Minnesota Republican Senate candidate Michele Tafoya expressed openness to the controversial DIGNIDAD Act during an appearance on Will Cain’s radio show this week, while stressing the need for “nuance” in addressing immigration and seasonal labor.
Tafoya, a former NFL sideline reporter, told Cain that immigration is “a very nuanced problem” and rejected a “zero-sum game” approach.
The candidate said she does not want to set arbitrary numbers for how many illegal aliens must be deported or allowed to stay and pointed to conversations with Minnesota farmers who use seasonal workers.
“A bill can be really good, and you can slide in a specific I would not agree with,” Tafoya stated.
Tafoya added that lawmakers should examine long-term residents already in the country and consider options such as full citizenship, different levels of legal status, taxation requirements, and voting rights.
“We need to look at the people who have been here for years, and years, and years. And decide are they people that we want to stay here? Do we give them full citizenship? Or do we say ‘yeah you know, there’s a different level of citizenship for different kinds of people? Do they get to vote? Do you pay taxes?’ I think anyone who lives here as a person who’s living in our country needs to be a taxpayer.”
The DIGNIDAD Act (H.R. 4393), formally known as the “Dignity for Immigrants while Guarding our Nation to Ignite and Deliver the American Dream Act of 2025,” was introduced in 2025 by Republican Rep. María Elvira Salazar and co-sponsored by Democrat Rep. Veronica Escobar.
The bill proposes a renewable seven-year legal status under the “Dignity Program” and a pathway to citizenship for some long-term illegal alien residents, including DACA recipients and Dreamers.
Critics argue it amounts to amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants.
Cain pressed Tafoya on the bill’s practical challenges, particularly the difficulty of verifying how long someone has been in the country illegally.
“The hard part is to ever answer this question, ‘When did you come in?’” Cain said.
Tafoya agreed, saying, “You don’t know. We don’t know. They don’t know, unless there is a record of it.”
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The interview comes as Tafoya faces skepticism from some Republicans over past statements, including a 2022 Substack post urging Donald Trump not to run again because of his “baggage.”
The Daily Caller noted, “Her candidacy has drawn skepticism from some Minnesota Republicans over her past positions, even as she quickly secured backing from the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC).”
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