Turns Out, Dangling Amnesty In Front Of Illegals Won’t Win Over Minorities To The Republican Party

Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar had a plan to keep Republicans winning elections: offer amnesty to illegal aliens. Well, eight Republicans who co-sponsored her legislation to do just that might want a word with her. Eight republicans who co-sponsored the mass amnesty legislation known as the DIGNIDAD Act lost their congressional races Tuesday. It appears that Salazar herself will barely survive alongside two other co-sponsors despite her insistence that mass amnesty and pandering to immigrants would be the best way for Republicans to win. “Everyone in leadership agrees and knows that you need a voting bloc called the Hispanics to vote GOP. Otherwise we’re not going to continue winning elections,” Salazar said in a Politico interview earlier this year. The DIGNIDAD Act would create a seven-year program for illegal aliens who evaded our laws before Dec. 31, 2020, to get to stay. Illegals with DUI or DWI convictions could stay, while other illegal aliens can have their deportation proceedings halted while applications are pending. Illegal aliens already deported can apply to return to the U.S. if they were deported but would have otherwise been eligible for this amnesty under the provisions of the bill. Salazar admitted her legislation is the launch pad of eventual citizenship. Salazar’s pitch effectively suggested that if illegal aliens get to stay, Republicans would get to keep their seats. [READ NEXT: Democrats Promise To Turn Illegal Aliens Into Voters] But Reps. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., David Valadao, R-Calif., Gabe Evans, R-Colo., Monica De La Cruz, R-Texas, Jen Kiggans, R-Va., Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Penn., and Young Kim, R-Calif., were sent packing Tuesday by voters even though they were assured that selling out America’s sovereignty was a good way to stay in office. Ohio Republican Mike Carey, who voted to extend protections for Haitians with Temporary Protected Status after the Trump administration finally decided to enforce the “temporary” part of the status, lost to Democrat Don Leonard. An X post from Ryan James Girdusky offered an account of one Republican voter in Carey’s district who voted against Carey, saying, “[Carey] should find a Haitian to vote for him if he wants them so bad.” While it’s just the account of one voter, it raises the question: How many Republican voters are politicians willing to alienate when chasing votes from people who don’t even turn out for them? Trump was elected with a mandate to carry out mass deportations. Democrats wanted mass amnesty, but having Republicans work within the Republican Party to undermine the president’s immigration mandate was counterproductive and harmful — yet they did it anyway to attempt to save their seats. Salazar had a mere 1,116-vote lead over her Democrat challenger Eliott Rodriguez, triggering an automatic recount. Salazar’s response to her potential narrow victory? Republicans should take more of her advice. In a Wednesday interview, Salazar blamed the Hispanic backlash on the deportation of illegal aliens as well as the economy and urged Republicans to “change course” on both. Vice President J.D. Vance warned in a Wednesday post-mortem that there would be a renewed pitch for amnesty after Tuesday’s losses. “Expect to hear any number of establishment politicians say the solution to our woes is amnesty. … But anyone pushing amnesty is lying to you.” And Vance is right, the idea that “amnesty” would have saved Republicans doesn’t comport with the data. Despite Tuesday’s wipeout for Republicans, voters gave Republicans an edge on one thing: immigration. An NBC News exit poll shows that 44 percent of voters said GOP “is better able to handle immigration” compared to just 40 percent who said Democrats. Another poll showed that when asked how important immigration policies were in deciding who to vote for, 73 percent of voters said immigration was a “crucial or a major factor” and among those, Republicans won 51 percent to 47 percent. Democrats also seemingly were aware that their opposition to enforcing immigration law was not a winning message ahead of the elections, with an Axios analysis finding that “ICE” was the third-most featured policy topic in Democrat primary ads for 2026 but that when it came to the general election, it was ranked 35th among policy issues talked about in Democrat ads. Instead, Democrats focused on health care and inflation. Yet Salazar thinks that Republicans’ path back to power runs through legalizing illegal aliens. Hispanic voters in U.S. House races backed Democrats 60 percent to 35 percent, according to an NBC News exit poll. Salazar and her allies literally offered legalization of illegal aliens and still lost. In fact, what’s clearer now than ever is that importing Third Worlders — whether from Mexico, Haiti, Venezuela, or any other foreign country — makes America the Third World in its policies and politicians, with socialists sweeping races nationwide thanks in part to large support from foreigners and their descendants who are apparently incapable of self-governance. So why should Americans want more of that? And why should Republicans be the ones to give Americans more of that? Additionally, Americans should consider where Salazar and other RINOs’ argument leads. Republicans are told they can’t enforce immigration law because doing so could anger illegal aliens’ voting friends and relatives. The proposed solution then is to let those illegal aliens stay. But if the vote of the friends and family of illegal aliens requires Republicans to literally abandon the law and U.S. sovereignty, why would adding the beneficiaries of said policy make the country better or the party freer to enforce the law in future years if it’s already being held hostage by foreigners? If the price of a vote is agreeing not to enforce America’s borders or laws, it’s a price Republicans should refuse to pay — and the Republicans that were willing to pay that price have been taught that now. Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2 amnestyDIGNIDAD ActDignity ActIllegal ImmigrationImmigrationjd vanceMaria Elvira SalazarMike Lawler