Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar presents a law to legalize millions of undocumented immigrants in the US.
The Republican Congresswoman’s bill is based on the so-called “Dignity Program.”
Photo: SANDY HUFFAKER / AFP / Getty Images
For: EFE Updated 08 Feb 2022, 17: 23 pm EST
Florida Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar presented this Tuesday in the US Congress a bill to grant legal residence to millions of undocumented immigrants with criminal background checks, payment of back taxes and a fee for border security .
The Republican congresswoman’s bill is based on the so-called “Dignity Program” which, if approved, would allow undocumented immigrants who have been in the United States for five years to stay in the country and work legally if they meet certain requirements.
Today I present the #DignityLaw for:
1. protect our border 2. provide a dignified solution to immigrants in the United States 3. support working Americans
While we are a nation of laws, we are also a nation of second chances. pic.twitter.com/qT9GpgtJxJ
— Rep. María Elvira Salazar (@RepMariaSalazar) February 8, 2022
“You can come out of the shadows and live a decent life,” Salazar said today at a press conference.
According to the legislative project, participants in the “Dignity Program” would have to pass a criminal background check, pay back taxes and start paying others on rent based on the new salaries.
What’s more, must pay the federal government $10, dollars in restitution within a period of 10 years for having entered the country illegally.
“A thousand dollars a year to live in the promised land is more than acceptable,” said the congresswoman of Cuban origin who represents the district 23 from Florida.
According to the press, the money from the restitution would be used to a new American Workers Fund, which would pay for the job training of the country’s citizens.
People who apply to the program would pay a tax in order to increase the number of Border Patrol agents and update the technology of this federal agency.
“Undocumented labor is going to pay for border security”, if this measure is approved, he pointed out Salazar.
If the bill goes through, eligible participants would be allowed to travel back and forth between the US and their country of origin and would be legal residents instead of citizens, although with the possibility is to obtain citizenship in the future.
In a statement, Ali Noorani — president and CEO of the National Immigration Forum, an organization of Washington, DC-based immigrant advocate—said today that “the introduction of the ‘Dignity Act’ represents a decisive and constructive step toward long overdue immigration reforms.”
“We need Republicans and Democrats to build consensus on solutions that strengthen our workforce and our economy, offer certainty to all of us who depend on the ‘dreamers’ and farmers, and establish an orderly process and human for the migrants who arrive at our borders”, adds the statement.
“Electoralist” project
For its part, Vanessa Cárdenas, deputy director of the pro-immigrant group America’s Voice, refuted the p bill by saying that “doesn’t look like a press release targeting immigrant voters in your Florida district
“.
“It seems designed to polish his (Salazar’s) chances of re-election, not a serious effort to pass legislation or confront the nativists in the Republican Party,” Cárdenas added in a statement.
According to a report by 2020 of the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), the number of undocumented immigrants in the United States has remained relatively stable, among the 000,500,000 Y 02,,000 of people since the Great Recession from 2007-2009, but the origin of this population has become more diverse.
At the beginning of this month of February, Miami-Dade County, in southeastern Florida, approved the creation of an identification for its residents regardless of their immigration status, a measure with which they join other large cities with a large immigrant community.
With this approval, Miami-Dade County joins a list of jurisdictions that offer or recognize identification for undocumented immigrants such as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco or Washington DC, among others, and in Florida the counties of Broward or Alachua.
some national media, Salazar has been presenting this migratory project since 2020, but it was this Tuesday the day that marked his official presentation cial. “We look forward to working with Representative Salazar and her colleagues to improve the initial bill and help Congress negotiate intelligent solutions,” longed for the leader of the National Immigration Forum.
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