WASHINGTON — One hundred and sixty-four civil, human and immigrant rights organisations have written to the new Congress demanding that a pathway to citizenship — not another round of enforcement — become the centre of American immigration policy, in a letter sent on Monday, November 9, less than a week after Democrats won both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections.

Source: United We Dream (letter text)

The sign-on letter, titled “A Pathway to Citizenship Is the Bulwark Against ICE Abuses,” was first shared with Politico and reported by The Hill. Its lead signatories include the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), United We Dream, We Are CASA, the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Immigration Law Center, alongside national unions, faith bodies and state coalitions in more than two dozen states — among them the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF), the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and the Florida Immigrant Coalition.

Source: The Hill, via Rifnote (Nov. 9)

Reporting on the letter said more than 150 groups want the incoming Democratic Congress to block additional funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol until the agencies change how they operate, redirect billions of dollars now allocated to the Department of Homeland Security toward programmes that lower costs for Americans, and pass legislation giving undocumented immigrants a smoother route to permanent legal status and eventually citizenship — without attaching tougher enforcement measures.

Source: The Hill, via Rifnote (Nov. 9)

What the letter actually asks for

“We urge Congress to firmly reject costly and dangerous mass deportation and detention policies and instead lead with an affirmative policy agenda whose north star is enacting a pathway to citizenship for all immigrants in the U.S.,” the organisations wrote. The proposed route is specific: let immigrants come forward, pass a background check, and apply for lawful permanent residency, ultimately becoming naturalised citizens. “The harms inflicted on immigrant communities by this administration will echo for generations,” the letter says.

The letter pointedly rejects half-measures. It warns against proposals that limit citizenship to narrow groups or create new temporary legal statuses that cannot lead to citizenship, arguing those would establish “a permanent second-class status” that later governments and courts could revoke — pointing to litigation led by Texas to strip DACA recipients of work authorisation and to the termination of Temporary Protected Status under both the Biden and Trump administrations. “Citizenship is the gold standard of protection for those who already call America home,” the groups wrote, noting that 4% of members of Congress are themselves naturalised citizens.

Why the timing matters: a flipped Congress, an ICE that still has the money

The demand lands on a Congress that does not yet exist in office — the new Democratic majorities elected on November 3 take their seats in January — and on an enforcement machine that is already funded. As NPR reported on Monday, Congress essentially gave immigration enforcement a blank cheque in 2025, and in 2026 awarded ICE and Customs and Border Protection around $240 billion, enough to run the mass deportation operation for the remainder of President Donald Trump's term. The administration spent billions expanding ICE detention facilities, and NPR noted a record number of deaths in detention since the start of Trump's second term.

Source: NPR (Nov. 9)

Incoming committee leaders are promising oversight rather than immediate legislation. Rep. Robert Garcia of California, set to chair the House Oversight Committee, had two words of advice for Republicans on Election Day: “Lawyer up.” Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, likely to chair the House Homeland Security Committee, said: “We have to rein ICE in because its illegal, out-of-control activities (have) killed individuals … assaulted individuals … have incarcerated individuals. That system has to have accountability for the men and women who work in it.” Thompson said he wants body-worn cameras required for federal immigration agents and face coverings banned.

The ACLU's Naureen Shah told NPR the most powerful lever may be Congress's subpoena power: “ICE has to be afraid. They have to be afraid of losing their funding, they have to be afraid of being subpoenaed and asked extremely hard questions before a live audience of the American people.” Murad Awawdeh of the New York Immigrant Coalition was blunter about the letter's core demand: “We demand that the incoming Congress hold ICE accountable.”

The other side: “Deportations will continue”

The White House has signalled no retreat. The day after the midterms, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin posted a three-word message: “Deportations will continue.” On Friday, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller — the architect of the first Trump administration's child separation policy and, NPR reported, deeply involved in turning large warehouses into immigration detention centres — was promoted to chief of staff, replacing Susie Wiles. Trump himself has said his immigration crackdown “might be too tough” and signalled openness to negotiating, but the Miller appointment could complicate that, The Hill's reporting noted. Vice President JD Vance said he is open to shifting enforcement toward businesses that hire undocumented workers, but that immigration amnesty is not the solution.

Even some Republicans hear the election as a warning. Artemio Muñiz of the Texas Federation of Hispanic Republicans told NPR that “with these anti-immigrant-type policies, I think the Hispanic community got fed up,” and that the only effective Republican outreach “includes a reasonable solution for immigration,” including secured borders and a legal pathway for undocumented immigrants who have been in the U.S. for decades. In Texas, Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa faces calls to end the state's partnership with ICE on day one, and Houston's mayor is already reducing his police department's cooperation with the agency.

What this means for Punjabi and other immigrant families

For the Punjabi diaspora — concentrated in California's Central Valley, New York and New Jersey, Texas, Illinois and Washington state — the fight is not abstract. The letter's signatories include legal-defence and community organisations in every one of those states, and its central question is the one hanging over mixed-status families, long-settled workers, truckers whose livelihoods depend on licences and clean records, and more than a million TPS holders whose protection the administration has moved to end: whether the new Congress spends its first months on oversight hearings alone, or on the legalisation bill the coalition is demanding. Shah linked the two directly: “People are afraid to take their kids to school, afraid to go to work. It impacts our schools, our teachers. It impacts the labor force when people aren't showing up for their jobs.”

What happens next

Three hurdles stand between the letter and law. First, the new Congress is not sworn in until January, and the letter is addressed to members who must first organise committees and set an agenda. Second, any citizenship bill must survive a president who, after the midterms, said he would welcome the nickname “Mr. Veto.” Third, the money is already spent or committed: clawing back ICE's funding, as the coalition demands, would require affirmative votes against an agency that detention contractors told investors last week is still increasing enforcement activity on secure funding. Expect the first concrete test early in the new session: whether Democratic leaders introduce a standalone pathway bill, attach funding conditions to ICE and Border Patrol, or begin with the oversight hearings Garcia and Thompson have promised.