Despite the divisiveness, there is more agreement on the future of US immigration—both in Congress and among citizens—than is commonly recognized. While there is not yet sufficient congressional consensus to pass legislation, three developments are improving the prospects.  

INCREMENTAL OR COMPREHENSIVE REFORM? 

One important question is whether to reform the immigration system incrementally or comprehensively. The brief starts by asking you whether you support or oppose each individual proposal considered independently on its own merits, without making assumptions about what might be passed with it. At the end, we bring these threads back together: we describe a specific bipartisan compromise package—a comprehensive bill of the kind most likely to pass Congress today—and ask whether you’d support it.  

As you consider the proposals independently, however, it’s useful to keep in mind the chief considerations for doing incremental or comprehensive reform. 

Considerations Favoring Comprehensive Reform 

There are reasons to favor comprehensive reform on policy grounds. The three elements that organize the brief—border security, legal pathways, and status for the undocumented—can be compared to the three legs of a stool. In some ways, the system is arguably more stable if all three are reformed and working together.  

Legislation that combines border security with reformed legal pathways for future workers is sometimes described as “fences and gates” immigration reform. Historical experience suggests that without “gates” (legal pathways), strong labor demand overwhelms even the stoutest “fences” (a secure border). Conversely, without secure “fences,” the “gates” can’t play their intended role of letting the country decide who enters and on what terms. 

If effective fences and gates for future immigration are established, that still leaves the question of the 10 – 14 million who are already here. Both leaving them all here in limbo and deporting them all seem unfair and untenable in several ways. Instead, many believe that at least some of those who came here as children or who have been here working productively without committing crime should be given a chance to earn some sort of status. Many also believe that the most dangerous among undocumented immigrants should be deported.  

There are also reasons to favor comprehensive reform on political grounds. The policy case for doing all three may itself help build political support. Comprehensive reform creates opportunities for smart compromises. Combining multiple priorities in one package gives lawmakers room to trade: Democrats can win provisions they care about by accepting Republican priorities, and vice versa. Single-issue bills offer no such trades, which is part of why each of the brief’s major topics has stalled on its own for decades. 

Considerations Favoring Incremental Reform 

On the other side, there are reasons to favor incremental reform on policy grounds. Comprehensive reform may be too complex to do all at once. The policy proposals in each of the brief’s three areas involve complicated policy choices, trade-offs, and expertise. And the brief by no means covers all of the issues in each category. Bundling them all together can stretch lawmakers thin and make it difficult to fully weigh the merits of each provision. Incremental reforms also make course correction easier—if a particular reform isn’t working in practice, it can be adjusted without unraveling a larger package.  

There are also reasons to favor incremental reform on political grounds. It’s an extreme understatement to say that it’s been difficult for Congress to agree on comprehensive reform; three serious attempts over the last 30 years have failed. The broader the legislative package, the greater the risk of crossing red lines that various groups won’t cross. The policy advantages of comprehensive reform are of no practical use if it can’t be passed. From this perspective, it may be wiser to focus on the most achievable elements first. It may be easier to build coalitions around the most promising proposals that can pass legislation and finally get us on a path of actual improvement to a system almost no one supports.