Rights and Justice

Immigration Policy

We aim to create a fair, humane, orderly, and workable immigration system to strengthen the United States.

A woman, originally from Bangladesh, holds her 7-month-old daughter as she recites the Pledge of Allegiance.
A woman, originally from Bangladesh, holds her 7-month-old daughter as she recites the Pledge of Allegiance after officially becoming a U.S. citizen during a naturalization ceremony in New York City on July 3, 2018. (Getty/Drew Angerer)

What We're Doing

Enhance border security

We support evidence-based measures that make our borders secure and orderly.

Strengthen protections for victims of persecution

We promote workable solutions to fix and modernize the asylum system and the refugee resettlement program.

 

Support a path to citizenship for long-term undocumented immigrants

We seek to win an earned path to citizenship for long-term undocumented immigrants, including Dreamers, farmworkers, and mixed-status families.

Modernize legal immigration

We advance ideas to update legal immigration to ensure economic growth and secure America’s future.

The Immigration Policy team aims to create a fair, humane, orderly, and workable immigration system to strengthen the United States.

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Featured work

Trump’s Rash Immigration Actions Place Cruelty and Spectacle Above Security
Report

Trump’s Rash Immigration Actions Place Cruelty and Spectacle Above Security

Rather than adopting commonsense measures to fix the United States’ badly broken immigration system to benefit all Americans, President Trump’s indiscriminate immigration actions follow a pattern of cruelty, ripping apart families and communities and jeopardizing Americans’ security.

Latest

Compact View

The Path Forward: Ideas Worth Fighting For Feature
The U.S. Capitol is seen at sunrise.

The Path Forward: Ideas Worth Fighting For

The ideas in the Path Forward series present a roadmap for policymakers who want to offer a compelling alternative to populist authoritarianism by addressing people’s problems with bold ideas.

Congressional Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act Creates an Unaccountable Slush Fund for the Trump Administration’s Deportation Force Report
ICE officers patrol the halls of an immigration court building.

Congressional Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act Creates an Unaccountable Slush Fund for the Trump Administration’s Deportation Force

The OBBBA pumps $75 billion into ICE with no guardrails, supercharging the Trump administration’s massive, indiscriminate deportation agenda that is operating without accountability and threatening local communities and economies.

Fixing the Immigration System to Strengthen the United States Past Event

Fixing the Immigration System to Strengthen the United States

Join CAP for a timely conversation with Reps. Veronica Escobar (D-TX), Tom Suozzi (D-NY), Teresa Leger Fernández (D-NM) and CAP President and CEO Neera Tanden on solutions to actually fix our immigration system and strengthen border security.

Center for American Progress (1333 H St. NW Washington DC 20005) & Online

10th Annual DACA Survey: 2024 Findings Reveal What’s at Stake for Recipients and the United States Report
Person holding up sign that reads Home Is Here

10th Annual DACA Survey: 2024 Findings Reveal What’s at Stake for Recipients and the United States

The 10th annual DACA survey illustrates the positive contributions that DACA recipients have made to America and reveals the significant, widespread disruptions that would result from ending DACA, highlighting more than ever the need for congressional action to provide pathways to citizenship for recipients.

How Democrats Can Win on Immigration In the News

How Democrats Can Win on Immigration

CAP President and CEO Neera Tanden outlines a winning strategy for immigration reform in The Wall Street Journal.

The Wall Street Journal

Neera Tanden

Hoja informativa: Un marco de inmigración que garantizará el orden en la frontera, mantendrá seguros a los estadounidenses, aumentará el crecimiento económico y nos fortalecerá Hoja informativa

Hoja informativa: Un marco de inmigración que garantizará el orden en la frontera, mantendrá seguros a los estadounidenses, aumentará el crecimiento económico y nos fortalecerá

Estas reformas ofrecen una estrategia ordenada y eficaz que protege a las comunidades estadounidenses y defiende los valores de la nación, a la vez que satisface las necesidades económicas del país.

Neera Tanden, Debu Gandhi

Fact Sheet: An Immigration Framework That Would Ensure Order at the Border, Keep Americans Safe, Increase Economic Growth, and Make Us Stronger Fact Sheet

Fact Sheet: An Immigration Framework That Would Ensure Order at the Border, Keep Americans Safe, Increase Economic Growth, and Make Us Stronger

These reforms offer an orderly and effective approach that protects American communities and upholds American values while meeting the nation’s economic needs.

Neera Tanden, Debu Gandhi

10 Egregious Things You May Not Know About the One Big Beautiful Bill Act Article
Members of the House walk up the steps of the U.S. Capitol.

10 Egregious Things You May Not Know About the One Big Beautiful Bill Act

Congressional Republicans’ radical budget and tax bill includes several less-known provisions that will increase costs, fuel the Trump administration’s overreach, and waste taxpayer dollars.

Trump’s Rash Immigration Actions Place Cruelty and Spectacle Above Security Report

Trump’s Rash Immigration Actions Place Cruelty and Spectacle Above Security

Rather than adopting commonsense measures to fix the United States’ badly broken immigration system to benefit all Americans, President Trump’s indiscriminate immigration actions follow a pattern of cruelty, ripping apart families and communities and jeopardizing Americans’ security.

