Top conservative group reveals roadmap to rebuild new US immigration system 'from the ashes'

FIRST ON FOX: A conservative think tank is outlining how the incoming Republican Congress can fundamentally overhaul the American immigration system, helping it rise "from the ashes" left by the Biden administration.

In a new paper, the Heritage Foundation provides a roadmap to Congress, suggesting it go beyond border security and overhaul the U.S. immigration system.

In the paper, author Lora Ries – director of the Heritage's Border Security and Immigration Center – argues that there has been a dysfunctional immigration system for decades. It made legal immigration complicated and slow, while illegal immigration was rarely punished.

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People line up outside a migrant re-ticketing center at St. Brigid School on East Seventh Street, Jan. 5, 2024, in Manhattan. (Barry Williams/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

"In short, it is a slow, frustrating, and expensive hassle to immigrate to the U.S. lawfully. As a result, when it is faster, easier, and cheaper to migrate to America illegally, then that is what some human beings will do – and have done for decades. Others will not come to the U.S. at all to start businesses or incubate new technologies," she says.

She argues that the Biden administration transformed the immigration system further and "erased the line between legal and illegal immigration." She accuses the administration of abusing humanitarian parole, making asylum meaningless and unleashing an open borders agenda.

"America’s immigration system used to be broken both because of a lack of enforcement and because of its overly complicated statutory provisions. Now it is a pile of ashes," she says.

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But now, with a hawkish incoming Trump administration and a supportive Republican House and Senate about to be sworn in, Ries and Heritage outline five principles for how to proceed.

"However, from the ashes comes a great opportunity to redesign a new, simpler, fairer, and more manageable immigration system that prioritizes America first and legal immigrants second," she says. "The principles and policies laid out in this report can play a crucial role in shaping just such a new immigration system."

Those principles include upholding the rule of law, acknowledging that the immigration system serves the American people, ensuring the U.S. is secure, creating a system that is simple and sustainable, and eliminating incentives to break immigration laws.

A guard escorts an immigrant detainee at the Adelanto Detention Facility on Nov. 15, 2013, in California.  (John Moore/Getty Images)

As a result, under each principle comes a series of more specific recommendations for Congress to follow. In the area of legal immigration, the roadmap recommends that those who violate visa terms should have them revoked, including those supporting terrorist groups; that proof of citizenship should be required to vote; that only citizens should be counted in the census for congressional apportionment; and that the visa system must ensure that wages for Americans are not flattened.

The paper supports the abolition of the lottery system for green cards, says employers should be allowed to hire U.S. citizens over foreign nationals, and calls for assimilation as "critical for America to remain a united country." It recommends the implementation of E-Verify, and that due process in immigration be limited. 

CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS

On border security, the paper recommends that Border Patrol should have expulsion authority during national crises, and that immigration detention is necessary to protect public safety and ensure deportations, while security should be fully resourced. It also argues that the government should not "collude" with non-governmental organizations to further illegal immigration.

More broadly, the paper calls for the simplification of the Immigration and Nationality Act to make the process less complicated and the elimination of a number of waivers and exemptions. It argues that costs and data on immigration should be made available and that in times of immense backlogs, intake of new immigrants should be paused.

Finally, it says Congress should exclude illegal immigrants from benefits such as bank accounts, and that lawmakers "should oppose all forms of amnesty and should not reward illegal behavior or violation of our immigration laws."

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President-elect Trump has made it clear he sees immigration and border security as top priorities for his incoming administration. He has appointed former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director Tom Homan as the "border czar" and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as his nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security.

A number of Republican lawmakers won their elections in November by focusing on illegal immigration at the southern border and the Biden administration’s handling of the crisis.