[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 50 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
<DOC>
117th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 50
To temporarily designate Venezuela under section 244(b) of the
Immigration and Nationality Act to permit eligible nationals of
Venezuela to be granted temporary protected status.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
January 26, 2021
Mr. Menendez (for himself, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Leahy, and Mr. Booker)
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To temporarily designate Venezuela under section 244(b) of the
Immigration and Nationality Act to permit eligible nationals of
Venezuela to be granted temporary protected status.
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 ``Venezuela Temporary Protected Status
Act of 2021''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) Venezuela is enduring an unprecedented economic,
humanitarian, security, and human rights crisis, consisting of
extreme food and medicine shortages, severe infant and child
malnutrition, rampant crime, and government-sponsored
repression, which has resulted in significant displacement of
Venezuelans to countries across the Western Hemisphere.
(2) Venezuela's economy contracted by 66 percent between
2014 and 2019, with the International Monetary Fund reporting
that inflation reached an annual rate of nearly 20,000 percent
in 2019, making Venezuela the country with the highest level of
inflation in the world.
(3) As evidence of the humanitarian crisis created by
Venezuela's systemic economic turmoil and government
corruption--
(A) the percentage of Venezuelans living in poverty
increased from 48.4 percent in 2014 to 96 percent in
2019, with 80 percent living in extreme poverty,
according to household surveys; and
(B) at least 2,300,000 Venezuelans face severe food
insecurity.
(4) Access to quality healthcare is severely impeded,
with--
(A) more than 50 percent of healthcare
professionals having left Venezuela during the past 5
years;
(B) pharmacies experiencing shortages of
approximately 85 percent of needed medicines;
(C) 88 percent of hospitals lacking the basic
medicines that should be available in any functional
public hospital, including those that are on the World
Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines; and
(D) roughly 70 percent of Venezuelan hospitals
surveyed in 2019 lacking access to clean water.
(5) Venezuela continues to be among the world's most
violent countries, and the Venezuelan Violence Observatory, an
independent nongovernmental organization, calculated that there
were approximately 46 murders in Venezuela during 2020 for
every 100,000 people.
(6) According to the United Nations Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)--
(A) Venezuelan intelligence and security forces
have increasingly used arbitrary arrests, detentions,
torture, and extrajudicial killings to repress and
intimidate civil society, political opponents, and any
voices of dissent;
(B) between 2015 and 2017, at least 505 people,
including 24 children, were executed by Venezuelan
security forces, leading the International Criminal
Court prosecutor to announce a preliminary
investigation into the use of excessive force in
Venezuela; and
(C) the incidence of alleged extrajudicial killings
by security forces has been shockingly high, according
to an OHCHR report, with the government registering
nearly 7,000 extrajudicial killings between January
2018 and May 2019.
(7) The United Nations Human Rights Council's Independent
International Fact-Finding Mission on the Bolivarian Republic
of Venezuela reported in September 2020 that the regime's
crimes were ``part of a widespread and systematic course of
conduct, thus amounting to crimes against humanity''.
(8) According to the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR), more than 5,400,000 Venezuelans have fled
their country for reasons such as violence, political
oppression, economic hardship, and the ongoing humanitarian
crisis.
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
It is the sense of the Congress that--
(1) Venezuela's economic, security, and displacement crisis
has resulted in extraordinary and temporary conditions that
currently prevent Venezuelan nationals from safely returning to
Venezuela; and
(2) Venezuela should be designated under subsection
(b)(1)(C) of section 244 of the Immigration and Nationality Act
(8 U.S.C. 1254a) for a period of 18 months to permit nationals
of Venezuela to be eligible for temporary protected status in
accordance with such section.
SEC. 4. DESIGNATION FOR PURPOSES OF GRANTING TEMPORARY PROTECTED
STATUS.
(a) Designation.--
(1) In general.--For purposes of section 244 of the
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1254a), Venezuela
shall be treated as if it had been designated under subsection
(b)(1)(C) of such section, subject to the provisions of this
section.
