[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 24 (Friday, February 9, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S644-S645]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 1477. Mr. TUBERVILLE submitted an amendment intended to be 
proposed to amendment SA 1388 submitted by Mrs. Murray (for herself and 
Mr. Schumer) and intended to be proposed to the bill H.R. 815, to amend 
title 38, United States Code, to make certain improvements relating to 
the eligibility of veterans to receive reimbursement for emergency 
treatment furnished through the Veterans Community Care program, and 
for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

        At the appropriate place, insert the following:

     SEC. ___. RULES FOR DETERMINING ASYLUM ELIGIBILITY.

       Section 208 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 
     U.S.C. 1158) is amended by adding at the end the following:
       ``(f) Rules for Determining Asylum Eligibility.--In making 
     a determination under subsection (b)(1)(A) with respect to 
     whether an alien is a refugee within the meaning of section 
     101(a)(42)(A), the following shall apply:
       ``(1) Particular social group.--The Secretary of Homeland 
     Security or the Attorney General shall not determine that an 
     alien is a member of a particular social group unless the 
     alien articulates on the record, or provides a basis on the 
     record for determining, the definition and boundaries of the 
     alleged particular social group, establishes that the 
     particular social group exists independently from the alleged 
     persecution, and establishes that the alien's claim of 
     membership in a particular social group does not involve--
       ``(A) past or present criminal activity or association 
     (including gang membership);
       ``(B) presence in a country with generalized violence or a 
     high crime rate;
       ``(C) being the subject of a recruitment effort by 
     criminal, terrorist, or persecutory groups;
       ``(D) the targeting of the applicant for criminal activity 
     for financial gain based on perceptions of wealth or 
     affluence;
       ``(E) interpersonal disputes of which governmental 
     authorities in the relevant society or region were unaware or 
     uninvolved;
       ``(F) private criminal acts of which governmental 
     authorities in the relevant society or region were unaware or 
     uninvolved;
       ``(G) past or present terrorist activity or association;
       ``(H) past or present persecutory activity or association; 
     or
       ``(I) status as an alien returning from the United States.
       ``(2) Political opinion.--The Secretary of Homeland 
     Security or the Attorney General may not determine that an 
     alien holds a political opinion with respect to which the 
     alien is subject to persecution if the political opinion is 
     constituted solely by generalized disapproval of, 
     disagreement with, or opposition to criminal, terrorist, 
     gang, guerilla, or other non-state organizations and does not 
     include expressive behavior in furtherance of a cause against 
     such organizations related to efforts by the State to control 
     such organizations or behavior that is antithetical to or 
     otherwise opposes the ruling legal entity of the State or a 
     unit thereof.
       ``(3) Persecution.--The Secretary of Homeland Security or 
     the Attorney General may not determine that an alien has been 
     subject to persecution or has a well-founded fear of 
     persecution based only on--
       ``(A) the existence of laws or government policies that are 
     unenforced or infrequently enforced, unless there is credible 
     evidence that such a law or policy has been or would be 
     applied to the applicant personally; or
       ``(B) the conduct of rogue foreign government officials 
     acting outside the scope of their official capacity.
       ``(4) Discretionary determination.--
       ``(A) Adverse discretionary factors.--The Secretary of 
     Homeland Security or the Attorney General may only grant 
     asylum to an alien if the alien establishes that he or she 
     warrants a favorable exercise of discretion. In making such a 
     determination, the Attorney General or Secretary of Homeland 
     Security shall consider, if applicable, an alien's use of 
     fraudulent documents to enter the United States, unless the 
     alien arrived in the United States by air, sea, or land 
     directly from the applicant's home country without transiting 
     through any other country.
       ``(B) Favorable exercise of discretion not permitted.--
     Except as provided in subparagraph (C), the Attorney General 
     or Secretary of Homeland Security shall not favorably 
     exercise discretion under this section for any alien who--
       ``(i) has accrued more than one year of unlawful presence 
     in the United States, as defined in sections 212(a)(9)(B)(ii) 
     and (iii), prior to filing an application for asylum;
       ``(ii) at the time the asylum application is filed with the 
     immigration court or is referred from the Department of 
     Homeland Security, has--

