Immigration reform or hidden amnesty? María Elvira Salazar's Dignity Act splits the GOP and ignites a fierce debate online

Immigration and the migrant crisis continue to fracture the Republican Party just months before the midterms. This time, the most conservative wing of the GOP raised its voice against a bill pushed by Maria Elvira Salazar, a Republican representative from Florida and a figure very close to President Donald Trump within the Cuban-American community.

It is the now-controversial "Dignity Act," introduced for the third time in Congress in July 2025, along with Texas Democrat Veronica Escobar, who co-sponsored the bill.

The bill, which has bipartisan support, has unleashed a social media firestorm in recent hours that pits Republican lawmakers against one another and reopens one of the most complex debates for the GOP itself: what to do with the millions of undocumented immigrants who have been living and working in the country for years.

What the law proposes

The DIGNITY Act, an acronym for Dignity for Immigrants while Guarding our Nation to Ignite and Deliver the American Dream, is nothing new. Rep. Salazar first introduced it in 2022, reintroduced it in 2023, and its most recent version dates to July 2025. With this latest filing, the Dignity Act began to gain traction in the media and has political and business backing.

The proposal relies mainly on four points: strengthening border security, reforming the asylum system, creating a regularization mechanism for certain undocumented immigrants, and modernizing the legal immigration system. The most controversial element is the so-called Dignity Program, which would grant a ten-year renewable legal status to undocumented immigrants who have been in the country for at least five years since before December 31, 2020, have no criminal record, pay all their back taxes and pay a restitution of $7,000 in seven years.

Salazar has defended the proposal on numerous occasions, explaining that it is a realistic way to solve an immigration system that she considers obsolete and is generating illegal immigration and criminality. "No shortcuts. No giveaways. No blanket forgiveness. That's law and order. That's DIGNITY," she said on X.

The law also requires nationwide mandatory use of E-Verify, builds physical barriers at the border, hires thousands of additional Border Patrol agents and increases penalties against human smugglers. Salazar also noted that no taxpayer funds would finance the bill's implementation, as it would be funded entirely by an immigration infrastructure tax and participants' own restitution payments.

Massive amnesty, critics say

Despite the backing of a certain sector of the GOP, the Dignity Act became the epicenter of a social media battle, with the conservative MAGA wing branding the proposal a backdoor mass amnesty that constitutes a betrayal of Republican voters.

Congressman Brandon Gill was one of the first to criticize Salazar and the proposal, tweeting and giving interviews to various media outlets: "The Dignity Act is mass amnesty and would constitute a terrible betrayal of our voters," he wrote in X. Salazar vehemently responded to him: "READ. THE. BILL. BEFORE. YOU. OPEN. YOUR. MOUTH. Calling the DIGNITY Act 'amnesty' isn't just wrong. It's a deliberate distortion and it exposes just how little you know about the bill."

However, the exchange took a complicated turn for Salazar: X's Community Notes system added context to her post, noting that the law "grants amnesty: permanent residency (Dream Act), deferred action & legal status (Dignity Program), and halts deportations," among other points. The memo was used by Salazar's detractors to further question the Dignity Act.

Congressman Andy Ogles also came down hard on Salazar: "BETRAYAL!!! This bullshtt IS AMNESTY."

Rep. Tom Tiffany accused Salazar of putting American workers below immigrants: "NO AMNESTY. NO to the Dignity Act. There is no dignity in putting foreign lawbreakers ahead of Americans."

Congressman Buddy Carter, meanwhile, warned that the bill would "open the floodgates to 17 MILLION permanent foreign workers, reversing President Trump's border security initiatives." He declared a "hard NO" for the vote.

Likewise, lawmaker Ralph Norman told the Daily Caller that "the Dignity Act is mass amnesty by another name."

Criticism went even beyond Congress. Heritage Action, the policy arm of the influential conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, published that "the Dignity Act is a mass amnesty bill. No amount of bureaucratic hoops will change that." Sen. Mike Lee reposted the message, adding, "When you have to say, 'it's not amnesty,' it's usually amnesty."

Heritage President Kevin Roberts opted for a less direct jab, posting that "The sort of dignity Congress should be focused on: restoring the dignity of the American vote by passing the SAVE America Act," diverting attention to another legislative initiative.

Likewise, various conservative media and influencers, such as Breitbart News, questioned the official name of the law, DIGNIDAD (in Spanish), using it as an additional argument against it. Congressman Gill went so far as to post an image of the legal text highlighting that detail: "It's in a foreign language for added insult."

Business backing and the Trump administration's spin

The bill, in addition to having 24 co-sponsors in Congress, also has the backing of heavyweight business organizations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, which endorsed the legislation last February. The bipartisan American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC), which groups more than 1,700 CEOs and business owners in 17 states, is also one of its big boosters, even organizing business trips to Capitol Hill to advocate for the proposal. According to the data, there are about 8 million vacant jobs across sectors such as construction, agriculture, hospitality, and healthcare. All of these industries, according to their arguments, rely heavily on immigrant labor and have strongly felt the impact of the Trump administration's mass deportations.

In fact, the administration itself had to backtrack on its aggressive approach to raids against immigrants in June 2025. The New York Times reported that the government ordered ICE to pause raids on the agriculture industry, hotels, and restaurants, in an internal message from a senior official. "Effective today, please hold on all work site enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and operating hotels." The Department of Homeland Security confirmed this at the time.

"We will follow the president's direction and continue to work to get the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens off of America's streets," Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the department, said in a statement.

That directive makes sense with Salazar's immigration stance throughout her Capitol Hill career. The Republican congresswoman has consistently argued that she supports deporting criminals, but not mass deporting workers without a record. According to the lawmaker, this could have dire economic consequences for the country and also counterproductive political results for Republicans, who are already facing popularity problems among Hispanics again after making historic gains among this demographic group in the last general election.