It could be called the "State of Limbo" bill instead of the "Dignity Act of 2025." Maria Elvira Salazar, the daughter of Cuban exiles, was born in Miami and is now a U.S. Representative from the area.
Rep Maria Salazar is pushing hard for Amnesty.
— Shawn Farash (@Shawn_Farash) July 22, 2025
The answer is, unequivocally, NO. pic.twitter.com/2tqb97WBQu
Promoting this legislation, Salazar contends.
We give them dignity. At some point in the future, another legislator would write another law to give them a path to citizenship. Right now, what we need to do is bring peace for these people, allow them to stay, continue working, because they are needed.
I wouldn't bet on another legislator writing a law in the future to give immigrants a path to citizenship. f Salazar believes- a big "if"- another legislator would write a law in the future to give immigrants a path to citizenship, It hasn't happened in the nearly 40 years since President Ronald Reagan enacted a bill giving illegal immigrants amnesty- the latter a term he actually, proudly, invoked. Second-class status legalization without citizenship- was, and would be- very attractive to employers and monied interests.
Salazar continues
All I'm trying to do is bring some common sense, which is the least common of all senses, to this conversation. 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. 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, contribute to the economy with no criminal record. What's wrong with that? We need them!
The economy needs some of them, not "them." It needs a whole lot of immigrants or migrants, legal or illegal, in the agricultural sector. Picking crops is not a common career aspiration for many young people. Elsewhere in the economy, the nation would benefit from fair wages.
The federal minimum wage was raised to $7.25 per hour in July of 2008. Although many states have a higher minimum wage, twenty states have not raised it beyond $7.25. ($7.25 in July 2008 has the same buying power as $10.63 in June, 2025.) Meanwhile, wages have not come near to keeping up with productivity gains nor with the explosion in corporate profits.or CEO compensation.
The bill, co-sponsored by Representative Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) is comprehensive, complex, and would completely overhaul the immigration system. It includes several wise, and a smaller number of unwise, provisions.
Unfortunately, the legislation reflects a concept of immigration common among elites. Salazar imagines "they have roots in this country."
Here illegally, they do not have meaningful roots. They don't have meaningful roots because, through their fault and that of the federal government, they are not citizens. If we the public wishes immigrants to have "roots in the country," we can provide them a relatively inexpensive, uncomplicated, and smooth pathway to citizenship. Our goal for individuals who want to reside in the USA should not be legalization but citizenship.
Individuals in the country illegally should be removed, though not as it is being done in the Trump Administration, simulating a police state. If they are here legally, they should not be relegated to purgatory status. "Legalization" without citizenship should be spurned.
Enforcement of immigration laws is difficult: should agricultural workers be exempt from deportation? should hospitality workers be exempt? But the goal should be clear, and it is not to expand a class of second-class citizens. It should be to identify residents who are considered eligible for citizenship, and then to encourage them to become citizens- to become full-fledged Americans, with the rights and benefits to which we all are entitled.
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