       ``(I) failed to timely file (or timely file a request for 
     an extension of time to file) any required Federal, State, or 
     local income tax returns;
       ``(II) failed to satisfy any outstanding Federal, State, or 
     local tax obligations; or
       ``(III) income that would result in tax liability under 
     section 1 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and that was 
     not reported to the Internal Revenue Service;

       ``(iii) has had two or more prior asylum applications 
     denied for any reason;
       ``(iv) has withdrawn a prior asylum application with 
     prejudice or been found to have abandoned a prior asylum 
     application;
       ``(v) failed to attend an interview regarding his or her 
     asylum application with the Department of Homeland Security, 
     unless the alien shows by a preponderance of the evidence 
     that--

       ``(I) exceptional circumstances prevented the alien from 
     attending the interview; or

[[Page S645]]

       ``(II) the interview notice was not mailed to the last 
     address provided by the alien or the alien's representative 
     and neither the alien nor the alien's representative received 
     notice of the interview; or

       ``(vi) was subject to a final order of removal, 
     deportation, or exclusion and did not file a motion to reopen 
     to seek asylum based on changed country conditions within one 
     year of the change in country conditions.
       ``(C) Exceptions.--If one or more of the adverse 
     discretionary factors set forth in subparagraph (B) are 
     present, the Attorney General or the Secretary, may, 
     notwithstanding such subparagraph (B), favorably exercise 
     discretion under section 208--
       ``(i) in extraordinary circumstances, such as those 
     involving national security or foreign policy considerations; 
     or
       ``(ii) if the alien, by clear and convincing evidence, 
     demonstrates that the denial of the application for asylum 
     would result in exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to 
     the alien.
       ``(5) Limitation.--If the Secretary or the Attorney General 
     determines that an alien fails to satisfy the requirement 
     under paragraph (1), the alien may not be granted asylum 
     based on membership in a particular social group, and may not 
     appeal the determination of the Secretary or Attorney 
     General, as applicable. A determination under this paragraph 
     shall not serve as the basis for any motion to reopen or 
     reconsider an application for asylum or withholding of 
     removal for any reason, including a claim of ineffective 
     assistance of counsel, unless the alien complies with the 
     procedural requirements for such a motion and demonstrates 
     that counsel's failure to define, or provide a basis for 
     defining, a formulation of a particular social group was both 
     not a strategic choice and constituted egregious conduct.
       ``(6) Stereotypes.--Evidence offered in support of an 
     application for asylum that promotes cultural stereotypes 
     about a country, its inhabitants, or an alleged persecutor, 
     including stereotypes based on race, religion, nationality, 
     or gender, shall not be admissible in adjudicating that 
     application, except that evidence that an alleged persecutor 
     holds stereotypical views of the applicant shall be 
     admissible.
       ``(7) Definitions.--In this section:
       ``(A) The term `membership in a particular social group' 
     means membership in a group that is--
       ``(i) composed of members who share a common immutable 
     characteristic;
       ``(ii) defined with particularity; and
       ``(iii) socially distinct within the society in question.
       ``(B) The term `political opinion' means an ideal or 
     conviction in support of the furtherance of a discrete cause 
     related to political control of a state or a unit thereof.
       ``(C) The term `persecution' means the infliction of a 
     severe level of harm constituting an exigent threat by the 
     government of a country or by persons or an organization that 
     the government was unable or unwilling to control. Such term 
     does not include--
       ``(i) generalized harm or violence that arises out of 
     civil, criminal, or military strife in a country;
       ``(ii) all treatment that the United States regards as 
     unfair, offensive, unjust, unlawful, or unconstitutional;
       ``(iii) intermittent harassment, including brief 
     detentions;
       ``(iv) threats with no actual effort to carry out the 
     threats, except that particularized threats of severe harm of 
     an immediate and menacing nature made by an identified entity 
     may constitute persecution; or
       ``(v) non-severe economic harm or property damage.''.
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