“To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act with respect to refugee admission and resettlement.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section revises the annual refugee admissions process (8 U.S.C. 1157(a)) to require the President to submit a recommendation to Congress on the number of refugees to be admitted in a fiscal year—after appropriate consultation—and prohibits any admissions until Congress enacts a joint resolution setting that number (replacing the President's prior unilateral authority to determine the number, which was capped at 50,000 for FY1980-FY1982 or otherwise set thereafter). It makes parallel changes to emergency refugee admissions (8 U.S.C. 1157(b)), requiring a presidential recommendation and congressional joint resolution before any admissions (previously set unilaterally by the President for up to 12 months). (Thus, refugee admissions—which provide lawful permanent resident status to individuals fleeing persecution and of special humanitarian concern—cannot occur without affirmative congressional approval of a specific numerical ceiling each fiscal year.)
This section establishes a limitation on refugee resettlement in a state by (1) requiring the Director or federal agency administering refugee cash assistance to notify the state's chief executive at least 30 days before resettling any refugee there and (2) prohibiting the Director or agency from resettling refugees or coordinating their placement in the state if the chief executive objects. (Thus, state governors may effectively veto proposed refugee placements in their states.)