Ready to Stay: A Comprehensive Analysis of the US Foreign-Born Populations Eligible for Special Legal Status Programs and for Legalization under Pending Bills

Several special legal status programs and pending legislation that offer permanent residence can cover significant segments of the undocumented immigrant populations in the U.S. This report offers a statistical profile of the populations eligible for legal status programs and permanent residence that policymakers, government agencies, community-based organizations and others can use to analyze the impact of these programs. The report states that the total undocumented population (10.35 million in 2019) has fallen by 1.4 million since 2010. In addition, the majority of newly undocumented residents since 2010 have overstayed temporary visas rather than crossed the border without authorization. The authors find that the Citizenship for Essential Workers Act would allow 7.2 million undocumented residents (or 70 percent of the total) gain eligibility for legalization. The report also finds that about 1.8 million people from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras would be eligible for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) if those countries were designated or redesignated for TPS. The report makes several policy recommendations: Congress should pass broad immigration reform that includes a properly structured and funded legalization program; immigration reform should allow the majority of undocumented residents to legalize; and local communities should build necessary partnerships and skills to implement these programs. (Samah Rizvi for the Immigrant Learning Center’s Public Education Institute)

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