A group of liberal Republicans in the House are advancing legislation that would be an effective amnesty for millions of illegal aliens, including the so-called “dreamers” that former President Barack Obama originally allowed to stay in the U.S. via his 2012 Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA). The gang is led by U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) and U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.). The legislation is nothing short of a suicide pact.
Specifically, Section 2102 of H.R. 4393, the so-called Dignity Act, provides “Permanent resident status on a conditional basis for certain long-term residents who entered the United States as children.” This would not only effectively legalize DACA, but it would expand it, by extending the amnesty to anyone who arrived prior to Jan. 1, 2021 and were 18 and younger: “the alien has been continuously physically present in the United States since January 1, 2021; … the alien was 18 years of age or younger on the date on which the alien entered the United States and has continuously resided in the United States since such entry…”
Under Obama, it was anyone who arrived prior to June 15, 2007 and was 16 and younger: “came to the United States under the age of sixteen; has continuously resided in the United States for a least five years preceding the date of this memorandum and is present in the United States on the date of this memorandum…”
So, what started as 800,000 “dreamers” is now proposed to be expanded to more than 2.5 million. This is not what President Donald Trump ran on in 2016, 2020 or 2024, and likely certainly not what he was expecting.
After achieving the historic victory in 2024 and seeing some of his worst enemies in Congress removed, voluntarily or otherwise, it is easy to understand why President Trump and his closest advisors would have thought they had “open field running” to advance the Make America Great Again (MAGA) agenda.
But as events have unfolded, it is obvious that such optimism has been misplaced. The enemies to a restoration of the America an overwhelming majority of citizens want are still very alive and well and are living inside the Republican Party. What else can one make of the so-called Dignity Act that strips American workers of their dignity?
By kicking out one of the three legs of the MAGA Agenda — disenfranchising about 22 million Americans who in polls reported immigration was their top issue, for example, 17 percent said so in an October 2024 Emerson poll, and 84 percent of them said they were voting for Trump — what hope will Republicans have in the 2026 Congressional midterms? Do they want Trump voters to stay home? Do they even want to keep their jobs? Massive losses would be sure to result.
A troubling fact about the Salazar-Lawler amnesty bill is that, besides Obama’s DACA, this has all been done before. In 2018 then Speaker of the House Paul Ryan — Mitt Romney’s running mate in 2012 — failed to deliver funding for the border wall and the President’s efforts to secure the border.
Ryan instead offered poison pill legislation that coupled wall funding with DACA, precisely the same gambit being tried today. Ryan at that point had already announced his retirement in 2018, demoralizing Republicans and fueling perceptions that the GOP would lose the House majority that year (they did). Ryan hated the MAGA agenda and did everything in his power to undercut it. Now, eight years later, liberal Republicans are doing it again.
On reflection, it should be no surprise. For example, Lawler when he ran for Congress in 2022, the establishment GOP spent $10.4 million to get him elected by less than 2,000 votes —$8.8 million alone to oppose Sean Patrick Maloney ($7.5 million from the Ryan-backed Congressional Leadership Fund alone), and another $1.6 million in favor of Lawler — while other possible races went starving. In a real sense, the GOP might have sacrificed about six seats in order to help keep Lawler in place. Salazar was similarly backed in 2022 by the GOP establishment including Congressional Leadership Fund, which spent $1.45 million alone on her race.
And what’s the return on investment? Expanded DACA — again.
While the Salazar-Lawler bill is the worst of it, there are other efforts afoot from the same cabal of anti-MAGA “Republicans.” Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.) has reintroduced H.R. 5494, the Essential Workers for Economic Advancement Act. The bill expands visas for up to 500,000 alien laborers in the construction, hospitality, and other sectors and proposes a new H-2C visa program for critical jobs that do not require a college degree but are essential to business operations and U.S. economic growth.
Up to half a million jobs for people without college degrees, without the debt tied to the university racket. Why are Republicans looking to give those jobs to foreigners and not U.S. citizens? If the issue is training, then focus the mountain of social support money sloshing around toward that function. But giving jobs and a future urban and rural young adults — and those in the growing pockets of poverty in America — seem to be beyond the thinking of the liberal GOP.
When Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger were removed from Congress, all MAGA cheered. When Mitt Romney decided to slink away to one of his mansions, everyone heaved a sigh of relief. But those individuals were not the true problem. The problem is an entrenched network of bureaucrats, think tankers, consultants and staff that perpetuate the globalist dogma and operated by faceless, interchangeable cogs that often resembles the Soviet bureaucratic system populated by its nomenklatura class that could only be only be filled with the approval of party committees.
Anyone at all familiar with the GOP knows that this is exactly how the process works. Perhaps it’s the reason the GOP has lost so many races and special elections, with zero accountability and no outside thought or actors are allowed, you get the same tired programs — they’re still trying to expand DACA after 14 years! — the same useless mailers, the same weak to non-existent targeting and so forth. Good grief.
Why are there still DACA Republicans in 2026?
The one benefit of the Salazar-Lawler amnesty bill, besides the fact that it won’t pass, is that it once again puts into stark relief the nature of the problem. A significant core of the President’s own party — in office, not the electorate who loves Trump — opposes his agenda, just as they did in 2018. When Bob Goodlatte’s bill to build the wall without strings attached came up for a vote, the Ryan-wing in the House defeated it. And they’re still at it, deeply entrenched and intent on outlasting President Trump while doing as much damage to his program as they can. Unless and until there is a full house cleaning — of all national, state and local Republican entities — this treachery will continue.
Robert Romano is the Executive Director of Americans for Limited Government.
