Maria Elvira Salazar’s DIGNIDAD Act faces cool reception from America First Policy Institute crowd

Former California Republican Rep. Michael Garcia said he understood the intent of Salazar’s efforts during a recent AFPI Hispanic Leadership Coalition panel, but claimed the U.S. needed to focus more on solving the immigration problem first before providing a pathway to legal status.

“All these calls for immigration reform are interesting,” Garcia said in response to a Washington Examiner question on Friday. “They’re needed, and in many cases, they’re value added. We have to fix the leak, which is the open border policy. This is four years of very dangerous policy that has now placed close to 20 million people in our country.”

“I want to fix the pipe first. I want to get an accounting of who is here,” he added. “I want to get the criminals out of our society. I want to make sure they can’t vote.”

Emilio Gonzalez, the former director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, called Salazar “a dear friend of mine” but said he had purposely not read the legislation because he did not want to form an opinion on the legislation.

“We have one immigration agency. The more legislation you throw on top of it, [the] more work, [the] more things can fall through the crack,” said Gonzalez, who is also an AFPI senior fellow and lives in Salazar’s district. “You only got a finite number of people. Let’s talk about what we have now.”

The Migration Policy Institute estimates that there are roughly a record 14 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., as does the Pew Research Center. In his second term, President Donald Trump has heavily focused on cracking down on illegal immigration at the southern border.

Roughly one year into Trump’s second administration, Customs and Border Protection released operational statistics that showed an eighth consecutive month of zero releases of illegal immigrants and a record low number of encounters at the border in December 2025.

“This is really not the time to talk about amnesty or providing legal status to illegal immigrants,” said Alfonso Aguilar, AFPI’s director of Hispanic engagement. “This is the time to get our house in order.”

Aguilar blamed former President Joe Biden’s administration for allowing millions of illegal immigrants into the U.S., which allegedly destabilized communities and resulted in the sexual assaults of women and girls who made the journey to the southern border.

“We have to ensure that that doesn’t happen, and then we can have conversations later,” said Aguilar, a former Chief of the U.S. Office of Citizenship under former President George W. Bush.

Laura Lovelace, an audience member at the AFPI Hispanic leadership coalition immigration roundtable, responded to the Washington Examiner‘s question, calling Salazar’s bill a “disgrace.”

“It is a disgrace, because if you read that bill, there are 1,001 loopholes, lacking vetting, to where actual illegal immigrants who’ve committed violent crimes have a pathway to amnesty,” said Lovelace. “It is a disgrace. I want to shut that down right now. It is the antithesis of everything AFPI stands for.”

Salazar scored a victory this week when the House Problem Solvers Caucus endorsed the DIGNIDAD legislation.

“The Dignity Act offers a responsible bipartisan path forward: securing the border, restoring order, protecting American workers, and ensuring legal status is earned through accountability and respect for the law,” said Problem Solvers Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA). “This is not amnesty; it is common sense, compassion, and the rule of law working together. The American people know this problem can be solved. Now it is time for Congress to finally get it done.”

But many conservatives have signaled their displeasure with the legislation.

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts called the DIGNIDAD Act “an elitist solution in search of a problem,” in a recent analysis.

It is unclear whether Trump supports the DIGNIDAD Act, but last month, the White House declared in a press release that the “Era of Amnesty Is Over.”

Yet some groups have signaled they do support some path of legalization for illegal immigrants. The National Hispanic Pastors Alliance’s American Dream immigration proposal included a seven-year path to legalization program that would require background checks, tax compliance, employment, and law-abiding conduct.

The program would also require a $5,000 restitution payment and would result in either a legal temporary resident status that is renewable and doesn’t include citizenship at $10,000. Or a path to citizenship program that requires an additional five years as a permanent resident, along with English, civics, and service requirements, and a $5,000 fee.

Rev. Carlos Duran, the president of the NHPA, said he supports some of Salazar’s legislation but that the group’s proposal improves on the approach of dealing with illegal immigrants.

But ultimately, the AFPI community is more focused on solving an immigration crisis that they blame Biden for.

“I salute the congresswoman. She is a wonderful human being,” said Gonzalez. “She is a dear personal friend. But I’m not sure this is the time to do this. I think we need to concentrate what resources we have on fixing what we have now.”