[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 8980 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 8980

To authorize the Attorney General to provide grants to States, units of 
    local government, and organizations to support the recruitment, 
training, and development of staff and infrastructure needed to support 
       the due process rights of individuals facing deportation.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 10, 2024

Mr. Robert Garcia of California (for himself, Mrs. Ramirez, Mrs. Torres 
 of California, Ms. Barragan, Mr. Thanedar, Ms. Tlaib, Ms. Velazquez, 
   Mr. Goldman of New York, Mr. Vargas, Ms. Lee of Pennsylvania, Ms. 
   Salinas, Mr. Carson, Mr. McGovern, Ms. Jackson Lee, Ms. Omar, Ms. 
Ocasio-Cortez, Mr. Frost, and Mr. Casar) introduced the following bill; 
          which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To authorize the Attorney General to provide grants to States, units of 
    local government, and organizations to support the recruitment, 
training, and development of staff and infrastructure needed to support 
       the due process rights of individuals facing deportation.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Securing Help for Immigrants through 
Education and Legal Development Act'' or the ``SHIELD Act''.

SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Service area.--The term ``service area'' means the 
        jurisdiction or geographical area in which an entity carries 
        out activities using funds awarded under this Act.
            (2) State.--The term ``State'' means each of the several 
        States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto 
        Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, 
        and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
            (3) Unit of local government.--The term ``unit of local 
        government'' has the meaning given such term in section 
        901(a)(3) of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 
        1968 (34 U.S.C. 10251(a)(3)).
            (4) Individual facing deportation.--the term ``individual 
        facing deportation'' means an individual in a proceeding under 
        section 212(d)(5)(A), 235(b)(1)(B), 236, 238, 240, or 241 of 
        the Immigration and Nationality Act.

SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON ACCESS TO LEGAL COUNSEL.

    It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) unlike in the criminal legal system, there is no right 
        to government-funded legal representation for people facing the 
        devastating consequences of detention and deportation who 
        cannot afford a lawyer, even children are not entitled to an 
        attorney in these complex proceedings;
            (2) as a result, most people in removal proceedings, 
        including an estimated 80 percent of individuals held in 
        immigration detention during deportation cases initiated in the 
        past 20 years, are unrepresented and are forced to navigate the 
        complexities of immigration law against trained government 
        prosecutors alone;
            (3) the consequences of detention or deportation are 
        devastating, and can include the loss of liberty, the denial of 
        lawful immigration status or United States citizenship, loss of 
        livelihood, separation from and inability to support family, 
        and life-threatening danger in the country of origin;
            (4) legal representation has been proven to significantly 
        increase the likelihood of someone being released from 
        detention on bond and establishing a right to remain in the 
        United States;
            (5) studies show that detained immigrants with attorneys 
        are 3.5 times more likely to be granted bond and people in 
        detention with representation are up to 10.5 times more likely 
        to obtain relief from deportation than those without 
        representation, controlling for other factors;
            (6) for nondetained people, 60 percent of individuals with 
        lawyers win their cases compared to 17 percent of those without 
        a lawyer;
            (7) the detention and deportation system disproportionately 
        impacts Black immigrants and reinforces systemic racism, and 
        ensuring that immigrants have access to a lawyer reduces the 
        harms of the racial inequities in the immigration system;
            (8) since 2013, local and State governments have led the 
        charge on providing public funding for deportation defense for 
        their residents facing deportation, with over 55 local and 
        State governments, including 10 States, funding these programs;
            (9) the success of local and State publicly funded 
        deportation defense programs demonstrate the positive impact 
        that publicly funded universal representation programs have on 
        improving individual outcomes, keeping families and communities 
        together, and avoiding the resulting social, economic, and 
        public health costs of deportation;
            (10) while these local and State programs have made a 
        significant impact, they are insufficient to meet the need for 
        representation and the Federal Government must act to address 
        the significant unmet need for legal defense in the Federal 
        immigration system by passing the Fairness to Freedom Act of 
        2023, which establishes a universal right to federally funded 
        representation for anyone facing deportation, regardless of the 
        individual's ability to pay;
            (11) the growth of these local and State programs and the 
        resulting staffing recruitment challenges have also further 
        highlighted the acute need to develop and grow a legal and 
        social services staffing and infrastructure to address the 
        unmet representational needs for immigrants facing deportation;
            (12) infrastructure must be built to maintain a highly 
        skilled and sustainable legal defense workforce equipped with 
        the tools to implement high-quality, independent legal 
        representation regardless of the individual's ability to pay, 
        prior contact with the criminal legal system, or the nature or 
        perceived strength of their legal defense; and
            (13) in its 2023 Report ``Access to Justice in Federal 
        Administrative Proceedings'', the Legal Aid Interagency 
        Roundtable outlines the harms that unrepresented individuals 
        face in Federal administrative proceedings, including 
        immigration court, and their core strategy of increasing 
        representation and assistance by lawyers and nonlawyers for 
        people in administrative proceedings.

