DIGNIDAD (Dignity) Act of 2025

Directs the Department of Homeland Security to construct, install, and operate physical barriers, tactical infrastructure, and surveillance technology along the southern border, and grants the Secretary broad authority to waive legal requirements to expedite construction.

Phases in a mandatory requirement over 6 to 24 months for all employers to electronically verify the employment eligibility of all new hires and certain reverified workers through an expanded federal verification system.

Directs DHS to build at least three humanitarian campuses along the southern border to provide intake, medical care, criminal background checks, legal orientation, and asylum interviews for arriving migrants.

Establishes an expedited border asylum processing timeline featuring a mandatory 72-hour rest period, initial screening within 15 days, two-officer secondary adjudication within 45 days, and electronic monitoring case management for complex cases referred to immigration court.

Creates a conditional permanent resident status pathway for undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. at age 18 or younger, have resided continuously since January 1, 2021, and meet educational or enrollment standards while passing background checks.

Establishes the Dignity Program, granting a renewable 7-year nonimmigrant legal status with work and travel authorization to undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. since December 31, 2020 who pass background checks.

Distributes Dignity Program restitution funds as formula grants to states to establish and expand apprenticeship and work-based learning programs for American workers.

Authorizes the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security to grant discretionary relief from removal and waive inadmissibility grounds for spouses and children of U.S. citizens when separation causes hardship.

Provides an expedited pathway to immigrant visas or green cards for beneficiaries stuck in backlogs with approved petitions pending for over 10 years, either through a $20,000 premium fee or phased visa allocations by 2035.

Protects dependent children of long-term work visa holders from aging out of legal status at age 21, provides them work authorization, and creates a green card pathway for those residing in the U.S. for 10 years who graduate college.

Requires CBP Air and Marine Operations to conduct at least 95,000 annual flight hours, operate continuous 24/7 drone surveillance on the southern border, and prioritize flight support requests from Border Patrol sectors.

Establishes a National Border Security Advisory Committee comprising at least one member from each state to advise the Secretary on border metrics and security operations.

Requires DHS to submit comprehensive threat analyses for both the southern and northern borders and issue a Border Patrol Strategic Plan every two years.

Requires DHS to provide deployed border surveillance and situational awareness technology directly to frontline officers and agents.

Requires DHS reports on port of entry management standards, trade impacts, medical staffing, and security measures to prevent travelers from exiting the country before inspections finish.

Establishes an independent, 30-member DHS Border Oversight Commission to evaluate border enforcement policies, protect civil and human rights, reduce migrant deaths, and improve agent safety.

Mandates at least 21 weeks of initial training and 8 hours of annual continuing legal education for all CBP officers and agents, as well as supervisory leadership training.

Authorizes Border Patrol to hire and train civilian Processing Coordinators to handle administrative intake, detainee transport, and hospital custodial duties without arresting or interviewing authority.

Increases the minimum pay rate for GS-12 Border Patrol agents by at least 14 percent and harmonizes pay scales and overtime incentives with CBP officers.

Authorizes the DHS Body-Worn Camera Pilot Program for five fiscal years.

Prohibits ICE and CBP from conducting immigration enforcement actions in or near protected areas—such as schools, hospitals, places of worship, rallies, and courtrooms—except with prior administrative approval or under exigent circumstances.

Authorizes the General Services Administration to expand and modernize high-priority southern border ports of entry and construct new land ports of entry after consulting affected communities and governments.

Appropriates $2 billion per fiscal year from 2026 through 2030 for border port of entry infrastructure and modernization.

Establishes the Immigration Infrastructure and Debt Reduction Fund in the Treasury, funded by Dignity Program taxes and visa fees, to pay for immigration operations and reduce the national debt.

Makes it a federal crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison to knowingly track or transmit law enforcement movements to assist illegal immigration, drug trafficking, or related offenses.

Adds up to 10 years of imprisonment to existing criminal sentences for alien smuggling or assisting unauthorized entry if the offender possessed or used a firearm.

Directs DHS to produce regular intelligence assessments analyzing human smuggling tactics, propaganda messaging, and migrant perceptions of U.S. border policies.

Increases federal criminal prison penalties for unauthorized reentry into the United States, imposing sentences of up to 10 to 30 years depending on prior criminal convictions or repeated deportations.

Increases the mandatory minimum prison penalty for child sex trafficking to 25 years.

Expands visa ineligibility rules to bar current or former spouses and children of drug traffickers.

Authorizes consular and immigration officers to require DNA testing to prove family relationships for visa applications, and mandates full compliance with federal DNA collection laws at CBP processing facilities.

Increases the maximum prison sentence for unlawful voting by noncitizens from one year to five years.

Directs DHS and the Social Security Administration to establish and operate an electronic employment eligibility verification system with built-in secondary contest procedures, antidiscrimination protections, and privacy safeguards.

Extends employment verification requirements to labor contractors, recruiters, and union hiring halls referring individuals for work.

