Immigration

Access to Services

Your immigration status can affect which programs you qualify for, but it cannot be used to deny you emergency medical care, basic education, or other protections the law guarantees everyone.

Immigration status may affect specific program eligibility but may not be used to deny emergency care basic education or other core rights-protective systems guaranteed under law

Access to Services

Every child in the United States — regardless of immigration status — has the right to attend school and get the basic supports they need to learn and grow.

Children within United States jurisdiction must have meaningful access to education and basic developmental supports regardless of immigration status

Access to Services

Local services like healthcare, schools, and legal help should be easy for immigrants to use — not set up in ways that push people into hiding or leave them vulnerable to exploitation.

Local access to healthcare schooling identification support and legal process should be designed so immigrants are not forced into invisibility or exploitation by bureaucratic exclusion

Access to Services

Public services should offer clear information in multiple languages so immigrants can understand their rights, their responsibilities, and where to get help — without needing insider connections.

Public-service systems should provide clear multilingual navigation so immigrants can understand rights obligations and available resources without needing insider access

Access to Services

People should be able to report a crime, get emergency help, go to school, or see a doctor without fear that doing so will trigger immigration enforcement against them.

Basic access to reporting crime seeking emergency help attending school or seeking healthcare should not trigger retaliatory immigration enforcement except under narrowly defined serious circumstances

Access to Services

States and cities cannot turn hospitals, schools, or other everyday services into secret immigration checkpoints where people are reported or detained just for seeking help.

State and local institutions may not use ordinary public-service access points as covert immigration-enforcement traps

Administration & Process

The immigration system needs enough staff and funding to process cases in a reasonable amount of time — long delays cause real harm to people and families left in prolonged uncertainty.

Immigration systems must be funded and staffed to reduce backlogs and delays that create injustice through prolonged uncertainty

Administration & Process

Immigration rules should be simplified so ordinary people can follow them without needing expensive lawyers just to complete routine paperwork.

Administrative simplification should reduce complexity duplication and document burdens that make legal compliance inaccessible to ordinary people

Administration & Process

People going through the immigration process should be able to check their case status, get their documents, and find out what is happening — without fighting through a confusing or unresponsive system.

People must have accessible status updates document access and case information without relying on opaque or hostile bureaucratic systems

Administration & Process

Immigration forms, legal notices, and deadlines should be written in plain language with clear guidance so people can understand what is being asked of them.

Immigration forms notices deadlines and legal standards should be written in clearer language and supported by navigable public guidance

Administration & Process

Speeding up the immigration process cannot come at the cost of fair, individualized review of each person's case.

Backlog reduction efforts may not sacrifice accuracy due process or individualized review

Administration & Process

Immigration applicants have the right to know their case status, see relevant records, and receive notice of key deadlines — in a format they can actually understand.

Immigration applicants must have clear access to case status notices deadlines decisions and supporting records through understandable and accessible systems

Administration & Process

Government agencies cannot use constantly changing requirements, confusing standards, or sudden procedural shifts as a way to effectively deny applications without saying so directly.

Immigration agencies may not use contradictory document standards shifting requirements or opaque procedural changes as de facto denial mechanisms

Administration & Process

When the government causes delays, loses records, or makes errors that hurt an applicant, the system must offer real remedies — not just shift all the burden back onto the person who was harmed.

Where agency error delay or lost records materially harms an applicant the system must provide corrective remedies rather than placing full burden on the applicant

Asylum & Humanitarian Protection

People fleeing danger and asking the U.S. for asylum — protection from persecution — must receive a real, fair hearing, not an automatic rejection before their story is even considered.

People seeking asylum or humanitarian protection must have meaningful access to fair screening full adjudication and protection from summary rejection where credible claims exist

Asylum & Humanitarian Protection

The asylum system cannot set people up to fail with impossible deadlines, demands for documents they can't get, or assumptions it's safe to send them back when it clearly isn't.

Asylum systems may not rely on impossible deadlines inaccessible documentation demands or unsafe return assumptions that function as constructive denial

Asylum & Humanitarian Protection

A real, accountable person — not an algorithm — must review asylum claims. No one should have their safety decided by a computer's guess about whether they're telling the truth.

Credibility determinations in asylum and humanitarian cases must be made by accountable humans under fair standards and may not rely on AI inference or pseudoscientific assessment tools

Asylum & Humanitarian Protection

People who have a credible reason to fear returning home cannot be deported before they've had a meaningful chance to make their case and appeal a decision.

People with credible fear or other serious protection claims may not be removed before meaningful review and appeal opportunities are available

Asylum & Humanitarian Protection

Asylum systems must recognize that survivors of violence often struggle to tell their story clearly — trauma, language barriers, and missing documents are not proof that someone is lying.

Humanitarian protection systems must be designed to account for trauma language barriers family disruption and documentation limits without treating them as proof against the applicant

Asylum & Humanitarian Protection

Asylum and refugee processes must be clear, timely, and humane — not built as obstacle courses designed to exhaust or discourage people with valid claims.

Asylum and refugee procedures must include clear timely and humane screening processes that do not function as constructive denial through delay confusion or intimidation

Asylum & Humanitarian Protection

The first screening to see if someone has a real fear of persecution must be designed to identify people who may qualify — not to screen them out as fast as possible through overly narrow rules.

Credible-fear and related threshold screenings must be designed to identify potentially valid claims rather than exclude applicants through overly narrow interpretation or rushed adjudication

Asylum & Humanitarian Protection

People seeking asylum need enough time, access to their records, and the help of a lawyer or trained representative to properly prepare their case.

People seeking asylum or refugee protection must have sufficient time access to records and access to counsel or accredited representation to prepare and present claims meaningfully

Asylum & Humanitarian Protection

Asylum decisions must take into account that trauma disrupts memory, that language and cultural differences are real, and that many people fleeing danger have no papers to prove their story.

Asylum adjudication must account for trauma memory disruption language barriers cultural differences and lack of documentation without treating those factors as proof against the applicant

Asylum & Humanitarian Protection

Children, trafficking survivors, survivors of violence, LGBTQ+ people, and others with specific vulnerabilities must have asylum processes designed for their unique needs and safety.

Children survivors of trafficking survivors of gender-based violence LGBTQ+ applicants and other vulnerable groups must receive procedures tailored to their specific protection needs

Asylum & Humanitarian Protection

Holding people in detention cannot be used as a tactic to pressure them into dropping a valid asylum claim.

Detention may not be used to pressure abandonment of asylum or humanitarian claims

Asylum & Humanitarian Protection

When an asylum claim is denied, the person must receive a clear explanation in language they understand and have a real opportunity to appeal.

Asylum and refugee decisions must be explained clearly in accessible language with meaningful review and appeal opportunities

Asylum & Humanitarian Protection

Before sending someone back to their home country, officials must individually assess whether it's actually safe — not just assume it's safe because it usually is.

Return or removal decisions in protection cases must include individualized safety assessment and may not rely on generalized country assumptions alone

Border Governance

How the U.S. manages its borders must be legal, humane, and accountable — it cannot rely on indiscriminate force or treat people in degrading ways.

Border governance must be lawful humane and accountable and may not rely on indiscriminate force or degrading treatment

Border Governance

Border enforcement officers must operate within constitutional limits — people near the border still have civil rights and human rights that must be protected.

