[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 158 (Monday, August 17, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43957-43958]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-21948]
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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Immigration and Naturalization Service
[INS No. 1903-98]
Overseas Refugee Processing; Derivative Refugees
AGENCY: Immigration and Naturalization Service, Justice.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: This notice informs the public and organizations that assist
overseas refugee applicants that the Immigration and Naturalization
Service (Service) will grant derivative refugee status under section
207(c)(2) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (the Act) only to a
person who is the spouse or child of a refugee who qualifies for
admission under section 207(c)(1) of the Act. This is a change from the
current practice in some U.S. programs of admitting a qualifying
refugee's other family members to the United States as derivative
refugees. These other family members may still be processed as part of
the same case as the principal refugee, but must now establish refugee
eligibility in their own right under sections 101(a)(42) and 207(c)(1)
of the Act. This action is necessary to avoid the granting of
derivative refugee status to persons without a statutory basis. This
notice also informs the public that those persons approved for
admission to the United States as derivative refugees under section
207(c)(2) may not be admitted to the United States unless they
accompany the principal refugee to the United States or follow to join
the principal refugee in the United States.
DATES: This notice is effective September 16, 1998.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Karen McCoy, Immigration Officer, Immigration and Naturalization
Service; 425 I Street, NW, Washington, DC 20536, Attn: ULLICO Bldg.,
3rd Floor, Phone: (202) 305-2760.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Service has become aware that some of
its current practices in processing refugee applications have resulted
in the granting of derivative refugee status to persons without a
statutory basis. The Service has also admitted to the United States
persons who have been approved
[[Page 43958]]
for derivative refugee status but are not accompanying or following to
join the principal applicant, as required under section 207(c)(2) of
the Act.
Qualifying for Derivative Refugee Status
Section 101(a)(42) of the Act defines a refugee as a person who is
unable or unwilling to return to (or under circumstances specified by
the President to remain in) his or her country of origin ``because of
persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race,
religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or
political opinion.'' The Act provides two means by which a person may
be admitted to the United States with refugee status. Section 207(c)(1)
of the Act allows the Attorney General, within certain numerical
limitations set by the President, to admit to the United States as
refugees, persons who apply for refugee status from abroad and who are
determined to meet this definition. Persons who qualify as refugees
under section 101(a)(42) of the Act are often referred to as
principals, principal refugees, or principal applicants. Subject to the
numerical limitations established pursuant to subsections 207(a) and
(b) of the Act, section 207(c)(2) entitles eligible spouses and
children, defined in section 101(b)(1) of the Act as unmarried children
under the age of 21, of any refugee who qualifies for admission under
section 207(c)(1) of the Act to be admitted with refugee status if
accompanying or following to join the principal refugee. Spouses and
children who accompany or follow to join a principal refugee under
section 207(c)(2) are often referred to as derivatives or derivative
refugees. These are the only means provided for in the Act by which a
person may be admitted with refugee status.
The plain language of section 207(c)(2) of the Act provides for
only spouses and children to derive refugee status from a principal
refugee. There is no basis in law to expand the category of persons who
may derive refugee status. Accordingly, persons other than spouses and
children, as defined in section 101(b)(1) of the Act, of a principal
refugee are not eligible for derivative refugee status and must qualify
as principal refugees under sections 101(a)(42) and 207(c)(1) of the
Act in order to be admitted to the United States with refugee status.
Because section 207(c)(2) of the Act requires that a derivative
refugee accompany or follow to join the principal refugee, a person
approved for derivative refugee status as the spouse or child of a
principal refugee may not be admitted to the United States prior to the
admission of the principal refugee.
Eligibility for Service Interview
While the statute is clear on who can derive refugee status, the
Service realizes there may be humanitarian reasons to include in a case
unit other individuals who cannot derive refugee status, such as an
elderly parent or an unmarried adult son or daughter. As these persons
cannot statutorily derive refugee status from the principal applicant,
they must qualify as refugees in their own right. However, such
individuals may be given a refugee interview as long as they are
household members and are part of the same economic unit as the
interviewed principal refugee applicant. In such cases these
individuals are not required to fall within a designated processing
priority to gain access to the U.S. refugee program, as they may be
accorded the same priority as the principal applicant.
Lautenberg Amendment
When processing refugee cases under the special adjudication
procedures based on section 599D of the Foreign Operations, Export
Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act of 1990, Public Law
101-167 dated November 11, 1989, Amendment 290 known as the Lautenberg
Amendment, the Service officer must determine whether additional family
members qualify for category membership under the Lautenberg Amendment.
In an April 24, 1990 memorandum, the Attorney General specified that
certain persons who are not themselves category members may be
adjudicated as if they were category members. According to this
memorandum, persons who are members of the same household and/or are
economically dependent on a category applicant, are physically present
with the category applicant at the time of the interview, and would be
traveling with the category aplicant will be considered category
applicants for purposes of adjudication of their refugee claims.
Accordingly, applications by persons who fall within these criteria may
be adjudicated under the reduced evidentiary burden of the Lautenberg
Amendment.
Dated: July 28, 1998.
Doris Meissner,
Commissioner, Immigration and Naturalization Service.
[FR Doc. 98-21948 Filed 8-14-98; 8:45 am]
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