National Day of Action 2026 – A Better Way on Immigration

4/3/26 AILA Doc. No. 17101761.

AILA National Day of Action Legislative Priorities

Contact advocacy@aila.org for more information.

Pillar 1: Accountable, Fair and Lawful Immigration Enforcement

Vital to rebuilding American confidence in the immigration system is ensuring respect for the rule of law. Recent enforcement operations led by ICE and CBP in cities across the country have violated U.S. laws, the Constitution, and well-established norms for safe, effective law enforcement practices. The result has been devastating for communities and has not improved public safety. Sweeping, street-by-street enforcement operations have brought fear and chaos to communities across the country. Enforcement agencies should enforce immigration laws in accordance with principles that prioritize national security and public safety, and Congress should ensure these agencies execute their mission in a fair, humane, and lawful manner consistent with the Constitution and U.S. law.

Congress Should:

  • Demand that immigration enforcement actions be lawful, humane, and subject to meaningful accountability. Federal law enforcement officers should be held to the same standards as every other law enforcement agency and not operate without visible identification or safeguards that prevent misconduct and harm to individuals. Ensure enforcement focuses on individuals who pose a threat to public safety. Mass raids are not about national security and the safety of communities, instead they are about maximizing arrests and meeting self-imposed quotas. These actions are wreaking havoc and making America less safe.
  • Protect Due Process and the Integrity of Immigration System. Ensure that individuals are not punished for complying with the law. The Administration is undermining the integrity of the immigration system by prioritizing removal, quotas, and speed overdue process, including pressuring immigration judges with arbitrary case quotas, permitting arrests in courtrooms, and coordinating ICE arrests at USCIS field offices during required interviews and biometrics appointments. These practices erode trust in fair legal processes.
  • Conduct oversight and ensure accountability of immigration enforcement measures.
  • Congress must oversee DHS detention facilities to ensure compliance as Congress intended. The recent expansion of enforcement measures has permitted abuse and inadequate basic resources for those detained which have led to deaths in custody.
  • Worksite enforcement must be conducted with transparency and minimal disruption to lawful business operations and surrounding communities.
  • Prioritize immigration enforcement instead of indiscriminately detaining people to meet quotas. There is widespread bipartisan agreement that DHS should focus on people who are dangerous and have convictions for violent crimes rather than people with minor violations of law who have families and jobs and no history of convictions. Congress should codify priorities and should include dangerous threats to public safety and border security, such as trafficking in narcotics and the cross-border transfer of weapons, crimes that are often incorrectly attributed to migrants.
  • Reject funding increases that expand immigration detention without meaningful safeguards, including limits on detention and restrictions on the use of private detention facilities. Polling shows Americans want Congress to restore public safety and rein in these agencies. Americans expect ICE and CBP to be held accountable for their lawless practices. In 2025, ICE recorded its deadliest year in more than two decades with 32 people dying in custody. Congress should not provide additional funding without meaningful oversight and accountability measures.
  • Protect sensitive locations to preserve community trust and safety. Immigration enforcement at sensitive locations such as places of worship, hospitals, schools, and day-care facilities undermines public safety by deterring community members from accessing essential services and reporting crimes.
  • Prohibit enforcement practices that target parents through their children or deter survivors of domestic violence and other crimes from seeking protection.
  • Demand an efficient asylum system: Congress must direct DHS and USCIS to end unlawful asylum dismissals and the improper use of expedited removal that force duplicative screenings, increase backlogs, and waste taxpayer resources. Congress must also provide sufficient funding and staffing for USCIS to adjudicate asylum cases, allowing eligible individuals to receive protection without being pushed into the overburdened immigration court system. These actions would uphold due process, improve government efficiency, and ensure the asylum system focuses on real security and safety concerns rather than collective punishment.

Relevant Bills AILA Endorses

  • H.R. 6397 - Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act, which establishes enforceable national detention standards, improves medical and mental health care, increases transparency, and strengthens oversight to protect the health and safety of people in immigration detention.
  • H.R. 5941 - Restoring Access for Detainees Act, which strengthens access to legal counsel and ensures detained individuals can communicate with their attorneys and loved ones
  • H.R. 1061/S.455 – Protecting Sensitive Locations Act, codifies protections against immigration enforcement in an extensive list of “sensitive locations” like hospitals, schools, places of worship.
  • H.R. 7836 – Real Courts, Rule of Law Act of 2026, establishing independent immigration courts under article I of the Constitution.

Supporting Data & Facts

Pillar 2: Strengthen the Economy and Modernize the Legal Immigration System

Immigrants are a vital engine of the U.S. economy, contributing hundreds of billions in taxes, founding nearly half of Fortune 500 companies, and filling critical roles across agriculture, healthcare, manufacturing, and other essential sectors. Yet access to legal immigration depends on efficient, fair adjudications, and recent administrative actions have disrupted lawful pathways, leaving millions waiting years to immigrate legally. These delays separate families, deprive employers of needed workers, and push global talent and investment elsewhere—weakening U.S. economic competitiveness and national security. Outdated visa limits and administrative barriers undermine systems Congress created for both seasonal and skilled workers. Expanding and modernizing employment-based visa programs, while improving efficiency in review and vetting, would meet workforce demands, strengthen economic growth, and ensure the United States remains a global leader in innovation.

