Before Lynch, Chief Judge, Souter, Associate Justice,
*fn1 and Stahl, Circuit Judge.
Julio Gonzalez is a native and citizen of Guatemala who has petitioned for our review of the denial of his application for special rule cancellation of removal under the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act (NACARA). See Pub. L. No. 105-100, 111 Stat. 2160, 2193-2201 (1997), amended by Pub. L. No. 105-139, 111 Stat. 2644 (1997). We agree with the Immigration Judge (IJ) and the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) that Gonzalez is statutorily ineligible for NACARA relief because he last entered the United States as a crewman. We therefore deny the petition for review.
Congress enacted NACARA in 1997 to amend the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA) and permit individuals from certain countries to seek discretionary relief from removal or deportation under more lenient statutory standards that predated IIRIRA. See, e.g., Gonzalez-Ruano v. Holder, 662 F.3d 59, 60 (1st Cir. 2011). Specifically, section 203 of NACARA allows individuals from Guatemala to apply for what is known as “special rule” cancellation of removal. See NACARA § 203, 111 Stat. at 2196-99; 8 C.F.R. §§ 1240.64-1240.66. An applicant for special rule cancellation of removal must satisfy a number of requirements that we need not detail here, because this case presents the discrete question of whether Gonzalez is barred from NACARA relief because he last entered the United States as a crewman. Under section 240A(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), an individual “who entered the United States as a crewman subsequent to June 30, 1964″ is ineligible for cancellation of removal. 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(c)(1).