Dignity Act of 2025<\/a>. It\u2019s a bipartisan bill sponsored by South Florida Republican Congresswoman Maria Salazar and Texas Democratic Congresswoman Veronica Escobar.<\/p>\n\u201cThe information we gather from those town halls is to send it up to the federal level so that they know what’s being said,\u201d said Isamac Torres Figueroa, an American Business Immigration Coalition Action partner.<\/p>\n
The proposal would allow some undocumented immigrants, specifically those in the U.S. since before 2021, to apply for temporary legal status and work permits for seven years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s the most bipartisan piece of legislation right now that would allow for long-term, law-abiding immigrants to be able to get a work permit,\u201d said Enrique Sanchez with the American Business Immigration Coalition.<\/p>\n
To understand the bill, you first have to understand what a work permit is.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s an actual card that’s provided by the government that gives you the permission to get a job, to get a Social Security number,\u201d said immigration attorney Bridget Cambria.<\/p>\n
The bill would not grant visa status and would not create a pathway to citizenship.<\/p>\n
Under the proposal, applicants would have to pay $7,000 in restitution and stay in compliance with authorities. They would not qualify for federal benefits.<\/p>\n
The proposal also includes tougher border enforcement measures like expanded surveillance, mandatory E-Verify and faster asylum decisions.<\/p>\n
However, the bill is already facing backlash.<\/p>\n
Some conservative lawmakers, including members of the House Freedom Caucus, oppose it, arguing it gives legal status to undocumented immigrants and moves away from stricter enforcement policies.<\/p>\n
At the same time, some immigrant advocates say the proposal doesn\u2019t go far enough, because it offers no pathway to citizenship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa. \u2013 Inside JetSet Restaurant in Reading, dozens gathered for the first stop of what organizers are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[67931,41665,67935,128,130,129,67933,67934,67932],"class_list":["post-148731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-dignity-act","tag-immigration-reform","tag-maria-salazar","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-undocumented-immigrants","tag-veronica-escobar","tag-work-permit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}