All immigrants from Cuba and Nicaragua could adjust their status to permanent residency if they came to the US before December 1995. Immigrants from El Salvador and Guatemala could only apply for a limited and complex procedure called Suspension of Deportation before being found eligible to obtain their green card. Furthermore, only those who arrived by 1990 and had registered for ABC status could apply. To make matters worse, children of parents who posses ABC membership are not eligible for this law once they turn 21 years old. These children must meet all legal qualifications and apply on their own.
Families fear separation since many children are deportable when they lose their immigration status.
It is only fair that we receive the same opportunity to obtain lawful permanent residency as our brothers and sisters from Nicaragua and Cuba did under this law. To update the Registry Law to the year 1986 from its present cut-off date of 1972. This would permit undocumented immigrants to adjust their status if they can prove they have lived in the U.S. before 1986. These proposals are part of a legislative bill known as the Latino Immigrant Fairness Act . Just as these reforms are urgently needed, a full legalization process is also necessary for the many undocumented immigrant workers who had to leave their countries in order to survive and find new opportunities to live a life with dignity.