Establishes a good-faith legal defense shielding employers from civil and criminal liability if they properly use the federal employment verification system.

Preempts state and local immigration employment laws while allowing states to enforce federal verification rules, assess federal penalties, and condition business licenses on system compliance.

Increases civil fines on employers for hiring unauthorized workers or failing to use the verification system, allows debarment from federal contracts for repeat violators, and sets criminal penalties for patterns of unlawful hiring.

Expands federal document fraud criminal penalties to encompass falsified or misused employment authorization documents.

Directs DHS and SSA to block compromised or repeatedly misused Social Security numbers from employment verification and allows individuals and parents to lock their Social Security numbers.

Requires employers utilizing the photo-matching tool in E-Verify to match the system photo against both the identity document and the physical face of the employee.

Establishes two voluntary pilot programs to test advanced technologies for authenticating employee identity during employment verification.

Directs the SSA Inspector General to audit wage disputes, child Social Security number usage, and employer name mismatches to uncover unauthorized employment.

Authorizes up to three overseas pre-screening centers in the Western Hemisphere, initiates a family reunification parole program for the Dominican Republic, and clarifies Cuban Adjustment Act eligibility for certain releasees.

Mandates audio or video recordings and qualified neutral interpreters for all expedited removal interviews.

Terminates an alien’s asylum status if they voluntarily return to their home country within five years of being granted asylum without demonstrating a compelling reason.

Requires clear written warnings on asylum applications and permanently bars individuals who knowingly submit frivolous asylum claims from receiving federal immigration benefits.

Establishes criminal penalties for knowingly and willfully making false statements or submitting fraudulent documents in asylum and withholding of removal proceedings.

Extends the statute of limitations for passport, visa, and immigration fraud offenses to 10 years after discovery.

Requires standard operating procedures for migrant children, updates sexual abuse prevention rules, guarantees unannounced congressional oversight visits, and mandates daily online detainee locator updates and family notification upon ICE transfers.

Requires biometric criminal background checks on prospective sponsors for unaccompanied migrant children, bars placements with violent or sexual offenders, and mandates periodic post-release well-being check calls.

Imposes criminal fines and prison terms of at least 1 year—and at least 15 years if intended for exploitation—for using false statements or fraudulent documents to obtain custody of an unaccompanied migrant child.

Requires USCIS to hire, train, and deploy at least 300 additional asylum officers to humanitarian campuses.

Creates a humanitarian visa status capped at annual refugee levels for individuals found prima facie eligible for asylum during overseas pre-screenings.

Requires border agents to biometrically log migrants crossing between ports of entry and subjects any migrant who crosses unlawfully a second time to immediate expedited removal.

Forgives 75 percent of qualifying law school student loans for attorneys who complete at least four years of full-time legal service at border humanitarian campuses.

Allows conditional permanent residents to remove conditions and obtain full lawful permanent resident status after completing higher education, serving three years in the military, or working steadily for four years.

Protects applicants under the Dream Act from removal while applications are pending and grants them advance travel parole and work authorization.

Prohibits DHS from using information submitted in Dream Act or DACA applications for immigration enforcement or deportation purposes, subject to a $10,000 fine for violations.

Requires Dignity Program participants to pay $7,000 in restitution fees over seven years, maintain employment or education for four years, resolve past federal tax liabilities, maintain health insurance, and pay an additional 1 percent income tax.

Allows Dignity Program participants to enlist in the U.S. Armed Forces, waiving standard program conditions during military service and granting eligibility for lawful permanent resident status upon completion of enlistment.

Grants full Dignity status upon completion of the 7-year program, providing renewable 7-year legal nonimmigrant status, work and travel authorization, and consideration as legally admitted for future immigration adjustments.

Directs competitive federal matching grants to partnerships between businesses and higher education institutions to create paid structured earn-and-learn training programs in high-demand industries.

Allows individuals whose removal cases or benefit petitions were previously denied to file motions to reopen within two years if they would qualify under new family-relief provisions.

Creates a 90-day nonimmigrant family visitor visa for relatives of U.S. citizens and permanent residents, requiring a financial support declaration and travel health insurance.

Permits noncitizen service members serving on active duty or in the Selected Reserve to apply for expedited naturalization.

Increases the per-country cap on family and employment-based immigrant visas from 7 percent to 15 percent of total annual visas.

Exempts accompanying spouses and minor children of employment-based immigrant visa recipients from counting against annual employment visa caps.

Subjects foreign student compensation earned during optional practical training (OPT) to standard Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes.

Expands eligibility for O-1 extraordinary ability nonimmigrant visas to foreign individuals who earn a U.S. doctoral degree in STEM fields or health professions.

Allows F-1 international students to maintain dual intent, ensuring that seeking permanent residency or having a pending immigrant petition does not disqualify them from obtaining or keeping student status.

Creates an interagency Immigration Agency Coordinator to align visa and labor processing among DHS, DOL, and the State Department, and authorizes $3.61 billion in fiscal year 2026 funding across the agencies.