Two US senators, Republican Bill Cassidy and Democrat Tim Kaine, introduced the proposal of the Law of Support for Political Prisoners of Nicaragua, which seeks to help former political prisoners of the Central American country.
According to the document, the 222 former Nicaraguan political prisoners who arrived in the United States on February 9, 2023 after being released and stripped of their nationality, would receive assistance for their relocation, grant programs, child welfare services, and the right to a driver’s license, among other benefits.
Their immediate family members would also benefit from certain measures available for refugees.
The document specifies that former inmates and their families should first have passed a security check that satisfies Homeland Security, and that their parole permission has not been revoked.
Republican Senator Bill Cassidy said in a statement that the released Nicaraguans “are political leaders who dared to challenge the murderous dictator and try to remove him,” referring to President Daniel Ortega, and that is why we must “help them in the next phase of their fight against the brutal regime”.
Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, for his part, said in a statement that the Nicaraguan government’s decision to “unfairly detain, torture, and then expel to the United States 222 Nicaraguans who have demonstrated against the Ortega regime is abominable.” so the bipartisan bill “will help provide these brave Nicaraguans with the assistance they need to establish themselves in the US.”
Complementary legislation will be presented in the House of Representatives by María Elvira Salazar and Joaquín Castro, the senators said in the statement.
“It is a hope”, say Nicaraguan released prisoners
“This bill fills us with great satisfaction and hope because it reflects the struggle of the Nicaraguan people,” he told the voice of america former presidential candidate Juan Sebastián Chamorro, released in February of this year and exiled in the US, after hearing about the senators’ proposal.
Chamorro said that the fact that the initiative is “bipartisan is encouraging.”
For her part, the released politician Samantha Jiron he sees it as “a very important proposal because it will benefit us.” In his case, he says that it has been difficult for him to reunite with his family after his arrest.
“In a country that is so difficult to live in, where it is difficult to access housing, study or a job, this will help us to reunite with our family. In reality, few have been able to reunify.”
See the special: Nicaragua: Stories in exile
The Nicaragua Nunca Más Human Rights Collective, based in Costa Rica, pointed out that the policies to request asylum in the United States “are quite complex, and an initiative like this would come to support and accelerate this international protection of people about whom there is no doubt reasonable belief that they are politically persecuted persons”.
“We hope that it can be approved and applied promptly and that it can help restore the human rights of the different people who have been completely violated in Nicaragua,” he told the VOA the Collective’s lawyer, Yader Valdivia.
What is the procedure for its approval?
The United States legal system is bicameralso the bill starts the same in the Senate as it does in the House of Representatives, depending on whether it is introduced by a Senator and a Representative.
Legislators tasked with pushing the bill study it, exchange views, and make changes. They then vote to accept or reject the document before returning it to the House of Representatives or the Senate for general debate. If it is approved by the majority, it is sent to one or the other chamber to go through a similar process that includes debate, possible modifications and another vote.
The president of the United States is in charge of signing the final version of the projects so that they become law, or reject them with the veto.
The government of Daniel Ortega has referred to the opponents whose nationality was canceled as “coup plotters” who were trying to remove him from power in 2018.
“All these people who were in prison, who were detained for violating the sovereignty, against the peace of Nicaraguan families (…) were agents of foreign powers,” Ortega said in February of this year, announcing the release of The opponents.
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