It’s important for Republicans to understand that 2026 was an exception. The immediate post-Minneapolis political opportunity structure and the polling this year on the administration’s immigration enforcement posture were hazard signs to be navigated, not reasons for a U-turn.

But some Republicans will use them to argue for one.

The Republican Amnesty Caucus, joined by business interests that have long demanded access to foreign labor, is going to use the midterm results and the window of time immediately after it when many Americans tune out to focus on the holidays, to push for a broad amnesty for illegal aliens. The argument is familiar: the border has been secured, enforcement is too politically costly, and now it is time for a compromise.

The leaders of the Amnesty Caucus each have their proposals. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar’s Dignity Act would grant qualifying illegal aliens’ renewable legal status and work authorization, a de facto status that in practice would never be reversed. Rep. Glenn Thompson’s Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act would expand Big Ag’s access to and create new protections for the cheap foreign labor force he wants here in the country.

Both proposals are backed by the American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC), which is running a national campaign called, offensively, Secure America’s Workforce. And less than two weeks ago, ABIC’s Agricultural Council sent a letter to President Trump and congressional leaders urging them to grant work permits to long-term immigrant farmworkers, explicitly praising Thompson’s legislation.

The next few months will matter, and the base will need to remain vigilant, once again, to defeat amnesty as it has at every step of the way.

Amnesty failed in 2007. It failed again in 2010. It failed in 2013, even after its supporters managed to pass a comprehensive immigration bill through the Senate. Versions of amnesty for DACA-grantee illegal aliens and farmworkers failed in 2019, and again in 2021. None of these efforts lacked powerful backers, business support, or Republican allies in Washington. They couldn’t get it done then. And that was before the Republican base moved to where it is today.

That history alone should warn off most Republicans.

But this is only half the story, the one from the past. Here’s what’s happened since.

The Republican........

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