Editors at National Review Online analyze a new immigration proposal from congressional Democrats.
The Dignity Act pretends to be a tougher, updated version of comprehensive reform. It advertises itself as imposing penalties on illegal immigrants, on not being “amnesty” — no green cards and no immediate status. Its proponents advertise its $10 billion in border enforcement, including virtual fence technology. In exchange, there are added protections for the roughly 2.5 million DACA recipients and so-called “Dreamers.”
But by any honest accounting, the bill is just a studded jacket put over the same amnesty-now, enforcement-later promises that Republicans have been rejecting for 21 years.
Make no mistake, the Dignity Act grants legal residence to millions of illegal immigrants who broke the law. Legalizing an illegal immigrant’s presence, employment, and residence in perpetuity is amnesty. Although, arguably, the Dignity Act is worse. In its pretense of looking tough, it grants “legal status” without full citizenship. That doesn’t solve the problem of illegal immigration; it creates a new problem by making official a two-tiered category of people in the republic.
The bill would solve the overwhelming of our asylum system by instituting a 60-day determination timeline through “humanitarian campuses.” This is another way of formalizing the abuse during the Biden administration of substituting a non-adversarial process in the place of a lawful judicial hearing. In other words, it’s a forum for waving people in.
The U.S. Hispanic Business Council frames this legislation as pragmatism: “The Dignity Act reflects what we’ve been asking for all along, which is a real solution, grounded in principle, backed by policy, and driven by facts.” This is to conflate business preference with our national interest. Yes, legalizing 10 million illegal workers certainly makes the future more predictable for employers who want cheap, reliable labor. But it’s not the job of the U.S. government to shape labor markets this way, when it erodes respect for the law and social cohesion.
