Senator John Curtis (R-UT) introduced legislation Monday that would allow states to run their own visa programs, a bipartisan effort aimed at easing labor shortages across the country. The State Sponsored Visa Pilot Program Act of 2026, co-sponsored by Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ), was announced as Utah businesses and farms struggle to find enough workers.
Under the bill, each participating state could sponsor up to 5,000 foreign workers per fiscal year, plus a proportional share of a separate pool of 245,000 visas allocated based on population. State-sponsored visas would be capped at three years. The legislation also creates a path to legal residency for immigrants who have been in the United States illegally since December 31, 2016, if they pay a $1,000 penalty.
What the Right Is Saying
Republican support is split. Curtis argues his state faces a genuine worker shortage: "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." House Agriculture Committee Chair Glenn "GT" Thompson (R-PA), who introduced separate legislation offering temporary legal status to undocumented farmworkers, said the H-2A visa program is failing: "Without reform, the H-2A visa program may now be the reason these same farms cannot be passed on to the next generation."
Immigration hawks reject that reasoning. Gregory Bovino, a former Border Patrol official who led Trump administration raids in Minneapolis and other cities, wrote that Republican backers "just stabbed Trump's deportation promise in the back." He urged voters to replace them: "Vote every single one of them out in a massive wave, and replace them with real immigration hawks. Anything less, and they'll never take us seriously."
What the Left Is Saying
Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) co-sponsored the bill, giving it bipartisan backing in a deeply divided Congress. Democratic supporters frame the pilot program as pragmatic labor policy and view the path to legal residency — open to immigrants who have been in the country illegally since December 31, 2016, upon payment of a $1,000 penalty — as modest recognition of long-term residents whose work supports local economies.
The bill's state-driven structure appeals to Democrats who favor flexibility over one-size-fits-all federal rules, with backers noting the program retains rigorous federal vetting and accountability requirements.
What the Numbers Show
The bill would allow each participating state to sponsor up to 5,000 foreign workers per fiscal year, plus a proportional share of a separate pool of 245,000 visas allocated by population. State-sponsored visas are capped at three years. The path to legal residency requires payment of a $1,000 penalty and applies only to immigrants who have been in the United States illegally since December 31, 2016.
The Bottom Line
The legislation faces an uncertain path through Congress, where immigration hawks within the GOP have already signaled opposition — Thompson's separate farmworker bill drew immediate criticism after its introduction. Curtis and Kelly's bipartisan approach highlights a divide between Republicans prioritizing agricultural labor needs and those focused on deportation enforcement. Whether either measure advances will likely depend on committee leadership.