Border enforcement powers must be clearly limited by constitutional rights civil liberties and human-rights standards

Border Governance

When force is used at the border, it must be tightly restricted, carefully documented, and reviewed by independent overseers after the fact.

Use of force in border contexts must be strictly constrained reviewable and subject to independent oversight and disclosure

Border Governance

Border processing must be orderly and efficient, but speed cannot be used as an excuse to skip due process, ignore humanitarian claims, or deny people the right to challenge decisions.

Border processing systems must be designed for order and speed without sacrificing due process humanitarian protection or access to review

Border Governance

The military cannot take over border enforcement in ways that become permanent or remove civilian oversight and legal accountability.

Border enforcement may not be militarized in ways that normalize permanent emergency powers or undermine civilian accountability

Border Governance

Border agents must use body cameras, and records must be kept so that abuses, injuries, and rights violations can be documented and investigated.

Border officials and agencies must be subject to strong body-camera record-retention and evidence-preservation rules where consistent with safety and privacy law

Border Governance

Independent investigators must be able to look into deaths, abuse, use of force, and rights violations at the border and in border detention.

Independent review mechanisms must investigate deaths abuse force incidents and rights violations occurring in border enforcement or custody contexts

Border Governance

Withholding food, water, medical care, shelter, hygiene, or the ability to communicate cannot be used to punish people or force compliance at the border.

Border enforcement may not use deprivation of food water medical care shelter hygiene or communication access as tools of deterrence or compliance

Border Governance

Facilities where people are held at the border must meet basic standards for healthcare, sanitation, temperature control, child safety, disability access, and keeping families together.

Border processing facilities must meet humane standards for healthcare sanitation temperature child safety disability access and family integrity

Border Governance

Emergency border powers cannot be used indefinitely as a substitute for normal immigration law — they cannot permanently bypass legal protections.

Emergency border powers may not be used as permanent substitutes for lawful immigration governance or to bypass rights protections indefinitely

Border Governance

Military or military-style operations at the border must have strict limits and cannot replace civilian oversight or constitutional protections.

Use of military or quasi-military structures in border governance must be tightly limited and may not displace civilian accountability or constitutional protections

Citizenship & Naturalization

The path to U.S. citizenship should be clear, affordable, and actually achievable for people who meet the legal requirements — not blocked by red tape or excessive costs.

Pathways to citizenship should be clear affordable and realistically attainable for people who meet established criteria

Citizenship & Naturalization

The citizenship process should not be designed to keep people out through high fees, long waits, or unnecessarily complicated steps.

Citizenship systems should not be structured to preserve arbitrary exclusion through excessive fees delay or procedural complexity

Citizenship & Naturalization

Birthright citizenship — the right of anyone born on U.S. soil to be a citizen — must remain protected and cannot be quietly eliminated through reinterpretation of the law.

Birthright citizenship must remain explicit and protected against erosion or reinterpretation

Citizenship & Naturalization

People who have lived here legally for many years should have fair, stable options to fully participate in civic life, including becoming citizens when they qualify.

Long-term lawful residents should have fair and stable pathways to full civic participation including citizenship where appropriate

Citizenship & Naturalization

Becoming a citizen should be a navigable process — one that doesn't require expensive lawyers or years of unnecessary waiting just to complete the required steps.

Naturalization systems should be clear affordable timely and realistically navigable without excessive legal or financial burden

Citizenship & Naturalization

The citizenship process should not be clogged with unnecessary obstacles, backlogs, or fees that make it practically impossible for eligible people to complete.

Citizenship eligibility processes should not be distorted by unnecessary procedural barriers backlogs excessive fees or inaccessible documentation demands

Citizenship & Naturalization

Long-term residents should not be stuck in legal limbo where citizenship is technically available but so difficult to access that it remains effectively out of reach for most people.

Long-term lawful residents should not remain in extended quasi-permanent limbo where citizenship is technically available but practically inaccessible

Citizenship & Naturalization

Language support, accommodations, and clear guidance must be provided during the naturalization process so the right to become a citizen is meaningful in practice, not just on paper.

Naturalization procedures should include accessible language support accommodations and process guidance so eligibility is meaningful in practice

Citizenship & Naturalization

While the citizenship process can require civic knowledge, it cannot be designed as a cultural or ideological test used to exclude people who don't share certain values.

The citizenship process may include lawful standards for civic knowledge and accountability but may not be structured as an exclusionary cultural or ideological filter

Citizenship & Naturalization

Application fees and requirements for citizenship must include waivers or public assistance so that people with lower incomes aren't simply priced out of becoming citizens.

Fees and procedural burdens in citizenship processes should include waivers or public support mechanisms so low-income applicants are not excluded

Contractor Accountability

Private companies hired to help run immigration processing, transportation, surveillance, or services must follow the same rules and be held to the same standards as government agencies.

Private contractors involved in immigration processing transportation surveillance case management or service delivery must be subject to full public-law accountability standards

Contractor Accountability

Contractors working on immigration cannot hide behind claims of trade secrecy or private-company status to escape oversight, public disclosure, or accountability in court.

Immigration contractors may not claim secrecy proprietary privilege or privatized status to avoid oversight disclosure or judicial review

Contractor Accountability

Private immigration contractors must be regularly audited, reported on publicly, and subject to real penalties when they abuse people or break the rules.

Contractors performing immigration-related functions must be subject to independent audit public reporting and enforceable penalties for abuse or noncompliance

Contractor Accountability

No contract can reward companies for detaining more people, deporting more people, or denying more claims — these perverse incentives put profit ahead of people's rights.

No contractor compensation structure may reward detention volume removals denial rates speed-over-fairness or other perverse enforcement incentives

Contractor Accountability

Immigration service contracts must prioritize protecting people's rights and delivering quality care — not simply awarding work to whoever charges the least.

Immigration-service contracts must prioritize rights protection quality of care competence and accountability rather than lowest-cost extraction models

Contractor Accountability

The government cannot split immigration functions across so many contractors that no single entity can be held responsible when someone is harmed.

Government may not fragment immigration functions across contractors in ways that obscure responsibility for rights violations neglect abuse or wrongful detention

Contractor Accountability

People hurt by immigration contractors must be able to access records, file complaints, and pursue legal claims against both the company and the government that hired them.

People harmed by immigration contractors must have full access to remedies records complaint systems and legal claims against both the contractor and the government entity responsible

Contractor Accountability

Independent watchdogs must have full access to contractor-run facilities, records, communications, incident reports, and complaint data — no exceptions.

Independent oversight bodies must have full access to contractor-run facilities records communications incident logs and complaint data

Contractor Accountability

Core immigration functions — like making detention decisions, enforcing immigration law, and deciding cases — must be done by accountable government employees, not outsourced to private companies.

Immigration enforcement detention adjudication and core administrative functions may not be delegated to private contractors and must be performed by publicly accountable government entities

Contractor Accountability

'Core immigration functions' includes detention decisions, deportation authority, case management, and access to legal records — these cannot legally be handed off to private contractors.

Core immigration functions include detention custody transportation enforcement decision-making adjudication case management and access to legal or custodial records and may not be outsourced to private actors

Contractor Accountability

Private contractors can be used for things like facility maintenance, food services, translation, or technology — as long as they have no authority over people and make no rights-affecting decisions.

