22 U.S.C. § 2730 — Prohibition on funding the involuntary return of refugees

(a) Prohibition. (1) Unless paragraph (2) applies, money made available to the State Department or the United States Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund may not be used to make the United States involuntarily return anyone to a country where the person has a well-founded fear of persecution because of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. (2) This prohibition does not apply when the return is based on grounds recognized as preventing refugee protection under the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention and the 1967 Protocol, subject to the reservations in the Senate's resolution consenting to the Protocol. (b) Notice to Congress in all cases. Those funds may not be used to make the United States involuntarily return anyone to any country unless the Secretary first notifies the appropriate congressional committees. In an emergency threatening human life, the Secretary must notify them as soon as practicable. (c) Construction. This section does not affect State Department activities concerning removal proceedings under the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.) or extradition. (d) Definitions. (1) "Appropriate congressional committees" means the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House International Relations Committee. (2) "To effect the involuntary return" means requiring a person, by physical force or circumstances amounting to a threat of physical force, to return against the person's will, whether or not the person is physically in the United States and whether the United States acts directly or through an agent.