Lulac Definition

The short name for a 1993 class-action lawsuit called League of United Latin American Citizens ("LULAC") v. INS. The plaintiffs were undocumented people who had tried to apply for amnesty under the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) based on their "continuous unlawful presence" in the United States since 1982, but were told by immigration authorities that, because they'd taken a brief trip abroad and returned with facially valid documentation, they'd broken the continuity of their unlawful stay and didn't qualify for amnesty. After many appeals, the issue was ultimately resolved in the immigrants' favor through passage of the LIFE Act.