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Title 22 — Foreign Relations and IntercourseRelease 119-73not60

§6473 Reform of Asylum Policy

Title 22 › Chapter 73— INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM › Subchapter IV— REFUGEE, ASYLUM, AND CONSULAR MATTERS › § 6473

Last updated Apr 5, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Attorney General and the Secretary of State must make rules so people who might be biased because of religion, race, nationality, social group, or politics cannot be used to translate or interpret talks between migrants and asylum or inspection officers. This includes interpreters and airline staff from governments known to persecute people. The Attorney General, with the Secretary of State, the Ambassador at Large, and others (for example the Director of the George P. Shultz National Foreign Affairs Training Center), must train asylum adjudicators and immigration officers doing work under section 1225(b) about religious persecution abroad, country conditions, the right to freedom of religion, how persecution is done, and how treatment can differ within a country. The Executive Office for Immigration Review must give the same training to immigration judges and use the Annual Report in that training.

Full Legal Text

Title 22, §6473

Foreign Relations and Intercourse — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The Attorney General and the Secretary of State shall develop guidelines to ensure that persons with potential biases against individuals on the grounds of religion, race, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, including interpreters and personnel of airlines owned by governments known to be involved in practices which would meet the definition of persecution under international refugee law, shall not in any manner be used to interpret conversations between aliens and inspection or asylum officers.
(b)The Attorney General, in consultation with the Secretary of State, the Ambassador at Large, and other relevant officials such as the Director of the George P. Shultz National Foreign Affairs Training Center, shall provide training to all officers adjudicating asylum cases, and to immigration officers performing duties under section 1225(b) of title 8, on the nature of religious persecution abroad, including country-specific conditions, instruction on the internationally recognized right to freedom of religion, instruction on methods of religious persecution practiced in foreign countries, and applicable distinctions within a country in the treatment of various religious practices and believers.
(c)The Executive Office of Immigration Review of the Department of Justice shall incorporate into its initial and ongoing training of immigration judges training on the extent and nature of religious persecution internationally, including country-specific conditions, and including use of the Annual Report. Such training shall include governmental and nongovernmental methods of persecution employed, and differences in the treatment of religious groups by such persecuting entities.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

2002—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 107–132 substituted “George P. Shultz National Foreign Affairs Training Center” for “National Foreign Affairs Training Center”.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Abolition of Immigration and Naturalization Service and

Transfer of Functions

For abolition of Immigration and Naturalization Service,

Transfer of Functions

, and treatment of related references, see note set out under section 1551 of Title 8, Aliens and Nationality.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

22 U.S.C. § 6473

Title 22 — Foreign Relations and Intercourse

Last Updated

Apr 5, 2026

Release point: 119-73not60