Limited use of contractors may be permitted for non-core support services such as facility maintenance translation technical infrastructure or food services where those functions do not involve custody authority decision-making or rights-impacting control

Contractor Accountability

Contractors may never have authority to detain people, make enforcement decisions, or participate in legal proceedings — those powers must remain with accountable government officials.

Contractors may not exercise authority over individuals including detention control transport authority enforcement discretion or access to sensitive legal decision-making processes

Contractor Accountability

No contract can tie contractor pay to the number of people detained, deported, or denied — any metric linked to taking away someone's liberty or rights is prohibited.

No compensation structure may reward detention volume enforcement activity removals denial rates or any metric tied to deprivation of liberty or rights

Contractor Accountability

The government cannot indirectly outsource core immigration functions through layers of subcontractors, partnerships, or inter-agency agreements designed to get around contractor restrictions.

Government entities may not indirectly outsource core immigration functions through layered subcontracting partnerships or inter-agency agreements designed to evade contractor restrictions

Contractor Accountability

All permitted contractors must be subject to full public accountability — including transparency requirements, records access, audit authority, and the same legal liability as government agencies.

All permitted contractors must be subject to full public-law accountability including transparency requirements records access audit authority and legal liability equivalent to government actors

Contractor Accountability

People harmed by contractor actions must be able to pursue full legal remedies against both the contractor and the responsible government entity — without procedural barriers blocking the way.

Individuals harmed by contractor actions must have full legal recourse against both the contractor and the responsible government entity without procedural barriers or liability shields

Courts & Adjudication

Immigration courts must be structured to be independent, fair, and competent — they cannot function as rubber-stamp machines that automatically approve enforcement requests.

Immigration adjudication systems must be structured for independence fairness and competence and may not function as rubber-stamp enforcement mechanisms

Courts & Adjudication

Immigration courts should be shielded from political pressure, case quotas, and enforcement-first incentives that undermine judges' ability to decide cases fairly.

Immigration courts or equivalent adjudicative bodies should be insulated from political pressure case quotas and enforcement-first incentives that undermine fair adjudication

Courts & Adjudication

People in immigration proceedings must have clear access to their records, hearing dates, evidence, and enough procedural guidance to meaningfully participate in their own case.

People in immigration proceedings must have clear access to records hearing dates evidence and procedural guidance sufficient for meaningful participation

Courts & Adjudication

Immigration judges must receive training on trauma, cultural competency, and human rights — these are high-stakes cases that affect people's lives and safety.

Adjudicators in immigration systems must receive trauma-informed culturally competent and rights-grounded training appropriate to high-stakes human-rights cases

Data Privacy & Surveillance

Immigration agencies cannot use mass data surveillance or commercially purchased data to build secret enforcement profiles on people or bypass normal legal processes.

Immigration systems may not use broad data surveillance or commercially acquired data to bypass due process or create shadow enforcement profiles

Data Privacy & Surveillance

Sharing immigration data with other government systems must be tightly limited, clearly justified, and transparent to the public — not used for unrelated tracking.

Data-sharing between immigration systems and other government systems must be tightly limited transparent and legally justified

Data Privacy & Surveillance

Immigration data is highly sensitive and cannot be used for unrelated profiling, sold for commercial purposes, or accessed for political targeting.

Immigration data must be treated as highly sensitive and may not be used for unrelated profiling commercial use or political targeting

Data Privacy & Surveillance

People must be able to challenge and correct inaccurate information in government databases that could affect their legal status, detention risk, or likelihood of deportation.

Record systems must include correction mechanisms so people can challenge inaccurate data that affects status detention or removal risk

Detention & Custody

Locking someone up in immigration detention must be a last resort — it cannot be used simply as an administrative convenience or as a way to scare people away from seeking legal protection.

Immigration detention must be strictly limited and may not be used as a default administrative convenience or deterrence mechanism

Detention & Custody

No one can be held in immigration detention indefinitely — there must be a process and a timeline for review.

Indefinite immigration detention is prohibited

Detention & Custody

Places where immigrants are detained must meet strong standards for healthcare, sanitation, safety, dignity, and the ability to communicate with family and lawyers.

Detention conditions must meet strong standards for healthcare sanitation safety dignity and communication access

Detention & Custody

Alternatives to detention — like check-ins, ankle monitors, or community supervision — must be used when they can reasonably ensure someone shows up and doesn't pose a safety risk.

Alternatives to detention should be preferred where appearance and safety can be reasonably maintained through less restrictive means

Detention & Custody

Every immigration detention case must be reviewed promptly and regularly — people cannot be held indefinitely without ongoing individual review.

Immigration detention must be subject to prompt individualized review and periodic re-review rather than open-ended confinement

Detention & Custody

Using offshore detention facilities or other legally murky arrangements to place people beyond the reach of U.S. law and oversight is prohibited.

Use of offshore or legally exceptional detention structures designed to evade rights or oversight is prohibited

Detention & Custody

Private, for-profit immigration detention facilities are prohibited — locking people up for profit creates the wrong incentives.

Private immigration detention facilities are prohibited

Detention & Custody

Detaining, transporting, or confining immigrants may not be outsourced to private companies seeking to make money from it.

Detention custody transportation or confinement of immigrants may not be outsourced to private companies for profit

Detention & Custody

The government cannot use private contractors as a way to escape accountability, transparency requirements, or the legal protections that apply to government-run detention.

Government may not use private contractors to evade accountability transparency or legal protections in detention or custody operations

Detention & Custody

All government-run immigration detention must meet strong standards for healthcare, mental health services, disability access, child safety, communication access, and humane treatment.

Any non-private immigration detention or custody setting must meet strong standards for healthcare mental healthcare disability access child safety communication and humane treatment

Detention & Custody

Deaths, injuries, medical neglect, sexual abuse, and serious rights violations in immigration custody must trigger mandatory independent investigations and public reporting.

Deaths injuries medical neglect sexual abuse and serious rights violations in immigration custody must trigger mandatory independent investigation and public reporting

Detention & Custody

Staff members involved in abuse, neglect, falsifying records, or retaliating against detained people must face real consequences, including removal from their positions.

Contractor or agency employees involved in immigration custody abuse neglect falsification or retaliation must face enforceable consequences including removal referral and decertification where applicable

Documentation & Identity

Government agencies must accept updated legal identity documents — including name and gender changes — and cannot use conflicting rules across agencies to create barriers for transgender people.

Immigration and travel document systems must respect updated legal identity information and may not impose contradictory marker rules across agencies

Documentation & Identity

Changes to how sex and gender are recorded on passports and identity documents must be implemented in ways that don't create new travel barriers or safety risks for people who are affected.

Removal of sex and gender markers from passports and identity documents should be implemented in ways that do not create new barriers to travel status processing or safety

Due Process & Rights

People in immigration proceedings must have meaningful due process — including proper notice, interpretation services, access to their records, and a real chance to be heard.

People in immigration proceedings must have meaningful due process including notice interpretation access to records and opportunity to be heard

Due Process & Rights

People must have timely access to a lawyer or trained representative in immigration cases — especially when they face detention, deportation, or separation from their family.

People must have timely access to counsel or accredited representation in immigration proceedings especially where detention removal or family separation is at stake

Due Process & Rights

Immigration proceedings cannot use rushed scheduling, procedural traps, or systems that are too hard to navigate — these effectively deny people their rights without officially saying so.

