Judiciary Committee Passes Smith Refugee Reform Bill

Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON D.C.

Congressman Smith: Our refugee system is broken. Terrorists have succeeded in exploiting our refugee programs to come to the U.S. and aid ISIS. The refugee program has even been abused by this administration to admit thousands of Central American immigrants coming illegally over the Southern border. The Obama administration has repeatedly refused to respond to congressional inquiries on the immigration status of terrorists charged in plots in the United States despite reports that at least 14 were admitted to the country as refugees. Finally taxpayers hard-earned dollars are often misused since questionable refugees automatically receive government benefits."

• The bill sets the refugee ceiling at 60000 per year. It allows the President to recommend a revision of the ceiling number and Congress can choose to act on that recommendation.

• The bill prevents the President from admitting additional refugees without Congress approval.

• Currently states or localities that do not want refugees resettled within their communities have no recourse.  The bill remedies this issue and prevents the resettlement of refugees in any state or locality that takes legislative or executive action disapproving resettlement within their jurisdiction.

• It requires that when processing refugee applications from countries listed as Countries of Particular Concern" in the annual report of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom claims/applications that are based on religious persecution and are made by individuals who practice minority religions in such countries are prioritized.

• The bill requires termination of refugee status if a resettled refugee returns to the country from which they fled absent a change in country conditions.

• It requires the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to implement a fraudulent document detection program for refugee processing including the placement of Fraud Detection and National Security officials at initial refugee screening and the creation of a searchable database of scanned and categorized documents submitted by potential refugees at initial screening.

• It provides for regular security vetting of each admitted refugee until the refugee adjusts immigration status to lawful permanent resident.

• Within one year of the bill becoming law all U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) interviews performed during USCIS circuit rides and done with the assistance of an interpreter are to be recorded and DHS must review a random selection of 20 of the recordings to ensure that the interpreter correctly interpreted the interview. If an interpreter is found to have incorrectly interpreted the interview the interpreter cannot serve as an interpreter for immigration purposes.

• The bill requires USCIS to review open source Internet postings including social media for each applicant.

• The bill prevents the Secretary of DHS from unilaterally waiving most grounds of inadmissibility including criminal convictions for refugees.

• It also prevents the DHS Secretary from waiving most grounds of inadmissibility and deportability including criminal grounds for refugees attempting to adjust their status to lawful permanent resident.

• The bill requires the Government Accountability Office to issue a report on the security of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (including the screening and processing procedures); the number of refugees who have been convicted of terrorism-related offenses since 2006; and the use of federally-funded benefit programs by refugees resettled in the United States.