Congresswoman Escobar Joins Center for American Progress Panel on Fixing the Immigration System in the United States

On Wednesday, Congresswoman Veronica Escobar (TX-16) joined the Center for American Progress, a leading independent, nonpartisan policy institute that is dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans through bold, progressive ideas, as well as strong leadership and concerted action, as well as Representatives Teresa Leger Fernandez and Tom Suozzi, for a conversation on solutions to fix our immigration system and strengthen border security. This panel discussion took place in Washington, D.C. and was moderated by CAP President and CEO Neera Tanden.

The livestream is available here, but you can find a transcript with topics and timestamps below:

11:12 - "How does Rep. Escobar think we should approach immigration?"

Well thanks so much Neera. It's wonderful to be here with my colleagues and I want to thank everyone for taking time this morning and I'm very grateful to CAP for bringing us together.

This is absolutely one of the most important issues that our country is dealing with today. In many ways, it's also the most toxic, challenging issue to deal with politically and we've never been more divided on this issue as far I've seen in my lifetime although it's been a dividing issue obviously for decades and decades.

This is my fourth term in Congress, and one of the reasons why I ran for Congress to begin with, was during the first Trump administration when the border was really under attack, and it's still - the border in many ways is still used as a boogeyman by far too many people in leadership positions.

And, Congress, as you mentioned has kicked the can for decades and decades. It's been over three decades since Congress has passed comprehensive immigration reform which is what our country needs, not just from a moral perspective but from an economic perspective. It's in our self-interest and in our best interest to reform our outdated immigration laws.

When I was a freshman member of Congress during the first Trump administration and leading up to the 2020 presidential campaign, I was a member of the Biden campaign team that was working on immigration and we put together a foundational document - [through] his immigration task force - that became the US Citizenship Act which was introduced by our colleague Linda Sanchez in 2021.

Democrats had control of the House, and we didn't pass that bill. And it was really disappointing and infuriating and it was after that, that I recognized we need a bipartisan common-sense pathway, because if Democrats can't agree on what should be in an immigration reform bill, we've got to find people who are willing to just approach this from very common-sense level.

And that's when I began working with my colleague Maria Salazar of Miami and a Republican. We worked for about seven months and then in the spring of 2023 we introduced the Dignity Act of 2023 which addresses the border, asylum, folks who have lived in this country without documents, visa backlogs, and more. It was a pretty significant bill, [a] very, very broad bill.

When we introduced it, and as we socialized it with our colleagues we kept saying, "this is not the perfect bill, but if you're interested in bipartisan reform, work with us. We can make changes along the way."

We just reintroduced the Dignity Act of 2025 [and] we're saying it again: "this is an imperfect bill, but it's a good bill and we need people just to get on the train and let's get moving and let's get this done in a bipartisan way. Get it off the table as a political cudgel, get our economy moving with the benefits that this incredible workforce brings, and stop the inhumanity.

25:53 - "Deeper Dive into the Dignity Act"

Rep Escobar: There should be fear right now and there is a lot of fear all over the country. What's happening is terrifying. We are living literally in a police state, and Tom what you described: masked individuals breaking car windows, dragging people out.

We're seeing it all over social media and thankfully people are filming this and posting it because I think there's still probably a lot of Americans who would love to doubt that it's happening: supporters of the president and people need to see this and I think that's what's creating a shift in his poll numbers that Teresa talked about.

The Dignity Act of 2025 is less ambitious than the Dignity Act of 2023 because of the political moment that we're in, but it is still a very good bill. When Congresswoman Salazar and I introduced it recently this summer, 11 Republicans and 11 Democrats as original co-sponsors which given this environment is pretty remarkable. And it's a bigger group of original co-sponsors than we had when we introduced our Dignity Act of 2023 when it was five [Democrats] and five [Republicans]. And we've got a long list of Democrats who want to sign on but we are truly doing this in the "Noah's Arc" way: for every Democrat, we need a Republican, and so we need more Republicans to join us in signing on to the bill.

The bill does a number of things. The biggest chunk of the bill - and I think the part of the bill that would really not just stabilize the lives of 14 million people, but it would stabilize our economy because immigration reform is economic reform. There is no separating the two. And so for the 14 million people who are in the United States without documents - the vast majority of whom have never committed a crime in their life, who are a part of our communities, who are a part of our economy, a part of our country - if they've been here for 5 years and have not committed any crime, they would be eligible for what's called "Dignity Status" which is a work permit and it's a status that exists for seven years that is renewable indefinitely and not only would all of these folks who are living in the shadows and living in fear, not only would they be able to work in the United States without fear of deportation, they would be able to travel anywhere in the United States. They would be able to leave the country, go to their home country for a family wedding, or if a parent gets sick, or if a sibling needs them, and return, so it would give them the ability to live with dignity in the U.S.

The Dignity Act of 2023 had a path for citizenship. I wish we had had broader bipartisan support last Congress - two years ago - for that bill.

Much of what is happening today would not be happening, but this is where we are. For me this is an important first step. Let's protect as many people as possible and depending on elections in the future we could always reform that bill and add that path to citizenship.