Immigration proceedings may not rely on rushed scheduling procedural traps or inaccessible filing systems that functionally deny rights

Due Process & Rights

Immigration decisions must be reviewable — they cannot be shielded from court oversight through excessive secrecy or unchecked government discretion.

Immigration decisions must be reviewable and may not be insulated from judicial oversight through excessive secrecy or discretionary abuse

Due Process & Rights

Interpretation and translation services must be available at every important stage of immigration processing and court hearings — and must be free of charge.

Interpretation and translation services must be available at every critical stage of immigration processing and adjudication without cost barriers

Due Process & Rights

All persons in the United States or under U.S. authority — regardless of immigration status — are entitled to fundamental legal protections, including due process and access to courts.

All persons within the United States or under the custody or control of United States authorities are entitled to fundamental legal protections including due process habeas corpus and access to courts

Due Process & Rights

Immigration status cannot be used to strip someone of their right to a lawyer, judicial review, or basic procedural protections.

Immigration status may not be used to deny or diminish access to legal representation judicial review or basic procedural protections

Due Process & Rights

People held in immigration detention must have timely access to a lawyer — barriers that make legal representation practically impossible are unacceptable.

Individuals in immigration detention or proceedings must have timely access to counsel and may not be subject to barriers that make representation functionally unavailable

Due Process & Rights

The right of habeas corpus — the ability to challenge your own detention in court — applies fully to everyone held under immigration authority and cannot be taken away through legal workarounds.

Habeas corpus protections apply fully to all individuals detained under immigration authority and may not be suspended or limited through statutory or administrative workaround

Due Process & Rights

Decisions about immigration detention and deportation must remain subject to meaningful judicial review — courts cannot be stripped of the power to check government overreach.

Immigration detention and removal decisions must remain subject to meaningful judicial review and may not be insulated by excessive deference or jurisdiction-stripping mechanisms

Due Process & Rights

No category of person under U.S. jurisdiction can be placed into a legal status that eliminates their access to courts or any real way to challenge their detention or removal.

No category of person within United States jurisdiction may be placed into a legal status that eliminates access to courts or meaningful challenge of detention or removal

Enforcement Structure

ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) as it currently operates should be abolished and replaced with narrower, rights-respecting structures that cannot reproduce its documented patterns of abuse.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement in its current form should be abolished and replaced with narrower rights-constrained and transparently governed structures that cannot reproduce its current abuse patterns

Enforcement Structure

Any replacement for ICE must operate under strict legal limits, with independent oversight, public reporting, and enforceable civil rights protections built in from the start.

Any replacement immigration-enforcement structure must operate under strict statutory limits independent oversight public reporting and enforceable civil-rights protections

Enforcement Structure

Immigration enforcement agencies cannot use broad, unchecked discretion, fragmented secrecy, or deliberate cruelty as operational tools.

Immigration enforcement agencies may not use broad discretionary power fragmented secrecy or deterrence-through-cruelty practices as operational tools

Enforcement Structure

Immigration enforcement must be structurally separated from humanitarian processing, asylum review, and support services — combining them creates abuse and undermines both purposes.

Immigration enforcement functions must be structurally separated from systems intended for humanitarian processing adjudication and support to reduce abuse and conflict of purpose

Enforcement Structure

Any replacement enforcement structure must include real anti-abuse safeguards — complaint systems, external investigations, decertification authority, and actual remedies for rights violations.

Replacement structures must include strong anti-abuse safeguards including complaint systems external investigations decertification authority and remedies for rights violations

Family Unity & Protection

Separating families during immigration enforcement is prohibited except in the narrowest circumstances involving an immediate, documented safety emergency — and even then requires independent review.

Family separation in immigration enforcement is prohibited except under narrowly defined and reviewable conditions involving immediate safety necessity

Family Unity & Protection

Immigration systems must actively work to keep families together and must have real processes for reunifying families and coordinating cases for family members.

Immigration systems must prioritize family unity and provide procedures for family reunification and coordinated case processing

Family Unity & Protection

Children caught up in immigration systems must receive heightened protections — including access to care, education, a legal guardian, and processes that account for their age and development.

Children in immigration systems must receive heightened protections including access to care education guardianship support and developmentally appropriate process

Family Unity & Protection

Families cannot be forced into waiving their rights or agreeing to deportation through threats of family separation, longer detention, or withholding basic care.

Families may not be coerced into waiver or removal decisions through detention threats separation threats or deprivation of care

Integration & Support

Immigration policy should support immigrants in building stable lives — through language access, community support, work authorization, and predictable rules — rather than trapping people in prolonged uncertainty.

Immigration policy should support stable local integration through language access community support lawful work access and predictable process rather than prolonged precarity

Integration & Support

People waiting for immigration decisions should have clear rules about their right to work and carry on with daily life while their cases are pending.

People with pending lawful-status or protection claims should have predictable rules for work authorization and continuity of daily life while cases are pending

Integration & Support

Being stuck in legal limbo for years is not an acceptable long-term outcome for people who have built significant ties, have valid legal claims, or have lived here for a long time.

Administrative limbo should not be treated as an acceptable long-term state for people with significant ties legal claims or prolonged residence

Integration & Support

The immigration system should be designed so that people aren't afraid to send their kids to school, go to the doctor, or report a crime — fear of enforcement shouldn't follow people everywhere.

Immigration-system design should reduce fear-driven avoidance of schools healthcare courts and labor enforcement by ensuring clearer boundaries between service systems and enforcement systems

Labor Protections

Employers cannot use a worker's immigration status as a threat to suppress wages, retaliate against complaints, or avoid following labor law.

Immigration status may not be used by employers to suppress wages retaliate against workers or evade labor law

Labor Protections

All workers — regardless of immigration status — are protected by labor safety laws, minimum wage requirements, and anti-exploitation laws.

All workers regardless of immigration status must be protected by labor safety wage and anti-exploitation laws

Labor Protections

Reporting wage theft, unsafe working conditions, or labor trafficking must not expose workers to retaliatory deportation or immigration enforcement.

Reporting labor abuse wage theft trafficking or unsafe working conditions must not expose workers to retaliatory immigration enforcement

Labor Protections

Work visa programs must be designed to reduce the power employers hold over workers — systems that leave workers completely dependent on one employer create conditions for abuse.

Visa and work authorization systems must be designed to reduce employer domination and dependency that create coercive working conditions

Labor Protections

Work authorization pathways tied to a specific employer should not function as indentured servitude — workers must retain basic freedom to leave and seek better conditions.

Pathways tied to labor participation should not function as systems of indenture or employer-controlled status captivity

Labor Protections

No visa or work permit system can legally give a single employer total control over a worker's ability to remain in the country — that level of dependence enables exploitation.

Visa and work authorization systems may not be structured so that a single employer effectively controls a worker’s legal existence or ability to remain in the country

Labor Protections

Workers on employer-tied visas must be able to leave abusive or unsafe employers without immediately losing their legal status — some level of job portability is required.

Workers on employer-tied visas must have meaningful portability so they can leave abusive exploitative or unsafe employers without losing lawful status immediately

Labor Protections

Work authorization systems must include protections against trafficking, coercion, document confiscation, retaliation, and employers who manipulate immigration status as a tool of control.

