2018 comes with elections, campaigns, and opportunities to defend and resist the unjust changes that have emerged during the last twelve months.

For Ali Noorani (executive director of the National Immigration Forum since 2008), this next year is the opportunity for both Republicans and Democrats to "get the political space to work towards a sensitive compromise", especially with regard to immigration policies.

In order to achieve this, three dates are key:

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will decide to extend or not the Temporary Protection Status for 195,000 Salvadorans which will imply that Congress should seek an efficient "legislative solution" for recipients.

The next government funding deadline; this is the time when Dreamers (young people brought irregularly into the country by their parents) and their allies must "put pressure on both parties in the Capitol to fold a legislative fix into a spending agreement" that allows a solution to the status of these immigrants.

The deadline for the Trump administration to terminate DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals).

For Noorani (who has collaborated with the National Institute for Latino Policy with these data), the diatribe of the administration to achieve a balanced migratory system (between national security and the attraction of new talents to the territory), could define the future of the country.

As he explains in his op-ed for USA Today, our immigration system "is not prepared to face that future."

To achieve this, the executive director states that three fundamental elements would be needed:

1. Allow Dreamers who have passed the background check to apply for legal status and obtain citizenship.

2. Ensure that public order resources focus on public safety and threats to national security, through the registration of undocumented immigrants who are allowed to apply for legal status.

3. Work for a system of legal immigration that "serves the long-term interests of American workers and the nation," through the attraction of immigrants whose labor is indispensable for the development of the economy.

This coincides with the analysis of Stuart Anderson for Forbes, where he explains, “The premise of the ‘Buy American and Hire American’ executive order used to justify new immigration restrictions is U.S. workers can’t find jobs because of immigrants and temporary visa holders. The premise is extraordinarily weak.”

For the columnist, the argument is simple: the immigration levels in the United States have not changed since the 1990 Act and the unemployment rate has continued to plummet.

But with the constant attack on the immigrant the problem has been reversed and, as reported by the Washington Post, the threat of the economy now are vacant positions.

Between the relentless campaign for the wall, the elimination of the Temporary Protected Status, the rescission of DACA, the politicization of the terrorist attacks and the increase of the raids, the United States risks to run out of workers and giving a hard blow to the economy. The solution is in the hands of the citizens that will have to choose their public representatives this year during the November elections.