>>24481886
https://salazar.house.gov/dignity-act
Key Provisions of the Dignity Act
(1) Securing the Border and Restoring Law and Order
Mandate 100% nationwide E-Verify to ensure all American businesses are hiring legal workers.
Achieves operational control and advantage of the Southern Border by employing a comprehensive Southern Border Strategy.
Constructs enhanced physical barriers and deploys the most up-to-date technology at the border.
Implements new policies to stop criminals crossing the border illegally, including new authorities to track illicit spotters.
Raises penalties on human traffickers and child sex traffickers.
Increases penalties for helping individuals illegally cross the border, and for destroying equipment and sensors intended to deter illegal border crossings.
Provides DHS the authority to use DNA testing to verify family relationships.
Enhances port-of-entry security by expanding surveillance and intrusion detection systems.
Improves legal commerce and trade by expanding inspection lanes and investing in X-ray technology to safely inspect commercial vehicles.
(2) Fixing our Asylum System
Expedites processing and ends catch-and-release policies.
Establishes at least three Humanitarian Campuses (HC) that will receive individuals and families arriving at the southern border for immediate processing.
Asylum-seekers will remain at an HC until their case is decided.
They will have freedom of movement within the HC, access to state-of-the-art facilities, medical personnel, social workers, mental health professionals, legal counsel, and non-governmental organizations.
Decides asylum cases within 60 days. Asylum-seekers will undergo an initial credible fear interview within 15 days of their arrival and further screening by trained asylum officers for final determination within an additional 45 days.
Creates additional immigration centers in Latin America to stop migrant caravans and prevent individuals from making the dangerous land journey to the United States.
The centers will offer asylum pre-screening, family reunification services for children, and employment consultation services.
Increases penalties for applicants that make false statements or provide false documentation. Authorizes USCIS to terminate asylum applications if fraud is detected.
Establishes a new two-strike policy for anyone caught crossing at a non-port-of-entry, to ensure legitimate asylum seekers are processed appropriately while bad actors are apprehended and removed expeditiously.
(3) Giving Dignity to Undocumented Immigrants
Dreamers and DACA recipients are provided with conditional permanent resident status for 10 years. Then, they will have a pathway to adjust to lawful permanent resident (LPR) status through work experience, military service, or higher education.
Establishes the Dignity Program, a practical solution for undocumented immigrants who have been in the U.S. for more than five years (before December 31, 2020).
Recipients will be offered a chance to work, pay restitution, get right with the law, and earn legal status.
Applicants must comply with all federal and state laws, pass a criminal background check, repay back taxes owed, and start paying income taxes.
Dignity participants will also pay $7,000 in restitution over seven years, check in with DHS every two years, and remain in good public standing.
Individuals in the Dignity Program will not have access to federal means-tested benefits or entitlements. They will be net contributors to tax revenue and to the U.S. economy.
NO path to LPR or citizenship is available through the Dignity Program.
Upon successful completion of the Dignity Program, the individual can apply for the Dignity Status.
Dignity Status
Individuals will remain protected from deportation and will have access to full work authorization, the ability to live in the U.S., and travel authorization outside the U.S.
They will remain ineligible for means-tested benefits and entitlements.
Dignity Status can be renewed indefinitely as long as the individual remains in good standing with all federal and state laws.
NO path to LPR or citizenship is available through the Dignity Status.
(4) Dignity for American Workers
Creates a new American Worker Fund using restitution payments from the Dignity Program and Dignity Status. This fund will provide workforce training, upskilling, and education for unemployed American workers.
For every participant in the Dignity Program, their restitution payments will help train or retrain at least one American worker.
In total, this will be at least $70 billion investment in the U.S. workforce.
The American Worker Fund provides grants for workforce education initiatives and apprenticeships to help U.S. citizens looking for work or transitioning to different careers.
This ensures Americans can secure employment in in-demand careers.
(5) Unleashing American Prosperity and Competitiveness
Modernizes our legal immigration system and fixes backlogs.
Allows someone that has been waiting for a legal visa (either family-based or employment-based) for 10 years or more (calculated by priority date) to pay a $20,000 premium processing fee to receive that visa.
Raises the per-country cap set in the Immigration Act of 1990 from 7% to 15%.
Allows STEM PhD graduates from American universities, including medical students, to be eligible for an O visa. This allows “Individuals with Extraordinary Ability or Achievement” to stay and work in the U.S. if they choose to.
Increases high-skilled employment visa opportunities by only counting the principal applicant and excluding derivatives (children and spouses) from counting towards the annual Employment-Based visa caps. It does not raise the caps.
Includes the American Families United Act, which authorizes discretion if an undocumented child or spouse of a U.S. citizen is denied a visa or has received a deportation order, affording families relief on a case-by-case basis.
Includes the Temporary Family Visitation Act, which creates a new, 90-day visitor visa that can be used by foreigners to travel to the United States for business, pleasure, or family purposes.
Ensures that children legally present in the United States do not age out of receiving certain visas due to USCIS processing delays.
Requires students working in the United States as part of the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program to pay FICA (Social Security and Medicare) taxes.
Modernizes student visas by changing the F visa to be “dual intent.”
Creates an Immigration Agency Coordinator position to oversee and streamline immigration functions at USCIS, the State Department, and the Department of Labor.
Surge resources to USCIS operations, the Bureau of Consular Affairs and Visa Service at the State Department, and the Office of Foreign Labor Certification at DOL to reduce delays and improve visa processing.
No taxpayer funds will be used to pay for the Dignity Act.
The border infrastructure, improved ports of entry infrastructure, new humanitarian campuses, increased personnel, and all other associated costs in this bill are paid for by an “Immigration Infrastructure Levy.”
A 1% levy will be deducted from the paychecks of individuals given work authorization under the Dignity Program. These levies will be deposited into the Immigration Infrastructure Fund to be used to carry out the provisions of this act, and then pay down the U.S. national debt by at least $50 billion.
The American Worker Fund, used to provide workforce development for American workers, will be funded by restitution payments from the Dignity Programs.