Immigration-dependent labor systems must include safeguards against trafficking coercion retaliation document confiscation and employer-driven status abuse

Labor Protections

Workers pursuing labor complaints, safety claims, or trafficking investigations must be shielded from immigration enforcement consequences while those proceedings are active.

Workers pursuing labor claims safety claims or trafficking claims must be protected from retaliatory immigration consequences while those matters are pending

Labor Protections

Immigration labor pathways should be built around worker dignity, freedom to move between jobs, and fair bargaining — not just extracting labor from people with no other options.

Immigration pathways connected to labor should prioritize worker dignity mobility and fair bargaining rather than labor extraction alone

Oversight & Transparency

Immigration agencies and detention facilities must be subject to real, independent oversight — with actual access to facilities, records, and decision-making patterns.

Immigration agencies and detention systems must be subject to strong independent oversight with access to facilities records and decision patterns

Oversight & Transparency

Immigration agencies must publish clear, standardized data on detention, deportations, processing times, family separations, legal representation access, and rights complaints.

Immigration systems must publish standardized data on detention removals processing times family separation outcomes legal representation access and rights complaints

Oversight & Transparency

When there are documented patterns of abuse, rights violations, discriminatory enforcement, or wrongful detention, mandatory corrective action and review must follow.

Patterns of abuse rights violations discriminatory enforcement or unlawful detention must trigger mandatory corrective action and review

Oversight & Transparency

Immigration officials and agencies cannot escape accountability by hiding behind secrecy, special legal processes, or fragmented responsibility spread across multiple agencies.

Immigration officials and agencies may not evade accountability through secrecy exceptional process or fragmented jurisdictional responsibility

Refugee Resettlement

The United States should maintain a strong refugee resettlement program grounded in humanitarian responsibility, fair processes, and meaningful support for people rebuilding their lives.

The United States should maintain a robust refugee resettlement system grounded in humanitarian responsibility due process and long-term integration support

Refugee Resettlement

Refugee admissions cannot be arbitrarily shut down through discriminatory exclusions, politically motivated freezes, or administrative sabotage of the resettlement system.

Refugee admissions and resettlement may not be arbitrarily restricted through discriminatory exclusions politically driven shutdowns or administrative sabotage

Refugee Resettlement

Refugee systems must have predictable, stable capacity — not be repeatedly dismantled and rebuilt based on political winds.

Refugee systems must include predictable processing capacity and stable infrastructure rather than ad hoc collapse-and-restart cycles

Refugee Resettlement

Who qualifies for refugee resettlement and how they are processed cannot be based on race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, political views, or other protected characteristics.

Refugee resettlement policy may not discriminate based on race religion nationality sexual orientation sex gender gender identity political belief or other protected characteristics

Refugee Resettlement

Refugee eligibility standards must be clear, transparent, and applied consistently — not manipulated based on political narratives or media attention.

Refugee eligibility and processing standards must be clear transparent and consistently applied rather than selectively manipulated based on politics or media narratives

Refugee Resettlement

Refugee resettlement must include real access to housing, healthcare, education, language support, legal help, and the resources people need to rebuild stable lives.

Refugee resettlement must include access to housing healthcare education language support legal assistance and basic stabilization resources sufficient for humane integration

Refugee Resettlement

Refugee resettlement should coordinate with state and local institutions to support long-term integration — not leave refugees navigating confusing systems alone.

Refugee systems should coordinate with state and local institutions in ways that support long-term integration without forcing refugees into instability or bureaucratic invisibility

Refugee Resettlement

Refugees should have clear, accessible paths from initial arrival to permanent legal status and ultimately to citizenship, where appropriate.

Refugees should have clear pathways from initial admission to durable lawful status permanent residence and citizenship where appropriate

Refugee Resettlement

Refugee resettlement functions cannot be structured in ways that give private organizations profit incentives over the rights and wellbeing of vulnerable people.

Refugee resettlement functions may not be structured in ways that privatize core rights-determining decisions or create profit incentives around vulnerability and placement

Refugee Resettlement

Refugee systems must be subject to strong public oversight, transparent data reporting, and anti-discrimination enforcement.

Refugee systems must be subject to strong public oversight data reporting and anti-discrimination enforcement

Removal & Deportation

People cannot be deported to a country that isn't where they are from, haven't lived legally, or where their safety is not clearly established — it must be their actual home country or a place where they are safe.

People may not be deported to countries that are not their country of origin nationality lawful residency or another country where lawful admission and safety are clearly established

Removal & Deportation

No one can be deported to a country where they face a serious risk of persecution, torture, forced disappearance, trafficking, or other severe harm.

Removal may not be carried out to any country where the person faces serious risk of persecution torture disappearance trafficking or other severe rights violations

Removal & Deportation

Deporting someone to a third country — one they weren't from or haven't lived in — requires strict legal standards, meaningful review, and proof that the person will be safe and lawfully admitted there.

Third-country removals require strict legal standards meaningful review and proof of lawful acceptance and safety rather than administrative convenience

Removal & Deportation

Deportation proceedings must include proper notice, access to records, access to a lawyer, and enough time to challenge legal or factual errors before anyone is removed.

Removal proceedings must include meaningful notice access to records access to counsel and sufficient time to challenge legal or factual errors before deportation occurs

Removal & Deportation

No one can be deported while a timely appeal, habeas petition, or other qualifying legal challenge is still pending — unless a court specifically orders it.

No person may be deported while a timely appeal motion to reopen habeas petition or other qualifying legal challenge remains pending unless a court specifically authorizes removal

Removal & Deportation

Deportation orders must be based on individual review — rushed, mass-processing systems that sacrifice accuracy for speed are not acceptable.

Removal orders must be based on individualized review and may not be executed through rushed mass-processing systems that undermine factual accuracy or procedural fairness

Removal & Deportation

People facing deportation must have access to the full factual and legal basis for the government's case — including records, evidence, and the stated reasons for their removal.

People facing removal must have access to the full factual and legal basis for the government’s case including records evidence and claimed grounds for removal

Removal & Deportation

The immigration system must have strong safeguards against wrongful deportation due to mistaken identity, record errors, citizenship errors, or failure to consider available legal defenses.

Immigration systems must include strong safeguards against wrongful removal including mistaken identity record error citizenship error and failure to account for legal relief eligibility

Removal & Deportation

When credible evidence suggests a deportation may be unlawful, factually wrong, or a rights violation, removal must be paused while it is reviewed.

Where credible evidence suggests a removal may be unlawful factually mistaken or rights-violating the system must pause removal pending review

Removal & Deportation

Wrongful deportation must trigger mandatory review, accountability investigation, and real remedies — including pathways for the person to return if they were wrongly removed.

Wrongful removal must trigger mandatory review accountability investigation and remedies including pathways for return or legal correction where possible

Removal & Deportation

Deportation decisions must consider family ties, caregiving responsibilities, disability, medical needs, and other serious humanitarian factors — these are not irrelevant details.

Removal decisions must account for family unity caregiving obligations disability medical dependence and other serious humanitarian factors rather than treating them as irrelevant collateral issues

Removal & Deportation

People cannot be deported in ways that deliberately cut off access to essential ongoing medical treatment without legal review and a safe medical transition plan.

