82 FR 50055 - Resuming the United States Refugee Admissions Program With Enhanced Vetting Capabilities

Executive Office of the President

Federal Register Volume 82, Issue 207 (October 27, 2017)

[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 207 (Friday, October 27, 2017)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 50055-50058]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2017-23630]




                        Presidential Documents 



Federal Register / Vol. 82 , No. 207 / Friday, October 27, 2017 / 
Presidential Documents

[[Page 50055]]


                Executive Order 13815 of October 24, 2017

                
Resuming the United States Refugee Admissions 
                Program With Enhanced Vetting Capabilities

                By the authority vested in me as President by the 
                Constitution and the laws of the United States of 
                America, including the Immigration and Nationality Act 
                (INA), 8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq., and section 301 of title 
                3, United States Code, it is hereby ordered as follows:

                Section 1. Policy. (a) It is the policy of the United 
                States to protect its people from terrorist attacks and 
                other public-safety threats. Screening and vetting 
                procedures associated with determining which foreign 
                nationals may enter the United States, including 
                through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), 
                play a critical role in implementing that policy. Those 
                procedures enhance our ability to detect foreign 
                nationals who might commit, aid, or support acts of 
                terrorism, or otherwise pose a threat to the national 
                security or public safety of the United States, and 
                they bolster our efforts to prevent such individuals 
                from entering the country.

                    (b) Section 5 of Executive Order 13780 of March 6, 
                2017 (Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist 
                Entry into the United States), directed the Secretary 
                of State, the Attorney General, the Secretary of 
                Homeland Security, and the Director of National 
                Intelligence to develop a uniform baseline for 
                screening and vetting standards and procedures 
                applicable to all travelers who seek to enter the 
                United States. A working group was established to 
                satisfy this directive.
                    (c) Section 6(a) of Executive Order 13780 directed 
                a review to strengthen the vetting process for the 
                USRAP. It also instructed the Secretary of State to 
                suspend the travel of refugees into the United States 
                under that program, and the Secretary of Homeland 
                Security to suspend decisions on applications for 
                refugee status, subject to certain exceptions. Section 
                6(a) also required the Secretary of State, in 
                conjunction with the Secretary of Homeland Security and 
                in consultation with the Director of National 
                Intelligence, to conduct a 120-day review of the USRAP 
                application and adjudication process in order to 
                determine, and implement, additional procedures to 
                ensure that individuals seeking admission as refugees 
                do not pose a threat to the security and welfare of the 
                United States. Executive Order 13780 noted that 
                terrorist groups have sought to infiltrate several 
                nations through refugee programs and that the Attorney 
                General had reported that more than 300 persons who had 
                entered the United States as refugees were then the 
                subjects of counterterrorism investigations by the 
                Federal Bureau of Investigation.
                    (d) The Secretary of State convened a working group 
                to implement the review process under section 6(a) of 
                Executive Order 13780. This review was informed by the 
                development of uniform baseline screening and vetting 
                standards and procedures for all travelers under 
                section 5 of Executive Order 13780. The section 6(a) 
                working group compared the process for screening and 
                vetting refugees with the uniform baseline standards 
                and procedures established by the section 5 working 
                group. The section 6(a) working group identified 
                several ways to enhance the process for screening and 
                vetting refugees and began implementing those 
                improvements.
                    (e) The review process for refugees required by 
                Executive Order 13780 has made our Nation safer. The 
                improvements the section 6(a) working group has 
                identified will strengthen the data-collection process 
                for all refugee applicants considered for resettlement 
                in the United States. They will also

[[Page 50056]]

                bolster the process for interviewing refugees through 
                improved training, fraud-detection procedures, and 
                interagency information sharing. Further, they will 
                enhance the ability of our systems to check biometric 
                and biographic information against a broad range of 
                threat information contained in various Federal 
                watchlists and databases.
                    (f) Section 2 of Proclamation 9645 of September 24, 
                2017 (Enhancing Vetting Capabilities and Processes for 
                Detecting Attempted Entry into the United States by 
                Terrorists or Other Public-Safety Threats), suspended 
                and limited, subject to exceptions and case-by-case 
                waivers, the entry into the United States of foreign 
                nationals of eight countries. As noted in that 
                Proclamation, those suspensions and limitations are in 
                the interest of the United States because of certain 
                deficiencies in those countries' identity-management 
                and information-sharing protocols and procedures, and 
                because of the national security and public-safety 
                risks that emanate from their territory, including 
                risks that result from the significant presence of 
                terrorists within the territory of several of those 
                countries.
                    (g) The entry restrictions and limitations in 
                Proclamation 9645 apply to the immigrant and 
                nonimmigrant visa application and adjudication 
                processes, which foreign nationals use to seek 
                authorization to travel to the United States and apply 
                for admission. Pursuant to section 3(b)(iii) of 
                Proclamation 9645, however, those restrictions and 
                limitations do not apply to those who seek to enter the 
                United States through the USRAP.
                    (h) Foreign nationals who seek to enter the United 
                States with an immigrant or nonimmigrant visa stand in 
                a different position from that of refugees who are 
                considered for entry into this country under the USRAP. 
                For a variety of reasons, including substantive 
                differences in the risk factors presented by the 
                refugee population and in the quality of information 
                available to screen and vet refugees, the refugee 
                screening and vetting process is different from the 
                process that applies to most visa applicants. At the 
                same time, the entry of certain refugees into the 
                United States through the USRAP poses unique security 
                risks and considerable domestic challenges that require 
                the application of substantial resources.

