Ortega Regime to Impose Exile and Imprisonment on Those Deemed a "Social Risk"

Nicaraguan strongman Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo have ordered reforms to some 47 articles of Law #761, the General Law of Immigration and Foreign Affairs. The changes are aimed at legalizing banishments and/or refusals to allow Nicaraguans or legal residents to enter or leave their own country if they represent a “social risk” or might possibly “undermine the national sovereignty.”

The reform also includes an addition to the country’s Criminal Code, allowing jail sentences of two to six years to be levied on Nicaraguans who enter, leave, or attempt to leave the national territory illegally. Such individuals are presumed to be “undermining the national integrity and sovereignty,” or “conspiring or inducing terrorist acts or acts of economic or social destabilization.”   

“When the evasion of the border controls occurs with the aim of committing the crime of treason, as foreseen and sanctioned in Article 409 of the Criminal Code, the sentence imposed will be one-third higher than the established minimum and maximum sanctions,” the addition to the Criminal Code specifies.

The 75-page bill was presented before Nicaragua’s Sandinista-controlled National Assembly on November 26, 2024, then forwarded to the Commission for Peace, Defense, Government and Human Rights for discussion and subsequent approval. Laws sent by the executive are usually unanimously approved.

Law merely formalizes ongoing de facto banishments

Most of the changes give the head of the Immigration Office the power to “deny entry into the country of those who could undermine the national sovereignty or who represent a social risk.”

“This sovereign decision of the Nicaraguan Government allows the Immigration Authorities to authorize or deny entry, revoke permanent status, cancel acquired residency or nationality,” the draft states. In other words, they will have the discretion to decide who can enter or leave Nicaragua.

According to the bill: “international land, air, maritime, river and lake transportation companies will be notified of the prohibition to transfer to the national territory persons whose entry is not authorized or who are subject to migratory restrictions, under penalty of assuming the costs of return to their place of origin or precedence”.

This is the same repressive policy that the Ortega regime has been carrying out for several years: barring return to some Nicaraguans who have traveled outside the country. The policy has been directed against relatives of political prisoners, human rights advocates, religious leaders, journalists, You Tube personalities, and social media influencers, among others.

The reform to Article 64 contemplates the loss of acquired nationality for citizens found guilty of “acts of treason, when they participate directly or indirectly, promote, direct, incite, attack, finance or initiate internal or external actions that undermine the preservation of the sovereignty, independence, internal order, territorial integrity and national self-determination.”

The Nicaragua Nunca Mas Human Rights Collective has documented 111 cases of banishment of Nicaraguans, defined as when a legal citizen of a country, according to that country’s laws, is nevertheless not allowed to enjoy the rights and protections associated with said nationality.

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The Immigration Office will also be able to solicit the expulsion of non-citizens, and temporary or permanent residents if they “engage in activities that violate the Nicaraguan Constitution” or have been found guilty of “terrorism, money laundering or organized crime.” Or, if they “encourage and instigate activities to politically destabilize the country, carry out acts that threaten morals and good customs, or publish or disseminate false or malicious information that endangers the social and economic stability, order, health and sovereign security of the nation.”

Over recent  years the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship has repeatedly ordered the expulsion of permanent residents, including members of religious communities such as the nuns from the Mother Teresa of Calcutta order, or foreign priests who were in charge of certain parishes.

Thousand-dollar fine established

The series of reforms broadens the “services charge” to migrants. Up until now, such charges have allowed the Nicaraguan dictatorship to reap large monetary gains from allowing migrants headed for the US to cross through Nicaragua.

Before these reforms, such migrants had to pay $150 to enter or leave irregular border posts.” Now, a fine of $1,000 has been established for “evading border controls for illicit aims.” That sum will be levied on both foreigners and Nicaraguans; however, there are no details on what would be considered “illicit aims.”

The reform also includes a 1,642% increase in the cost of replacing a lost passport – raising the price of such a replacement from US $5.74 to US $100.

For the past two years, the principal source of income for of the Immigration Office has been “other fees for immigration and foreign affairs services.”  In 2023, this category reaped a total of 1.66 billion cordobas [approximately US $45.2 million dollars], the largest amount ever recorded. It coincided with the huge volume of migrants using Nicaragua as a “trampoline” to reach the USA. Up through September of 2024, they had collected an additional 467 million cordobas [US $12.7 million], more than twice the expected sum of 219 million cordobas estimated for the entire year.

The Immigration Law was modified in 2020, when Ortega dollarized the price of all services and quintupled the cost of some of the documents required of foreigners, as part of measures taken by the government to increase their revenue.

Business visas and other changes

The current reforms incorporate a legal mechanism for the transition to passports that can be read electronically. It also allows foreigners to register under more than one immigration sub-category, and incorporates the category of a “business visa for the promotion of investment and bilateral agreements.”

A modification of Article 10 increases from 72 hours to seven days the waiting period for allowing the exit of minors when one of their parents has been granted permission to take them out of the country. It establishes a similar period for “those involved in illicit activities, at the request of the Attorney General’s office or the police.”

This article was published in Spanish in Confidencial and translated by Havana Times. To get the most relevant news from our English coverage delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to The Dispatch.