The Three Pillars of Conservative Immigration Reform
Conservative immigration reform proposals in 2026 focus on three distinct but related areas. The first is restructuring legal immigration pathways away from family-based chain migration and toward merit, skills, and national interest criteria. The second is expanding enforcement authority, both at the border and in the interior, through legal frameworks that survive judicial challenge. The third is mandatory E-Verify, requiring all employers to check the legal work authorization of new hires through the federal database.
Former Immigration Judge Art Arthur, who served in the immigration court system before joining the Center for Immigration Studies, appeared on Breaking Battlegrounds Episode 232 with Sean Spicer to explain how each of these proposals would function in practice. His analysis is the framework for this page.
Restructuring Legal Immigration: From Family to Merit
The current U.S. legal immigration system allocates the majority of green cards through family-preference categories, siblings of citizens, adult children, spouses of permanent residents. Conservative reform proposals would reduce family-preference allocations and redirect those visa numbers toward employment-based categories tied to education, skills, and occupational need.
The Diversity Visa Lottery, which annually distributes 55,000 visas by random drawing to applicants from countries with historically low immigration rates to the United States, would be eliminated under most conservative reform frameworks. Those visa numbers would be redirected to merit-based employment categories.
Arthur explained that the shift is not about reducing overall immigration numbers in the near term, but about changing who gets priority access. A PhD in engineering currently waits longer for a green card than the adult sibling of a naturalized citizen. Conservative reform would invert that priority.
Enhancing Enforcement Authority
The enforcement component of conservative immigration reform addresses both the southern border and interior enforcement. Border enforcement proposals include expanded use of expedited removal (the authority to deport individuals without a full immigration court hearing), mandatory detention for asylum seekers during processing, and reinstatement of the Migrant Protection Protocols requiring asylum seekers to wait in Mexico during their proceedings.
Interior enforcement proposals include expanding the 287(g) program, which authorizes local law enforcement agencies to perform immigration enforcement functions under federal supervision. Arthur noted that the legal authority for 287(g) expansion is more secure than some other enforcement mechanisms because it is explicitly authorized by statute and does not depend on executive order.
The legal standard Arthur identified for enforcement durability: proposals that rely on existing statutory authority are more resilient to injunctions than proposals that require new executive interpretations. The current administration has learned from first-term litigation and has structured its second-term enforcement priorities accordingly.
Mandatory E-Verify
E-Verify is a federal database that allows employers to check whether a new hire is legally authorized to work in the United States. Currently, E-Verify use is voluntary for most private employers (with exceptions for federal contractors). Conservative reform proposals would make E-Verify mandatory nationwide.
The economic argument for mandatory E-Verify: removing the wage-suppression effect of unauthorized employment raises wages for legal workers, particularly in sectors like construction, meatpacking, and agriculture where unauthorized work is most common. The operational argument: enforcement at the workplace reduces the economic pull factor for illegal immigration more durably than border enforcement alone.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is conservative immigration reform in 2026?
Conservative immigration reform proposals focus on shifting legal immigration toward merit-based criteria, expanding enforcement authority at the border and in the interior, and requiring mandatory E-Verify for all employers.
What is the Diversity Visa Lottery and why do conservatives oppose it?
The Diversity Visa Lottery distributes 55,000 visas annually by random drawing. Conservative reform proposals would eliminate it and redirect those visa numbers to merit-based employment categories.
What is E-Verify and why is mandatory E-Verify a conservative priority?
E-Verify is a federal database that checks work authorization. Making it mandatory for all employers would reduce unauthorized employment, which conservatives argue suppresses wages for legal workers and creates a pull factor for illegal immigration.
