Two leftist congresswomen have introduced an illegal-alien amnesty bill they have disguised as a “reasonable, compassionate, and final solution to America’s immigration crisis.”
Republican Maria Salazar of Florida and Democrat Veronica Escobar of Texas call their bill “The Dignity Act.” They claim it will secure the southwest border, deter illegal immigration, and provide a tough pathway to permanent legal status for illegals.
Critics claim the bill is an amnesty that will not only halt mass deportations, but also permit illegal-alien gang members to stay in the country.
Frighteningly, nine Republicans have co-sponsored the bill.
Details
Salazar, the daughter of Cuban exiles, delivered her message on the bill twice — in English for Americans and Spanish for illegals.
The bill requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) “to gain situational awareness and operational advantage of the southern border,” which is all well and good, except for one thing. The Secure Fence Act already requires the secretary of homeland security to maintain “operational control” of the border.
As well, it requires DHS to “to deploy physical barriers,” which the Trump administration has done and is doing, the bill’s summary says. It mandates that employers use E-Verify to validate eligibility for employment.
Claiming to “reform asylum,” the bill ends catch and release at the borders and creates at least three “humanitarian campuses” where asylum applicants must stay while they await adjudication of their cases. While the campus administrators will run background checks on the asylees, the campuses will be open to radical leftist troublemakers:
Private organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) may have access to the facility to provide humanitarian assistance or legal counsel.
While the bill “increases penalties for illegal border crossings,” border jumpers — asylum applicants, presumably — “will be given the chance to go and enter through a Port of Entry.”
“Dreamers”
The bill’s “dignity program” is the most worrisome section.
So-called Dreamers — illegals brought here as children “through no fault of their own” — get “conditional permanent resident status for 10 years. This allows them to legally live in the U.S. and work during this time. It provides an earned pathway to adjust to lawful permanent resident (LPR) status through work experience, military service, or higher education.”
But the bill also applies to illegal-alien kids unlawfully imported by the Biden administration. “They must have been physically present in the United States since January 1, 2021.” Eventually those “Dreamers” can apply for permanent legal residence if they get a college degree, work for four years, or serve in the military for three years.
And “any undocumented individual that is not a Dreamer and has been in the U.S. for 5 years or more, may apply for the Dignity Program,” the bill’s summary says. Illegals who “have been in the U.S. for many years (since before December 31, 2020) will be provided a chance to work, pay restitution, get right with the law, and earn legal status.”
They are protected from removal for seven years if they “comply with all federal and state laws, pass a criminal background check, pay back taxes owed, and start paying income taxes.” After paying a fine and contributing to an “American Worker Fund,” they must pay $7,000 “in restitution” during the seven years.
As long as they keep their noses clean, “they can remain in this status as long as they want.”
What Americans want, apparently, isn’t part of the bill.
Upshot: Just about all illegals will stay in the country indefinitely. Eventually, of course, Salazar and her like-minded colleagues will move to get them citizenship.
It’s an Amnesty
Not so fast critics say.
Will Chamberlain, chief counsel of the Article III Project and vice president for external affairs at the Edmund Burke Foundation, says the bill’s devil is in its details, and it’s a “particularly brazen” devil at that, he wrote on X.
“Salazar made a huge point of saying ‘gang members won’t be admissible!’” he wrote, an interesting point given that neither the one-page fact sheet nor the detailed summary mentions gangs.
“And, indeed, there is a provision that says if you ‘voluntarily participated in offenses committed by a criminal street gang,’ you will be ineligible for either the Dreamer path to citizenship or the adult path to permanent residency,” Chamberlain continued:
But in THE VERY NEXT PROVISION, the legislation bars DHS from using state and federal databases to prove that someone is a gang member. Apparently, they have to actually get convicted of a criminal gang offense — WHICH WOULD ALREADY MAKE THEM INADMISSIBLE BECAUSE FELONIES AND VIOLENT MISDEMEANORS DO SO ON THEIR OWN.
These people think you are stupid.
Salazar says Chamberlain is wrong. “During that investigation, the federal and state gang database network can absolutely be a factor in determining gang membership, but the presence on a list alone does not disqualify them immediately,” she replied.
Concerned that the bill will block deportations of illegals in the country since 2021, Charlie Kirk explained that “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 is worse than “soft amnesty.” This de facto ends the mass deportations Americans just voted for.
“There are ways to establish how long someone has been here, including passport entries, DHS records, employment records, and tax receipts, etc.,” Salazar replied, although illegals don’t use passports to enter the country, and many are employed off the books. “The burden of proof is on the individual. If they can’t prove it, they don’t qualify,” she continued.
Republican Co-sponsors
Co-sponsors include these Republicans, whose lifetime grades in TNA’s Freedom Index are nothing to brag about:
Don Bacon, Nebraska, 47 percent;
Gabe Evans, Colorado, no grade;
Brian Fitzpatrick, Pennsylvania, 26 percent;
Mike Kelly, Pennsylvania, 58 percent;
Young Kim, California, 50 percent;
Mike Lawler, New York, 33 percent;
Dan Newhouse, Washington, 53 percent;
Marlin Stutzman, Indiana, 74 percent; and,
David Valadao, California, 47 percent.
Salazar’s grade is 47 percent.
