Republicans in Congress and throughout the country are calling for severe restrictions to curtail the influx of migrants attempting to cross the border illegally.
To counter those initiatives, the New Way Forward Act is being reintroduced by progressive Democrats, including Rep. Greg Casar of Texas, to reform immigration enforcement. In part, it would repeal laws that criminalize undocumented border crossings.
"We need to stop continuing to spend so much money punishing people and instead instead look at a more compassionate, thoughtful approach," Casar said.
Spectrum News spoke with one immigration advocate whose own fear of deportation derived from growing up as an undocumented immigrant in San Antonio.
"My friends would get in trouble at school. And they would, you know, a school resource officer would come, but then somehow, my friends would end up in ICE custody," said Carolina Canizales, the Texas senior strategist at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center.
Under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which allows undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children to work and be protected from deportation, Canizales eventually graduated from college and earned a master's degree. Still, the way undocumented immigrants were treated through the criminal justice system inspired her to advocate on their behalf.
The Immigrant Legal Resource Center supports Congress's New Way Forward Act, which would in part give immigration judges more discretion in deportation cases, remove mandatory detention requirements for certain immigrants and block state and local law enforcement from arresting and detaining undocumented immigrants.
"We have seen decades, literally decades of deterrence policies, of criminalization policies ,of border militarization policies, and none of those solutions have actually worked," Canizales said.
"We need federal legislation that untangles the criminal legal system and the immigrant legal system," she went on to say. "When they collude, they damage way too many people, and it's way too expensive to operate it when it's colluded. And the prime example of that is Texas."
She is referring to Operation Lone Star, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's multibillion-dollar program deploying state law enforcement officers to stop migrants and illegal drugs from crossing the border.
Some Republican state lawmakers want to create a Border Protection Unit specifically to arrest anyone illegally crossing the border into Texas.
"Our state troopers, our local police departments, they should be focused on keeping us safe," said Casar. "They should be working on backlogs of rape kits; they should be looking after our communities against violent offenders. They shouldn't be used to go hunt down innocent immigrant families."
With Republicans controlling the House, the bill is expected to have little chance to advance, but some progressive Democrats say the legislation also signals they will push back against restrictive proposals being seriously considered by the Biden administration, as well as a separate proposal backed by some Texas Republicans to turn away migrants at the border if the government cannot detain them.
"When there are people still fleeing for their lives, from lots of countries where there's real turmoil, the idea that we would end asylum laws, as we know them right now, is just wrong," said Casar.
As for Canizales, she said she believes people should not be punished for trying to seek a better life.
"I would hope that we view these folks as human beings that can actually add and contribute to our country like the way that they've been doing for generations," she added.
A broken immigration system, some say, needs a new way forward.