‘Dignity’? Floridian’s Immigration Bill Divides Republicans

Congress is split over talk of blocking deportations for illegal immigrants—with a new bill in the hopper that would put a temporary pause on the removal of some migrants working in the United States.

Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, a Republican who represents Florida’s 27th Congressional District, which is almost three-quarters Hispanic, has reintroduced the Dignity Act—which would defer deportation for potentially millions of illegal immigrants working in the United States.

These immigrants would “be offered a chance to work, pay restitution, get right with the law, and earn legal status,” according to a Salazar press release.

It would also expedite the asylum system while providing additional personnel and authority to border enforcement agencies.

Ten Republicans, mostly from blue states, have signed on in support of the legislation, and 10 Democrats as well. 

However, hard-line conservatives have recoiled at the idea of a pathway to protected status for illegal immigrants.

“There’s no ‘dignity’ in rewarding individuals who blatantly disregarded our immigration laws and entered our country illegally,” Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, wrote on the social media platform X on Friday. “Illegally entering our country is breaking the law and, by definition, makes one a criminal. Criminals deserve to be deported, not rewarded, for their criminal behavior.”

When White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about the bill, she suggested it was unlikely President Donald Trump would support it, although the White House had not yet examined it.

“From my understanding [neither] the White House, nor the president has actually read through this legislation,” said Leavitt. “But the president has made it very clear he will not support amnesty for illegal aliens anyway.”

The president has, however, mentioned internal discussions of delayed deportations for farmworkers, a move meant to maintain the agricultural sector’s supply of labor.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has since clarified: “The mass deportations continue, but in a strategic and intentional way as we move the workforce toward more automation and toward a 100% American workforce.”

Salazar, for her part, contends that her legislation does not provide amnesty.

“At some point in the future, another legislator will write another law to give them a path to citizenship. Right now, what we need to do is to buy peace for these people, allow them to stay, to continue working, because they are needed. You see, what I’m trying to do is to bring some common sense, which is the least common of all senses to this conversation,” she said in a recent interview.

Asked for clarification on whether or not the Florida congresswoman was showing openness to amnesty in the future in the clip, a spokeswoman for Salazar told The Daily Signal, “No, she is not.”

The spokeswoman argued the purpose of the Dignity Act is “to solve our immigration crisis once and for all. It does this by securing the border and stopping illegal immigration, while providing an earned opportunity for long-term immigrants to stay here and work but with no amnesty, no handouts, and no path to citizenship.”

“It’s easy. The economy needs them. They do not have a criminal record. They have not gotten into trouble. They have been here for a long time,” Salazar said in the Miami local news report.

“They have roots in the country. Let them stay. Don’t give them any type of federal programs, and allow them to pay taxes, help the Social Security fund, and let them stay and contribute with the economy. With no criminal record. What is wrong with that?”

The president has historically looked at bipartisan immigration bills with suspicion, having successfully encouraged Republicans while out of office in 2024 to vote down a Democrat-backed border bill.

“All we really needed was a new president,” he said in his March address to a joint session of Congress, disputing the election-season argument that new, bipartisan immigration legislation was needed to secure the border.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., however, said at a press conference Monday that he would support new immigration legislation.

“At the end of the day, we have to make sure—in this country—that we secure the border, fix our broken immigration system in a bipartisan and comprehensive way, while at the same time standing up for Dreamers, farmworkers, and law-abiding immigrant families,” said Jeffries.

But when asked by The Daily Signal if he would support bipartisan legislation such as the Dignity Act, Jeffries did not go into specifics.

“We have a broken immigration system, and we need to fix it in a comprehensive and bipartisan way. I haven’t had a conversation with the authors of the Dignity Act, but I look forward to that discussion to determine if there’s a path forward,” he replied.

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