What is the background of the ABC Program?
The American Baptist Churches, together with other community organizations, presented a demand against INS for their lack of criterion in deciding on the political asylum petitions made by Salvadoran and Guatemalan nationals since 1980. INS and immigration courts based their decisions on political considerations and not on the contents of the petition. The reasons given were that the U.S. Government did not recognize that these two countries were suffering political instability since they were receiving economic aid.
