GOP Rep. Under Fire For New Bill Giving Gangbangers A Path To Amnesty

A Republican member of Congress is facing more calls for her to withdraw new legislation that would offer a pathway to legal status for illegal immigrants, underscoring the party’s support for mass deportations by the second Trump administration.

Florida Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-FL) earlier this week introduced the DIGNIDAD Act, which could offer illegal immigrants a chance to remain in the U.S. if they pay restitution and follow other requirements in the bill for a period of seven years. Critics decried the measure as an unnecessary concession to pro-illegal immigration advocates at a time when support for President Trump’s signature immigration policies remains high.

Will Chamberlain, a senior counsel for the Article 3 Project, a judicial conservative advocacy organization, was the first to point out a provision in the bill that ostensibly would allow gang members to participate in the program by prohibiting immigration officers from utilizing state and federal databases to search for an applicant’s potential affiliation.

“She made a huge point of saying ‘gang members won’t be admissible!’ And, indeed, there is a provision that says if you ‘voluntarily participated in offenses committed by a criminal street gang’ you will be ineligible for either the Dreamer path to citizenship or the adult path to permanent residency,” Chamberlain explained.

“But in THE VERY NEXT PROVISION, the legislation bars DHS from using state and federal databases to prove that someone is a gang member.”

An important distinction about Salazar’s bill, he went on, is the fact that existing gang convictions would already be a matter of public record, making further scrutiny about someone’s criminal past inaccessible at a critical juncture for illegal immigrants interacting with the federal government.

“Apparently, they have to actually get convicted of a criminal gang offense – WHICH WOULD ALREADY MAKE THEM INADMISSIBLE BECAUSE FELONIES AND VIOLENT MISDEMEANORS DO SO ON THEIR OWN,” he said.

“These people think you are stupid.”

Salazar, first elected in 2020, introduced the “Dignity” Act in 2023 with a cohort of bipartisan sponsors, many of whom now oppose President Trump’s deportation agenda. She again framed the bill this week as “no amnesty” and “no excuses” — claims her critics say are flat-out lies.

“We are the noblest nation on the face of the Earth. It is time for our immigration system to measure up,” she wrote in Spanish when announcing the bill’s filing. “A real solution to fix, once and for all, our immigration system, with order, justice, and dignity.”

The Florida lawmaker doubled down on her assertions in an interview on Fox News, where she pushed back against members of Trump’s MAGA coalition who have hammered her on social media and threatened to recruit a Republican primary opponent if she doesn’t shelve the legislation.

“I believe that after the border has been sealed… the moment now is to have that national conversation and determine who are we going to be targeting,” Salazar said. “Now there is another mass of people—who most of them are Hispanics—who have been here for more than five years. They have been contributing to the economy, who do not have a criminal record… and for that reason, I’m introducing today… immigration reform.”