It also reforms the asylum system so that people do not have to set foot on US soil to request asylum protections. They can do it from their home country which would instantly disincentivize the cartels that Tom talks about. We addressed the visa backlog. [There] is a path to citizenship for Dreamers so that remains in there. It is - I'm trying to think about what else - those are the major components of the bill.

Is it something I would write if I had every Democratic vote in the House and in the Senate? No. If we were going to pass a partisan bill, that would have been the US Citizenship Act, which again, we failed to do in 2021 and this is where we are right now.

The bipartisan path is really, really critical and I think we have - actually I know we have more Republican supporters than the 11 on the bill but - we were talking about this before but there are a number of Republicans who are waiting for a signal from the White House essentially waiting to see if Donald Trump will support legislation.

My colleague Maria is working on the White House every single day. We need more of the many groups and organizations that support the Dignity Act to put pressure on the White House. The minute the White House signals something like this is possible, I have no doubt that we could get the Dignity Act passed.

38:45 - "Legal Pathways/Site Visits to Camp East Montana"

I think Tom, I agree. We have to tell these stories and Neera, I have to tell you the Dignity Act doubles the visa cap, more than doubles the visa cap because you're absolutely right. Part of why the asylum system has been so overloaded in the last decade or more is it's been the only legal pathway for people to use and so you give people one line to get into that's the line they going to get into to try to find a legal path to get into the country. So, the Dignity Act more than doubles the visa caps, does not count family members against those caps, so it's very generous. That too disincentivizes you know coming to the border.

But to Tom's point about telling these stories: I have twice visited the massive - what will be the country's - the world's largest immigration detention facility which is in my district on Fort Bliss, that will ultimately hold 5,000 people. It opened up mid-August. My team and I went two weeks in a row. We spent a number of hours at the facility. The first time we went, we toured the facility. We were there about two and a half hours. The second time we went, we just spoke to detainees, the vast majority of whom have never committed a crime and the vast majority of whom have been in the country for more than two decades.

I spoke to an elderly man who had been in the country for 27 years. A small business owner from Florida - actually he is the one who had been in the country for 27 years. The elderly man had been here for 31 years. Most of them: US citizen spouse, US citizen children. These are people who - a man who had been here for 25 years, a long-haul truck driver, a number of whom had been racially targeted, pulled over. A lot of these folks were coming from Florida, had been pulled over by Florida deputies, simply so that the Florida deputy could ask about "Do you have a drivers license? Oh, you don't? Let me call ICE."

It is unbelievable. We are - not we - the Trump administration is destroying our national economy and targeting people who are part of our community and our country and we do need to tell their stories.

48:14 - "Costs to Mass Detention"

And just to quickly underscore both of these points: That facility in El Paso that I just told you about that's housing these very folks who are part of our economy? $1.24 billion. $1.24 billion.

In the "One Big Beautiful Bill," the amount appropriated for homeland security: $170 billion. For these private immigration detention facilities, the total nationally: $45 billion. We could end homelessness for veterans for 5 years in a row if we took those $45 billion and focused our money on that. We could provide childcare. We could provide healthcare. Imagine what we could do on affordability if that money were not spent on these private immigration detention facilities.

51:15 - "Cartels"

Exactly. So 2 things that cartels are focused on - among a number of other things: human trafficking and drug trafficking.

On the human trafficking front, I do believe expanding legal pathways undermines their ability to get a customer base that wants to be smuggled in. You create robust legal pathways which the Dignity Act does. There's a disincentive. You create in-country processing facilities, which the Dignity Act does, and you allow people to apply for asylum in their home country through those [in-country] processing facilities, you disincentivize the customer base that the cartels depend on.

With regard to drug trafficking, the thing that our country has not done adequately is focus on the demand. There would not be this level of drug trafficking if we had robust rehabilitation that were covered by insurance, if we had all sorts of behavioral health offerings for the American public and we looked at addiction as a disease. We don't do that.

Instead, we focus on the crime part instead of the health and behavioral part of drug use, drug addiction.

The joint task force - we've had one in El Paso - for decades. It's a very important component and a great collaborative effort, but we are not addressing root causes and that's where we have to get at it.

55:10 "Work authorization in the Dignity Act"

No. We've got 14 million people integrated into the workforce.

They just need the legal permission to be able to stay and not be chased through the fields or chased at a construction site or targeted on, you know highways or at churches and schools.

56:01 - "American Families United Act"

I want to shoutout Ashley. She is an amazing leader, and she is a huge supporter of the American Families United Act which is my bill, which is in the Dignity Act.

The story that I told you all about the detainees in the facility called [Camp East Montana] that had been here for decades, many of whom had lived - have a US citizen spouse, US citizen children. These are American families. Their spouse is not able to adjust status and for many of these spouses, they are living with lifetime bars to citizenship.

A lot of Americans think just because you are married to a US citizen, "oh that means you get citizenship."

No, that is not the case and so many US families are punished essentially, forced to separate because of our outdated byzantine immigration laws.

The American Families United Act allows these families - the person whose does not have status or citizenship - to be able to plead their case before a judge and adjudicate their case. It gives judges discretion, so it shouldn't even be controversial to give judicial discretion in these cases.

That's what the American Families United Act does, and Ashley and her group have done an amazing job of elevating this issue. Their leadership is model leadership. They've really built a coalition and Ashley we are going to keep fighting until we help your family.

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