“A bill to amend section 212(d)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to reform immigration parole, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section revises the Secretary of Homeland Security's discretionary parole authority under INA §212(d)(5) to authorize parole on a case-by-case basis (not for classes of aliens) solely for narrowly defined urgent humanitarian reasons—limited to medical emergencies requiring U.S. treatment, accompanying parents/guardians of minor patients, organ/tissue donors, imminent family death visits, close family funerals, urgent medical needs of adopting children, or return by adjustment-of-status applicants after temporary foreign travel—or significant public benefit tied exclusively to law enforcement assistance where normal admission processes are unavailable or untimely. It separately authorizes parole for (1) spouses or children of active-duty Armed Forces members who have approved family-based petitions and are not inadmissible or removable and (2) certain Cuban nationals with approved family-based petitions for whom visas are unavailable but who meet all other immigrant visa requirements and advance U.S.-Cuba migration commitments. Parole is not an admission; parolees generally may not work (except those under the military or Cuban provisions, who receive employment authorization); and the authority may not be used for any other purpose. (Thus, the revision ends broad programmatic uses of parole for large groups, such as recent Afghan, Ukrainian, or Venezuelan programs.)
This section provides that the Act and its amendments take effect 30 days after enactment, with exceptions: (1) parole or advance parole applications filed before enactment are adjudicated, and any approved advance parole remains valid, under prior law; (2) INA §212(d)(5)(I), as added by section 2, takes effect on the date of enactment; and (3) aliens paroled under INA §212(d)(5)(A) before January 1, 2023, remain subject to their prior parole terms.
This section establishes a cause of action allowing any person, state, or local government that experiences financial harm exceeding $1,000 due to the federal government's failure to lawfully apply this Act or its amendments to bring a civil action against the federal government in an appropriate U.S. district court.
This section provides a severability clause, stating that if any provision of the Act or its amendments, or its application to any person or circumstance, is held unconstitutional, the remainder of the Act and the application of such provisions to other persons or circumstances remains unaffected.