SEC. 4. IMMIGRATION LEGAL SERVICES STAFF AND INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT 
              PROGRAM.

    (a) In General.--The Attorney General, acting through the Director 
of the Office of Access to Justice, shall award competitive workforce 
development and capacity building grants to eligible entities that are 
seeking to expand access to representation for individuals facing 
deportation by increasing the workforce and strengthening the legal 
services infrastructure needed to provide such representation.
    (b) Eligibility Criteria.--An entity eligible to receive a grant 
under this section is a--
            (1) State or unit of local government that has allocated 
        public funds towards the provision of immigration-related legal 
        services, including legal representation, legal assistance, 
        community navigation, and related services, to individuals 
        facing deportation;
            (2) a community-based organization, nonprofit organization, 
        or educational institution that provides or coordinates 
        immigration-related legal services to individuals facing 
        deportation; or
            (3) a community-based organization, nonprofit organization, 
        or educational institution that recruits, trains, or mentors 
        individuals who provide or will provide immigration-related 
        legal services to individuals facing deportation.
    (c) Application.--An eligible entity seeking a grant under this 
section shall submit to the Director of the Office of Access to Justice 
an application at such time, in such manner, and containing such 
information as the Director may reasonably require.
    (d) Use of Funds.--Funds awarded under this section shall be used 
to develop a workforce scaled to meet the representation needs of all 
individuals facing deportation, grow the immigration-related legal 
services infrastructure, and enhance long-term capacity to provide 
high-quality, holistic, and linguistically appropriate legal services, 
which may include--
            (1) workforce recruitment and training programs, such as 
        educational, fellowship, clinical, job recruitment, and job 
        training services aimed at increasing the number of lawyers, 
        accredited representatives, social workers, and community 
        navigators entering the immigration legal services field;
            (2) technical assistance services, such as--
                    (A) substantive and technical skills-based 
                trainings to improve the quality of representation 
                provided to individuals facing deportation;
                    (B) language training to ensure legal staff are 
                equipped to provide linguistically appropriate 
                services;
                    (C) specialized legal support to support 
                representation in complex defense cases, including 
                representation in Federal court and State court; and
                    (D) leadership development, including management 
                training and establishing appropriate supervisory 
                systems;
            (3) local or regional coordination services to ensure a 
        coordinated and efficient delivery of legal services to 
        individuals facing deportation;
            (4) retention improvement strategies to ensure sustainable 
        growth of the immigration-related legal services field, 
        including strategies to address caseload management, burnout, 
        and organizational systems;
            (5) recruiting and retaining legal staff from 
        underrepresented backgrounds and promoting diversity within the 
        legal services field;
            (6) growing legal services infrastructure and 
        representational capacity in locations with a significant unmet 
        need for legal representation and with significantly less 
        immigration-related legal services capacity in their service 
        area than national averages; and
            (7) physical, administrative, and technological 
        infrastructure resources in coordination with a use of funds 
        described in paragraphs (1) through (6).
    (e) Contracts and Subawards.--A recipient of a grant under this 
section may, for purposes authorized under subsection (d), use all or a 
portion of that grant to contract with or make one or more subawards to 
one or more--
            (1) community-based organization, nonprofit organization, 
        private organization, or educational institution; or
            (2) units of local government.
    (f) Conditions.--As a condition of receiving a grant under this 
section, an eligible entity shall--
            (1) submit to the Attorney General a certification that the 
        proposed uses of grant funds by the entity--
                    (A) are consistent with this section; and
                    (B) meet the criteria determined by the Attorney 
                General, in consultation with the Director of the 
                Office of Access to Justice; and
            (2) not later than 90 days after the end of each fiscal 
        year for which an entity receives grant funds under this 
        section, submit to the Director of the Office of Access to 
        Justice a report that describes--
                    (A) the types of services being provided under the 
                grant;
                    (B) the service area;
                    (C) the number of individuals recruited or retained 
                through services funded under the grant;
                    (D) the impact that staffing recruitment and 
                retention has had on organizational capacity to 
                represent more individuals within the service area;
                    (E) the actual expenditures made in connection with 
                the grant, including personnel and staffing structure 
                and indirect costs;
                    (F) the outcomes of services; and
                    (G) a description of the continuing unmet 
                representation needs of individuals facing deportation 
                in the service area and recommendations of supports and 
                resources needed to meet them.
    (g) Grant Term.--The term of a grant under this section shall be 4 
years, and such grant may be renewed.
    (h) Supplement of Non-Federal Funds.--Any Federal funds received 
under this section shall be used to supplement, not supplant, Federal 
or non-Federal funds that would otherwise be available for activities 
funded under this section.