                Sec. 2. Resumption of the U.S. Refugee Admissions 
                Program. (a) Section 6(a) of Executive Order 13780 
                provided for a temporary, 120-day review of the USRAP 
                application and adjudication process and an 
                accompanying worldwide suspension of refugee travel to 
                the United States and of application decisions under 
                the USRAP. That 120-day period expires on October 24, 
                2017. Section 6(a) further provided that refugee travel 
                and application decisions could resume after 120 days 
                for stateless persons and for the nationals of 
                countries for which the Secretary of State, the 
                Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Director of 
                National Intelligence jointly determine that the 
                additional procedures identified through the USRAP 
                review process are adequate to ensure the security and 
                welfare of the United States. The Secretary of State, 
                the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Director of 
                National Intelligence have advised that the 
                improvements to the USRAP vetting process are generally 
                adequate to ensure the security and welfare of the 
                United States, that the Secretary of State and 
                Secretary of Homeland Security may resume that program, 
                and that they will apply special measures to certain 
                categories of refugees whose entry continues to pose 
                potential threats to the security and welfare of the 
                United States.

                    (b) With the improvements identified by the section 
                6(a) working group and implemented by the participating 
                agencies, the refugee screening and vetting process 
                generally meets the uniform baseline for immigration 
                screening and vetting established by the section 5 
                working group. Accordingly, a general resumption of the 
                USRAP, subject to the conditions set forth in section 3 
                of this order, is consistent with the security and 
                welfare of the United States.
                    (c) The suspension of the USRAP and other processes 
                specified in section 6(a) of Executive Order 13780 are 
                no longer in effect. Subject to the conditions set 
                forth in section 3 of this order, the Secretary of 
                State may resume

[[Page 50057]]

                travel of qualified and appropriately vetted refugees 
                into the United States, and the Secretary of Homeland 
                Security may resume adjudicating applications for 
                refugee resettlement.

                Sec. 3. Addressing the Risks Presented by Certain 
                Categories of Refugees. (a) Based on the considerations 
                outlined above, including the special measures referred 
                to in subsection (a) of section 2 of this order, 
                Presidential action to suspend the entry of refugees 
                under the USRAP is not needed at this time to protect 
                the security and interests of the United States and its 
                people. The Secretary of State and the Secretary of 
                Homeland Security, however, shall continue to assess 
                and address any risks posed by particular refugees as 
                follows:

(i) The Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall 
coordinate to assess any risks to the security and welfare of the United 
States that may be presented by the entry into the United States through 
the USRAP of stateless persons and foreign nationals. Under section 207(c) 
and applicable portions of section 212(a) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. 1157(c) and 
1182(a), section 402(4) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, 6 U.S.C. 
202(4), and other applicable authorities, the Secretary of Homeland 
Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State, shall determine, as 
appropriate and consistent with applicable law, whether any actions should 
be taken to address the risks to the security and welfare of the United 
States presented by permitting any category of refugees to enter this 
country, and, if so, what those actions should be. The Secretary of State 
and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall administer the USRAP 
consistent with those determinations, and in consultation with the Attorney 
General and the Director of National Intelligence.

(ii) Within 90 days of the date of this order and annually thereafter, the 
Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State 
and the Director of National Intelligence, shall determine, as appropriate 
and consistent with applicable law, whether any actions taken to address 
the risks to the security and welfare of the United States presented by 
permitting any category of refugees to enter this country should be 
modified or terminated, and, if so, what those modifications or 
terminations should be. If the Secretary of Homeland Security, in 
consultation with the Secretary of State, determines, at any time, that any 
actions taken pursuant to section 3(a)(i) should be modified or terminated, 
the Secretary of Homeland Security may modify or terminate those actions 
accordingly. The Secretary of Homeland Security and the Secretary of State 
shall administer the USRAP consistent with the determinations made under 
this subsection, and in consultation with the Attorney General and the 
Director of National Intelligence.

                    (b) Within 180 days of the date of this order, the 
                Attorney General shall, in consultation with the 
                Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland 
                Security, and in cooperation with the heads of other 
                executive departments and agencies as he deems 
                appropriate, provide a report to the President on the 
                effect of refugee resettlement in the United States on 
                the national security, public safety, and general 
                welfare of the United States. The report shall include 
                any recommendations the Attorney General deems 
                necessary to advance those interests.

                Sec. 4. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order 
                shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or 
the head thereof; or

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget 
relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

                    (b) This order shall be implemented consistent with 
                applicable law and subject to the availability of 
                appropriations.

[[Page 50058]]

                    (c) This order is not intended to, and does not, 
                create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, 
                enforceable at law or in equity by any party against 
                the United States, its departments, agencies, or 
                entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any 
                other person.
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

                THE WHITE HOUSE,

                    October 24, 2017.

[FR Doc. 2017-23630
10-26-17; 11:15 am]
Billing code 3295-F8-P