The Dignity Act is a realistic step toward immigration reform and justice

The Dignity Act — a bipartisan effort aimed at strengthening immigration control and border security while simultaneously protecting those affected by recent immigration actions against deportations — has come under fire from Republicans. 

Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) called it, “a mass amnesty” that “would constitute a terrible betrayal of our voters.” Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) equates it to “Treason.” Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla) wrote that “Americans voted for mass deportations, NOT mass amnesty,” and that the act “should never see the light of day on the House floor.”

Neither liberals nor conservatives will completely agree with everything in this bill — I certainly don’t. Yet the Dignity Act offers the most plausible path toward meaningful immigration reform and justice.

To those on the political right: Yes, Trump ran on “mass deportations.” It was a core election promise. However, it is time to accept reality: Like his “no wars” pledge, it was a lie. There will be no widespread campaign that succeeds in detaining and deporting everyone living in the U.S. without legal permission for at least three reasons.

First, it’s too costly. The Department of Homeland Security estimates that it takes an average of $17,121 to “arrest, detain, and remove” each immigrant living in the U.S. illegally. The Immigration Research Initiative reports that there are as many as 14 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., although Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), a Dignity Act cosponsor, puts the figure at over 25 million.

Using these figures, mass deportation would cost anywhere between $208 billion and $428 billion — between one-fourth and one-half of this year’s Pentagon budget. But in fact, the real........

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