(2) Period of designation.--The initial period of the
designation referred to in paragraph (1) shall be for the 18-
month period beginning on the date of the enactment of this
Act.
(b) Aliens Eligible.--As a result of the designation made under
subsection (a), an alien who is a national of Venezuela is deemed to
satisfy the requirements under paragraph (1) of section 244(c) of the
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1254a(c)), subject to
paragraph (3) of such section, if the alien--
(1) has been continuously physically present in the United
States since the date of the enactment of this Act;
(2) is admissible as an immigrant, except as otherwise
provided in paragraph (2)(A) of such section;
(3) is not ineligible for temporary protected status under
paragraph (2)(B) of such section; and
(4) registers for temporary protected status in a manner
established by the Secretary of Homeland Security.
(c) Consent To Travel Abroad.--
(1) In general.--The Secretary of Homeland Security shall
give prior consent to travel abroad, in accordance with section
244(f)(3) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C.
1254a(f)(3)), to an alien who is granted temporary protected
status pursuant to the designation made under subsection (a) if
the alien establishes, to the satisfaction of the Secretary of
Homeland Security, that emergency and extenuating circumstances
beyond the control of the alien require the alien to depart for
a brief, temporary trip abroad.
(2) Treatment upon return.--An alien returning to the
United States in accordance with an authorization described in
paragraph (1) shall be treated as any other returning alien
provided temporary protected status under section 244 of the
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1254a).
SEC. 5. IMPROVING INTERNAL MIGRATION SYSTEMS IN COUNTRIES SURROUNDING
VENEZUELA.
(a) In General.--The Secretary of State, in consultation with the
Secretary of Homeland Security, shall work with international partners,
including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the
International Organization for Migration, to support and provide
technical assistance to improve the domestic capacity of countries
surrounding Venezuela and in the region to provide migration services
and asylum to eligible Venezuelan citizens--
(1) by establishing and expanding temporary and long-term,
in-country reception centers and shelter capacity in those
surrounding countries to meet the humanitarian needs of
Venezuelan migrants or Venezuelans seeking asylum or other
forms of international protection;
(2) by improving migration and asylum registration systems
in those surrounding countries to ensure that Venezuelan
migrants and Venezuelans seeking asylum or other humanitarian
protection--
(A) receive due process and meaningful access to
legal protections; and
(B) receive proper documents in order to prevent
fraud and facilitate freedom of movement and access to
basic social services;
(3) by supporting the creation or expansion of a corps of
trained migration and asylum officers from those countries who
are capable of--
(A) providing migration services; and
(B) evaluating and deciding individual asylum
claims consistent with international law and
obligations; and
(4) by developing the capacity to conduct best interest
determinations for Venezuelan migrants to ensure that their
needs are properly met.
(b) Strategy.--Not later than 90 days after the date of the
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State, in consultation with the
Secretary of Homeland Security, shall submit a strategy describing
plans for assisting the development of the international asylum
processing capabilities described in subsection (a) to--
(1) the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate;
(2) the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate;
(3) the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate;
(4) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of
Representatives;
(5) the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of
Representatives; and
(6) the Committee on Appropriations of the House of
Representatives.
(c) Authorization of Appropriations.--
(1) In general.--There is authorized to be appropriated to
the Secretary of State $10,000,000 for fiscal year 2021 to
carry out the activities set forth in subsection (b).
(2) Notification requirement.--
(A) In general.--Except as provided under
subparagraph (B), amounts appropriated or otherwise
made available pursuant to paragraph (1) may not be
obligated until 15 days after the date on which the
President provides notice to the committees listed in
subsection (b) of the intent to obligate such funds.
(B) Waiver.--
(i) In general.--The Secretary of State may
waive the requirement under subparagraph (A) if
the Secretary of State determines that such
waiver is in the national interest of the
United States.
(ii) Notification requirement.--If a waiver
is invoked under clause (i), the President
shall notify the committees listed in
subsection (b) of the intention to obligate
funds under this section as early as
practicable, but not later than 3 days after
taking the action to which such notification
requirement was applicable in the context of
the circumstances necessitating such waiver.
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