What Happens Now? 2026 Midterm Election Results

This week’s midterm election was in many ways a repudiation of the Trump Administration’s violent, racist approach to immigration. Exit polls show that voters both in Massachusetts and across the nation ranked immigration as the third most important issue for them after the economy and the state of our democracy. But while Democrats are poised to take control of both the House and Senate in January, many are still asking what they can do, or are willing to do, to rein in an enforcement regime that is abusing our communities, harming our economy, and causing lasting damage to our nation. 

A new Congress means a reset in the relationship between the Executive and Legislative branches of our government. Current Congressional leadership has been largely deferential to the Executive, generally following the administration’s lead and rarely offering any criticism or real oversight. The expectation is that incoming leadership will take a very different approach and act as a co-equal branch of government rather than a rubber stamp. 

The most obvious role for the new Congress would be to use its power to reform our laws to place new guardrails on enforcement and provide new pathways to citizenship for community members under threat. However, there are a couple of challenges in the way. Without reform to the filibuster rule, Senate leadership will have a difficult time reaching 60 votes to pass anything in the upper chamber. Even if a bill were to pass both chambers, it would need either for Trump to be willing to sign it into law or for Congress to reach a veto proof majority, either of which are hard to see happening without deeper changes in the political climate. However, what reform legislation would do is create a positive vision for the future of our nation that changes the narrative and builds a movement for fair and humane reform of our immigration system. A relatively immigrant-friendly Congress might not get us the reform we seek within the next two years, but it could lay the foundation for meaningful change in the near future. 

While Congress’ power to pass laws might be blunted, its power of the purse could prove to be a much more effective tool to reign in this administration. The current Congress effectively gave the administration a blank check to do what they wanted with immigration enforcement, even removing many of the reporting requirements that provided agency oversight. This led to a massive increase in the prison industrial complex that lines the pockets of political donors at the expense of our communities as well as an explosion in staffing to place poorly vetted, poorly trained, but heavily armed officers on American streets across the country. With humane Congressional leadership, we have an opportunity to starve this enforcement regime of funds while restoring control and accountability to an agency that has literally gotten away with murder. 

There’s a third and final tool that Congress has rarely used in the past, but which could prove to be vital in blocking many of the administration’s more harmful actions. Since returning to office, this administration has used its regulatory authority to attack almost every aspect of the immigrant life and making the immigration process a near impossibility to navigate. The Congressional Review Act gives the incoming Congress the ability to block new regulations if both chambers pass a resolution rejecting the rule. This law is time limited, and the new Congress will not be able to reach back to most of the regulations that this administration has already passed, but it would provide them the ability to stop new rules from causing further harm to our communities. 

While Congress has multiple tools they can use to mitigate some of the harms of this administration, they also face a wide range of issues that they need to address. Immigration joins the economy, housing, healthcare, the environment, foreign policy, and a host of other issues that will be on their plate. With the high profile that immigration has had in our national consciousness these past two years, MIRA and our partners around the country hope we can keep them focused on finding solutions for our communities. As we approach the start of the 120th Congress on January 3rd, 2027, keep an eye on incoming Congressional leadership and what they announce as bills # 1-10 in the new Congress, those bill numbers are usually reserved for legislation they consider a high priority and should give a good indication of what they are hoping to achieve by 2029.