People may not be removed in ways that knowingly cut off access to essential ongoing medical care without lawful review and medically safe transition planning

Removal & Deportation

Deportation cases involving children, families, people with disabilities, or medically vulnerable individuals require heightened review and extra safeguards.

Removal procedures involving children families disabled people or medically vulnerable individuals require heightened review and safeguards

Removal & Deportation

Government agencies must publicly report standardized data on deportations, appeals, legal stays, wrongful-removal findings, and the countries people are sent to.

Government agencies must publicly report standardized data on removals appeals stays wrongful-removal findings and countries of destination

Removal & Deportation

Expedited or summary deportation procedures — where people are removed very quickly with minimal review — must be tightly limited and cannot be used in ways that eliminate due process or humanitarian protections.

Expedited or summary removal procedures must be strictly limited and may not be used in ways that nullify due process or humanitarian protection rights

Removal & Deportation

The transport and transfer of people being deported must be documented, auditable, and reviewable to prevent disappearance, abuse, or unlawful handoffs to other countries.

Removal transport and handoff procedures must be documented auditable and reviewable to prevent disappearance abuse or unlawful transfer

Core Rights Principles

Immigration policy must respect human rights, due process, family integrity, and equal dignity — while also maintaining lawful, orderly systems.

Immigration policy must respect human rights due process family integrity and equal dignity while maintaining lawful and orderly systems

Core Rights Principles

Immigration systems cannot use cruelty, humiliation, indefinite limbo, or systematic fear as tools to deter people from seeking protection or legal status.

Immigration systems may not rely on cruelty degradation indefinite limbo or systemic fear as tools of deterrence

Core Rights Principles

Immigration law and how it is administered must be clear, consistent, transparent, and resistant to political manipulation or enforcement that changes based on who is in power.

Immigration law and administration must be clear consistent transparent and resistant to political manipulation or selective enforcement

Core Rights Principles

Where someone lives, what language they speak, how much money they have, or whether they can afford a lawyer cannot determine whether they can meaningfully navigate the immigration process.

Geography language wealth or access to counsel must not determine whether a person can meaningfully navigate immigration processes

Core Rights Principles

Immigration policy, enforcement, and court decisions cannot discriminate based on race, religion, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity, political views, or other protected characteristics.

Immigration policy enforcement and adjudication may not discriminate based on race religion sexual orientation sex gender gender identity political views or other protected characteristics

Core Rights Principles

Immigration rules and processes must be written and applied consistently and neutrally — they cannot be structured in ways that produce discriminatory outcomes even if they don't say so explicitly.

Immigration rules criteria and processes must be written and applied in a neutral consistent and non-discriminatory manner and may not be structured to produce discriminatory outcomes

Core Rights Principles

Selectively targeting people for immigration enforcement based on their race, religion, political views, or other protected characteristics is prohibited.

Selective enforcement targeting based on protected characteristics or proxy indicators is prohibited

Core Rights Principles

The United States cannot create separate, reduced-rights legal systems for non-citizens that undermine equal protection principles guaranteed by the Constitution.

The United States may not create parallel systems of justice or reduced-rights frameworks for non-citizens that undermine equal protection principles

Core Rights Principles

Immigration status can affect specific legal outcomes, but it cannot be used to strip anyone of fundamental rights protections or basic legal dignity.

Differences in immigration status may affect specific legal outcomes but may not be used to deny fundamental rights protections or basic legal dignity

Services & Sanctuary

People in the United States must be able to get emergency medical care and necessary stabilization regardless of their immigration status.

People within United States jurisdiction must have access to emergency healthcare and medically necessary stabilization regardless of immigration status

Services & Sanctuary

Seeking emergency care or medically necessary treatment cannot trigger immigration enforcement against the person seeking help, except in the narrowest possible circumstances.

Seeking emergency care basic healthcare or medically necessary treatment may not trigger retaliatory immigration enforcement except under narrowly defined serious circumstances

Services & Sanctuary

Immigration status cannot be used to deny medically necessary care to children, pregnant people, people with disabilities, or other vulnerable populations the law protects.

Immigration status may not be used to deny medically necessary care for children pregnant people disabled people or other especially vulnerable populations where law or rights protections require access

Services & Sanctuary

Children must be able to attend public school without immigration authorities treating schools as enforcement zones or using school enrollment data to track families.

Children within United States jurisdiction must have meaningful access to public education without immigration-enforcement interference intimidation or hidden data-sharing traps

Services & Sanctuary

Schools and educational institutions cannot be converted into routine immigration enforcement access points — education must remain a safe zone.

Schools and educational institutions may not be converted into routine immigration-enforcement access points except under the narrowest lawful circumstances

Services & Sanctuary

Children's access to schooling and learning should not be undermined by immigration-related fear that keeps families away from schools.

Immigration-related fear must not be allowed to undermine children’s access to schooling developmental support and educational continuity

Services & Sanctuary

Healthcare, schools, shelters, and other essential services should have clear limits on immigration enforcement access so people can seek help without constant fear of deportation.

Essential public-service systems should include firewalls limiting immigration-enforcement access so people can seek schooling healthcare emergency help and legal process without routine fear of status-based retaliation

Services & Sanctuary

Routinely using hospitals, schools, shelters, labor agencies, and service providers as covert immigration enforcement access points is prohibited.

Routine use of healthcare schools shelters labor agencies and service providers as covert immigration-enforcement access points is prohibited

Services & Sanctuary

Public institutions must provide clear, multilingual information about which services are safe to access and what information can and cannot be shared with immigration authorities.

Public institutions must provide clear multilingual guidance about what services are safe to access and what information may or may not be shared with enforcement entities

Services & Sanctuary

When immigration status affects eligibility for specific benefits, the rules must be clear, consistently applied, and not used as tools of confusion, deterrence, or humiliation.

Where immigration status affects eligibility for specific benefits the rules must be clear legible and consistently applied rather than used as tools of confusion deterrence or humiliation

Services & Sanctuary

Benefit systems cannot use confusing status rules, contradictory paperwork demands, or hidden information-sharing practices to quietly exclude people who are entitled to services.

Benefit systems must not use confusing status rules contradictory paperwork burdens or hidden information-sharing practices as de facto exclusion mechanisms

Services & Sanctuary

Children, mixed-status families, and other vulnerable households must be clearly protected from losing access to lawful services because of fear or household immigration complexity.

Children mixed-status families and other vulnerable households must receive clear protections against losing lawful access to services because of procedural fear or household-status complexity

Status & Pathways

Immigration policy should provide realistic paths to legal status for long-term residents with community ties — keeping people in permanent, precarious undocumented status is a policy choice, not an inevitability.

Immigration policy should provide realistic lawful pathways to status for long-term residents with community ties rather than preserving permanent precarity

Status & Pathways

The process for adjusting or obtaining immigration status should be clear, affordable, and navigable — not blocked by excessive bureaucracy or arbitrary delays.

Status-adjustment systems should be clear affordable and navigable and should not depend on excessive bureaucracy or arbitrary delay

Status & Pathways

People who were brought to the U.S. as children or grew up here should have strong, permanent pathways to legal status and citizenship.

People brought to the country as children or raised substantially in the United States should have strong and stable pathways to lawful status and citizenship

Status & Pathways

Immigration law should reduce long-term undocumented limbo by expanding workable legal pathways and addressing the backlogs that keep millions of people in legal uncertainty.

