Conservative Institute Nineteen House Republicans have signed on as co-sponsors of Rep. Maria Salazar’s “Dignity Act,” a sweeping immigration bill that would offer legal status to an estimated 10.5 million illegal immigrants and a path to citizenship for roughly 2.5 million more, drawing fierce opposition from conservative commentators and immigration hawks who see the move as a capitulation on one of the right’s defining issues.
The Florida Republican first introduced the bill in 2022. It has failed to gain traction in Congress for years. But the legislation has now attracted 19 GOP co-sponsors alongside 20 House Democrats, giving it a bipartisan roster that supporters frame as pragmatic and critics call a betrayal, as Breitbart News reported.
The bill’s provisions read like a wish list for those who have long sought to regularize the status of the nation’s illegal immigrant population, estimated at between 11 and 22 million people. For the roughly 10.5 million illegal immigrants who lived in the United States prior to 2021, the Dignity Act would freeze deportations for those considered “prima facie eligible” and offer a seven-year renewable legal status, provided they have not committed certain crimes and pay taxes and fines.
That’s not all. The bill would also grant a path to citizenship for an estimated 2.5 million so-called “DREAMer” illegal immigrants, those eligible for and enrolled in former President Obama’s executive amnesty program. It would more than double the number of employment-based green cards awarded to foreign workers every year. And it would codify the Optional Practical Training program, allowing all foreign students at American universities to remain in the U.S. with an American job after graduation.
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