Immigration Reform
A statutory pathway to citizenship, family reunification, and an end to private immigration detention.
Why this matters.
The Migration Policy Institute estimates approximately 11 million undocumented residents in the United States, the majority of whom have lived here for more than a decade. The Congressional Budget Office has scored prior comprehensive reform bills (e.g., S. 744 in 2013) as reducing the federal deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars over two decades through expanded payroll and income tax receipts. Reform is fiscally rational and statutorily overdue — the last major overhaul was the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.
Non-partisan in application.
Pathway eligibility, biometric vetting, and tax compliance requirements would be administered by USCIS under existing INA authority (8 U.S.C. § 1101 et seq.). Detention reforms enforce the Flores Settlement Agreement and existing ICE detention standards uniformly across all facilities, public and private.
Measurable outcomes. Hard deadlines.
CBO scoring shows comprehensive reform reduces the federal deficit by $197 billion in the first decade and $700 billion in the second. A pathway to citizenship adds an estimated $1.7 trillion to U.S. GDP over 10 years per the Center for American Progress. Ending private detention saves $1 billion annually in facility contracts and eliminates the profit motive for mass detention. The Tracker measures support for citizenship-pathway bills and votes to defund private detention centers.
The Accountability Tracker records co-sponsorship of comprehensive immigration reform, votes on private-detention funding, and sign-on letters supporting family reunification. Candidates must co-sponsor pathway legislation and vote to zero out ICE detention-bed quotas to receive PAC funding.
Introduce comprehensive reform with a 5-year pathway, family-reunification expansion, and a ban on private immigration detention contracts.
Pass the House; secure Senate Rules Committee markup and discharge-petition commitments.
Enactment; stand up a new USCIS naturalization corps; close the 10 largest private detention facilities.
Naturalize 8 million residents; reduce the undocumented population by 70%; end all for-profit immigration detention.