Immigration law should reduce long-term undocumented limbo by expanding workable legal pathways and resolving backlogs

Status & Pathways

Who gets to adjust their status should consider family unity, work contributions, how long someone has lived here, and humanitarian factors — not just focus on penalties and exclusions.

Status eligibility should account for family unity labor contribution long-term residence and humanitarian considerations rather than punitive exclusion alone

Status & Pathways

The overall visa, green card, and permanent-residence system must be comprehensively reformed to reduce delays, arbitrariness, complexity, and structural unfairness.

The overall system for obtaining visas green cards permanent residence and lawful status must be comprehensively overhauled to reduce delay arbitrariness complexity and structural unfairness

Status & Pathways

Visa and permanent-residence systems should be simplified and made consistent so people aren't trapped in excessive bureaucracy, backlogs, and legal uncertainty.

Visa and permanent-residence systems should be simplified and standardized to reduce excessive bureaucracy backlog and legal precarity

Status & Pathways

Application fees and procedural requirements for visas and green cards should not be set so high that ordinary applicants are effectively excluded from applying.

Application fees and procedural burdens for visas green cards and permanent residence should not be set at levels that functionally exclude ordinary applicants

Status & Pathways

Backlogs for family-based, employment-based, and humanitarian immigration must be reduced through real structural reform — not just short-term administrative fixes.

Backlogs in family-based employment-based and humanitarian immigration pathways must be reduced through structural reform rather than temporary administrative patchwork alone

Status & Pathways

Legal status systems must include clearer timelines, transparent processes, and predictable adjudication standards so applicants aren't left in prolonged uncertainty about their future.

Lawful-status systems must include clearer timelines status transparency and predictable adjudication standards so applicants are not left in prolonged uncertainty

Status & Pathways

Status pathways must be designed to reduce situations where people's immigration status is entirely controlled by their employer, their spouse, or an arbitrary gatekeeper.

Status pathways must be designed to reduce dependency on employer control marriage vulnerability or arbitrary gatekeeping by private actors

Status & Pathways

People stuck in long-term temporary-status limbo should have pathways to permanent status when their ties, residence, and contributions clearly justify it.

Long-term temporary-status limbo should be reduced by creating durable pathways to permanence where ties residence and contribution justify it

System Design

Legal immigration pathways should be designed so that people can realistically comply with them — when legal options are too difficult or expensive, it drives people toward undocumented status.

Lawful immigration pathways should be designed to reduce unnecessary irregularity black-market dependence and exploitative limbo by making legal compliance realistically attainable

System Design

Immigration policy should be measured by how well it reduces fear, opacity, exploitation, and legal limbo — not just by how many people it detains or deports.

Immigration policy should be designed to reduce limbo fear opacity and exploitation rather than treating chronic precarity as a policy success

System Design

Immigration systems must be evaluated on rights compliance, fairness, stability, and human outcomes — not only on enforcement numbers.

Immigration systems must be evaluated not only for enforcement output but also for rights compliance fairness stability and human outcomes

System Design

Any future immigration reforms must be tested against principles of anti-abuse, anti-exploitation, and anti-fragmentation before they are implemented.

Any future immigration reforms must be tested against anti-abuse anti-fragmentation and anti-exploitation principles before implementation

Trafficking Protections

Immigration systems must include strong protections for trafficking and labor exploitation survivors — these people must never be forced to choose between reporting their abuse and risking deportation.

Immigration systems must include strong protections for survivors of trafficking coercion labor exploitation and abuse and may not force them to choose between safety and immigration jeopardy

Trafficking Protections

People who report trafficking or forced labor must be protected from retaliatory detention or deportation while their claims are being investigated.

People reporting trafficking forced labor or coercive exploitation must be protected from retaliatory detention removal or loss of legal process while claims are investigated

Trafficking Protections

Protections for trafficking survivors in the immigration system must be genuinely accessible — not buried behind narrow eligibility rules, discretionary barriers, or proof demands that are impossible to meet.

Trafficking-related immigration protections must be accessible in practice and not buried behind narrow awareness discretionary barriers or unrealistic proof demands

Trafficking Protections

Immigration and labor enforcement agencies must work together to identify employer-controlled visa arrangements that enable trafficking or status-based exploitation.

Immigration and labor systems should coordinate to identify coercive employer-dependent structures that enable trafficking or status-based exploitation

Trafficking Protections

Survivors of trafficking and severe exploitation should have durable, realistic pathways to safety, protection, and legal status.

Survivors of trafficking and severe exploitation should have durable and realistic pathways to stability protection and lawful status

Visas & Legal Immigration

Visa categories and legal entry pathways should be modernized to reduce arbitrary complexity, better reflect how people actually live and work, and cut unnecessary uncertainty.

Visa categories and lawful-entry pathways should be modernized to reduce arbitrary complexity mismatch with real-world needs and unnecessary precarity

Visas & Legal Immigration

Immigration pathways should be structured to reduce extreme wait times, backlogs, and bottlenecks that make lawful migration impractical for millions of people.

Immigration pathways should be structured to reduce extreme wait times backlogs and category bottlenecks that undermine lawful migration

Visas & Legal Immigration

Green card and permanent-residence systems should have predictable timelines and transparent queue information so people know where they stand.

Green-card and permanent-residence systems should have predictable processing timelines and transparent queue information

Visas & Legal Immigration

People applying for visas, green cards, and permanent residence must have meaningful access to their case status, file contents, and explanations for any delays or denials.

Applicants for visas green cards and permanent residence must have meaningful access to status updates file contents and reasons for delay or denial

Visas & Legal Immigration

Application requirements should be simplified and standardized to reduce unnecessary legal expense, duplicative paperwork, and procedural traps.

Application requirements should be simplified and standardized to reduce unnecessary legal expense paperwork duplication and procedural traps

Visas & Legal Immigration

Fees for visas, green cards, and permanent residence must be regulated so they don't function as wealth barriers that price out ordinary people.

Fees for visas green cards and permanent residence should be regulated so they do not function as exclusionary wealth barriers

Visas & Legal Immigration

Family-based and humanitarian immigration pathways should not be treated as less important than employer-sponsored pathways in ways that undermine family unity or human dignity.

Family-based and humanitarian pathways should not be structurally subordinated to employer-driven pathways in ways that undermine family unity or human dignity

Visas & Legal Immigration

Long-term residents with stable ties should have realistic pathways from temporary or uncertain status to permanent legal residence.

Long-term residents with stable ties should have realistic pathways from temporary or precarious status to permanent residence

Visas & Legal Immigration

Immigration pathways should be stable enough that people aren't destabilized by sudden policy reversals or inconsistent adjudication standards that change between administrations.

Immigration pathways should be resilient against administrative whiplash so applicants are not destabilized by abrupt policy reversals or inconsistent adjudication standards

Visas & Legal Immigration

The entire visa system must be modernized to reduce arbitrariness, backlog, complexity, and vulnerability to abuse — while preserving lawful, orderly migration.

The visa system must be comprehensively modernized to reduce arbitrariness backlog dependency complexity and vulnerability to abuse while preserving lawful orderly migration

Visas & Legal Immigration

Visa categories should be simplified and clarified so that applicants can understand their options without requiring expensive legal expertise to decode.

