6 U.S.C. § 224 — Other reporting requirements

(a) Unidentified remains. (1) Reporting requirement. Starting no later than 1 year after December 31, 2020, and every year after that, the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) must report to the right congressional committees about all unidentified remains found near the U.S.-Mexico border during the reporting period. For each deceased person, the report must include the cause and manner of death if known; the sex, age at death, and country of origin if that can be determined; and where the remains were found. The report must also give the total number of people whose unidentified remains CBP found; the total number found by other federal, state, local, or tribal law enforcement, military personnel, or medical examiners, to the extent CBP has that information; CBP's efforts to work with nongovernmental groups, universities, medical examiners, coroners, and law enforcement to map where migrant deaths happen and count how many occur there; and a detailed description of CBP's Missing Migrant Program, including how it helps reduce migrant deaths while keeping the border secure. (2) Public disclosure. Within 30 days after each report is submitted, the Commissioner must publish on CBP's website the information from parts (A), (B), and (C) above for that reporting period. (b) Rescue beacons. Starting no later than 1 year after December 31, 2020, and every year after that, the Commissioner must report to the right congressional committees on the use of rescue beacons along the U.S.-Mexico border, covering: how many rescue beacons are in each border patrol sector; the specific location of each one; how often each beacon was activated by someone in distress; a description of the distress that led to each activation, if known; and an assessment - made with local stakeholders like elected officials, nongovernmental organizations, and landowners - of where more rescue beacons are needed to reduce migrant deaths. (c) GAO report. Within 6 months after CBP submits the subsection (a) report, the Comptroller General must send a report to the same committees describing: how CBP collects and records border-crossing death data; any differences in how CBP's sectors collect that data; how CBP's data and analysis on trends in border-crossing deaths compares to other sources, like county medical examiners, coroners, and the CDC; how CBP measures whether its migrant-death-mitigation programs work; and how much CBP works with federal, state, local, and tribal governments, foreign consulates, and nongovernmental organizations to identify deceased individuals, resolve cases of unidentified remains and unidentified persons, and share information with the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs).