Saturday, January 17, 2026

Comprehensive Immigration Policy Proposal: Secure Mobility and Merit-Based Labor Authorization System

Core Principles

  • Prioritize temporary, circular labor mobility to meet U.S. economic needs without encouraging permanent settlement, chain migration, or de facto amnesty.
  • Enable high-volume, low-friction lawful work authorization through rule-based renewal rather than numerical caps.
  • Maximize upfront security, identity certainty, and compliance, while minimizing discretionary enforcement.
  • Enforce immigration law internally and institutionally, focusing on employers and individuals already in custody rather than street-level policing.
  • Replace post-1965 family-based permanent immigration with a labor-, skills-, and national-interest-based framework, restoring a merit-oriented system.
  • Ensure full tax compliance by integrating fiscal identifiers with lawful work authorization.
  • Preserve constitutional boundaries, federalism, and civil liberties through incentive-based cooperation, bright-line statutory rules, and explicit limits.

1. Unlimited Temporary Work Authorization

(Circular Labor Framework)

  • Non-resident foreign nationals may apply for temporary work authorization with no numerical cap.
  • Work authorization is granted for one-year periods and is renewable annually, subject to continued statutory eligibility and compliance.
  • Authorization permits lawful employment and repeated entry and exit, facilitating circular labor mobility while families and permanent residence remain abroad.
  • Temporary work authorization confers no right, expectation, or implied pathway to permanent residency, citizenship, or long-term domicile.

Employment Portability

  • Work authorization is sector-linked but portable among approved employers within designated industries, preventing coercive labor dependency.
  • Employer changes must be reported electronically but do not require reapplication where eligibility is maintained.

2. Renewal and Continued Eligibility

  • Annual renewal shall be approved administratively through an online portal or at designated ports of entry.
  • Renewal eligibility requires:
    • Verified lawful employment or sectoral qualification
    • Full federal and applicable state tax compliance using the assigned TIN
    • No disqualifying criminal activity
    • Verified biometric exit compliance for prior authorization periods
  • Congress may authorize indefinite annual renewal eligibility for individuals who continuously meet statutory criteria, without altering the temporary or non-immigrant character of the status.
  • Renewal eligibility does not reset, pause, or negate cumulative physical presence limits established under Section 7.

3. Wage Protection Safeguards

  • The Department of Labor shall conduct annual sectoral wage monitoring.
  • Wage benchmarks shall be tied to real median hourly earnings, adjusted for national CPI, in covered industries.
  • Automatic corrective mechanisms shall activate without discretionary action when real median hourly earnings in any covered 4-digit NAICS sector decline by more than 2.0% relative to the prior 36-month moving average, adjusted for national CPI.

Corrective mechanisms include:

  • Temporary throttling of new authorizations in affected sectors
  • Mandatory sector-specific wage floors
  • Suspension of new authorizations where persistent downward pressure is detected

All mechanisms are formula-driven and automatic to minimize politicization, litigation risk, and rent-seeking.

 4. Application and Vetting Process

  • Applications may be submitted online or at designated ports of entry and processing centers.
  • Required vetting includes:
    • Fingerprints
    • Facial recognition imaging
    • Comprehensive criminal, terrorism, fraud, and public health screening
  • Biometric data shall be retained securely for:
    • Identity verification
    • Re-entry validation
    • Employment authorization
    • Immigration enforcement related to compliance
  • DNA collection is not required for routine applicants and may be used only in narrowly defined circumstances involving identity disputes or serious criminal investigations, consistent with existing federal law.
  • Processing fees shall fully cover administrative and biometric costs.

5. Unified Biometric Work Authorization and Tax Identification Card

  • Approved individuals shall be issued a single, tamper-resistant federal identification card functioning as:
    • Proof of lawful work authorization
    • Secure re-entry credential
    • Employer verification document
    • Federal Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN)
  • The TIN shall be used for all federal (and applicable state) income and payroll tax withholding and reporting.
  • Use of Social Security Numbers is neither required nor permitted for temporary workers.

Data Access and Privacy Controls

  • Law enforcement access to biometric and identity data is limited to:
    • Warrant verification
    • Criminal investigations
    • Immigration enforcement related to authorization compliance
  • All access shall be logged, auditable, and subject to statutory oversight.

6. Employer Compliance and Enforcement

  • Mandatory employer participation in E-Verify, integrated with biometric photo verification.
  • Employers must use the assigned TIN for payroll reporting and tax withholding.
  • Severe civil and criminal penalties apply for:
    • Hiring unauthorized workers
    • Misclassification or off-the-books employment
    • Failure to properly withhold or remit taxes
  • Repeat or egregious violators may be debarred from participation in the temporary labor authorization system.

7. Interior Enforcement via Incentivized 287(g) Participation

  • Participation in 287(g) programs is voluntary for state and local jurisdictions.
  • No state or locality is required to participate, and non-participation shall not result in the withdrawal of baseline federal law enforcement funding.
  • No private right of action shall exist against any state, local government, or official for declining to participate.

Incentive-Based Federal Cooperation

Participating jurisdictions may qualify for:

  • Federal reimbursement for immigration status screening of individuals already in custody
  • Priority ICE custody transfers and expedited removal processing
  • Per-detainee payments exceeding average incarceration costs
  • Eligibility for supplemental detention, jail modernization, and public safety grants

Scope Limitation

  • Enforcement activities are limited strictly to individuals already in custody.
  • No authorization exists for street-level immigration enforcement, traffic stops, or community policing based on immigration status.

Voluntary Expedited Removal Option

  • Non-citizen detainees serving sentences of 60 days or less may voluntarily elect expedited removal in lieu of continued incarceration, with state approval.
  • Election requires:
    • ICE legal counsel
    • Independent interpretation
    • Written waiver of rights
  • Deportation shall occur directly, with no additional detention time.
  • Savings from avoided incarceration shall be redirected to enforcement support and processing capacity.

8. Hard Temporal Ceiling on Presence

  • Temporary work authorization is subject to an absolute cumulative physical presence cap of 8–10 years, calculated across all authorization periods.
  • Upon reaching the cap, the individual must depart the United States and complete a mandatory 3-year cooling-off period abroad before any subsequent application or renewal eligibility.
  • Time spent outside the United States does not count toward cumulative presence.
  • No renewal or reauthorization may be granted once the cap is reached.
  • No exceptions are permitted except narrowly defined humanitarian relief explicitly authorized by statute.

This provision prevents settlement-by-inertia while preserving long-term circular labor mobility.

9. Elimination of Family-Based Permanent Residency

  • Family preference categories for permanent residency are eliminated on a prospective basis.
  • All new permanent residency slots shall be allocated exclusively to:
    • Employment-based
    • Skills-based
    • National-interest-based categories
  • Narrow humanitarian exceptions are preserved for unmarried biological or legally adopted children under age 18 where:
    • The U.S. citizen parent has sole legal custody, or
    • The foreign parent is deceased or legally incapacitated
  • Existing family-based applications shall be grandfathered during a defined transition period.

10. Explicit Bar on Adjustment to Citizenship

  • Temporary work authorization shall not be convertible to permanent residency or citizenship.
  • Adjustment of status from temporary authorization is statutorily prohibited.
  • Repeated renewal, long-term participation, or cumulative years of authorized employment shall not create any legal equity, reliance interest, or constitutional claim to continued presence.
  • Any modification of this prohibition requires explicit congressional action.

Projected Outcomes and Reporting

Economic

  • Fill chronic labor shortages exceeding 8 million vacancies through lawful, circular labor mobility.
  • Increase GDP by an estimated $1–2 trillion over a decade.
  • Minimize wage suppression through portability, automatic safeguards, and sectoral throttling.

Fiscal

  • Capture federal income and payroll taxes on all authorized earnings through integrated TIN withholding.
  • Estimated $50–100 billion annually in currently unreported or underreported income brought into compliance.
  • Significant state and local savings from reduced incarceration and detention costs.

Security

  • Near-universal identity verification at entry, employment, re-entry, and departure.
  • All authorization holders shall be subject to biometric exit confirmation at air, land, and sea ports.
  • Failure to record exit within 30 days of authorization expiration triggers an automatic overstay flag and 5-year re-entry bar.
  • Overstay rates projected below 2%.

Implementation Costs and Budget Effects

  • Gross federal administrative costs estimated at $1.9–2.4 billion annually.
  • Reallocation of existing DHS, DOJ, and Treasury facilities, personnel, and IT systems expected to offset $0.9–1.3 billion annually.
  • Net new federal cost: approximately $1.0–1.5 billion per year, more than offset by tax compliance gains and reduced incarceration costs.

Optional Enhancements (Non-Essential)

  • Annual renewal fee of $100–200, projected to raise $2–4 billion annually, rendering the program revenue-positive.
  • Fast-track eligibility: after three consecutive on-time departures, eligible workers may receive 5-year multi-entry authorization with reduced paperwork.
  • Seasonal sub-category for agriculture and construction:
    • Up to 9 months per year
    • Automatic return requirement

Implementation and Oversight

  • Phased rollout beginning with agriculture, construction, and energy.
  • Program administration partially funded through application and renewal fees.
  • Annual public reporting on:
    • Wages
    • Tax compliance
    • Processing times
    • Overstay rates
    • Biometric exit compliance
    • Jurisdictional participation in incentive programs

Final Assessment

This framework reallocates existing immigration and enforcement spending toward high-yield, compliance-driven functions, establishing a high-volume, high-compliance labor mobility system that is economically productive, fiscally disciplined, constitutionally durable, and resistant to drift toward permanent settlement. 

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