Visa categories should be simplified clarified and reorganized where necessary so applicants can understand available pathways without excessive legal complexity

Visas & Legal Immigration

Overlapping or contradictory visa rules should be cleaned up to prevent arbitrary denials, inconsistent decisions, and needless procedural traps.

Overlapping or contradictory visa rules should be reduced to prevent arbitrary denials inconsistent adjudication and needless procedural traps

Visas & Legal Immigration

Visa pathways should reflect real family relationships, humanitarian needs, educational realities, and labor markets — not outdated assumptions or artificial scarcity created by bureaucratic inertia.

Visa pathways should be designed to reflect real family humanitarian educational and labor realities rather than outdated assumptions or artificial scarcity alone

Visas & Legal Immigration

Visa processing must operate under clear target timelines with public reporting on delays, backlogs, and queue movement so people can plan their lives.

Visa adjudications must operate under transparent target timelines with public reporting on delays backlogs and queue movement

Visas & Legal Immigration

Applicants must be able to see real-time updates on their case and receive clear, understandable explanations for any delay, request for additional documents, or denial.

Applicants must have meaningful access to real-time case status and understandable reasons for delay request for evidence or denial

Visas & Legal Immigration

Letting cases sit unresolved for years cannot be used as a way to effectively deny applications without officially saying no.

Administrative delay may not be used as a de facto denial mechanism in visa adjudication

Visas & Legal Immigration

Standards for visa adjudications must be clear and consistent — excessive, unchecked officer discretion produces arbitrary outcomes and is not a fair system.

Visa adjudication standards must be clear consistent and written in language that reduces excessive discretion and arbitrary outcomes

Visas & Legal Immigration

Requests for additional documents or proof in visa cases must be proportional and tied to legitimate adjudication needs — not used as bureaucratic tools to stall or wear down applicants.

Requests for documentation or proof in visa cases must be proportional realistic and tied to legitimate adjudicative need rather than bureaucratic overreach

Visas & Legal Immigration

Applicants must have a meaningful chance to correct errors, add missing records, and respond to concerns before a final adverse decision is made.

Applicants must have meaningful opportunities to correct errors supplement records and respond to concerns before adverse decisions are finalized

Visas & Legal Immigration

Employment-based visa systems must reduce total employer control over workers — employees must be able to leave abusive situations or change jobs without immediately losing their legal status.

Employment-based visa systems must reduce dependency on single employers and allow meaningful mobility when workers face abuse retaliation or exploitation

Visas & Legal Immigration

Student and trainee visa systems must protect against exploitation, confusion about status requirements, and arbitrary disruptions of lawful educational pathways.

Student and trainee visa systems must protect against exploitation status confusion and arbitrary disruption of lawful educational pathways

Visas & Legal Immigration

Temporary visa programs should not trap people in prolonged precarious status when their long-term presence and contributions clearly justify a path to permanence.

Temporary visa systems should not be designed to keep people in prolonged precarity where long-term contribution and lawful presence justify a path to permanence

Visas & Legal Immigration

Family-based visa systems should prioritize reuniting families and reduce the needless backlogs and procedural complexity that keep families apart for years.

Family-based visa systems should prioritize reunification and reduce needless backlog separation and procedural complexity

Visas & Legal Immigration

Family-based applicants should not face excessive documentary or procedural burdens that block ordinary families from using the lawful pathways available to them.

Family-based applicants should not face excessive documentary or procedural burdens that functionally prevent ordinary families from accessing lawful pathways

Visas & Legal Immigration

Visa fees must be set at levels that cover legitimate administrative costs — not so high that they become exclusionary wealth filters.

Visa fees must be regulated so they cover legitimate administration without functioning as exclusionary wealth filters

Visas & Legal Immigration

Fee waivers, reductions, or public assistance should be available when the cost of applying for a visa would otherwise make lawful immigration practically inaccessible.

Fee waivers reductions or public support should be available where cost would otherwise make lawful application practically inaccessible

Visas & Legal Immigration

Visa systems must include clear mechanisms for people to move from temporary status to permanent residence when their residence, contributions, and stability justify it.

Visa systems should include clear mechanisms for transition from temporary lawful status to permanent residence where residence contribution and stability justify it

Visas & Legal Immigration

People should not be forced into endless cycles of temporary renewals when a permanent lawful path is more appropriate and makes more administrative sense.

People should not be forced into repeated cycles of temporary renewal where a durable lawful path is more appropriate and administratively rational

Visas & Legal Immigration

People already in lawful immigration processes must be protected from sudden policy reversals that unfairly destabilize their pending or nearly complete applications.

Applicants already in lawful immigration processes should be protected from abrupt policy reversals that unfairly destabilize pending or near-complete cases

Visas & Legal Immigration

Major changes to visa systems must include transition rules that protect people who were relying on existing rules — abrupt changes that upend lawful applicants and families are not acceptable.

Major changes to visa systems should include transition rules that protect reliance interests and avoid arbitrary disruption of lawful applicants and families

Create a climate displacement visa category for people displaced by climate impacts

The U.S. must create a special visa category for people forced to flee their homes because of climate disasters like rising seas, drought, or severe storms — these people are refugees even if the law doesn't yet call them that.

The United States must establish a humanitarian visa category for individuals displaced by the direct effects of climate change — including sea-level rise, desertification, severe weather events, and loss of habitability — with particular priority given to residents of island nations and communities facing imminent displacement; climate displacement must be recognized as grounds for protection under U.S. law in the absence of an equivalent international treaty framework.

Existing international law — including the 1951 Refugee Convention — does not cover climate-displaced persons, as climate change is not recognized as persecution under the Convention's definition. The U.S., as a major historical contributor to cumulative greenhouse gas emissions, has a particular obligation to provide protection to those displaced by climate impacts it helped cause.

Provide temporary protected status automatically for nationals of countries experiencing climate emergencies

People from countries experiencing major climate emergencies should automatically qualify for temporary protected status, meaning they can legally remain in the U.S. while their home country recovers.

Temporary Protected Status must be available and automatically extended for nationals of countries experiencing declared climate emergencies — including hurricanes, flooding, drought-driven famine, and similar events — without requiring applicants to have arrived before the emergency; the designation must remain in effect until conditions allow safe and dignified return, not simply until the immediate emergency ends.

Current TPS policy requires presence in the U.S. before the emergency, excluding the people most severely affected who may arrive seeking safety after the event. Climate emergencies will be recurring and intensifying; the TPS framework must adapt to this reality rather than treating each event as an isolated exception.

Lead international efforts to establish a climate refugee legal framework under international law

The U.S. should lead international efforts to create binding rules that formally protect people displaced by climate change under international law, since existing refugee law doesn't cover climate displacement.

The United States must actively lead diplomatic efforts to establish an international legal framework recognizing climate displacement as grounds for protection; this must include advocating for amendment or supplementation of the 1951 Refugee Convention, contributing proportionally to a climate refugee resettlement fund based on cumulative national emissions, and coordinating with climate-vulnerable nations on adaptation, managed migration, and legal pathway development.

Climate displacement is already affecting tens of millions of people and will displace hundreds of millions over the coming decades. The absence of an international legal framework means that climate-displaced persons fall through the cracks of international protection. U.S. leadership on climate refugee law is both a moral obligation given our emissions history and a strategic interest in maintaining orderly migration governance.