Immigration Overhaul

Immigration in the U.S. is broken. In a politically riven capital where Democrats and Republicans agree on little, they agree on this. About 11 million people already live illegally in the U.S. after crossing the border unlawfully or remaining in the country when their visas expired. What should be done about them? That’s where the consensus falls apart. Most Americans say the undocumented should be allowed to stay — 77 percent said so in a 2017 poll by Quinnipiac University — although there are deep disagreements about what conditions they should have to meet to win legal residency or citizenship.

Prospects for an immigration overhaul in 2018 dimmed after the U.S. Senate blocked four different bills in February. These included a bipartisan measure that would have provided $25 billion for border security and a path to citizenship for 1.8 million children of undocumented immigrants set to lose protection from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, or DACA. Another defeated measure reflected a proposal by President Donald Trump. In addition to increasing border security funds and allowing DACA immigrants to stay, it would have imposed strict limits on family-based migration and ended the diversity visa lottery, reserved for people from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the U.S. Trump made cracking down on illegal immigration a centerpiece of his 2016 campaign, and one of his earliest executive orders ramped up efforts to deport illegal immigrants and stop others from entering the U.S. So he surprised many observers by backing rights for DACA immigrants, also known as “Dreamers,” named after an earlier bill first proposed in 2001 but never passed: the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, or DREAM Act. As the debates continued in Washington, tougher enforcement had already driven down border apprehensions, suggesting fewer people were trying to cross. Farms and dairies have found it hard to fill jobs, since they’ve traditionally hired many undocumented workers.