PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — A GOP press conference turned into a push for comprehensive immigration reform Thursday when Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar accused Democrats of lying to Hispanics about passing immigration reform and failing to deliver.
Ms. Salazar, Florida Republican and first-term lawmaker, during a Spanish language press conference at the GOP’s annual retreat, denied that Republicans are no longer focused on rebuilding the border wall on the southern border.
“We are talking about a closed border because Hispanics do not want to come here illegally. We all want to come here legally and live here legally. That is why I, your humble servant, introduced the Dignity Act,” she said.
“Trump is not here, but we are. We are 20% of the population, where the Dreamers are — DACA, the TPS holders. They are the people who live with their heads down. No more! Because the Democrats for 30 years have been making promises they can’t keep. Which is what?” she asked.
She went on, “Obama in 2008 said that in his first 100 days of his presidency he was going to introduce an immigration reform law. Lies! He gave that political capital to Obamacare. He lied. [President] Biden in 2020 said in his first 100 days that he was going to give you an immigration reform law, but he again lied.” Ms. Salazar added, “They know the votes in Congress are not there to pass an immigration reform law so that is a lie. Therefore, I do not want them to continue lying to my people.”
The Dignity Act, introduced by Ms. Salazar and several other GOP lawmakers in early February, is a comprehensive immigration reform bill that allows undocumented immigrants the chance to work in the U.S. for 10 years if they meet certain qualifications.
Annual payments of $1,000 for each worker to a job training fund are required during that period and after a decade, the participants would be eligible to participate in an optional five-year Redemption Program.
This initiative goes toward legal permanent residency and eventual citizenship. Learning English, civics and local volunteering is mandatory as well as the $7,500 restitution fee.
The bill also mandates E-verify, provides funding to secure the border physically, offers border security technologies hires 3,000 additional DHS border security personnel and 1,700 personnel to handle asylum cases.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, California Republican, said on Friday he had not seen Ms. Salazar’s bill yet.
“That’s her individual bill, but I think everybody’s united and we have to secure the border … [the] border’s not secure based upon this president,” he said.
“He’s talking about removing Title 42,” Mr. McCarthy told reporters, referring to expulsion of migrants due to communicable diseases. “We are now finding people on a terrorist watch list, not because they told us but because Republicans went down and had conversations with the border agents themselves. These are individuals on the terrorist watch list.”
He also described fentanyl overdoses around the country for those of age 18 to 45.
“And it’s all not because any law has been changed. It’s the executive orders [of the president]. Now once we secure the border, I think you have to finish the wall but there’s other actions that have to take place,” he said.
Republicans have attempted to pass immigration reform measures in the past with the support of former President George W. Bush, but conservatives in the party had taken issue with various provisions in the legislation that would have given amnesty to an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants at the time.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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