The "Dignity Act of 2025" is a bipartisan U.S. immigration bill aiming to secure the border, create a path to legal status for some undocumented immigrants (no amnesty), modernize legal immigration, and improve worker verification (E-Verify). Key changes include stronger border measures (technology, barriers, more enforcement), a new "Dignity Program" for qualifying long-term residents to earn work permits and permanent status by paying fees, back taxes, and passing background checks, plus reforms for asylum and legal immigration pathways.
Key Provisions of the Dignity Act of 2025
- Border Security: Enhances physical barriers, technology, and personnel; creates a Border Patrol Strategic Plan; increases penalties for traffickers and illegal re-entry.
- Dignity Program: Offers a path to permanent work authorization and eventual legal status for undocumented individuals present since before 2021, requiring background checks, tax payments, fees, and restitution.
- Mandatory E-Verify: Requires all employers to verify worker eligibility, with phased implementation for businesses of different sizes.
- Asylum Reform: Aims to speed up asylum claims at the border and limit releases from custody while awaiting decisions.
- Legal Immigration: Modernizes the system with provisions like expanding dual intent for students, improving green card counting, and creating premium processing for long waits.
- Funding: Funded by fees from the Dignity Program and increased penalties, with no cost to U.S. taxpayers, plus funds for worker retraining.
