U.S. Amnesties for Illegal Aliens

Congress has passed 7 amnesties for illegal aliens, starting in 1986.

1. Immigration and Reform Control Act (IRCA) Amnesty, 1986: A blanket amnesty for some 2.7 million illegal aliens

2. Section 245(i) Amnesty, 1994: A temporary rolling amnesty for 578,000 illegal aliens

3. Section 245(i) Extension Amnesty, 1997: An extension of the rolling amnesty created in 1994

4. Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act (NACARA) Amnesty, 1997: An amnesty for close to one million illegal aliens from Central America

5. Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act Amnesty (HRIFA), 1998: An amnesty for 125,000 illegal aliens from Haiti

6. Late Amnesty, 2000: An amnesty for some illegal aliens who claim they should have been amnestied under the 1986 IRCA amnesty, an estimated 400,000 illegal aliens

7. LIFE Act Amnesty, 2000: A reinstatement of the rolling Section 245(i) amnesty, an estimated 900,000 illegal aliens

8. Nine current bills are vying to be Amnesty No. 8

Proposed amnesty bills in the 110th Congress:

H.R. 371 (Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits, and Security [AgJOBS] Act of 2007) - would allow illegal alien farm workers to obtain a "blue card" granting “temporary” legal status for themselves and their families if they could show they have worked in the U.S. at least 863 hours or 150 work days (5.75 hours constituting a work day [i.e., the equivalent of 21.5 40-hour work weeks, or less than half of a “standard” work year {50 weeks}] during the preceding two years; and would, subsequently, allow these “blue card” illegal aliens to apply for legal residency (i.e., amnesty), provided they demonstrate that they have worked in agriculture here: (1) 100 work days per year each of the first five years following enactment; (2) 150 work days per year each of the first three years following enactment; or (3) over the course of the first four years after enactment, 150 work days per year for three of those years and 100 work days for the other. Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) is the measure’s main sponsor.