You can’t blame some Republicans for being skeptical of any bill offering legal status to those who entered the United States illegally. But conservatives risk squandering a rare opportunity if they don’t engage with Representative Maria Elvira Salazar’s Dignity Act and its 20 Republican co-sponsors. If toughened, the bill could be congressional Republicans’ best chance to prevent a future Democratic president from repeating the Biden administration’s failures at the southern border—and fix immigration once and for all.
While not ideal, the Dignity Act is far closer to President Trump’s immigration agenda than critics on the Right acknowledge. It would grow the economy, reduce the federal deficit, and expand opportunities for Americans.
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Immigration reform without enforcement is amnesty. And to its credit, the Dignity Act mandates E-Verify for all employers in America, compelling them to check the immigration status of every hire. That alone would do more to cut off the jobs magnet for illegal immigrants and encourage self-deportation than any other proposal.
The bill also strengthens criminal penalties for illegal immigrants. And it curbs large-scale categorical parole, one of the policies most abused by the Biden administration. Under the bill’s provisions, no future president would be able to admit hundreds of thousands of migrants by executive fiat at the southern border. This is exactly what Republicans wanted to achieve through H.R. 2, which received no Democratic support.
In addition, the Dignity Act expands high-skilled legal immigration in ways conservatives should welcome. It clears the irrational, decades-long green-card backlogs for high-skilled immigrants already approved under current law and expands future legal high-skilled immigration by exempting spouses and minor children from employment-based visa caps. Because of the resultant influx of talent, the Dignity Act would reduce the national debt by over $4.5 trillion in the next three decades while growing the economy.
The bill gets another conservative win by closing the FICA (Federal Insurance Contributions Act) tax loophole for international students with work permits. It also broadens dual intent for student and other temporary visas, creating a more rational path for immigrants with U.S.-based advanced degrees in STEM fields to stay and contribute to the American economy. This last reform is one for which President Trump has specifically called.
The bill’s most controversial provision among conservatives grants legal status to millions of illegal immigrants who arrived before Biden took office in 2021.
It’s understandable why some would recoil from legalizing millions of illegal immigrants. But unlike other proposals, this one is not a path to citizenship, and it is not cost-free. Participants would have to pay $1,000 in restitution every year and also face a 1 percent surtax on their income. They also must repay tax debts, remain employed, avoid crime, and be excluded from welfare or lose their legal status.
Those terms are far tougher than the blanket amnesties that immigration activists usually demand. In fact, the requirements would screen out criminals, welfare dependents, and those too poor to pay the fee and surtax.
Still, the bill has many flaws. Dignity participants are exempted from paying the employee side of payroll taxes in exchange for never receiving federal entitlements, including Social Security and Medicare. The raised revenue that should go primarily to deficit reduction is instead allocated to an ineffective federal job-training program. The bill, while boosting funding for border security, also excludes ICE from enforcing the law in so-called “sensitive locations,” which risks creating de facto no-go zones for immigration enforcement.
Congressional conservatives should use the Dignity Act as a base from which to build. With the border more secure than ever before, they can consolidate President Trump’s immigration agenda into law: implement a tough public-charge rule; push for less chain migration; abolish the diversity visa lottery; and impose tougher limits on Temporary Protected Status. They should also write limits into the law so that the Biden border catastrophe is never repeated.
Republicans can and should push for a higher legalization fee and no FICA tax exemptions for anyone. A $10,000 annual Dignity program fee instead of the current $1,000 would ensure that only those immigrants who truly contribute to the economy get to stay, while raising even more revenue. Such a pay-for-legal-status scheme would reduce the debt by more than $700 billion over the next decade. And any final compromise should include reductions to family-based immigration, especially categories with little connection to productivity or the national interest.
Given the risk that Democrats will soon retake Congress, this session is likely the last opportunity to pair permanent enforcement with long-overdue legal immigration reform. Otherwise, conservatives risk ceding the entire issue to the next Democratic administration, which will have plenty of room to undo Trump’s success.