Sep. 30, 1996 – Illegal Immigrant Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act Allows Some 300,000 Central Americans to Become Legal Residents

“In enacting the Illegal Immigrant Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) of 1996, Congress rewrote provisions in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) that pertain to the circumstances under which certain aliens subject to expulsion from the United States may become legal residents. How aliens are affected by these statutory changes is being played out most vividly in the cases of Central Americans who first came to seek asylum the United States in the 1980s. As many as 300,000 Nicaraguans, Salvadorans, and Guatemalans are potentially affected by these revisions.”