Regaining America’s Trust on Immigration In the News

Regaining America’s Trust on Immigration

In a new article published in Democracy Journal, Debu Gandhi discusses how progressives should modify their messaging on immigration in the wake of this year’s general election.

Democracy Journal

Debu Gandhi

2023 Survey of DACA Recipients Highlights Economic Advancement, Continued Uncertainty Amid Legal Limbo Article
A group of people holding signs is seen with the U.S. Capitol building in the background.

2023 Survey of DACA Recipients Highlights Economic Advancement, Continued Uncertainty Amid Legal Limbo

The ninth annual survey of DACA recipients illustrates DACA’s role in empowering individuals and communities while strengthening the U.S. economy and highlights the need for a pathway to citizenship.

To Resolve the Humanitarian and Administrative Border Crisis, the U.S. Must Fix the Broken Asylum System, Help Stabilize the Western Hemisphere, and Provide Robust, Orderly Migration Pathways Article
Sunlight his the U.S. Capitol dome.

To Resolve the Humanitarian and Administrative Border Crisis, the U.S. Must Fix the Broken Asylum System, Help Stabilize the Western Hemisphere, and Provide Robust, Orderly Migration Pathways

The just-released Senate border deal is a sincere, bipartisan attempt to create much needed order at the U.S.-Mexico border; release pressure on the broken asylum system, resource agencies, and communities; and provide other targeted solutions across the immigration system. However, to achieve and sustain order at the border, Congress must more boldly address what drives migration in the region and must create accessible lawful pathways that are an alternative to asylum.

DACA Recipients Bolster Social Security and Medicare Article
Activists listen during a news conference marking the 10th anniversary of DACA

DACA Recipients Bolster Social Security and Medicare

DACA recipients collectively earn nearly $27.9 billion and contribute nearly $2.1 billion to Social Security and Medicare each year, making the economy and their communities stronger.

Trinh Q. Truong, Silva Mathema

2023 CAP IDEAS Conference Past Event
CAP IDEAS Conference logo

2023 CAP IDEAS Conference

Join the Center for American Progress as we celebrate 20 years of innovative policy solutions and look boldly forward to a progressive future.

Opinion: A smart and humane answer on immigration Article

Opinion: A smart and humane answer on immigration

Tom Jawetz and researchers from Texas A&M and the University of Virginia argue that Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designations may decrease some of the push factors that are causing Venezuelans and others to come to the United States.

CNN

Ben Helms, David Leblang, Tom Jawetz

Executive Summary: A Whole-of-Government, Society-Wide Approach to Tackling the Opioid Crisis Fact Sheet

Executive Summary: A Whole-of-Government, Society-Wide Approach to Tackling the Opioid Crisis

This fact sheet summarizes a recent Center for American Progress report outlining the need for a whole-of-government, society-wide approach to addressing the complex challenges posed by the opioid overdose epidemic.

Trinh Q. Truong, Debu Gandhi, Jill Rosenthal, 5 More Marquisha Johns, Mariam Rashid, Dan Restrepo, Akua Amaning, Cleo Bluthenthal

Tackling the Opioid Crisis Requires a Whole-of-Government, Society-Wide Approach Report
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents sift through packages in search of fentanyl.

Tackling the Opioid Crisis Requires a Whole-of-Government, Society-Wide Approach

The opioid epidemic is a complex public health crisis that can be ameliorated by addressing root causes of drug use; expanding access to treatment and harm reduction strategies; and reducing the supply of illicit opioids entering the United States.

Trinh Q. Truong, Debu Gandhi, Jill Rosenthal, 5 More Marquisha Johns, Mariam Rashid, Dan Restrepo, Akua Amaning, Cleo Bluthenthal

Practical Solutions To Assist Cities and States Receiving Asylum-Seekers Across the U.S. Report
Migrants, who boarded a bus in Texas, are dropped off within view of the U.S. Capitol building.

Practical Solutions To Assist Cities and States Receiving Asylum-Seekers Across the U.S.

The uncoordinated busing and relocation of migrants and asylum-seekers poses various challenges to receiving cities and states across the country; but practical solutions at the local, state, and federal levels can turn these challenges into opportunities.

Zefitret Abera Molla

Improving Language Access in the U.S. Asylum System Report

Improving Language Access in the U.S. Asylum System

The lack of adequate interpretation and translation services for asylum-seekers who are not proficient in English impedes their ability to navigate the complex immigration system.

Zefitret Abera Molla

DACA Boosts Recipients’ Well-Being and Economic Contributions: 2022 Survey Results Article
People gather for a rally to celebrate the 10th anniversary of DACA.

DACA Boosts Recipients’ Well-Being and Economic Contributions: 2022 Survey Results

The eighth annual survey of DACA recipients shows, yet again, DACA recipients’ many contributions to their communities and the U.S. economy more broadly while highlighting the need for a pathway to citizenship.

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