A decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit will benefit certain Salvadorans and Guatemalans. Under the NACARA law, Guatemalans who entered the U.S. by October 1, 1990 and Salvadorans who entered by September 19, 1990, may be able to apply for permanent residence.
One requirement of the law is that the applicant have registered for the benefits of the “ABC” program, which was a lawsuit against the former INS. The deadline was in 1991, and varied according to one’s nationality.
Many applicants filed ABC registration forms in 1991. For this group, eligibility for permanent residence under NACARA is clear. Homeland Security conducts ABC interviews prior to asylum interviews to determine if someone is eligible for the NACARA program, and notifies the applicant if he appears to meet the requirements. However, in some cases, applicants have been found ineligible simply for not registering for the ABC program.
On November 30, 2007, the U.S. Court of Appeals issued a decision finding that simply filing one’s asylum application prior to the deadline to register for ABC benefits was enough to notify the government he wanted to take advantage of the ABC program.
So, certain Guatemalans and Salvadorans may now be eligible to apply for permanent residence, even if they were previously told by the Asylum Office that there was “no credible evidence that you registered for the ABC program.”
We urge long-term undocumented residents to review their immigration situation in light of this new interpretation.
