[House Report 112-695]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


112th Congress  }                                            {   Report
  2d Session    }         HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES           {  112-695

=======================================================================

 
                 FOR THE RELIEF OF SOPURUCHI CHUKWUEKE 

                                _______
                                

November 15, 2012.--Referred to the Private Calendar and ordered to be 
                                printed

                                _______
                                

Mr. Smith of Texas, from the Committee on the Judiciary, submitted the 
                               following

                              R E P O R T

                         [To accompany S. 285]

      [Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]

    The Committee on the Judiciary, to whom was referred the 
bill (S. 285) for the relief of Sopuruchi Chukwueke, having 
considered the same, reports favorably thereon without 
amendment and recommends that the bill do pass.

                                CONTENTS

                                                                   Page

Purpose and Summary..............................................     1
Background and Need for the Legislation..........................     1
Hearings.........................................................     3
Committee Consideration..........................................     4
Committee Votes..................................................     4
Committee Oversight Findings.....................................     4
New Budget Authority and Tax Expenditures........................     4
Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate........................     4
Performance Goals and Objectives.................................     5
Advisory on Earmarks.............................................     5
Section-by-Section Analysis......................................     5

                          Purpose and Summary

    The bill grants permanent resident status to Sopuruchi 
Chukwueke.

                Background and Need for the Legislation

    Sopuruchi Victor Chukwueke was born in Nigeria in 1986. He 
suffers from a medical condition called neurofibromatosis and 
entered the U.S. on a tourist visa in 2001\1\ to receive 
medical treatment. All medical fees were waived and the medical 
treatments he now receives from the University of Michigan are 
covered by the hospital's M-Support Program. The Daughters of 
Mary Mother of Mercy, the Catholic religious order that brought 
Mr. Chukwueke to the United States, states that:
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    \1\Subsequent applications for extensions of stay were denied.

        [Mr. Chukwueke] was ostracized and unable to receive 
        medical care for his rare, deformative genetic 
        disorder--neurofibromatosis--a condition similar to 
        ``elephant man disease.'' He was entrusted to us as a 
        young child by his mother who could not care for him 
        due to the difficulties related to his rare medical 
        condition. . . . After all the efforts to seek medical 
        care for Victor in Nigeria failed due to inadequate 
        medical facilities and lack of skilled surgeons, we 
        decided to bring him to the United States. . . . He has 
        undergone a total of seven major surgeries to remove 
        the tumors that severely disfigured his face including 
        the loss of one eye and to reconstruct his face. He 
        still requires additional plastic surgeries to fully 
        restore his facial features from damage caused by tumor 
        growth.\2\
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    \2\Letter from Rev. Sr. M. Beatrice Nkem Chukwumezie and Sister 
Immaculata C. Osueke, Daughters of Mary Mother of Mercy, at 1 (March 
19, 2012).

    Mr. Chukwueke graduated Wayne State University in 2011. He 
has been accepted by the medical school at the University of 
Toledo. Dr. Kenneth Honn of the Wayne State University School 
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of Medicine writes that:

        Victor embodies the ideals that we as educators ask our 
        students to aspire to. He has excelled in his class and 
        lab work and has maintained stellar grades, all the 
        while working selflessly in the community to improve 
        the lives of others. . . . [He] came to the United 
        States with missionary nuns from Nigeria to face 
        numerous corrective treatments for his life threatening 
        condition. . . . [I]n my laboratory . . . he was 
        assigned to a cancer progression project and faced 
        scientific challenges in much the same way he has faced 
        others, with determination and high standards of 
        performance. [He] has become a cherished member of the 
        lab for his scientific input in addition to his kind 
        nature.''\3\
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    \3\Letter from Kenneth Honn, Wayne State University School of 
Medicine, to Senator Patrick Leahy, at 1 (March 19, 2012).

    The Daughters of Mary Mother of Mercy write that ``[h]is 
dream is to become a humanitarian doctor so that he can help 
provide treatment to the less fortunate . . . who struggle 
daily, like him, but cannot find treatment.''\4\
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    \4\Letter from the Daughters of Mary Mother of Mercy at 1.
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    On December 19, 2011, U.S. Immigration and Customs 
Enforcement provided a report on Mr. Chukwueke to the Senate 
Judiciary Committee, that revealed no deleterious information.
    There is precedent in the modern private bill era for this 
private bill. Private bills have been enacted when aliens were 
severely ill and could not receive proper treatment in their 
home country. In the 106th Congress, a private bill was enacted 
for Marina Khalina and her son Albert Mifakhov.\5\ Ms. Khalina 
and her son were in the U.S. on visitor's visas that could no 
longer be extended. The son was undergoing medical treatment 
for cerebral palsy which was unobtainable in Russia and which 
he would need until he became an adult. The private bill 
granted them permanent residence. Also in the 106th Congress, a 
private bill was enacted for Jacqueline Salinas and her three 
children.\6\ One of the children had a rare bone cancer and 
came to the U.S. with her father from Bolivia (where it could 
not be treated). St. Jude's Children's Hospital offered 
treatment at no cost to the family. The rest of the family 
joined them in the U.S. A car accident resulted in the death of 
the father, one child, and the permanent paralysis of Ms. 
Salinas from the waist down. The mother, who was pregnant at 
the time of the accident, gave birth to a U.S. citizen child. 
The disability of the surviving parent and the need for ongoing 
cancer treatment for the sick child would have caused the 
family extreme hardship if they had to return to Bolivia. The 
private bill granted them permanent residence.
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    \5\See Priv. L. No. 106-15.
    \6\See Priv. L. No. 106-20.
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    Private immigration bills have also been enacted when the 
aliens (usually illegally present) had been abandoned by their 
parents. In the 108th Congress, a private bill was enacted for 
Richi Lesley.\7\ Mr. Lesley was born in Korea to an unknown 
U.S. serviceman and a Korean woman. She put him up for adoption 
and he was adopted by another American serviceman and his wife. 
The husband was killed in a fishing accident while living in 
Japan and his wife became unable to care for the two young 
children. However, the serviceman's mother in the U.S. agreed 
to take the children in and they were granted visitor's visas 
to come to the U.S. (while Mr. Lesley was still 1 year old). 
Following the death of the adoptive grandmother, the children 
lived with other family and friends. Mr. Lesley did not know he 
was not a U.S. citizen until the INS began deportation 
proceedings. The private bill granted him permanent residence.
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    \7\See Priv. L. No. 108-3.
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    In addition, in the 106th Congress a private bill was 
enacted for Tony Lara.\8\ Mr. Lara entered the U.S. illegally 
with his sister from El Salvador when he was 10 years old to 
join his parents, who were living in Los Angeles. After his 
mother returned to El Salvador, she died. His father abandoned 
Mr. Lara and his sister and was later deported. After they 
lived in neglect with an uncle, neighbors adopted his sister 
but could not afford to also adopt him. At age 16, Mr. Lara 
started living with his high school wrestling coach. The 
Judiciary Committee report indicated that if he ``had become a 
ward of the court before age 16, he could have filed a special 
immigrant visa petition and obtained legal status.''\9\ The 
private bill granted Mr. Lara permanent residence.
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    \8\See Priv. L. No. 106-22.
    \9\H.R. Rept. No. 106-964 at 2 (2000).
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                                Hearings

