Aggravating the Immigration Paradox: The Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act's Effect on U.S. Immigration Policy

Authors

Annette C. Escobar

First Page

445

Document Type

Comment

Abstract

Part I of this Comment analyzes United States immigration policy in 1996 as differentiated from the change marked by NACARA. Part II briefly explains the Supreme Court's previous holdings on immigration issues and its interpretation of immigration law. The author concludes that the Court should hold that immigration law must comport with the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution, both due process and equal protection. Part III demonstrates Congress' motivation in passing NACARA as well as the Act's general provisions. Part IV analyzes the effects and implications of NACARA. Specifically, it explains the Act's innate discriminatory tendencies, the colossal inflow of immigrants that will ensue if the Act is not amended, and the repugnant effects it will have on our welfare system. Part V stresses the importance of consistency in immigration legislation and provides several different solutions to the problems which NACARA and similar legislation imbue into immigration. Current immigration law leads merely to confusion and abuse. Congress must repeal or modify NACARA to effectively deal with the problems and demands presently facing immigration in the United States, consistent with the intentions of the 1996 legislation."

Recommended Citation

Annette C. Escobar, Aggravating the Immigration Paradox: The Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act's Effect on U.S. Immigration Policy, 11 St. Thomas L. Rev. 445 (1999).
Available at: https://scholarship.stu.edu/stlr/vol11/iss2/7