New Visa Proposal Would Let States Bring in Migrant Workers
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0 Share Newsweek is a Trust Project member See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. A bipartisan pair of senators has introduced legislation that would create a pilot visa program that allows states to help address local labor shortages by sponsoring temporary foreign workers, an approach supporters say would give states greater flexibility to meet workforce needs while leaving immigration enforcement and vetting in federal hands.
Senator John Curtis, a Utah Republican, and Senator Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat, unveiled the State-Sponsored Visa Pilot Program Act of 2026 on Monday. The bill would establish a new temporary visa category that participating states could use to recruit workers for industries facing shortages.
Under the proposal, states would be permitted to identify workforce demands and request visas tailored to their economic needs, while the federal government would continue to oversee screening, approval and enforcement. Participation would be voluntary for states.
"I've heard time and again from small business owners, farmers, and ranchers across Utah how difficult it has become to hire enough workers to meet growing market demands," Curtis said in a news release. "Our legislation would help fill the gap by creating a pilot program allowing states to sponsor visas tailored to their unique economies, without sacrificing rigorous federal vetting or accountability."
The bill has also faced pushback from some conservatives. The Utah Federation of College Republicans wrote on social media that the proposed state-sponsored migrant worker program represented a "complete displacement and disregard for Gen-Z Utahns."
The bill would create a new temporary visa category that allows states to sponsor foreign workers, investors and other migrants who they determine could contribute to their economic development. States would be required to obtain approval from their legislatures before joining the program.
Under the proposal, states would be able to petition the federal government on behalf of applicants, but visa holders would still need to pass federal background and security checks and meet existing admissibility requirements. The federal government would retain authority over vetting, visa issuance and immigration enforcement.
Visa holders would generally be required to live and work in the state that sponsored them, although states could form interstate compacts that would allow participants to move among participating states. Workers would also be permitted to change employers within a sponsoring state under rules established by that state.
"States understand their own economic needs best, but federal rules currently determine who can live and work here," Kelly said in a news release. "Our bipartisan bill would let Arizona and other states choose the visas they need to fill labor gaps and strengthen their local economies."
The legislation would authorize visas for periods of up to three years, with renewals available if requested by the sponsoring state and if the visa holder remained in compliance with program requirements. States would be required to periodically assess labor needs and wage data, establish mechanisms to investigate complaints of worker displacement and certify that sponsored workers were not replacing U.S. workers.
Participants would be subject to federal, state and local labor and tax laws and would be ineligible for federal means-tested benefits. The bill also includes compliance measures for participating states: If federal overseers determine that more than 3 percent of a state's visa holders are violating the terms of the program, the state would be required to impose a minimum $4,000 bond on future participants and would face a 50 percent reduction in its visa allocation the following year.
The bill would establish annual visa allocations for participating states through a formula based on population, economic growth and program performance. States with low violation rates could receive additional visas, while states with higher rates of noncompliance could see allocations reduced or suspended.
The measure would also allow participating states to sponsor certain immigrants already living in the United States who can demonstrate they were present in the country on December 31, 2016, provided they pass background checks, pay a $1,000 penalty and meet the program's eligibility requirements. Applicants could receive waivers for certain immigration violations that might otherwise prevent them from qualifying.
The legislation has drawn support from several business and immigration advocacy groups, including UnidosUS, the National Immigration Forum, the American Business Immigration Coalition Action and the U.S. Hispanic Business Council. Supporters said the proposal could help industries such as agriculture, construction, hospitality and manufacturing that continue to report worker shortages .
A similar state-sponsored visa bill was introduced in 2017 by Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. Curtis took it up in 2019 while serving in the House, but neither version of the legislation received much traction.
"A state-sponsored visa is a fantastic idea," wrote David Bier, an immigration policy expert at the Cato Institute. "If the State-Sponsored Visa Pilot Program Act had existed, there would have been very little illegal immigration since 1986, the last major guest worker reform. American employers would have had a legal way to hire foreign workers, and foreign workers would have had a legal way to come and work."
The bill faces long odds in Congress, where lawmakers have not enacted major immigration legislation since 1986 and remain split over the issue. Some hard-line conservatives favor reducing immigration and strengthening enforcement, while more moderate Republicans and business groups support expanding visa programs to address labor…
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