Lopez-Velasquez

I. Background

In 1986, as part of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (“IRCA”), Congress enacted the Special Agricultural Workers program (“SAW”), a one-time amnesty program to stabilize the agricultural workforce by legalizing undocu- mented aliens already working in agriculture. See 8 U.S.C. § 1160. Through the SAW program, an alien who had resided in the United States and performed seasonal agricultural ser- vices for at least 90 man-days during the 12-month period ending on May 1, 1986, could obtain temporary legal resident status, which would automatically adjust to permanent resi- dent status after some period of time. 8 U.S.C. § 1160(a). The SAW statute specified that the applications would be accepted during the 18-month period beginning on June 1, 1987 and ending on November 30, 1988. 8 U.S.C. § 1160(a)(1)(A); 8 C.F.R. § 210.2(c)(1).

One of the beneficiaries of the SAW program was Edmundo Lopez-Velasquez, a native and citizen of Mexico, who came to the United States in the early 1980s and held a number of seasonal agricultural jobs in Oregon. He applied for legal status under the SAW program in October of 1987, 7566 UNITED STATES v. LOPEZ-VELASQUEZ and…