HR 5210
116th Congress
House
Immigration
Administrative law and regulatory procedures
Administrative remedies
Afghanistan
Asia
Border security and unlawful immigration
Central America
Child safety and welfare
Citizenship and naturalization
Conflicts and wars
Congressional oversight
Costa Rica
Crime victims
Criminal investigation, prosecution, interrogation
Criminal justice information and records
Department of Homeland Security
Department of Justice
Department of State
Detention of persons
Diplomacy, foreign officials, Americans abroad
Refugee Protection Act of 2019
Everywhere this bill has been
3 steps
Introduced
In committee
Reported out
Passed House
Passed Senate
To President
Became law
Dec 19, 2019
Referred to the Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship.
Nov 21, 2019
Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committees on Ways and Means, the Budget, and Foreign Affairs, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Nov 21, 2019
Introduced in House
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Plain-English summary
Refugee Protection Act of 2019
This bill provides protections for aliens such as asylum seekers and contains other provisions.
The bill's provisions include
- eliminating the general requirement that an asylum seeker apply for asylum within one year of arriving in the United States;
- prohibiting requiring an asylum seeker to provide corroborating evidence of persecution if such evidence is not reasonably obtainable;
- waiving certain grounds of inadmissibility or deportability for qualifying refugees seeking permanent resident status;
- requiring the Department of Justice to appoint counsel to a child or particularly vulnerable individual in certain immigration proceedings;
- increasing the annual cap on principal nonimmigrant U visas (victims of crimes) from 10,000 to 20,000;
- prohibiting the removal of an alien with certain pending immigration applications, such as a U visa application;
- imposing limits on when an alien may be removed from the United States in a proceeding without the alien present;
- establishing a presumption that the least restrictive conditions necessary should be imposed in custody proceedings for asylum seekers, including release if appropriate;
- establishing that the maximum number of refugees admitted each fiscal year shall be no less than 95,000;
- directing the Department of State to help other governments increase their capacity to care for and accept refugees;
- directing the State Department to establish refugee processing centers in other countries in North and Central America; and
- authorizing the Department of Homeland Security to provide special immigrant status to qualified aliens who assisted U.S. efforts in Syria and admit up to 5,000 such aliens each fiscal year for five years.
What's happening now
Referred to the Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship.
Related & companion bills
5
Bill text
1 version
- Introduced in House Formatted Text PDF Formatted XML
Cosponsors
44
D
McCollum, Betty
D
Correa, J. Luis
Jackson Lee, Sheila
D
Pressley, Ayanna
D
Luján, Ben Ray
Eshoo, Anna
D
Beyer, Donald S.
D
Brownley, Julia
Blumenauer, Earl
D
García, Jesús G. "Chuy"
D
Chu, Judy
Kennedy, Joseph
D
Schakowsky, Janice D.
D
Castro, Joaquin
D
Crow, Jason
D
Dean, Madeleine
D
DeLauro, Rosa L.
D
DeSaulnier, Mark
ENGEL, ELIOT
D
Escobar, Veronica
D
Espaillat, Adriano
D
Garcia, Sylvia R.
D
Grijalva, Raúl M.
Higgins, Brian
D
Jayapal, Pramila
D
Johnson, Henry C. "Hank"
D
Khanna, Ro
Lowenthal, Alan
D
McGovern, James P.
D
Nadler, Jerrold
Napolitano, Grace
D
Neguse, Joe
D
Norton, Eleanor Holmes
D
Pallone, Frank
D
Panetta, Jimmy
D
Quigley, Mike
D
Raskin, Jamie
Sires, Albio
D
Smith, Adam
D
Swalwell, Eric
D
Tlaib, Rashida
VISCLOSKY, PETER
D
Watson Coleman, Bonnie
D
Welch, Peter
Cite this page
U.S. Congress. (2026). H.R. 5210: Refugee Protection Act of 2019. 116th Congress. Open America. https://openamerica.io/bill/116-HR-5210/
"H.R. 5210: Refugee Protection Act of 2019." 116th Congress, 2026, Open America, https://openamerica.io/bill/116-HR-5210/.
H.R. 5210, 116th Cong. (2026), https://openamerica.io/bill/116-HR-5210/.
[H.R. 5210: Refugee Protection Act of 2019](https://openamerica.io/bill/116-HR-5210/)