Representative Maria Elvira-Salazar (R-FL) is touting her ‘Dignity Act’ on the heels of the Supreme Court’s recent decision temporarily permitting President Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship ban for illegal immigrants.
President Trump’s ‘Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship’ order exempts children born to illegal immigrants from citizenship rights.
The executive order symbolizes the zenith of an underlying legal and political debate over the meaning of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment and the United States v. Wong Kim Ark decision.
A group of immigrant advocacy associations, Democrat states, and immigrants impacted by the executive order legally challenged the constitutionality of the executive order and requested courts block the Trump administration from enforcing it.
Lower courts eventually issued ‘universal injunctions’ preventing the Trump administration from enforcing the order until SCOTUS interprets its constitutionality.
Subsequently, the Trump administration requested SCOTUS block such injunctions, which the latter ultimately did, enabling the Trump administration to enforce the order until SCOTUS decides its constitutionality.
SCOTUS’s decision allows the Trump administration to prevent the children of illegal immigrants from enjoying birthright citizenship for the foreseeable future.
In this context, Representative Salazar took to social media to promote her ‘Dignity Act,’ a bill which would grant illegal immigrants pathways to legal residency without access to citizenship.
The program offers two pathways for eligible illegal immigrants: Dignity Status or the‘Redemption Program.’
Those who select Dignity Status would receive work authorization, legal permanent residency, and travel authorization. However, they would be ineligible for citizenship.
The Redemption Program would create a citizenship pathway for eligible illegal immigrants and require passing English and US civics tests, performing community service, or paying an additional $5,000 fine.
While Salazar has pledged to make revisions to the bill, the nearly 500-page original proposal also covers border security, asylum claims, agricultural competitiveness, and the US’s domestic workforce.
Salazar boasted that the ‘Dignity Act’ would provide “protection for essential workers, a boost to the economy, and a defense of the values that make the U.S. great."
