- She said two senators, one from each party, were interested; she did not identify them.
- Escobar said she hopes further immigration legislation can follow in 2028.
Checked against escobar.house.gov
Democratic lawmakers called for major immigration changes on November 11, 2026, as Rep. Veronica Escobar said she plans to revise and reintroduce the Dignity Act in 2027. She invited Republicans and Democrats who opposed the earlier proposal to help shape a compromise.
Background: ABIC and Lawmakers Push Bipartisan Immigration Reform in 2025
The 2025 bill paired border security, asylum and legal immigration changes with a proposed route to work and live authorization for some longtime immigrants without legal status. The new push does not put those measures into effect. Any revised terms would first have to be negotiated and considered by Congress.
Escobar made the appeal at a Capitol event on Veterans Day. She said she and Republican co-author María Elvira Salazar remain committed to the effort they began together in 2023. The earlier bill failed to pass in 2025.
“We welcome your ideas. We welcome your initiative. We want you at the table,” Escobar said in a transcript posted by her office.
The earlier bill paired immigration status proposals with border and asylum changes
The 2025 proposal, introduced as H.R. 4393, combined border security, asylum and legal immigration provisions. It also included a program through which certain immigrants who had lived in the United States without legal status could seek authorization to live and work.
The program itself did not offer a general path to citizenship. Separate provisions addressed immigrants brought to the country as children. Those were elements of the earlier proposal, not settled eligibility terms for a revised bill.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has separately backed the American Dream and Promise Act. He said it would provide permanent legal status and a citizenship pathway for Dreamers and recipients of Temporary Protected Status. Jeffries also said House Democrats would not provide further funding for the administration’s mass deportation efforts.
The proposals therefore cover different groups and would take separate legislative paths. Neither has changed anyone’s status through the November announcement.
Escobar is trying to widen the bipartisan coalition
Escobar said the earlier effort drew 20 Republicans and 20 Democrats. She also said a bipartisan pair of senators had expressed interest, but did not identify them. She wants to expand support and move the bill through both chambers.
The House Democrat argued that Republican votes would be needed with Donald Trump in the White House and no Senate supermajority. “So any comprehensive immigration reform must be bipartisan,” she said.
Her approach combines expansive goals with an appeal for compromise. “I am a progressive Democrat. I have very aspirational dreams and hopes for immigration reform. But I am also a pragmatist,” she said. She said revisions would come in the coming weeks and described a potential deal in 2027 as a starting point for further immigration legislation in 2028.
Trump has separately indicated openness to discussing an arrangement for some immigrants who have lived in the country for 10 or 15 years. He said his administration’s deportation policy might have been “too tough.” That openness was not an endorsement of Escobar’s revised proposal.
The reintroduction would start another legislative effort
The 2025 proposal did not pass, and a new version would need to proceed through Congress. Escobar has described her goal as reaching a compromise that could become law in 2027, not as a measure with an effective date.
The revised bill’s eligibility requirements and scope remain subject to negotiation. Immigrants cannot rely on the earlier proposal’s terms as current rules.
Democrats are also pressing for enforcement and detention changes
Other lawmakers at the Capitol event focused on deportations and their effects on border communities. Rep. Joaquin Castro criticized mass deportation, while congressman-elect Bobby Pulido described mixed-status families in the Rio Grande Valley as afraid to go to the grocery store. Pulido said immigration reform should be a priority for candidates seeking support in 2028.
Rep. Henry Cuellar said he wants restrictions on border wall construction and Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity. He also said he expects to take a leadership role on the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, which controls funding for the Department of Homeland Security.
Escobar called for deported military veterans to be brought back to the United States, saying that veterans had been removed under the current and previous administrations. She did not identify a return process. She also criticized Camp East Montana, a detention facility in her district, calling it a profit-making enterprise “feeding its profits off of human misery.” She did not identify a specific provision in the revised bill to close it.
Democrats are also weighing oversight of immigration enforcement and detention. Escobar’s remarks set out no detailed legislative text on those issues. The next concrete step she described is reshaping the bill in the coming weeks, ahead of a planned 2027 reintroduction.
