WASHINGTON, DC - October 26, 2023: U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) talks on a cell phone outside the Capitol. (Photo credit: Philip Yabut / Shutterstock)
Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL) has crafted a bipartisan immigration compromise bill, and is fighting to get the GOP to back it — but the more she fights, the greater opposition she gets from her own colleagues, reported NOTUS on Tuesday.
"Salazar has been promoting her Dignity Act, a bill she introduced with Democratic Rep. Veronica Escobar, which would give some immigrants with no criminal background a path to obtain legal status, not citizenship. It would apply to about 10 to 12 million immigrants living in the U.S.," said the report.
She defied President Donald Trump in even introducing the bill in the first place, and already, money is being spent by interest groups on both sides of the issue. But other MAGA loyalists are already torching her for it.
"Over Congress’ two-week spring recess, Rep. Brandon Gill criticized the bill on X, calling it 'mass amnesty' and claiming that it fails to put American citizens first," said the report. "Other Republicans, including Rep. Andy Ogles and Sen. Mike Lee, immediately echoed Gill’s arguments."
Meanwhile, Salazar has said that since introducing the bill, she has gotten death threats.
Congress has repeatedly tried and failed to come up with a bipartisan immigration compromise, dating back years even before Trump took office. In 2013, the Senate passed a path to citizenship bill co-written by then-Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who later went on to turn against it.
Border security, as well, has eluded a bipartisan deal; in 2024, Sens. Chris Murphy (D-CT), James Lankford (R-OK), and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) authored a border security bill designed to ease the migrant crisis, but Trump, then running for president and not wanting a hot-button issue to be solved before he could run on it, pushed the GOP to block it.