Photo: Alamy | Analysis by Summer Lane
A new political plan is brewing in Washington, D.C., aimed at usurping Americans’ broad support for Trump’s deportation and border agenda – and a small group of Republicans is fueling the fire.
Adroitly labeled “The Dignity Act of 2025,” the legislation was introduced by Reps. Marie Elvira Salazar, R-Fla., and Veronica Escobar, D-Texas. 20 more members of Congress have stepped up to push this legislation, which claims to be anti-amnesty, yet accomplishes something significantly worse: long-term residency for illegal aliens who entered the country before 2021.
While this may sound harmless, there is a shockingly high amount of ambiguity in such a proposal, and it would essentially put an immediate halt to President Trump’s rapid-fire deportation operation, which just received a multi-billion-dollar shot of jet fuel from the “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
What’s really in the bill, and why it betrays Americans
According to Rep. Salazar’s office, the bill would fund border infrastructure, implement E-Verify workplace requirements, and reform asylum policies. However, these ear-tickling promises are joined by radical agenda items, such as “Dreamer Protections,” which grants legal residency status and a path to permanent residency, and a seven-year earned legal status program called “The Dignity Program.”
To achieve permanent legal status to “Dreamers” – that is, minors who were brought here illegally by their parents – they will have had to reside in the U.S. before 2021. This is indeed a roundabout route to softcore amnesty, even if the bill claims these individuals will not have a path to citizenship.
The problem with the 2021 date stipulation lies in the reality that many illegals can simply claim that they have been here before 2021 and therefore stay here long-term. If an individual crossed the border after 2021 – and millions of them did – what’s to stop them from saying they came in before? Why wouldn’t they lie to stay in America?
Turning Point USA President Charlie Kirk addressed this exact concern on Thursday in a pointed comment, writing, “We do NOT know when many, or perhaps most, illegals entered the US. All they’d have to do is say the magic words and they’d be allowed to stay. At best their case would be bogged down in court for years. This is a ruse. Do not fall for it. This will grind President Trump’s mass deportations to a halt.”
This so-called “bipartisan” legislation is a total betrayal of the American people’s support for deportation, and it is a direct attempt to stop President Trump’s successful deportation operation.
At least ten Republican lawmakers have signed on to support the bill so far, via Newsweek:
- Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (Penn.)
- Mike Lawler (N.Y.)
- Mario Rafael Diaz-Balart (Fla.)
- Dan Newhouse (Wash.)
- Mike Kelly (Penn.)
- David Valadao (Calif.)
- Gabe Evans (Colo.)
- Marlin Stutzman (Ind.)
- Young Kim (Calif.)
- Don Bacon (Neb.)
President Donald Trump has said that amnesty is not on the table, but he has alluded to a “work program” for illegal workers that is supposedly being spearheaded by USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins.
Rollins, for her part, has also stated that there will be “no amnesty under any circumstances” for illegal farm workers in the agricultural industry. She tempered these comments last week by noting that deportations would continue, “but in a strategic and intentional way, as we move our workforce toward more automation and toward a 100 percent American workforce.”
It is unclear whether Rep. Salazar’s legislation is Rollins’ idea of a strategic approach to balancing the illegal workforce with the need for farm labor. Hopefully it’s not, because Salazar’s bill will pump the brakes on mass deportations by providing illegal migrants an opportunity to claim legal residency by the millions – regardless of whether they’ve been here prior to 2021.
The honor system is simply not good enough when you’re dealing with tens of millions of illegals who crossed the border in flagrant violation of sovereign federal immigration laws, and likely have little to no intention of leaving if they can avoid it.
