Legislative Authority

The current U.S. refugee resettlement program is largely an outgrowth of the Refugee Act of 1980, which amended the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1954 (INA).

You can find the current Immigration and Nationality Act on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration website. Refugees are discussed primarily in INA Sections 207-209 and 411-414.

To find out more about the Refugee Act of 1980, please see a summary of the Act (S.643, P.L. 96-212, 3-17-1980) here on the Library of Congress website (Thomas).