The Dignity Act of 2025: An Outdated and Harmful Approach to Immigration Reform

The Dignity Act offers limited protection from deportation, but only in exchange for building more border walls and detention centers, reducing due process for asylum seekers, and increasing criminal penalties related to migration. This “trade” represents a longstanding and harmful legislative approach that pairs protections for undocumented immigrant communities with more border militarization and immigration enforcement.

Over many years, this approach has led Congress to give unimaginable amounts of money and resources to immigration enforcement and border militarization, while failing to protect millions of undocumented community members. Today, U.S. immigration enforcement agencies have more funding than the militaries of most countries. Yet many undocumented immigrants who have lived in the United States for years still lack protection. They often live in fear and avoid going to the doctor, school, church, or even grocery stores because the threat of detention and family separation lurks around every corner.

Congress must reject the idea that legislation can only protect immigrant communities if it harms others—especially in this political moment.

The 2023 version of the Dignity Act included a path to citizenship for undocumented community members. The 2025 version removes that path, except for some Dreamers (people who came to the United States as children). For most other undocumented immigrants who qualify, and for people with Temporary Protected Status (TPS), the bill only offers temporary protection known as “Dignity Status.” To get Dignity Status, people would have to complete a long, costly, and difficult application process. While Dignity Status would protect them from deportation and allow them to work, it would not lead to citizenship.

The “Dream Act” part of the bill:  

• People who came to the United States at age 18 or younger and have lived in the United States since January 1, 2021, can apply for permanent resident (“green card”) status and a path to citizenship. People who already have Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) can finish the process faster.
• Applicants must meet education, military service, or work requirements.
• The program excludes people for even small past crimes, including any felony or two or more misdemeanors. The bill also includes a “secondary review” process that lets the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) deny applicants for unclear “public safety” risks. Importantly, this part is narrower than the original Dream Act and will keep many Dreamers from a path to citizenship.

The “Dignity Program” part of the bill:  

• People who have been in the United States since December 31, 2020, can apply for protection from deportation, a work permit, and permission to travel. “Dignity Status” lasts seven years and people can apply to renew it as many times as they want.
• Dignity Status does not include a green card or a path to citizenship. The older version of this bill did include a path to citizenship.
• People must show enrollment in college, in a career or technical school, or have a regular job.
• People must pay a $7,000 fee (plus the application fee). They must also pay any back taxes they owe from the past 10 years and pay an extra 1% income tax. People who already had TPS before the bill passed do not have to pay the $7,000 fee.
• The program excludes people for even small past crimes. This includes any current grounds of inadmissibility, any felony, or two or more misdemeanors.
• Undocumented people who do not apply for the Dignity Program within one year must leave the United States.
• People in the program cannot get federal needs-based benefits like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

The bill also creates a new way to fight deportation for some immigrants who have U.S.-citizen spouses, parents, or children. For some people, it may also open a path to citizenship through immigration options that already exist. 

NILC was deeply concerned to see the recent version of the Dignity Act introduced in 2025. The new bill would create a permanent second class of people in the United States. People with Dignity Status would be protected from deportation, but their future would depend on what lawmakers decide to do with the program later. People with “Dignity Status” would not be allowed to bring their spouses and other close family members to the United States to live with them. They also would not be allowed to get important help from food and health care support programs and would not be able to vote. Even the program’s limited protections would be out of reach for many who couldn’t afford the steep fees.

Protection from deportation and permission to work are critical and can change people’s lives. But for the millions of immigrants who live here and make our communities more vibrant, full inclusion in American society should not be out of reach.

Right now, the Trump administration’s pro-enforcement immigration approach is deeply unpopular. Congress could use this moment to support a bill that rejects more enforcement. But this bill does the opposite. It calls for more detention, more border wall building, and more criminalization of immigrant communities.

• The bill requires building more border walls and allows DHS to ignore laws that get in its way.
• The bill sets up a new system of detention centers along the border called “humanitarian campuses.” DHS would detain people seeking asylum there, including families, as they go through asylum interviews.
• The bill increases already harsh sentencing penalties for many migration-related offenses and creates new migration-related crimes.
• The bill requires all employers to use E-Verify, no matter how small the business is. This can put workers at risk if an employer uses it to punish people who speak up about unfair working conditions.
• The bill makes it harder for people to sponsor unaccompanied children. This means more children will stay in government custody longer instead of living with sponsors (often close relatives).

The bill changes how people can ask for asylum when they arrive at the U.S. border. The new process gives people little time to prepare their case and removes important due process protections like review by a judge.

• The bill requires DHS to create at least three detention centers run by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) along the border. The bill calls them “humanitarian campuses.” CBP would detain people there while their asylum cases are being decided. Families would be detained too. The bill requires basic health and safety rules, know-your-rights programs, and access to. lawyers.
• The bill creates a new border process that allows DHS Asylum Officers to decide asylum cases very quickly, with little time for the asylum seeker to get evidence or learn about the law. In the new process, most people would not have any chance to see an immigration judge. The bill completely ends review by judges in federal courts. Judicial review is a critical due process protection to make sure the United States does not deport people back to harm, and current U.S. law provides it.
• The bill says people can only ask for asylum at the border if they enter at a port of entry. This would hurt the most vulnerable asylum seekers, including people with disabilities and people who speak rare languages who may not be able to make their way to a port of entry after a dangerous trip to escape violence. Current U.S. law and international law say all people can ask for asylum at the border, even if they entered between ports of entry.

Other parts of the bill include:

• Sensitive locations: The bill says immigration officers generally can’t do immigration enforcement at or near sensitive locations like schools and churches, except in specific conditions. However, this part of the bill puts fewer limits on ICE actions at these locations than H.R. 1061, the Sensitive Locations Act introduced by Congressman Adriano Espaillat (D-NY).
• Asylum prescreening and family reunification facilities: The bill allows DHS to set up as many as three centers in South or Central America. At these centers, DHS staff would help people start the process of applying for asylum. DHS staff would also help the children of people who already have legal status in the United States begin the process of reuniting with their families.
• New “family purposes” visa: The bill creates a new temporary visa that allows people to visit their families in the United States.
• Reforms visa processes: The bill raises limits on the number of available immigrant visas. It also protects children who are in the United States with parents on legal visas, so they do not lose eligibility for some visas when they turn a certain age.