'Dignity Act' seeks to overhaul immigration amid crisis: 'Revolutionary bill'

By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Monday, May 11, 2026

4. Dignity Program

Among the Dignity Act's more controversial provisions is its "Dignity Program," which would provide a seven-year deferred action program and temporary legal status for illegal immigrants who had been in the U.S. five years or more before Dec. 31, 2020, thereby excluding the millions who immigrated during the Biden administration.

The program provides work authorization for eligible individuals in exchange for a criminal background check, payment of back taxes, health coverage, a 1% levy on income, a payment of $7,000 restitution over seven years, at least four of which must be spent on employment or education. They would not be eligible for federal means-tested benefits or entitlements and would be subject to biennial check-ins with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Proponents have presented the Dignity Program, which would ultimately provide potentially indefinite "Dignity Status" without a path to citizenship, as a pragmatic compromise between mass deportation and blanket legalization for the millions of illegal immigrants living in long-term legal limbo, though some critics have argued the program would be a form of de facto amnesty.

Citing the ultimate consequences of previous immigration reforms, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts wrote in an op-ed last week: "If 10 million illegal immigrants are granted seven years of amnesty, then in seven years' time, the American people will be emotionally blackmailed into making the amnesty permanent."

The National Immigration Law Center, which advocates for legalizing illegal immigrants in the U.S., expressed concern that Dignity Status "would create a permanent second class of people in the United States" whose "future would depend on what lawmakers decide to do with the program later."