H.R. 3553, the Central American and Caribbean Refugee Adjustment Act, would have awarded amnesty to almost 1.2 million illegal immigrants, in addition to the almost one million who were granted amnesty in 1997.
H.R. 2302, the Immigration Technical Revisions Act of 1997, would have allowed 540,000 illegal immigrants from Central America to apply for amnesty, even though they previously had been denied asylum in the United States. Congress eventually passed a much-expanded version of this proposed amnesty by slipping it into an appropriations bill for the District of Columbia (see the Nicaraguan and Central American Relief Act of 1997).