Congress Should:

  • Increase Visa Availability: Increase visa caps, expand employment visas, and recapture unused visas, to align with economic needs. This includes improving and creating programs designed to attract top global talent, driving economic growth, addressing labor shortages, and maintaining U.S. leadership in innovation and security. Reintroduce and pass bills like the Jumpstart Act to enhance these efforts.
  • Conduct Oversight to ensure that USCIS adheres to its statutory mission of adjudicating immigration benefits, rather than veering into enforcement and to ensure that delays and backlogs are reduced to protect national security and bolster economic strength.
  • Modernize Temporary Seasonal Visa Programs to meet critical labor needs of U.S. employers by adjusting numerical caps to meet labor market demand and eliminate inflexible requirements that make H-2A and H-2B visas inaccessible to employers, while ensuring robust immigrant and U.S. worker protections. Evidence shows the program does not displace U.S. workers; instead, each additional H-2B worker creates between 2.7 and 4.9 new full-time equivalent jobs for others and is associated with higher wages for American workers.
  • Strengthen Skilled Worker Pathways for America’s Global Competitiveness: The United States has long attracted global talent, but administrative actions now undermine lawful pathways Congress created. Congress must halt unauthorized H-1B fee increases, wage-based lottery changes, and pay-to-play green card programs. Congress must also require DHS to restore automatic extensions of employment authorization so skilled workers and U.S.-educated graduates are not forced out of the workforce because of agency delays.
  • Restore oversight and accountability in USCIS: last year the Ombudsman offices which served independently to ensure business, families, and others going through the system were being served efficiently was terminated. The statutorily mandated offices must be revived by Congress.

Relevant Bills AILA Endorses

  • H.R.1603 - Farm Workforce Modernization Act of 2021 would create a program by which undocumented farmworkers would be given a pathway to legal status, reform the H-2A program, and mandate E-Verify for all agricultural employers.
  • H.R. 2366 American Families United Act would restore discretion to immigration officers and judges to keep U.S. citizen and lawful permanent resident families together by allowing consideration of family unity and hardship before forcing prolonged separation.
  • 2759 - Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act would recapture 40,000 visas previously unused immigrant visas – 25,000 for nurses and 15,000 for physicians – that Congress has already authorized to address healthcare labor shortages in rural and urban areas.
  • H.R. 6565 – Reuniting Families Act would increase the number of family-based visas made available, raise the per-country visa allocation limit and mandate a maximum 10 year wait time once approved to receive a visa no matter if the visa is not traditionally available by then.
  • H.R. 8013 - Keep the Innovators in America Act - this bill will codify the Optional Practical Training program.

Pillar 3: Strengthen Communities Through a Pathway to Permanent Status for People Who Are Undocumented or In Limbo Status

Millions of undocumented individuals—many of whom are essential workers, first responders, and long-standing members of our communities with U.S. citizen spouses and children—lack a clear path to permanent status. They have lived in the United States for an average of 10 to 15 years and over 1 million are married to U.S. citizens, but they do not have any way forward under our current laws. We need an orderly process for legalizing their status that requires thorough background checks, reasonable penalty fines, proof of paid taxes, and English proficiency.

Recently, deliberate steps to strip lawful presence from people in the United States through actions such as ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS), terminating humanitarian parole programs for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans, stopping the adjudication of thousands of applications based on the country of origin, has dramatically increased the undocumented population and the number of American families in limbo. With more people living in the shadows, a large population cannot integrate into American communities and fully contribute to the economy. A strong majority—78%—of Americans support a pathway to permanent status for certain undocumented immigrants, with 85% supporting relief for Dreamers.

Congress Should:

  • Restore Access to Lawful Pathways: Ensure that all individuals who have met eligibility requirements can pursue lawful processes without arbitrary obstacles. Immediately lift the immigration pause and visa bans that have left thousands in limbo, blocking many from finalizing their path to U.S. citizenship. These measures disrupt lives without evidence of security risks and vetting malpractice.
  • Create a Pathway to Citizenship: Provide long-residing undocumented individuals the opportunity to register and apply for permanent legal status.
  • Ensure access to counsel and family unity: Ensure immigration enforcement does not obstruct or deny access to legal counsel, families, or destabilize communities. Enforcement that disrupts access to attorneys and loved ones undermines due process and causes harm far beyond the individual targeted.

Relevant Bills AILA Endorses

  • H.R. 1589 American Dream and Promise Act, which provides permanent legal status and a path to citizenship for Dreamers and Temporary Protected Status holders who have long lived, worked, and contributed to the United States, strengthening family stability and confidence in the immigration system.

Supporting Data & Facts

  • Immigrants play a significant role in addressing the U.S. healthcare labor shortage, comprising 18.2% of all healthcare workers. They comprise 26.5% of physicians and surgeons, 16% of registered nurses, and 23.1% of healthcare support staff, highlighting their essential contribution to the sector.
  • Immigrants play a critical role in alleviating labor shortages in the U.S. agriculture industry, which has faced increased pressure from workforce gaps, leading to higher prices and potential threats to U.S. agriculture's competitiveness globally. Immigrants make up 26.1% of the agricultural workforce, helping to sustain the industry by filling essential positions in farming, crop production, and other agricultural sectors.
  • Example: In 2023, immigrant households paid over $167 billion in rent in the housing market, and held over $6.6 trillion in housing wealth.
  • Example: Almost 1 in 4 entrepreneurs in the country are immigrants.

Bills AILA Support or Opposes

Endorsed in the 119th Congress Opposed in the 119th Congress

 

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