Safe Zones Act of 2023
Latest action · Apr 27, 2023 Referred to the Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement.
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.
- IntroducedApr 27, 2023
- Passed HouseNot reached
- Passed SenateNot reached
- To the PresidentNot reached
- Became lawNot reached
Summary
Safe Zones Act of 2023
This bill makes changes to procedures relating to seeking asylum, including by establishing facilities outside of the United States to accept and process refugee applications to the United States.
Specifically, the Department of State must establish safe zones that accept applications for asylum from individuals who are nationals of (1) the country where that safe zone is located, or (2) a country next to the country where the safe zone is located. The State Department must establish at least three safe zones along the U.S.-Mexico border and one safe zone in Guatemala.
For each safe zone, the State Department must (1) ensure that it is fortified from danger; (2) provide temporary housing for individuals with pending applications; (3) provide adequate meals; and (4) provide access to various services, including medical services. The bill also imposes various requirements related to safe zones, including deadlines for processing applications.
The bill expands the definition of asylum officer (i.e., officers who conduct initial credible fear reviews to determine whether an asylum seeker's application may proceed) to include trained and qualified staff as determined by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). (In 2020, a federal court ruled that DHS may not use U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents to conduct such interviews.)
The bill also requires the hiring of additional border patrol agents and immigration judges.
Cosponsors
Members who signed on, in the order they did.
Actions 3
Everything that happened, newest first.
- Apr 27, 2023Introduced in House
- Apr 27, 2023Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Homeland Security, 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.
- Apr 27, 2023Referred to the Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement.
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Immigration.
Text 1
Each version as it was printed, newest first.
- Apr 27, 2023Introduced in House
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.