    The Committee on the Judiciary held no hearings on S. 285.

                        Committee Consideration

    On August 1, 2012, the Committee met in open session and 
ordered the bill S. 285 favorably reported without amendment, 
by voice vote, a quorum being present.

                            Committee Votes

    In compliance with clause 3(b) of rule XIII of the Rules of 
the House of Representatives, the Committee advises that there 
were no recorded votes during the Committee's consideration of 
S. 285.

                      Committee Oversight Findings

    In compliance with clause 3(c)(1) of rule XIII of the Rules 
of the House of Representatives, the Committee advises that the 
findings and recommendations of the Committee, based on 
oversight activities under clause 2(b)(1) of rule X of the 
Rules of the House of Representatives, are incorporated in the 
descriptive portions of this report.

               New Budget Authority and Tax Expenditures

    Clause 3(c)(2) of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of 
Representatives is inapplicable because this legislation does 
not provide new budgetary authority or increased tax 
expenditures.

               Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate

    In compliance with clause 3(c)(3) of rule XIII of the Rules 
of the House of Representatives, the Committee sets forth, with 
respect to the bill, S. 285, the following estimate and 
comparison prepared by the Director of the Congressional Budget 
Office under section 402 of the Congressional Budget Act of 
1974:

                                     U.S. Congress,
                               Congressional Budget Office,
                                    Washington, DC, August 2, 2012.
Hon. Lamar Smith, Chairman,
Committee on the Judiciary,
House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
    Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has 
prepared the enclosed cost estimate for S. 285, an act for the 
relief of Sopuruchi Chukwueke.
    If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be 
pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Mark 
Grabowicz, who can be reached at 226-2860.
            Sincerely,
                                      Douglas W. Elmendorf,
                                                  Director.

Enclosure

cc:
        Honorable John Conyers, Jr.
        Ranking Member




         S. 285--An act for the relief of Sopuruchi Chukwueke.

      As ordered reported by the House Committee on the Judiciary 
                           on August 1, 2012.




    S. 285 would make Sopuruchi Chukwueke eligible for 
permanent U.S. residence. The Act would affect only one person 
and could have a very small effect on fees collected by the 
Department of Homeland Security and thus would affect direct 
spending. Therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures apply. CBO 
estimates, however, that enacting S. 285 would have no 
significant impact on the Federal budget.
    On July 25, 2012, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for S. 
285 as reported by the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on 
July 19, 2012. The two versions of the legislation are the 
same, as are the CBO cost estimates.
    The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Mark Grabowicz. 
The estimate was approved by Theresa Gullo, Deputy Assistant 
Director for Budget Analysis.

                    Performance Goals and Objectives

    The Committee states that pursuant to clause 3(c)(4) of 
rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives, S. 285 
grants permanent resident status to Sopuruchi Chukwueke.

                          Advisory on Earmarks

    In accordance with clause 9 of rule XXI of the Rules of the 
House of Representatives, S. 285 does not contain any 
congressional earmarks, limited tax benefits, or limited tariff 
benefits as defined in clause 9(e), 9(f), or 9(g) of Rule XXI.

                      Section-by-Section Analysis

    The following discussion describes the bill as reported by 
the Committee.
Sec. 1. Adjustment of Status.
    Subsection (a) provides that Sopuruchi Chukwueke shall be 
eligible for adjustment of status to that of an alien lawfully 
admitted for permanent residence upon filing an application for 
adjustment of status.
    Subsection (b) provides that subsection (a) shall apply 
only if the application for adjustment of status is filed with 
appropriate fees within 2 years after the date of the enactment 
of this Act.
    Subsection (c) provides that upon the granting of permanent 
residence to Sopuruchi Chukwueke, the Secretary of State shall 
instruct the proper officer to reduce by one, during the 
current or next following fiscal year, the total number of 
immigrant visas that are made available to natives of the 
country of his birth under section 202(a)(2) of the Immigration 
and Nationality Act (``INA'').
    Subsection (d) provides that the natural parents, brothers, 
and sisters of Sopuruchi Chukwueke shall not, by virtue of such 
relationship, be accorded any right, privilege, or status under 
the INA.

                                  
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