We call on the United States Congress to reform our immigration system and create a fair, realistic, and accessible pathway to legal status for undocumented immigrants who have established lives, families, and communities in the United States.

For millions of immigrant families, there is no simple process to “just become legal.” The current system can involve extremely limited eligibility, complicated requirements, expensive applications, years of waiting, and in some cases no realistic pathway at all.

People who are willing to follow the law should have a real way to do so.

We believe the United States can protect public safety and enforce immigration laws while also respecting family unity, due process, human dignity, and the contributions immigrants make to our country.

We are asking Congress to create legislation that would:

Establish an earned pathway to permanent legal status and eventual citizenship for qualifying undocumented immigrants who pass criminal and national-security background checks and meet reasonable requirements.
Allow qualifying long-term residents to apply for legal status without being forced to leave the United States and risk years of separation from their families.
Expand legal options for parents, spouses, children, and other qualifying family members of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents.
Provide a permanent legal pathway for people who were brought to the United States as children.
Reduce immigration backlogs by providing USCIS and immigration courts with adequate staffing, funding, and resources.
Make immigration applications more affordable, understandable, and accessible.
Provide qualifying immigrants with work authorization while their applications are pending so they can legally support themselves and their families.
Create reasonable processing-time standards so immigrants are not left waiting indefinitely for decisions.
Fix the U Visa System

The U visa is one of the clearest examples of why immigration reform is urgently needed.

The U visa was created to protect immigrant victims of certain serious crimes who have suffered substantial abuse and are willing to assist law enforcement.

These are people who have come forward after experiencing serious crimes, cooperated with police or prosecutors, obtained the required law-enforcement certification, and submitted extensive documentation asking the government for protection.

Yet many applicants have still faced waits measured in years before receiving meaningful review of their cases.

That is unacceptable.

Victims should not be encouraged to trust law enforcement and report serious crimes only to be left in immigration uncertainty for years afterward.

Federal law also limits the number of principal U visas that can be issued each year, contributing to an enormous backlog even when applicants otherwise qualify for protection.

We call on Congress and USCIS to:

Increase the annual U visa cap so it reflects the actual number of qualifying victims seeking protection.
Provide USCIS with enough staffing and resources to meaningfully reduce and ultimately eliminate the U visa backlog.
Require timely initial review of U visa petitions so victims are not waiting years simply to have their applications meaningfully evaluated.
Provide qualifying applicants with prompt work authorization and appropriate protection from removal while their applications are pending.
Create clear and reasonable processing-time standards and provide greater transparency regarding case timelines.
Protect qualifying spouses, children, parents, and other eligible family members from unnecessary separation while U visa applications are pending.
A program designed to protect victims and encourage cooperation with law enforcement should actually provide protection within a reasonable amount of time.

If our government asks immigrant victims to trust law enforcement and report crimes, then our government must also give those victims a timely and realistic path to safety and legal status.

Keep Families Together

Immigration policy is not just paperwork.

It affects children who may lose a parent.

It affects spouses who may be separated for years.

It affects families who have lived, worked, paid taxes, started businesses, attended school, raised children, and contributed to their communities.

Children should not grow up afraid that a parent may suddenly disappear from their lives simply because our immigration system failed to provide that parent with an attainable legal pathway.

Family unity should be a priority in immigration reform.

Give People a Real Way to Become Legal

This petition is not asking the government to eliminate background checks, ignore serious criminal activity, or abandon public safety.

We are asking for something much simpler:

Give people a real opportunity to follow the law.

If someone has lived in the United States for years, contributed to their community, supported their family, worked, paid taxes, and can pass appropriate background checks, there should be a reasonable process through which they can earn legal status.

No family should spend decades trapped in uncertainty because the system offers them no realistic pathway forward.

The United States can have secure borders and immigration laws while still maintaining compassion, fairness, due process, and humanity.

We urge Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform that creates clear, affordable, timely, and attainable pathways to legal status and citizenship for qualifying immigrants.

Give people a real way to become legal.

Fix the U visa backlog.

Keep families together.

Reform the system.