POLICY MEMORANDUM
TO: Members of the United States Congress and President Donald J. Trump
FROM: American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC) and ABIC Action
DATE: November 4, 2026
SUBJECT: After the Midterm Elections: Why Congress and the White House must pass commonsense immigration and workforce solutions in the lame-duck session
Executive Summary: Voters marched Democrats to a landslide victory in Tuesday’s midterm elections, flipping the House, the Senate, and multiple governorships. Americans rejected Republicans’ cruel mass deportation agenda that disrupted business operations and sacrificed American jobs; created chaos in farms, hospitality, and construction sites; and drove up costs for everyday Americans. The indiscriminate deportations and resulting spike in prices created a fierce backlash among Hispanics who supported President Trump in 2024, and a repudiation by Independent and Rural voters who traditionally voted Republican. Key states shifted to Democrats include Texas, Kansas, Iowa, Ohio and South Carolina. Texas’ Rio Grande Valley saw a 46% shift among Hispanics to Democrats; and Western Kansas saw a 50% shift among Hispanics to Democrats.
The American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC), ABIC Action and our more than 2,200 CEOs urge Congress and President Trump to begin immediately in the lame-duck session to hit the “reset” button on immigration policy by passing common-sense bipartisan immigration solutions. There are numerous serious bi-partisan proposals to begin to secure our workforce. These include the Dream and Promise Discharge Petition (Garcia/Salazar), the Dream Act (Murkowski/Durbin), the Dignity Act (Salazar/Escobar), the State-Sponsored Visa Pilot Program Act (Curtis/Kelly), the American Families United Act (Salazar/Escobar), the Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act (GT Thompson), the Haitian TPS Extension (Markey), and the Secure Act (Van Hollen). Several of these measures are teed up to pass immediately, and those that require more negotiation can and should be advanced during the next Congress. These are ready and available solutions to lower prices and secure America’s workforce.
Cruel and blanket deportations motivated Hispanic, independent and rural voters
Voters were promised a secure border and the removal of the “worst of the worst,” but sweeping raids targeted long-term, law-abiding workers on jobsites instead. Migration Policy Institute data reveals that roughly 80% of ICE arrests involved individuals with zero criminal history. Targeting residents integrated into communities for over 20 years outraged their U.S.-citizen families, neighbors and co-workers. For every long-term immigrant worker targeted, 2 to 5 citizens were driven to the polls to vote Blue. In Texas alone, 700,000 early voters who sat out the 2022 midterms turned out, with half consisting of Hispanic voters under 30 fighting to protect their families. Public anger peaked after Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a construction worker with no criminal record who had labored in the U.S. for 35 years, was killed during a Houston ICE operation. Thousands of voters drove to his memorial and posted their “I voted” stickers.
Immigration enforcement overreach meant economic fallout and high costs for American families
Removing essential workers from key sectors directly gutted family budgets, forcing costs up by 15% in housing, 17% in senior care, and 4% in groceries.
As Benny Melendez, a Rio Grande Valley homebuilder and three-time Trump voter, explained:
“Construction trucks with ladders are regularly tailed and stopped by ICE, arresting our long term skilled workers. I’m tired of seeing 40- and 50-year-old men weeping with fear. ICE removed the Valley’s hallmark of low cost of living and family unity.”
Smart immigration policy is an affordability policy, and protecting the essential care, farm, and construction workforce is required to bring down costs for everyday Americans.
There are key takeaways for both parties:
- For Republicans: Indiscriminately deporting long-term workers and grandmothers backfired by turning politically unaligned and low-propensity Latino and Asian American voters into highly motivated Democratic voters.
- For Democrats: These voters cannot be taken for granted. Latino and Asian American communities rejected border chaos in 2024 and voted Republican. These same voters rejected blanket mass deportations in 2026. They are promised to no one. Whichever party delivers both a secure border and legal pathways for long-term workers will win moving forward.
- For Both Parties: Smart immigration policy is affordability policy. Protecting the essential workforce that powers our senior care infrastructure, food, hospitality, and home building industries lowers costs for everyday Americans.
- Solutions to secure the border and secure the workforce with legal pathways are wildly popular with 75% of Hispanic Americans voters in the latest ABIC Action poll.
Next Steps: Both parties and President Trump should pivot during the lame-duck session towards bi-partisan immigration solutions.
- For Republicans: Steps taken to secure the border are popular with voters, but inhumane and indiscriminate and cruel enforcement in the interior of the country is not. Tuesday’s elections showed dramatically that Republicans do not want to enter the 2028 Presidential cycle severely wounded among Latino and moderate voters. There are several groups of long term immigrants – specifically Dreamers, long-time TPS holders, the spouses of U.S. citizens, and long-time contributing workers – for whom a citizenship or legalization program would be overwhelmingly popular with U.S. voters and especially with Latinos. Pivoting quickly towards solutions allows a political “reset” for 2028. Beginning this “reset” in the lame-duck session allows retiring and defeated Senators to carry a disproportionate political load.
- For Democrats: The Latino “voto de castigo” (“vote to punish”) punished the Democrats for the Biden / Harris border policies in 2024 and the Republican Party for their brutal deportations in 2026. This Latino vote is not set and cannot be taken for granted by either Party. Immigration is not the only issue for Latinos, but it is a hugely important indicator of a Party’s seriousness in addressing Latino needs. Democrats must finally deliver on something to be seen as good faith partners – something that Democrats failed to do under their Obama and Biden trifectas. Holding ICE accountable may be an attractive statement but it does not address the underlying problem of some 12 million undocumented people living and working in the U.S. It is in the Democrats’ interest to make at least a “down payment” on reform quickly, and thus remove immigration as a top tier issue for voters during the 2028 election season.
- For President Trump: The President must quickly reflect on his legacy. He can be the President who poisoned the political well for his party with Latinos for the next 20 years. Or President Trump can use his enormous stature with his base and Republican elected officials to deliver his Party to a first serious solution for the long term undocumented, a solution that will build on his border legacy, be popular with voters, and that will secure the workforce and bring down prices.
About the American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC): ABIC is a bipartisan coalition of over 2,200+ CEOs, business owners, and trade associations across more than 30 states. ABIC promotes common sense immigration reform that advances economic competitiveness, provides companies with both the high-skilled and low-skilled talent they need, and allows the integration of immigrants into our economy as consumers, workers, entrepreneurs, and citizens.
About ABIC Action: The American Business Immigration Coalition Action (ABIC Action) was created to mobilize the power of American businesses and the general public for sensible immigration solutions. ABIC Action develops and advocates for policies that promote common-sense state and federal immigration reform to benefit the people and economy of our country.