H.R. 10248
SERVICE for America Act
Sponsor: Ami Bera
1 cosponsor
Official summary
No official summary yet.
Text of the bill
(a) Public service jobs. Section 101(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)) is amended—
(1) in paragraph (15)—
(A) in subparagraph (U)(iii), by striking or at the end;
(B) in subparagraph (V)(ii)(II), by striking the period at the end and inserting ; or; and
(C) by adding at the end the following:
(W) An alien described in section 214(s)(3), and the alien spouse and minor children of such alien.
(2) by adding at the end the following:
(53) The term public service job means—
(A) a full-time job in emergency management, government (excluding time served as a member of Congress), military service, public safety, law enforcement, public health (including nurses, nurse practitioners, nurses in a clinical setting, and full-time professionals engaged in health care practitioner and technical occupations and health care support occupations, as such terms are defined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics), public education, social work in a public child or family service agency, public interest law services (including prosecution or public defense or legal advocacy on behalf of low-income communities at a nonprofit organization), early childhood education (including licensed or regulated childcare, Head Start, and State funded prekindergarten), public service for individuals with disabilities, public service for the elderly, public library sciences, school-based library sciences and other school-based services, or at an organization that is described in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and exempt from taxation under section 501(a) of such Code; or
(B) teaching as a full-time faculty member at a Tribal College or University as defined in section 316(b) and other faculty teaching in high-needs subject areas or areas of shortage (including nurse faculty, foreign language faculty, and part-time faculty at community colleges), as determined by the Secretary.
(b) Admission of nonimmigrants. Section 214 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1184) is amended by adding at the end the following:
(s) Requirement applicable to nonimmigrants described in section 101(a)(15)(W)
(1) In general. An alien may be accorded status under section 101(a)(15)(W) in accordance with this subsection.
(2) Term. Status under section 101(a)(15)(W) shall be valid for a period of 3 years, and may be extended for a single additional period of 3 years, while the alien remains employed in a public service job.
(3) Eligibility. To be eligible to be accorded status under section 101(a)(15)(W), an alien shall—
(A) have—
(i) been lawfully present in the United States as a dependent child of a nonimmigrant admitted to engage in employment in the United States (other than a nonimmigrant described in subparagraph (A), (G), (N), or (S) of section 101(a)(15)) for an aggregate period of not less than 5 years; or
(ii) been granted deferred action pursuant to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy announced by the Secretary of Homeland Security on June 15, 2012;
(B) on the date on which an application for status under section 101(a)(15)(W) is submitted, have been physically present in the United States for an aggregate period of not less than 5 years; and
(C) shall be employed in a public service job, or have received an offer to be so employed contingent on receiving such status.
(4) Waiver of grounds of inadmissibility. With respect to any benefit under this subsection, the Secretary may waive the grounds of inadmissibility under paragraph (1), (6)(E), (6)(G), or (10)(D) of section 212(a) for humanitarian purposes, for family unity, or because the waiver is otherwise in the public interest.
(5) Employment authorization. An alien accorded status under section 101(a)(15)(W) (and the spouse and each child of that alien) shall be authorized to be employed in the United States incident to status.