Repeal Executive Amnesty Act of 2015
Latest action · Jan 8, 2015 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
Progress
Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.
- IntroducedJan 8, 2015
- Passed SenateNot reached
- Passed HouseNot reached
- To the PresidentNot reached
- Became lawNot reached
Summary
Repeal Executive Amnesty Act of 2015
This bill shifts from the Attorney General to the Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) the authority to parole an alien temporarily into the United States, on a case-by-case basis, and in the Secretary's sole discretion, for an urgent humanitarian reasons or for another reason strictly in the public interest.
A humanitarian parole is limited to:
- a medical emergency or organ or tissue donation in certain circumstances; or
- a situation in which a close family member in the United States is dying and the alien could not arrive in the United States, through the normal visa process, in time to see that family member alive.
A public interest parole is limited to instances where the alien has assisted the U.S. government in a matter, such as a criminal investigation, espionage, or other similar law enforcement activity, and either the government requires the alien's U.S. presence or the alien's life would be threatened if not permitted to come to the United States.
Aliens found ineligible for refugee status may not be paroled.
No funds may be used to implement specified memoranda from the President, the Secretary, the Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or other related memoranda.
The head of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) may not appoint an individual to any position in the USCIS until after the President rescinds specified memoranda.
The William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 is amended to eliminate the special repatriation requirements for unaccompanied alien children (UACs) who are nationals or residents of a country contiguous to the United States, and so apply to them the same removal requirements 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.
Any inadmissible UAC at a land border or port of entry, who fails to meet these victim criteria, must be returned to his or her country of nationality or of last habitual residence.
The Secretary of State's authority to negotiate agreements between the United States and countries contiguous to the United States for the repatriation of children is extended to agreements with any country, contiguous or not.
Procedural rights are specified for UACs who are not victims of a severe form of trafficking in persons, and who do not fear returning to his or her country of nationality or last habitual residence.
HHS must inform DHS about children apprehended during a specified period before enactment of this Act who are placed with an individual, and DHS must investigate the immigration status of that individual, and, if the individual is unlawfully present in the United States, initiate removal proceedings.
Paroled aliens cannot receive benefits under either the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 or the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
State and local law enforcement personnel are authorized to investigate, identify, apprehend, arrest, detain, or transfer aliens to federal custody in order to enforce federal, state, or local immigration laws. State and local law enforcement personnel will enjoy immunity from personal liability in the performance of such duties.The Immigration and Nationality Act is amended to prescribe procedural requirements for the transfer from state or local to federal custody of inadmissible or deportable aliens.
Appropriations are authorized for FY2015 and subsequent fiscal years for the incarceration of undocumented criminal aliens.
Bureau Of Justice Assistance, public safety, and community policing grants under the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, as well as compensation for the incarceration of undocumented criminal aliens, is denied to any state or local government that has in place a law or policy contravening the information collection and sharing requirements of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.
ICE may issue detainers to detain aliens arrested by a federal, state, or local law enforcement official for violations of any law, not just one relating to controlled substances.
The interoperable electronic data system ("Chimera system") under the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002, which gives current, immediate access to information in federal law enforcement databases and the intelligence community relevant to an alien's admissibility or deportability, must also include the operation of the Secure Communities program. DHS must issue a detainer, take a deportable alien into custody, and initiate removal proceedings upon receiving notice under the interoperable law enforcement and intelligence electronic data system that a deportable alien is in federal, state, or local custody.
The Immigration and Nationality Act is further amended to specify that:
- in no instance shall the government bear any expense for counsel for any person in removal proceedings or appealing from any such proceedings,
- an alien's statements must be true more probably than not in order to establish a credible fear of persecution in an asylum interview, and
- the prerequisite of a bilateral or multilateral agreement is eliminated as a condition for the possible removal to a safe third country in response to an alien's application for asylum in the United States.
DHS must establish quality assurance procedures and take steps to ensure that:
- questions by DHS employees exercising expedited removal authority are asked in a uniform manner, and
- both these questions and the answers are recorded in a uniform fashion.
Department of Justice authority is suspended until January 20, 2017, for waiver of the inadmissibility of any alien unlawfully present in the United States who is the spouse or son or daughter of a U.S. citizen or of a lawful permanent resident alien.
Requirements are modified for the temporary protected status of aliens whose return to a foreign country would expose them to a serious threat to their personal safety.
Cosponsors 1
Members who signed on, in the order they did. All signed on Jan 9, 2015.
| Seat | Cosponsor | Signed on | |
|---|---|---|---|
| R-MO | Roy Blunt | Jan 9, 2015 |
Committees 1
Where it was sent and what each committee and subcommittee did with it, in order.
| Chamber | Committee | What it did |
|---|---|---|
| Senate | Finance Committee | Referred Jan 8, 2015 |
Actions 2
Everything that happened, newest first.
- Jan 8, 2015Introduced in Senate
- Jan 8, 2015Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
Research
What has been written about this bill: committee reports, cost estimates, the sponsor’s authority statement, printed hearings and the Congressional Research Service’s work.
CRS reports 2
Congressional Research Service work that CRS links to this bill or the law it became, newest first.
Cite it 2
Products on other subjects that cite it, usually among other measures.
| Product | Title | Kind | Published |
|---|---|---|---|
| R45993 | Legalization Framework Under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) Archived | Report | Nov 5, 2019 |
| R44118 | Sanctuary Jurisdictions and Criminal Aliens: In Brief Archived | Report | Jan 10, 2017 |
Related bills 3
Companion bills and other measures the record links to this one.
| Bill | Title | Relationship | Latest action |
|---|---|---|---|
| HR 191 | Repeal Executive Amnesty Act of 2015 | Related bill | Feb 2, 2015 |
| HR 2801 | No Office Space for Executive Amnesty Act of 2015 | Related bill | Jun 18, 2015 |
| HR 3302 | Ensuring Congressional Oversight of Immigration Act | Related bill | Sep 8, 2015 |
Titles 2
Every title it has carried, official and short, at each stage.
- Official Title as Introduced
- A bill to repeal executive immigration overreach, to clarify that the proper constitutional authority for immigration policy belongs to the legislative branch, and for other purposes.
- Short Titles as Introduced
- Repeal Executive Amnesty Act of 2015
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: International Affairs.
- Administrative remedies
- Adoption and foster care
- Border security and unlawful immigration
- Canada
- Child safety and welfare
- Civil actions and liability
- Comprehensive health care
- Congressional oversight
- Correctional facilities and imprisonment
- Crime victims
- Crimes against children
- Criminal investigation, prosecution, interrogation
- Department of Homeland Security
- Detention of persons
- Evidence and witnesses
- Foreign labor
- Foreign language and bilingual programs
- Government employee pay, benefits, personnel management
- Government information and archives
- Health care costs and insurance
- Health care coverage and access
- Health programs administration and funding
- Human trafficking
- Immigration status and procedures
- Income tax credits
- Intergovernmental relations
- International Affairs
- International law and treaties
- Latin America
- Law enforcement administration and funding
- Lawyers and legal services
- Medicaid
- Medicare
- Mexico
- Poverty and welfare assistance
- Presidents and presidential powers, Vice Presidents
- Refugees, asylum, displaced persons
- Social security and elderly assistance
- State and local finance
- State and local government operations
- Visas and passports
Text 1
Each version as it was printed, newest first.
- Jan 8, 2015Introduced in Senate
Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov; cost estimates are the Congressional Budget Office's, and the hearings are the printed hearings GovInfo publishes, which can appear months after the hearing.
