Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) has joined the growing chorus of Republicans denouncing Rep. Maria Salazar’s (R-FL) Dignity Act, declaring the legislation a direct assault on the immigration agenda that won Republicans their electoral mandate.
“Let’s say it how it is, the DIGNIDAD ACT is a Trojan horse for mass amnesty,” Norman posted to X on Monday. “It’s a hard no.”
Norman adds his voice to a swelling coalition of Republicans who have opposed Salazar’s amnesty legislation over recent weeks. The bill contains provisions that would bestow green cards upon millions of illegal aliens designated as “DREAMers” while permitting millions more to stay in the country without any end date.
The legislation also more than doubles the number of employment based green cards, flooding the labor market with hundreds of thousands of additional foreign workers competing for American jobs each year, all of whom become eligible for naturalized citizenship after residing in the United States for just five years.
Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) has spent weeks warning about the dangers of the Dignity Act, characterizing it as “a straight-up mass migration bill” during his appearance on Fox News’s The Ingraham Angle.
“On the one hand, it gives amnesty immediately to 12 to 15 million illegal aliens, but it also hamstrings the president to stop him from conducting deportations of the other illegal aliens and there’s also a provision in the bill that would allow DHS to bring back illegal aliens who have already been deported under the first Trump administration if they meet certain criteria,” Gill said.
The Texas congressman spoke bluntly about what the bill’s passage would signal to Republican voters.
“This bill is every single thing that we ran against in the last election cycle. We got a mandate, we got a trifecta from voters in order to deport illegal aliens, in order to secure the border, that’s why they gave the president the popular vote,” Gill continued. “So to turn around and tell voters, ‘You know what, you asked for mass deportations, we’re going to give you amnesty and worse,’ it’s an unforgivable political betrayal.”
While her legislation faces withering criticism, Maria Salazar is offering an unusual justification for why Republicans should back it. In a conversation with Fox News’s Brian Kilmeade, Salazar argued that enacting the bill would demonstrate to Democrats that Republicans are not racists.
“It’s impossible if we, the Republicans, put together a bill like this one on the floor, for any Democrat with Hispanics, supposedly you know ‘Hispanics belong to the Democrats.’ No, not anymore, because right now we’re going to be demonstrating to the Dems that we are not such a bunch of racists, that we are giving them dignity, not citizenship,” Salazar told Kilmeade.
“This is the future of the Republican Party. Everyone knows that the coalition … we’re a part of the coalition that put Trump into the White House,” Salazar continued. “He says it himself. ‘I won the seven swing states, and four them, the Hispanics put me over the top and I won the popular vote.’ He’s the guy, that’s why I’m saying, ‘Hey, Mr. President, you have to sign this bill.'”
The Dignity Act would extend amnesty to approximately 10.5 million illegal aliens who resided in the United States before 2021, assuming they satisfy certain conditions. The legislation would also more than double employment based legal immigration and widen foreign student pathways to guarantee corporate interests an uninterrupted supply of foreign labor.
The bill has so far attracted support from 19 House Republicans, among them Reps. Mike Lawler (NY), Monica De La Cruz (TX), Nick LaLota (NY), and Zachary Nunn (IA).
Throughout her conversation with Kilmeade, Salazar insisted repeatedly that her legislation provides no pathway to citizenship for illegal aliens. Kilmeade did not challenge this characterization.
“The only thing we’re going to give those people is the ability to stay and continue working in five important sectors,” Salazar said.
Kilmeade, echoing Salazar’s framing, stated the bill “is not amnesty because you’re not giving citizenship.”
This assertion collapses under examination. The Dignity Act enables millions of illegal aliens classified as “DREAMers” to change their status and obtain green cards, placing them on a trajectory toward naturalized American citizenship. The legislation would also boost naturalizations through its provisions dramatically increasing the allocation of employment based green cards. Holders of such green cards become eligible for naturalized citizenship after living in the country for merely five years.
Beyond the DREAM Act amnesty elements, the bill permits the vast majority of the nation’s 11 to 22 million illegal aliens to remain in the United States via the “Dignity Program,” which eventually grants them “Dignity Status” allowing them to stay permanently.
The legislation would additionally codify the Optional Practical Training program, which provides a 15.5 percent discount to employers who hire foreign graduates from American universities instead of American citizens who earned degrees from those same schools, per a report by Breitbart.
Maria Salazar’s Dignity Act stands as potentially the most catastrophic betrayal of the MAGA agenda since Republicans gained power. Should this legislation become law, it would hand mass amnesty to millions of illegal aliens while suppressing American workers’ wages and hastening the demographic displacement of White Americans who voted for an immigration crackdown. Every Republican who attached their name to this bill must face consequences from voters, and the legislation must be killed before it inflicts permanent harm on the working families who trusted the Trump administration to put America first.
