Conservative groups urge Congress to pass Rep. María Elvira Salazar's immigration bill

David Smiley, Miami Herald on Sep 24, 2025

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Conservative Hispanic influencers and political groups came out Tuesday to support Republican U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar’s bipartisan proposal to offer undocumented immigrants who entered the United States years ago a chance to legally remain working and living in the country.

Groups like the Libre Initiative and Christian Family Coalition met with Salazar in Westchester to discuss the congresswoman’s Dignity Act. They then joined her at a press conference to rally support for the legislation, which has yet to get a committee hearing in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

The bill, which Salazar first filed in 2022, would give undocumented immigrants without criminal records who entered the country prior to 2021 the opportunity to earn legal status through labor and financial penalties. The legislation touches on a number of facets of the U.S. immigration system, and would also fund border security and establish centers to shelter asylum seekers during the duration of their case. Asylum cases, which today can take years to process, would need to be completed within 60 days.

“This isn’t amnesty. This isn’t a path to citizenship,” said Anthony Verdugo of the Christian Family Coalition.

Like Verdugo, several speakers seemed to address their comments — almost all of which were in Spanish — to conservatives, stressing that the bill requires immigrants to work and pay into a system to earn the right to live legally in the United States, and that the program isn’t a measure to provide immigrants with federal benefits or entitlements. In Florida, there are as many as 1.6 million undocumented immigrants, according to a 2023 Pew Research study.

“The Dignity Act represents a courageous bipartisan important step toward restoring both order and dignity to our immigration system, a system that has for too long fallen behind the needs of our country and the hopes of families pursuing the American Dream,” Stephanie Torres, deputy director of grassroots in Florida for Libre Initiative, said in a statement.

The Libre Initiative, Christian Family Coalition and other groups that spoke Tuesday have previously supported the legislation.

Salazar, whose Miami-Dade district includes Little Havana, Coral Gables and Kendall, introduced the bill during the previous Congress along with Texas Democratic Rep. Veronica Escobar. The duo filed the bill again in July, with 20 Republicans and Democrats signing on as co-sponsors.

Democrats lining up to challenge Salazar in next year’s election have criticized her record on immigration matters. The congresswoman said Tuesday that she is hoping President Donald Trump, who won Miami-Dade County in November while campaigning on a promise to carry out the largest deportation effort in U.S. history, will help push the bill over the finish line.

“At some point the signals will be hard enough and loud enough for the president to understand that he needs to sign the dignity bill,” she said.