From the Gang of Eight to the 2024 border deal, the biggest bipartisan immigration compromises of the past two decades and why each one collapsed. 

With Department of Homeland Security funding expiring soon, Congress is once again debating border security and immigration reform.  

But finding a solution is easier said than done. Despite every president from both parties taking interest in the topic, Congress hasn’t passed comprehensive immigration reform in 40 years.  

The last major reform – the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 – was a compromise that granted legal status to roughly three million unauthorized immigrants while expanding border enforcement and increasing penalties for illegal immigration. 

Since then, Congress has repeatedly tried to repeat that formula – pairing legal immigration reform with tougher border enforcement – only to see major deals collapse at the finish line. 

Here are the most significant times over the past two decades when Congress came close to passing major immigration reform, and why each effort failed.

Major Immigration Reform Efforts That Came Close 

• Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006 (McCain–Kennedy) 

• DREAM Act (2010) 

• Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 (Gang of Eight) 

• Immigration Security and Opportunity Act of 2018  

• Border Act of 2024

Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006 

What It Was 

Republican Senator John McCain and Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy spearheaded a bipartisan immigration compromise in 2006. Under their plan, unauthorized immigrants who had been in the U.S. for more than five years would have been eligible for a path to citizenship if they paid fines and back taxes. Those who had been in the country for less than five years would have been required to leave and apply for legal status from outside the country. 

On enforcement, the bill proposed nearly 400 miles of new border fencing and reimbursed state and local law enforcement agencies for costs associated with stopping illegal immigration. 

The proposal also expanded legal immigration. It would have increased the annual cap on H-1B high-skilled worker visas from 65,000 to 115,000, followed by automatic 20% annual increases. It would have raised the H-2B low-skilled worker visa cap from 66,000 to 200,000 per year.  

What Happened 

The bill passed the Republican-controlled Senate with 62 bipartisan votes. 

It never received a vote in the Republican-controlled House. House Republicans were instead working on their own legislation focused narrowly on border security and increasing penalties for illegal immigration, which also never became law. 

DREAM Act (2010) 

What It Was 

The first version of the DREAM Act was introduced in 2001 and has been reintroduced several times over the years, including as recently as 2025. It never came closer to passing than it did in 2010. 

The DREAM Act – which stands for Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors – would have provided legal status to Dreamers, people who were brought to the United States illegally as children by their parents. 

Under the bill, Dreamers would have been required to maintain a clean criminal record, graduate from a U.S. high school, and then either complete college or trade school or serve in the U.S. military. Meeting these requirements would place them on a path toward permanent legal residency and, eventually, earned citizenship.

What Happened 

The Democratic-controlled House passed a version of the DREAM Act in 2010. 

In the Democratic-controlled Senate, the bill fell four votes short of the 60-vote threshold required to overcome the filibuster. 

Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 

What It Was 

In 2013, a bipartisan group of senators known as the “Gang of Eight” formed a grand bargain on immigration. 

Democrats Michael Bennet, Dick Durbin, Bob Menendez, and Chuck Schumer were joined by Republicans Jeff Flake, Lindsey Graham, John McCain, and Marco Rubio. Their bill proposed more sweeping reforms than any other on this list, and it came the closest to becoming law. 

The bill would have nearly doubled the number of Border Patrol agents stationed at the southern border to about 40,000. It would have built roughly 700 miles of border fencing, added new surveillance technology, and made E-Verify mandatory for employers to ensure workers are authorized to be in the U.S. 

On the legal immigration side, the bill would have raised the H-1B high-skilled visa cap from 65,000 to 115,000 annually, created a new low-skilled worker visa program granting between 20,000 and 200,000 visas per year depending on labor market needs, and established a new merit-based visa program allowing at least 120,000 admissions annually. It also would have created a new visa for entrepreneurs and investors capped at 10,000 per year, eliminated per-country visa caps, and exempted immigrants with PhDs or advanced STEM degrees from counting toward annual visa limits. 

For unauthorized immigrants already in the U.S., the bill would have provided a path to citizenship if they paid fines and back taxes and had clean criminal records. However, this pathway would only become available once all border security provisions in the bill were fully implemented.

What Happened 

The bill passed the Democratic-controlled Senate with 68 votes. 

It initially appeared promising in the Republican-controlled House, with over 100 Republicans believed to be in support. But Republican Leader Eric Cantor unexpectedly lost his primary to a more conservative challenger, and pundits widely attributed the loss to Cantor’s support for immigration reform. The House never voted on the bill. 

Immigration Security and Opportunity Act of 2018 

What It Was 

In 2018, Republican Senator Susan Collins and Democratic Senator Joe Manchin formed a bipartisan “Common Sense Coalition” of 16 senators serious about immigration reform. 

Their plan would have allocated $25 billion for border security, including fencing, surveillance technology, and hiring new Border Patrol agents. It also would have codified many of the first Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies, requiring future administrations to enforce immigration law. 

In exchange, the bill would have made the DREAM Act law, granting Dreamers a 12-year path to earned citizenship.

What Happened 

The bill failed in the Republican-controlled Senate, falling six votes short of the 60-vote threshold required to overcome the filibuster. 

Border Act of 2024 

What It Was 

By 2024, Congress had moved on from the traditional immigration compromise model. Instead, negotiators linked border security – a Republican priority – with military aid to Ukraine and Israel and humanitarian aid to Gaza – a Democratic priority. 

The “bipartisan border bill” would have expanded the president’s expulsion authority for people crossing the border illegally. If illegal crossings exceeded 4,000 per day, the president could automatically and immediately remove anyone caught crossing. If illegal crossings exceeded 5,000 per day, the president would be required to automatically and immediately remove anyone caught crossing. In nearly all cases, those caught crossing illegally would not have been allowed to apply for asylum. 

The bill also would have increased the standards required to qualify for asylum and streamlined the process so cases are heard faster. Asylum seekers could be rejected if they have a criminal record or if they were living safely in a third country such as Mexico.

What Happened 

Despite initial bipartisan support, politics got in the way. 

Donald Trump, a presidential candidate at the time hoping to campaign on border security, called the bill “a great gift to the Democrats, and a Death Wish for The Republican Party.” He added: “It takes the horrible job the Democrats have done on Immigration and the Border, absolves them, and puts it all squarely on the shoulders of Republicans.” 

Congressional Republicans largely followed his lead. Speaker Mike Johnson, Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and Governor Kristi Noem all argued in some form that new border laws were unnecessary and that existing laws simply needed to be enforced. 

The bill received only 43 votes in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Lisa Murkowski was the only Republican Senator to vote in favor.