Congress 116 - HR 5210 - Refugee Protection Act of 2019

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Administrative law and regulatory procedures Administrative remedies Afghanistan Asia Border security and unlawful immigration Central America Child safety and welfare Citizenship and naturalization Conflicts and wars Congressional oversight Costa Rica Crime victims Criminal investigation, prosecution, interrogation Criminal justice information and records Department of Homeland Security Department of Justice Department of State Detention of persons Diplomacy, foreign officials, Americans abroad Disability and paralysis Domestic violence and child abuse Economic development Economic performance and conditions El Salvador Evidence and witnesses Family relationships Foreign aid and international relief Foreign labor Foreign language and bilingual programs Fraud offenses and financial crimes Government buildings, facilities, and property Government employee pay, benefits, personnel management Government ethics and transparency, public corruption Government information and archives Government studies and investigations Government trust funds Guatemala Health information and medical records Homelessness and emergency shelter Honduras Housing finance and home ownership Human rights Human trafficking Immigrant health and welfare Immigration Immigration status and procedures International law and treaties International organizations and cooperation Iraq Judicial procedure and administration Juvenile crime and gang violence Latin America Lawyers and legal services Mexico Middle East Military operations and strategy Organized crime Political movements and philosophies Presidents and presidential powers, Vice Presidents Protest and dissent Racial and ethnic relations Refugees, asylum, displaced persons Religion Right of privacy Sex, gender, sexual orientation discrimination Social security and elderly assistance Syria Terrorism Visas and passports Worker safety and health

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Summary

Refugee Protection Act of 2019

This bill provides protections for aliens such as asylum seekers and contains other provisions.

The bill's provisions include

eliminating the general requirement that an asylum seeker apply for asylum within one year of arriving in the United States;
prohibiting requiring an asylum seeker to provide corroborating evidence of persecution if such evidence is not reasonably obtainable;
waiving certain grounds of inadmissibility or deportability for qualifying refugees seeking permanent resident status;
requiring the Department of Justice to appoint counsel to a child or particularly vulnerable individual in certain immigration proceedings;
increasing the annual cap on principal nonimmigrant U visas (victims of crimes) from 10,000 to 20,000;
prohibiting the removal of an alien with certain pending immigration applications, such as a U visa application;
imposing limits on when an alien may be removed from the United States in a proceeding without the alien present;
establishing a presumption that the least restrictive conditions necessary should be imposed in custody proceedings for asylum seekers, including release if appropriate;
establishing that the maximum number of refugees admitted each fiscal year shall be no less than 95,000;
directing the Department of State to help other governments increase their capacity to care for and accept refugees;
directing the State Department to establish refugee processing centers in other countries in North and Central America; and
authorizing the Department of Homeland Security to provide special immigrant status to qualified aliens who assisted U.S. efforts in Syria and admit up to 5,000 such aliens each fiscal year for five years.

Actions

Dec 19, 2019

Referred to the Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship.
Nov 21, 2019

Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committees on Ways and Means, the Budget, and Foreign Affairs, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Nov 21, 2019

Introduced in House

Amendments

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