Photo: Alamy | Op-ed by Summer Lane
All eyes have been on the Middle East for the past several weeks, and as the world focuses on whether the Strait of Hormuz can remain safely open, many Americans are unaware of another, equally important battle brewing on the home front: amnesty.
While Republicans in the U.S. Senate have been unable to pass critical election integrity reform measures in the SAVE America Act, Congressman Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., has been lobbying for a supposedly bipartisan piece of legislation that reads like soft amnesty rather than immigration enforcement.
Lawler is a co-sponsor of the “Dignity Act” (also called the “DIGNIDAD Act”), a bill that grants legal status to a “segment of the illegal population” who meet specific requirements.
During a recent interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, Lawler laid out his argument in defense of the bill, stating that the immigration system under the current Department of Homeland Security is nonfunctional.
“This system is fundamentally broken,” he said. “I know it because my wife is an immigrant and I’ve been through it. So, my perspective on this is very simple: number one, the border was the biggest problem. President Trump ran and won on that issue…we want to codify President Trump’s policies into law.”
He said the Dignity Act would “deal with the undocumented that are in this country. Get them out of the shadows. You are talking about tens of millions of people.”
Lawler is right that there are tens of millions of illegal individuals living in the United States – many of whom recently entered under Joe Biden’s catastrophic open border policies.
In a July 2025 press release, key points of the proposed legislation, to Lawler’s credit, included codifying Trump agenda items, such as continued border security, asylum reforms (such as ending catch-and-release), and mandatory E-Verify requirements to crack down on illegal hiring practices.
However, it also included “Dreamer Protections,” which “grants legal status and a path to permanent residency” as well as a seven-year legal status program that allows illegals in the country to live and work if they display good behavior and contribute restitution in American society. These items have understandably drawn intense criticism from proponents of common-sense immigration policy.
During Ms. Ingraham’s show this week, she suggests that, under the current proposed legislation, illegals’ potentially criminal behavior, like gang affiliation, is a status that could simply be “waived” to allow them to stay in the country rather than face deportation.
“You have to do a full background check, inclusive of criminal history; gang affiliation is not waived,” Lawler said. “What it is saying is, the presence of somebody in a database does not automatically assume that they are part of a gang.”
“How about multiple DUIs?” Ingraham asked.
“That should be included,” he responded.
Lawler may be correct in that illegals, under this bill, could be asked to comply with a certain standard of good behavior in exchange for legal residency, but what it comes down to is whether such standards will actually be enforced. It also begs the question: Is it a good idea to offer amnesty of any kind to millions of people who violated sovereign immigration law and now live in America?
In February, Lawler argued on X that under the Dignity Act, legal status would be granted to those illegal migrants who had not committed a crime in the United States or their country of origin. He ignores the obvious truth that entering the country illegally is, in fact, a federal crime.
What about those illegals whose presence predates Biden’s border disaster? Those who have been here for decades, and who have family members who were born on American soil? “They would qualify if they have not committed a crime, they paid back taxes, they pay a fine, they have a job, and they do not collect government status,” Lawler said in a separate interview with Fox News.
To be clear, Lawler is arguing for legal residency, not citizenship, for these current undocumented individuals. Under this definition, proponents of the Dignity Act argue that it is technically not amnesty. However, it achieves the same ends: tens of millions of illegal migrants would remain in America at the end of the day and not face deportation.
Lawler’s lobbying for this bill, which is co-sponsored by Rep. Maria Salazar, R-Fla., and Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, is alarming, because while it may include several items from President Trump’s immigration agenda, it also glaringly promotes this “soft” form of amnesty – an unacceptable option for many Americans who supported the president’s campaign.
Rep. Salazar claims that the bill is not amnesty, but the legislation itself contradicts her argument.
Last summer, chatter emerged in political spheres that President Trump was feeling increasing pressure from “Big Ag” and the donor class to allow some kind of amnesty in exchange for mass deportations.
The late Charlie Kirk, a very wise and astute political strategist, argued, “If you want to break our coalition, go and push amnesty. That right there would be a complete collapse of everything that we have worked for, everything.”
This came just after President Trump remarked during a rally in Des Moines, Iowa, that his administration was going to “work with the farmers and people that have hotels and leisure properties” to ensure illegal workers didn’t get thrown out of the country.
“Now, serious radical right people, who I also happen to like a lot, they may not be quite as happy, but they’ll understand, won’t they? Do you think so?” the president said.
This received quite a bit of pushback and led the administration to walk back that kind of talk. Vice President Vance said last summer, amid swirling discussions, “What the president has said is number one – we’re not going to do amnesty. We’re actually NOT going to tell people who have come into this country illegally that they’re allowed to break our laws and be rewarded for it.”
Since then, the topic of amnesty has been somewhat forgotten, but amid a harsh and distracting conflict with Iran, it has slyly reemerged in the fog of war.
And lest Lawler be seen as a mere loose cannon in the Republican Party, remember that the New York congressman was endorsed by President Trump last spring.
“What’s most infuriating?” remarked TPUSA Spokesman Andrew Kolvet on X. “We have to keep fighting off pro-amnesty Republicans instead of pushing the Save America Act, advancing mass deportations, affordable housing for Gen Z, and abolishing sanctuary cities. The agenda is very simple, and yet big business refuses to learn.”
In response to a trepidatious claim from POLITICO noting Republicans’ decreasing odds of keeping seats in the midterms this year, conservative commentator Mike Cernovich observed, “There’s time to turn it around. But all day and Trump has not come out agains[t] the amnesty act being pushed by Mike Lawler and other American Last’ers.”
Any whisper of amnesty legislation, no matter how big or small, should be immediately refuted. Amnesty would be a death knell for America First and a win for criminality. Americans must remain vigilant on this topic and not allow the Middle East conflict to distract them from important domestic issues being battled here at home.
