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The Child Soldier Accountability Act of 2008 (CSAA) establishes a criminal offense for the recruitment or use of child soldiers, and also establishes grounds of inadmissibility and removability for noncitizens who have engaged in such recruitment or use. In addition, the Immigration and Nationality Act and immigration regulations provide that individuals who committed a serious nonpolitical crime are subject to a mandatory bar to asylum and withholding of removal. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) propose to amend their companion immigration regulations, to specify that noncitizens who are inadmissible or deportable for recruitment or use of child soldiers are considered ineligible for asylum and withholding of removal, due to the serious nonpolitical crime bar.

Overall Description of Deadline: The Child Soldier Accountability Act (CSAA) requires the Attorney General and Secretary of Homeland Security (Secretary), within 60 days of the CSAA's enactment, to promulgate a final rule establishing that a noncitizen subject to these grounds of inadmissibility or deportability shall be considered a noncitizen with respect to whom there are serious reasons to believe that the noncitizen committed a serious nonpolitical crime.