“To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to protect the well-being of soldiers and their families, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section facilitates naturalization for certain military personnel by (1) allowing any person who has served honorably in support of a contingency operation (i.e., a military operation designated by the Secretary of Defense, such as Operation Enduring Freedom) to naturalize under INA §329 (8 U.S.C. 1440)—which waives residence and physical presence requirements for service during presidentially designated periods of hostility—as though the service occurred during such a period; and (2) amending INA §328 (8 U.S.C. 1439), which waives residence and physical presence requirements for at least one year of honorable peacetime active-duty service, to extend the post-service window for filing a naturalization application to one year (from six months) in subsections (a) and (d). (Thus, eligible service members and veterans have an additional six months to apply after separation.)
This section exempts from worldwide numerical limitations on immigrant admissions spouses, children, sons, or daughters eligible for family second-preference visas under INA §203(a)(2) (i.e., spouses and minor children or unmarried sons and daughters of lawful permanent residents) who are family members of an alien serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. (As background, INA §201(b)(1) lists categories exempt from the annual caps on family-sponsored, employment-based, and diversity immigrants, such as refugees and asylees. Thus, these family members may receive visas without counting against per-country or worldwide limits.)
This section establishes a new adjustment of status process for immediate family members (i.e., parents, spouses, children, sons, daughters, or minor siblings) of eligible U.S. Armed Forces members who have served honorably on active duty (or were separated under honorable conditions). The Secretary of Homeland Security may approve such adjustment if the alien (1) applies while physically present in the United States, (2) is eligible for an immigrant visa and admissible under INA §212(a) (waiving grounds for public charge, misrepresentation, lack of required documentation, and certain unlawful presence), (3) has an immediately available immigrant visa, and (4) pays a processing fee. Posthumous eligibility applies for two years after the service member's service-related death or, for prior deaths, the date of enactment. (Thus, this creates a discretionary pathway bypassing standard bars under INA §245(c) on unauthorized employment and unlawful status.)
This section establishes protections in removal proceedings for aliens who have served honorably in the U.S. Armed Forces (or, if separated, under honorable conditions) by prohibiting issuance of a notice to appear without prior approval from the Secretary of Homeland Security. It directs the Secretary, when determining whether to issue such a notice, to consider the alien's eligibility for naturalization under INA §§328 or 329 (i.e., naturalization based on military service), military service record, applicable grounds of deportability, and hardship to the Armed Forces, alien, or family from removal proceedings. The section further prohibits removal of such aliens under expedited removal authorities in INA §§235(b)(1)(A)(i) or (B)(iii), 238, or 241(a)(5) (i.e., expedited removal at the border or ports of entry, expedited removal of criminal aliens, and reinstatement of prior removal orders).