SEC. 5. AUTHORITY AND DUTIES OF THE ADMINISTERING AGENCY.

    (a) Duties of the Director.--The Director of the Office of Access 
to Justice may promulgate such rules, policies, and procedures as may 
be necessary and appropriate to carry out the grant program under this 
Act, including the following:
            (1) Establishing competitive grantmaking procedures to 
        identify grant recipients.
            (2) Targeting grants in a manner that best accomplishes the 
        following objectives and priorities:
                    (A) Advancing a legal services workforce trained 
                and equipped to implement an independent legal defense 
                for individuals facing deportation that ensures high-
                quality, independent legal representation, regardless 
                of ability to pay, prior contact with the criminal 
                legal system, or the nature or perceived strength of 
                their legal defense.
                    (B) A national legal services infrastructure scaled 
                to meet the representation needs of all individuals 
                facing deportation.
                    (C) Long-term growth of organizational or 
                programmatic capacity to provide high-quality, 
                holistic, and linguistically appropriate legal services 
                to individuals facing deportation.
                    (D) Providing support to State and local 
                governments that have taken leadership and developed 
                expertise in providing public funding for the legal 
                defense of individuals facing deportation.
                    (E) Addressing the crisis of lack of representation 
                in parts of the country where such publicly funded 
                programs have not been established.
    (b) Independent Implementation.--Except as otherwise provided in 
this Act, the Attorney General, acting through the Director, shall 
exercise the authority under this Act in an independent manner in order 
to advance the primary objective of increasing access to representation 
for individuals facing deportation, and without regard to other 
priorities of the Federal Government related to immigration 
enforcement.

SEC. 6. REPORTS AND ACCOUNTABILITY.

