Immigration reform in the U.S. has been stuck in a holding pattern for decades. The last major legislation addressing the issue was the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), signed by President Reagan. While that bill aimed to curb illegal immigration and grant legal status to millions, it failed to create long-term solutions. Since then, despite worsening political and humanitarian crises, meaningful reform has remained elusive.

In 2024, the situation has deteriorated further, with the backlog of immigration court cases exceeding 3.5 million, according to data analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University. Both Democrats and Republicans tend to use immigration as a way to rally their voters, rather than prioritizing real policy changes. Each party clings to its polarized stance—Republicans focus on stricter border enforcement, while Democrats push for more humanitarian approaches—and appears unwilling to compromise.

The failure to reform the system isn’t just political theater; it has real consequences, as reported by the Brookings Institute. Migrants face inhumane delays and detention, while the legal immigration process is bogged down by bureaucratic red tape. President Biden’s 2021 immigration reform plan, which aimed to modernize the system and provide a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, was effectively dead on arrival in Congress.

The U.S. needs a bipartisan solution, but until political incentives change, immigration reform will remain stuck in limbo. And while politicians score points for their hardline rhetoric, the border crisis continues to fester with no fix in sight.