[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2721 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2721

To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to preclude the removal of 
 an alien who unlawfully voted solely due to a misunderstanding of his 
           or her eligibility to vote or citizenship status.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             August 5, 1999

 Mrs. Mink of Hawaii introduced the following bill; which was referred 
                   to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to preclude the removal of 
 an alien who unlawfully voted solely due to a misunderstanding of his 
           or her eligibility to vote or citizenship status.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. LIMITING THE REMOVAL OF CERTAIN ALIENS WHO HAVE UNLAWFULLY 
              VOTED.

    (a) Limiting Inadmissibility of Aliens Who Have Unlawfully Voted.--
Section 212(a)(10)(D) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 
1182(a)(10)(D)) is amended to read as follows:
                    ``(D) Unlawful voters.--
                            ``(i) In general.--Any alien who has voted 
                        in violation of any Federal, State, or local 
                        constitutional provision, statute, ordinance, 
                        or regulation is inadmissible.
                            ``(ii) Exception.--Clause (i) shall not 
                        apply to an alien if--
                                    ``(I) any vote described in such 
                                clause was unlawful solely on the 
                                ground that the alien is not a citizen 
                                of the United States; and
                                    ``(II) the alien committed any such 
                                violation because of a good faith 
                                belief on the part of the alien that he 
                                or she was a citizen of the United 
                                States or had an immigration status 
                                that otherwise rendered him or her 
                                eligible to vote.''.
    (b) Limiting Removal of Aliens Who Have Unlawfully Voted.--Section 
237(a)(6) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1227(a)(6)) 
is amended to read as follows:
            ``(6) Unlawful voters.--
                    ``(A) In general.--Any alien who has voted in 
                violation of any Federal, State, or local 
                constitutional provision, statute, ordinance, or 
                regulation is deportable.
                    ``(B) Exception.--Subparagraph (A) shall not apply 
                to an alien if--
                            ``(i) any vote described in such 
                        subparagraph was unlawful solely on the ground 
                        that the alien is not a citizen of the United 
                        States; and
                            ``(ii) the alien committed any such 
                        violation because of a good faith belief on the 
                        part of the alien that he or she was a citizen 
                        of the United States or had an immigration 
                        status that otherwise rendered him or her 
                        eligible to vote.''.
    (c) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section shall take 
effect as if included in the enactment of section 347 of the Illegal 
Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (Public Law 
104-208; 110 Stat. 3009-638) and shall apply to voting occurring 
before, on, or after the date of the enactment of such Act.
                                 <all>