Reform of refugee policy

The Attorney General and the Secretary of State shall develop and implement guidelines that address potential biases in personnel of the Immigration and Naturalization Service and of the Department of State that are hired abroad and involved with duties which could constitute an effective barrier to a refugee claim if such personnel carries a bias against the claimant on the grounds of religion, race, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. The subject matter of this training should be culturally sensitive and tailored to provide a nonbiased, nonadversarial atmosphere for the purpose of refugee adjudications. The Attorney General and the Secretary of State shall develop and implement guidelines to ensure uniform procedures for establishing agreements with United States Government-designated refugee processing entities and personnel, and uniform procedures for such entities and personnel responsible for preparing refugee case files for use by the Immigration and Naturalization Service during refugee adjudications. These procedures should ensure, to the extent practicable, that case files prepared by such entities accurately reflect information provided by the refugee applicants and that genuine refugee applicants are not disadvantaged or denied refugee status due to faulty case file preparation. Not later than 120 days after November 29, 1999, the Secretary of State (after consultation with the Attorney General) shall issue guidelines to ensure that persons with potential biases against any refugee applicant, including persons employed by, or otherwise subject to influence by, governments known to be involved in persecution on account of religion, race, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, shall not in any way be used in processing determinations of refugee status, including interpretation of conversations or examination of documents presented by such applicants. The President shall include in each annual report on proposed refugee admissions under section 1157(d) of title 8 information about religious persecution of refugee populations eligible for consideration for admission to the United States. The Secretary of State shall include information on religious persecution of refugee populations in the formal testimony presented to the Committees on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives and the Senate during the consultation process under section 1157(e) of title 8.