A bipartisan group of federal lawmakers, including a Colorado Republican, are backing legislation that would open the door to legal — and temporary — residency for many undocumented immigrants, as advocates and immigrant communities grapple with the growing pace of arrests.
The move for reform of the immigration system comes just after Congress voted to significantly increase detention funding and step up enforcement. Introduced in the U.S. House last week, the “Dignity Act” seeks to expedite America’s asylum system while allowing people without proper legal status who have been in the United States at least since the first Trump administration to apply for temporary residency.
Qualifying immigrants could apply to renew their temporary residency every seven years, but they would not be eligible for citizenship like previous versions of the legislation had provided. They would also be required to meet several requirements, including paying $7,000 in total “restitution” payments, registering with federal authorities and passing regular background checks.
The bill is sponsored by Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, a Republican from Florida. As of Monday, it had 10 Republican and 11 Democratic co-sponsors in the House. They include freshman U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans, a Republican whose swing district extends from the northern Denver suburbs to Greeley.
Evans championed the bill in a call with reporters last week.
“This is a bill for people who want the accountability of earning a path to some sort of legal status,” said Evans, thus far the only Colorado lawmaker to sign on to the bill. “This is what the Dignity Act delivers to the United States, but specifically to the Hispanic community, to the business owners, to the ag producers, to the hospitality folks in my district and across the state of Colorado.”
The legislation aims to address longstanding and more recent challenges faced by the U.S. immigration system.
The bill would also allow “Dreamers” — people who were brought to the U.S. as children and later received protections under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals — to stay in the country for up to 10 years. If they met certain eligibility requirements, they could then apply for permanent legal residency, according to Salazar’s office.
In recent years, a growing number of migrants crossed the U.S. southern border and sought asylum, allowing them to stay in the country while they awaited asylum hearings that were often scheduled years out. Under the bill, the federal government would be tasked with building at least three “humanitarian campuses” near the southern border where asylum-seekers would wait for background screening and the application process. The bill seeks to expedite asylum applications and vetting.
The legislation comes as President Donald Trump’s administration is set to ramp up its mass-deportation efforts.
Republicans — including Evans — voted earlier this month to direct $45 billion more to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for detentions, plus tens of billions more for the border wall, for increased deportations and for hiring of more ICE agents. Those provisions were part of the massive tax bill passed by Congress.
Immigration arrests in Colorado have already nearly quadrupled since Trump returned to office in January, ICE data shows.
Enforcement, reform interplay
The new proposal isn’t the first time that a bipartisan group of lawmakers has tried to pass immigration reform. An attempt by the so-called “gang of eight” — which included Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat — stalled during the Obama administration. It’s unclear if legislation seeking to reform one of Trump’s core priorities will find enough support this time around.
Last week, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that the White House hadn’t read through the legislation but that Trump did not support any “amnesty” efforts.
Evans told reporters that reform negotiations could now advance because illegal border crossings have been reduced and because “criminals and the drug dealers and the violent gang-bangers” have been arrested. He denied that the bill offered amnesty.
ICE data shows that a majority of the people arrested by ICE in Colorado and in the U.S. this year have never been convicted of a crime. That trend has increased as arrests have accelerated in recent weeks.
While Evans said the bill should advance now because of the success of ICE’s efforts, a prominent immigration advocacy group said it’s willing to support the proposal because it represents a path for many immigrants to avoid escalating arrests and deportations.
“(ICE) just got an infusion of funding that is absolutely shocking by historical terms. So what we have experienced so far likely pales in comparison to what we’re going to see in the near future, next year, the year after — and beyond. So the calculus is different,” said Jorge Loweree, the managing director of the Washington, D.C.-based American Immigration Council. ” … We have no choice but to seriously consider any and all options that shield a significant portion of the population that has been here for a very long time.”
In a statement on its website, the American Immigration Lawyers Association said that though it doesn’t “endorse every provision” of the bill, “this initial proposal begins the vital dialogue on reform, and we will work with these leaders to achieve the best possible compromise.” FWD.us, a national immigrant-rights group, called the bill a “much-needed step forward,” though the group added that it still wanted a pathway to citizenship.
Already, ICE’s dragnet has led to protests, riots and military intervention in Los Angeles, as well as a significant shift in public opinion about immigration and deportations, trending toward more support for immigrants. Evans previously signed a letter expressing concern about ICE’s enforcement strategies, and Trump briefly said the administration would pause raids focused on workers after that practice came under fire.
But that guidance was abruptly reversed by Trump and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security last month. Shortly after, Congress increased ICE’s budget, giving it more financial resources than most of the world’s militaries.
Rules of temporary residency
The Dignity Act comes in the wake of that upheaval. The bill would provide a path to more stable legal status for as many as three million Dreamers, Loweree said, and shield millions more from immediate deportation.
Only those immigrants who arrived in the country prior to Jan. 1, 2021, would be eligible for the temporary, seven-year residency allowances. Evans said that limitation is because of the “chaos” that came during the Biden administration, when border crossings increased.
“This is only for individuals that have been in the United States for a long time — causing no problems, not taking federal welfare, willing to pay their back taxes, and then, on top of that, willing to pay that $1,000 a year for seven years,” he said. (Undocumented immigrants are generally ineligible for federal benefits like Medicaid or food assistance, though some states have expanded their programs using state money.)
Loweree said he was concerned about how the proposed program would be implemented and whether people given temporary residency would face shifting requirements in the future, as immigration authorities’ priorities change.
Still, he said, the bill provides cover where little currently exists.
“I think if you were to ask directly impacted folks, by and large, people would say they’d much prefer something that allows them to live and work and potentially travel abroad with some level of peace — and without the stress that currently exists,” he said. “There’s a tremendous amount of value in that.”
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