GOP battle over Salazar’s Dignity Act immigration bill has Republicans lashing out

Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) has a message for those attacking her and her signature Dignity Act immigration reform and border security legislation: Bring it on.

The South Florida congresswoman has faced an onslaught of criticism from right-wing commentators and from fellow Republicans in Congress over the bill over the last few weeks — complete with calls for primary challengers to end not only her career, but that of any GOP co-sponsor.

“I welcome it,” Salazar said Thursday of the primary threats. “Those are the rules of the game.”

“I like that game. It’s better than the Cuban game or the Venezuelan or the Iranian,” Salazar said. “It’s not pretty, it’s not perfect, it’s not comfortable, but it’s the American way of doing business.”

Days earlier, she approached one of the fiercest Republican critics of her bill, Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas), on the House floor.

“I said, why don’t you explain to me what is it that you know that I don’t about immigration?” Salazar said of their conversation, adding it was “very nice” and that Gill had “some legitimate points.”

Salazar said that she pitched Gill on doing a public, perhaps televised, debate over her legislation.

Asked about that conversation, Gill — first correcting a question about the measure by noting its official name is the Dignidad Act — said he had good conversations with both Salazar and Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), another one of the bill’s cosponsors.

“We’re just diametrically opposed on this issue. I’m taking the conservative side and they’ve taken the Democrat side,” Gill said. “We are so wildly divergent on this issue. It’s hard to imagine how we reach some form of consensus.”

As for a public debate about the bill, Gill said he would be open to doing something like that.

“I think that the bill needs to be scrapped entirely. And we can start with something fresh, and maybe we can discuss that, but I think we’re pretty far off from the Dignidad Act being something that’s actionable,” Gill said. “I don’t think that anybody seriously thinks that I’m going to vote for this under any circumstances with any amendments to it whatsoever.”

Under the legislation, those migrants in the country illegally prior to 2021 — who do not have criminal records — could pay $7,000 in restitution and any back taxes owed and get a new legal status. They would also not be eligible for welfare programs, and the legal status would not provide them a path to citizenship.

The bill separately boosts security, funding for border security and technology, and requires the use of E-Verify, a system to verify immigration status in employment.

Salazar says that because there is no path to citizenship in the bill, it is not “amnesty.”

But conservative critics argue any new legal status would amount to amnesty — pushback that reached a fever pitch online and in conservative media this month.

Conservative commentator and operative Ryan Gidursky last week built on that uproar by launching the Homeland PAC, a super PAC dedicated to “ending the career of every Republican who supports amnesty and sells out the American people on immigration.” A video released alongside the launch listed the Dignity Act’s cosponsors.

This has made some big-tent Republicans nervous, since many of the bill’s co-sponsors — including Salazar — represent competitive districts that Democrats are hoping to flip in the midterms. The fight, they worry, could end up costing Republicans some seats – and the House majority.

The PAC has not yet made moves to support any primary challengers to Republicans backing Salazar’s bill, however, and the filing deadline for the 2026 primary season has already passed in a number of districts. But Gidursky said the quickly-launched PAC is looking at its options, not only for this cycle but in the future.

“It is a corporate giveaway with an abuela on the face of it,” Gidursky said of Salazar’s bill.

That stands in contrast to Salazar’s argument that providing a new legal status would help boost the economy by providing key industries “with the workers that we need.” She highlighted that argument in a press conference last week with the president of the National Association of Manufacturers, Jay Timmons, whose organization has endorsed the Dignity Act.

In other corners of the Republican conference, though, tolerance of the bill could be seen as a political liability. Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) said he has not spoken to his Florida colleague about the bill since criticism exploded in the last few weeks, but added that he felt it was important to let his constituents know where he stands.

“It’s important to tell our base, the people who sent us here, that we’re not going to give amnesty to illegal immigrants,” Fine said. “This is a critical issue. It’s the number one issue with the people that I speak about. It engenders fury, this idea that we would grant amnesty to these illegals.”

While the bill has little chance of getting a vote or becoming law in this Congress, it has ignited a debate among Republicans about whether it is more important to try to combat a decline in support for the GOP among Hispanic and Latino voters who helped propel the party to victory in 2024, or to show voters they are delivering on a hard-line immigration stance.

“I believe that we should be consistent with the central thesis of the last election cycle, which is that the American people want their country back. They voted for mass deportations, and we should do everything we can to fulfill the promises that were made on the campaign trail to deport legal aliens,” Gill said.

But Salazar, who represents a heavily Hispanic and Latino district, retorted that Trump can still “conduct the biggest mass deportation” ever if the bill is enacted, noting it would not give any special status to the millions of migrants that came in during the Biden administration. 

The Florida congresswoman said that her critics ultimately “have a valid and a respectable point of view.”

“I don’t agree because I’m telling them, Hey, wake up. Look at the facts,” Salazar said.

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