    (a) Reports and Evaluations .--For each fiscal year, each grantee 
under this section during that fiscal year shall submit to the Attorney 
General a report on the effectiveness of activities carried out using 
such grant. Each report shall include an evaluation in such form and 
containing such information as the Attorney General may reasonably 
require. The Attorney General shall specify the dates on which such 
reports shall be submitted.
    (b) Accountability.-- Grants awarded under this Act shall be 
subject to the following accountability provisions:
            (1) Audit requirement.--
                    (A) Definition.--In this paragraph, the term 
                ``unresolved audit finding'' means a finding in the 
                final audit report of the Inspector General of the 
                Department of Justice under subparagraph (C) that the 
                audited grantee has used grant funds for an 
                unauthorized expenditure or otherwise unallowable cost 
                that is not closed or resolved within 1 year after the 
                date on which 1 final audit report is issued.
                    (B) Audits.--Beginning in the first fiscal year 
                beginning after December 13, 2016, and in each fiscal 
                year thereafter, the Inspector General of the 
                Department of Justice shall conduct audits of grantees 
                under this section to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse 
                of funds by grantees. The Inspector General shall 
                determine the appropriate number of grantees to be 
                audited each year.
                    (C) Final audit report.--The Inspector General of 
                the Department of Justice shall submit to the Attorney 
                General a final report on each audit conducted under 
                subparagraph (B).
                    (D) Technical assistance.--A recipient of a grant 
                under this section that is found to have an unresolved 
                audit finding shall be eligible to receive prompt, 
                individualized technical assistance to resolve the 
                audit finding and to prevent future findings, for a 
                period not to exceed the following 2 fiscal years.
                    (E) Priority.--In making grants under this section, 
                the Attorney General shall give priority to applicants 
                that did not have an unresolved audit finding during 
                the 3 fiscal years before submitting an application for 
                a grant under this section.
            (2) Nonprofit agency requirements.--
                    (A) Definition.--For purposes of this paragraph and 
                the grant program under this section, the term 
                ``nonprofit agency'' means an organization that is 
                described in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue 
                Code of 1986 and is exempt from taxation under section 
                501(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.
                    (B) Prohibition.--The Attorney General may not 
                award a grant under this section to a nonprofit agency 
                that holds money in an offshore account for the purpose 
                of avoiding paying the tax described in section 511(a) 
                of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.
                    (C) Disclosure.-- Each nonprofit agency that is 
                awarded a grant under this section and uses the 
                procedures prescribed in regulations to create a 
                rebuttable presumption of reasonableness for the 
                compensation of its officers, directors, trustees, and 
                key employees, shall disclose to the Attorney General, 
                in the application for the grant, the process for 
                determining such compensation, including the 
                independent persons involved in reviewing and approving 
                such compensation, the comparability data used, and 
                contemporaneous substantiation of the deliberation and 
                decision. Upon request, the Attorney General shall make 
                the information disclosed under this subparagraph 
                available for public inspection.
            (3) Conference expenditures.--
                    (A) Limitation.--Not more than $100,000 of the 
                amounts made available to the Department of Justice to 
                carry out this section may be used by the Attorney 
                General, or by any individual or entity awarded a grant 
                under this section to host, or make any expenditures 
                relating to, a conference unless the Deputy Attorney 
                General provides prior written authorization that the 
                funds may be expended to host the conference or make 
                such expenditure.
                    (B) Written approval.--Written approval under 
                subparagraph (A) shall include a written estimate of 
                all costs associated with the conference, including the 
                cost of all food, beverages, audio-visual equipment, 
                honoraria for speakers, and entertainment.
                    (C) Report.--The Deputy Attorney General shall 
                submit an annual report to the Committee on the 
                Judiciary of the Senate and the Committee on the 
                Judiciary of the House of Representatives on all 
                conference expenditures approved under this paragraph.
            (4) Annual certification.--Beginning in the first fiscal 
        year beginning after the date of enactment of this Act, the 
        Attorney General shall submit to the Committee on the Judiciary 
        and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate and the 
        Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on Appropriations 
        of the House of Representatives an annual certification 
        indicating whether all final audit reports issued by the Office 
        of the Inspector General under paragraph (1) have been 
        completed and reviewed by the appropriate Assistant Attorney 
        General or Director.

SEC. 7. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this Act 
$100,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2026.
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