3.0.0 2708 2023-01-11T13:31:43Z 2023-01-11T13:31:43Z Senate S 2016-03-17 114 ssju00 Judiciary Committee Senate Standing Referred to 2016-03-17T16:11:46Z 2016-03-17 ssju00 Judiciary Committee Senate Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. (Sponsor introductory remarks on measure: CR S1594-1596) IntroReferral 2016-03-17 Introduced in Senate IntroReferral 10000 9 Library of Congress C001095 Sen. Cotton, Tom [R-AR] Tom Cotton R AR N T000476 Sen. Tillis, Thomas [R-NC] Thomas Tillis R NC Roland 2016-04-18 False S001197 Sen. Sasse, Ben [R-NE] Ben Sasse R NE 2016-04-26 False Immigration Human rights Immigration status and procedures Middle East Racial and ethnic relations Refugees, asylum, displaced persons Religion Syria Immigration 00 2016-03-17 Introduced in Senate 2016-07-11T19:31:14Z Religious Persecution Relief Act

This bill declares that Syrian nationals who are religious minorities in their country of origin:

  • shall be classified as refugees of special humanitarian concern,
  • shall be eligible for priority two processing under the refugee resettlement priority system, and
  • may apply directly to the U.S. refugee admissions program for admission to the United States.

The Immigration and Nationality Act is amended to authorize, in addition to the current worldwide refugee resettlement quota, the refugee admission of up to 10,000 religious-minority Syrian nationals for each of FY2016-FY2020.

The Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 1990 is amended to establish as a protected refugee category persons who:

  • are or were nationals and residents of the Syrian Arab Republic;
  • as members of a religious minority in Syria, share common characteristics that identify them as targets of persecution in that state on account of religion, creed, or ethnicity; and
  • have been underrepresented in the U.S. refugee resettlement program during the five-year period ending on September 30, 2015, when compared to their representation in the Syrian population as a whole.
]]> Religious Persecution Relief Act Display Title Religious Persecution Relief Act Official Title as Introduced A bill to provide for the admission to the United States of up to 10,000 Syrian religious minorities as refugees of special humanitarian concern in each of the fiscal years 2016 through 2020. Introduced in Senate IS Short Titles as Introduced Religious Persecution Relief Act Introduced in Senate 2016-03-17T04:00:00Z https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-114s2708is/xml/BILLS-114s2708is.xml 2016-03-17 Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. (Sponsor introductory remarks on measure: CR S1594-1596) text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain. Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress This file contains bill summaries and statuses for federal legislation. A bill summary describes the most significant provisions of a piece of legislation and details the effects the legislative text may have on current law and federal programs. Bill summaries are authored by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) of the Library of Congress. As stated in Public Law 91-510 (2 USC 166 (d)(6)), one of the duties of CRS is "to prepare summaries and digests of bills and resolutions of a public general nature introduced in the Senate or House of Representatives". For more information, refer to the User Guide that accompanies this file.