Given the central role of county governments in ensuring the health and safety of all members of local communities, county leaders are important stakeholders in discussions related to federal immigration policies. The National Association of Counties’ (NACo) Immigration Reform Task Force provides a forum for county officials from across the nation to discuss the impact of federal immigration policy on local governments and communities, and to engage with federal decision makers on matters related to immigration. The Task Force is also charged with advising NACo’s ten policy steering committees on federal immigration issues.

To carry our this objective of informing NACo’s policy steering committees, from 2018 through 2020, NACo’s Immigration Reform Task Force worked in a bipartisan manner to develop and fine-tune immigration consensus principles. Once agreed to, Task Force members then translated these principles into actionable policy resolutions through NACo’s comprehensive policy process. The policy resolutions, which were originally adopted by NACo at the 2019 Legislative Conference, highlight how counties continue to be impacted directly by federal immigration policies and practices. During the 2022 Annual Conference, a number of longstanding immigration resolutions were adopted as permanent platform language.

Background & Current NACo Immigration Policy