a state or local government from receiving criminal alien assistance program (SCAAP) assistance if it is not in compliance with the prohibition of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 against any restriction by a government entity or official of communications by any other government entity or official with a federal immigration agency involving information about an individual's citizenship or immigration status.

Grants specified arrest and weapons authority to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) enforcement agents and deportation officers who have completed immigration enforcement training.

Authorizes the Secretary to hire 2,500 ICE detention enforcement officers.

Directs the Secretary to: (1) hire additional ICE deportation enforcement officers and support personnel; (2) assist state or local gang or drug task forces if requested; (3) assist federal, state, and county prisons or jails; (4) increase ICE detention capacity; (5) hire additional ICE prosecutors; and (6) establish a pilot program to allow deportation officers and immigration enforcement agents to electronically process and serve charging documents and place detainers while in the field.

Requires immigration officers who encounter illegal aliens with specified criminal convictions, gang affiliations, or who pose a risk to public safety or national security to process such aliens and refer them for removal proceedings by issuing a Notice to Appear.

Amends the the Immigration and Nationality Act to: (1) prohibit issuance of visas to citizens, subjects, nationals, or residents of a country listed in the most recent quarterly delayed repatriation report until the Secretary notifies the Secretary of State that the country is no longer listed, or each alien listed in the report with respect to such country has been removed from the United States; and (2) deny entrance to visa holders who are citizens, subjects, nationals, or residents, of such a country.

Directs the Attorney General (DOJ) to create and fill 20 additional immigration judgeships.

Establishes an ICE Advisory Council.

Directs the Secretary to: (1) develop the biometric automated entry and exit control system within two years; and (2) establish biometric exit pilot programs at a minimum of 10 land ports of entry, including at least two each in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, and at least two on the U.S.-Canada border.

Requires DHS to assess the effectiveness of border enforcement strategies and tools by using the metric of operational control. (Defines operational control as the prevention of all unlawful U.S. entries, including entries by terrorists, other unlawful aliens, instruments of terrorism, narcotics, and other contraband.)

Directs the Secretary to develop a national strategy to secure the borders that describes actions to be carried out to achieve operational control over all U.S. ports of entry and the U.S. international land and maritime borders by December 31, 2015.

Provides for border technology improvement through equipment sharing with the Department of Defense (DOD).

Requires that ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel be provided with adequate equipment to ensure their safety.