Think Immigration: America’s New Year’s Resolutions

Like individuals standing in front of a bathroom mirror on New Year’s Eve making promises to themselves, nations also pause, take stock, and sometimes reluctantly acknowledge where they have fallen short and where they might still grow.

As immigration attorneys, we spend our days immersed in the consequences of national choices. Policy is not abstract to us. It has names, faces, and families attached. When we talk about New Year’s resolutions for America, we are not indulging in abstracts or vague optimism. We are drawing from daily experience.

Wise resolutions begin with an honest reckoning with what we have gotten wrong. Over the past year, immigration policy has too often been driven by fear, xenophobia, or short-term politics rather than compassion, historical evidence, or common sense. Systems have grown more complex and rigid without becoming more humane or effective. Backlogs have deepened. Due process has thinned. We risk normalizing dysfunction and a lack of adherence to jurisprudence in ways that would be unacceptable in almost any other area of law. Meaningful resolutions begin with admitting that confusion and cruelty are not signs of strength, and that deterrence-by-suffering is not a policy success.

One resolution must be to recommit to compassion, not as sentimentality, but as a disciplined practice and intentional component of our immigration policy. Compassion is what enables a legal system to recognize human dignity without abandoning structure or rules. In immigration law, compassion does not mean lawlessness. It means proportionality, fairness, and the refusal to treat human beings as problems to be managed rather than people to be heard. It means remembering that most immigrants are doing exactly what Americans have always done: seeking safety, opportunity, and stability for their families.

America should also resolve to protect its democracy with renewed seriousness. Immigration law sits at the intersection of executive power, judicial review, and individual rights. When shortcuts are taken, when access to counsel is eroded, when adjudications become opaque, when enforcement operates without meaningful oversight, it weakens democratic norms for everyone. History is blunt on this point: the erosion of rights rarely confines itself to one group. A nation that recommits to due process in immigration recommits to due process everywhere.

We should further resolve to be an example to the world again. For generations, the United States claimed moral leadership not because it was perfect, but because it aspired to be better. Immigration has always been central to that story. When our laws reflect confidence rather than panic, fairness rather than suspicion, opportunity rather than confrontation, we project stability beyond our borders. When we fail on these fronts, the world notices. Leadership, like credibility, is hard to rebuild once lost, but not impossible.

Some may question whether immigration attorneys are qualified to speak so broadly or represent the perspective of an entire nation. The answer is surprisingly simple. New Year’s resolutions are not for the flawless. They are for those who seek to understand their own contradictions—the gap between who they are and who they aspire to be. Resolutions require an honest assessment ofweaknesses, leaning into strengths, and a willingness to try again. As immigration attorneys, we are well-positioned to think about national resolutions. Our work and our advocacy lie on the fault lines of American identity: law and mercy, sovereignty and openness, fear and hope. We see the system at its most strained, but we also see its capacity for justice. We represent the better instincts of our profession and, by extension, the better nature of our country. While we cannot ignore the large segment of our society continuing to revel in the cruelty and dysfunction it has created, we must not allow those voices to prevail or operate with impunity any longer.

This year, many would say that America’s resolutions need to be radical. Perhaps. But more importantly, they need to be sincere. Tell the truth about what is broken. Choose compassion without abandoning the law. Defend democracy in the details, not just the slogans. And remember that being a nation of immigrants is not a weakness to manage but an opportunity and a strength we must cultivate and steward.

As each of us evaluates our own areas for growth and improvement on a personal level, we too must think bigger. We can join that gym, cut back on the screen time, and read those books. But let’s also commit to a healthier democracy, a more productive community, and a more compassionate society. These are all resolutions worth keeping and working toward, case by case, client by client, day by day.