Fight Notario Fraud Act of 2020

IIB 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 8225 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES OCTOBER 19, 2020 Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary AN ACT To amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit certain types of fraud in the provision of immigration services, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:18 Oct 20, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8225.RFS H8225 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 HR 8225 RFS SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Fight Notario Fraud 2 Act of 2020’’. 3 SEC. 2. FRAUD PROHIBITED. 4 (a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 47 of title 18, United 5 States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol- 6 lowing new section: 7 ‘‘§ 1041. Schemes to defraud persons in any matter 8 arising under immigration laws 9 ‘‘(a) FRAUD.—Any person who knowingly executes a 10 scheme or artifice, in connection with any matter author- 11 ized by or arising under the immigration laws, or any mat- 12 ter that such person claims or represents is authorized by 13 or arises under the immigration laws to— 14 ‘‘(1) defraud any other person; or 15 ‘‘(2) obtain or receive money or anything else of 16 value from any other person by means of false or 17 fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, 18 shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 19 1 year, or both. 20 ‘‘(b) MISREPRESENTATION.—Any person who know- 21 ingly makes a false representation that such person is an 22 attorney or an accredited representative (as such term is 23 defined under section 1292.1(a)(4) of title 8, Code of Fed- 24 eral Regulations (or any successor regulation)) in any 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:18 Oct 20, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8225.RFS H8225 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 HR 8225 RFS matter arising under the immigration laws shall be fined 1 under this title, imprisoned not more than 1 year, or both. 2 ‘‘(c) THREATS AND RETALIATION.—Any person who 3 violates subsection (a) and knowingly— 4 ‘‘(1) threatens to report another person to Fed- 5 eral authorities or State law enforcement authorities 6 working in conjunction with or pursuant to Federal 7 authority; 8 ‘‘(2) acts to adversely affect another person’s 9 immigration status, perceived immigration status, or 10 attempts to secure immigration status that— 11 ‘‘(A) impacts or results in the removal of 12 the person from the United States; 13 ‘‘(B) leads to the loss of immigration sta- 14 tus; or 15 ‘‘(C) causes the person seeking to apply for 16 an immigration benefit to lose an opportunity 17 to apply for such an immigration benefit that 18 would have provided immigration status and for 19 which a person was prima facie eligible; or 20 ‘‘(3) demands or retains money or anything else 21 of value for services fraudulently performed or not 22 performed or withholds or threatens to withhold 23 services promised to be performed, 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:18 Oct 20, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8225.RFS H8225 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 HR 8225 RFS shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 1 1 year, or both. 2 ‘‘(d) GRAVITY OF OFFENSE.— 3 ‘‘(1) CUMULATIVE LOSS.—Any person who vio- 4 lates subsection (a), (b), or (c) such that the cumu- 5 lative loss to all victims exceeds $10,000 may be im- 6 prisoned not more than 3 years, fined under this 7 title, or both. 8 ‘‘(2) RETALIATION.—Any person who violates 9 subsection (a) or (b) and causes the harm described 10 in subsection (c)(2) may be imprisoned not more 11 than 3 years, fined under this title, or both. 12 ‘‘(e) INFORMATION SHARING AND ENFORCEMENT.— 13 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Immigrant and Em- 14 ployee Rights Section of the Civil Rights Division of 15 the Department of Justice— 16 ‘‘(A) shall have primary enforcement re- 17 sponsibility for this section and shall be con- 18 sulted prior to a United States Attorney initi- 19 ating an action under this section; 20 ‘‘(B) shall establish procedures to receive 21 and investigate complaints of fraudulent immi- 22 gration schemes from the public that are con- 23 sistent with the procedures for receiving and in- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:18 Oct 20, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8225.RFS H8225 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 HR 8225 RFS vestigating complaints of unfair immigration-re- 1 lated employment practices; and 2 ‘‘(C) shall maintain and publish on the 3 internet, information aimed at protecting con- 4 sumers from fraudulent immigration schemes, 5 as well as a list of individuals who have been 6 convicted of unlawful conduct under this section 7 or have been found by a State or Federal agen- 8 cy to have unlawfully provided immigration 9 services. 10 ‘‘(2) SPECIAL UNITED STATES ATTORNEYS.— 11 The Attorney General shall establish no fewer than 12 15 Special United States Attorney positions in dis- 13 tricts the Attorney General determines, after ana- 14 lyzing data following each decennial census, to be 15 most affected by the fraud described in subsections 16 (a), (b), and (c). 17 ‘‘(3) RESTITUTION.—There shall be deposited 18 in the Crime Victims Fund established under section 19 1402 of the Victims of Crime Act of 1984 (34 20 U.S.C. 20101) any restitution ordered for an offense 21 under this section if the victim of such offense can- 22 not reasonably be located. 23 ‘‘(f) SEVERABILITY.—If any provision of this section, 24 or the application of such a provision to any person or 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:18 Oct 20, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8225.RFS H8225 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 6 HR 8225 RFS circumstance, is held to be unconstitutional, the remainder 1 of this section and the application of the remaining provi- 2 sions of this section to any person or circumstance shall 3 not be affected thereby. 4 ‘‘(g) IMMIGRATION LAWS.—In this section, the term 5 ‘immigration laws’ has the meaning given that term in sec- 6 tion 101(a)(17) of the Immigration and Nationality Act 7 (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(17)).’’. 8 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 9 for chapter 47 of title 18, United States Code, is amended 10 by adding at the end the following: 11 ‘‘1041. Schemes to defraud persons in any matter arising under immigration laws.’’. SEC. 3. DETERMINATION OF BUDGETARY EFFECTS. 12 The budgetary effects of this Act, for the purpose of 13 complying with the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, 14 shall be determined by reference to the latest statement 15 titled ‘‘Budgetary Effects of PAYGO Legislation’’ for this 16 Act, submitted for printing in the Congressional Record 17 by the Chairman of the House Budget Committee, 18 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:18 Oct 20, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8225.RFS H8225 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 7 HR 8225 RFS provided that such statement has been submitted prior to 1 the vote on passage. 2 Passed the House of Representatives October 1, 2020. Attest: CHERYL L. JOHNSON, Clerk. VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:18 Oct 20, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8225.RFS H8225 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS