The Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act or NACARA (Title II of ) is a U.S. law passed in 1997 that provides various forms of immigration benefits and relief from deportation to certain Nicaraguans, Cubans, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, nationals of former Soviet bloc countries and their dependents who had applied for asylum. As these Central Americans overwhelmed the U.S. asylum program in the mid-1990s, their cases were left for NACARA to address.
The legislation was authored by Cuban-American Florida congressman Lincoln Díaz-Balart and was included as part of the D.C. Appropriations Act for FY 1998.
Section 202 deals with Nicaraguans (~95% of Section 202 beneficiaries) and Cubans (~5%), whereas Section 203 deals with Salvadorans (~65% of Sec. 203 beneficiaries), Guatemalans (~30%), and former Soviet Union nationals (~5%). Persons granted NACARA benefits are counted as legal permanent resident immigrants.
Section 202 allowed for spouses, children under 21 and any unmarried adult children to benefit from the amnesty program along with the original filer. The program was made available to 160,000 Nicaraguans and Cubans who were eligible according to the Immigration and Naturalization Services. Section 202 took effect in 1998. Section 203 was available to 300,000 Salvadorans, Guatemalans, and nationals of the former Soviet Union bloc who made up 10,000, or 3.3%, of the population who was eligible for relief under the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act. Section 203 took effect in 1999. According to Congressional Research Report documents, between 1998 and 2020, 261,665 people attained lawful permanent residence (LPR) as a result of the relief act. Of that group, 71,530 were under Section 202 and 191,165 were under 203. This shows that the act had some success, but not all eligible persons succeeded.
There were differences for people who applied under the two different sections. People who applied under Section 202 received a fee waiver in which they did not have to pay for their application if the person had an income below the federal poverty line whereas families who applied under Section 203 did not have a fee waiver. The contrasts in the two Sections lead to a difference in the applicants who applied compared to those who were eligible. There was a higher take-up rate under Section 202 with 37% of applicants who were eligible under receiving amnesty compared to 17% of applicants receiving amnesty under Section 203.
History
Immigrants from the Western Hemisphere were granted more leeway in entering the U.S. since no quotas were implemented for countries in the Americas unlike Europe and Asia. The U.S. began to change their policies and did create a quota system for western countries seeing as many immigrants from Mexico and Cuba were entering in droves. Cubans were allowed to enter the U.S. with little resistance since the U.S. was sympathetic of Cubans living under Fidel Castro's regime. In an attempt to aid Cubans, the U.S. created the Cuban Adjustment Act that was passed in 1966 that gave Cubans a status in the U.S. that allowed them to live and work freely in the country.
Guatemalans and Salvadorians caught the attention of the U.S. federal legislature during the 1980s. The immigrants that were attempting to enter were applying for political asylee status, seeking the protection of the U.S. The U.S. government was providing military and economic assistance to El Salvador and Guatemala due to the violent turmoil that plagued both countries due to guerilla warfare. Despite the assistance to quell the violence, Salvadorians and Guatemalans were denied asylum in the U.S. with 97-99% being rejected by the U.S. The U.S. refused to grant asylum and opted to help through another means because the U.S. would not need to fully acknowledge the violence that was happening. If the U.S. government did recognize the violence in public, that would mean the U.S. recognized that human rights violations were being conducted in Guatemala and El Salvador. The U.S. would then have an international and national obligation to allow entry to the asylees.