Episode 935: The DIGNITY Act

Summary

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Podcast Summary

Newt’s World, Episode 935: The DIGNITY Act

Host: Newt Gingrich (Gingrich 360)
Date: January 15, 2026
Guest: Rep. Maria Salazar (FL-27)

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Overview:

This episode of Newt’s World features a conversation between Newt Gingrich and Congresswoman Maria Salazar, focusing on her personal story as the daughter of Cuban refugees, her experience covering Latin American dictatorships, her new book "Dignity Not Citizenship: The Truth About Immigration No One Is Telling You," and, centrally, her legislation, the DIGNITY Act. The discussion delves into the past and present crises of Cuba and Venezuela, the challenges and imperatives of U.S. immigration reform, and the vision for a new, pragmatic, and humane approach to immigration focused on dignity, not amnesty.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Maria Salazar’s Background and Perspective

• Cuban Exile Experience Shaping Values

  • Salazar describes the trauma and sorrow of exile common in Miami’s Little Havana, emphasizing deep gratitude and patriotism for the United States.
  • Quote: "We love the Americans... we come from the same neighborhood... the sorrow, the sadness of living in exile is something we have in our DNA..." – Maria Salazar (05:11)

• Appreciation for America & Motivation for Public Service

  • Her family’s experience in Cuba instilled an appreciation for democracy and capitalism, fueling her commitment to “help and protect the republic.”
  • Quote: "What a wonderful, glorious country... that is the force and the power inside of my heart that... is propelling and sending me forward..." – Salazar (05:11)

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2. Discussion of Cuba and Venezuela

• The Durability of Cuban Totalitarianism

  • Salazar reflects on Fidel Castro’s legacy not just as an oppressor but a political “genius” in the consolidation and maintenance of power through fear.
  • Quote: "He was able to create something that you call the invincibility of the system in the hearts and minds of the Cubans." – Salazar (10:15)
  • Succinct historical context is provided for Cuba’s pre-communist prosperity and its subsequent stagnation ("a fossilized economy") under Castro (13:34).

• Venezuela’s Crisis and International Influence

  • The show shifts to Venezuela’s collapse, the role of Cuban advisors in propping up Maduro, and what is required for its stabilization.
  • Salazar stresses the importance of American guidance for Venezuela’s transition, support for democratic leader Maria Corina Machado, and the need for true, internationally observed elections (07:59, 20:47).
  • Quote: "Trump has created a new blueprint... we’re going to use their resources, in this case the oil, we’re going to take it away from them... and then transition and give it back to the Venezuelans.” – Salazar (06:58)

• Impacts on Cuba from Venezuela’s Collapse

  • With the end of subsidized oil from Venezuela, Cuba’s regime is weakened, described as “hanging by a thread” (11:14).

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3. Personal and Community Roots

• Generational Narratives: Exile, Family, and Identity
  • Both Salazar and Marco Rubio were raised by grandparents who fled communism, shaping a generational mission to secure America’s future (12:33).
  • Quote: "We owe it to our grandchildren and we owe it to our grandparents.” – Salazar (12:18)

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4. U.S. Immigration System: Problems and the DIGNITY Act Solution

• Critique of Current System and Partisanship

  • Salazar criticizes both parties for failing to solve immigration, accusing Democrats of playing “political football,” and Republicans of ceding Hispanic support by ignoring the issue (22:50).

• The DIGNITY Act: A ‘Solomonic’ Approach

  • Core Proposals:
    • Those living in the U.S. more than five years, with a clean record, can enter “dignity status.”
    • Pay a $7,000 fine, buy private health insurance, contribute 1% of their salary over seven years.
    • No access to federal benefits, no path to citizenship or voting rights—only dignity, not amnesty.
    • Workers can live and travel without fear of deportation as long as they remain law-abiding and contribute economically.
  • Enforcement Priorities:
    • ICE to focus on criminals, not families integrated into communities.
  • Economic Imperatives:
    • Emphasizes dire labor shortages in crucial sectors (agriculture, hospitality, healthcare), which the current population of undocumented workers can help address.
  • Quote: "Dignity is not amnesty. This is dignity. Dignity is not amnesty. So what's the plan out of this legislation?" – Salazar (22:50)
  • Quote: “No government programs, not becoming an American ever. But being able to come out of the shadows and raise their head and not feel ashamed or in anxiety or in fear...” – Salazar (32:58)
  • Engagement with Business and Faith Groups:
    • The act is supported by evangelicals, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and manufacturer associations (37:54).
  • Quote: “There’s no way that we’re going to be able to continue being the number one economy in the world... if we do not have economic growth. And how can we grow? If people work.” – Salazar (37:54)

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5. Notable Quotes & Moments

• The Links Between Immigration, Economics, and American Values

  • Gingrich on the American ideal: "...the power comes from God to the citizen and then goes from the citizen to the government. But it doesn't come from the government to the citizen." (30:07)
  • Emphasis on “dignity” as a founding principle and practical necessity.

• Presidential Influence and Political Framing

  • Salazar speaks directly to Trump: “This is an audience of one, President Trump... He will be for immigration what Lincoln was for slavery and Reagan was for communism... Dignity is yours, sir.” (35:47)

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6. Call to Action & Closing Thoughts

• How to Engage:
  • Listeners are urged to read the book ("Dignity Not Citizenship," available on Amazon), visit Representative Salazar’s website, and contact their lawmakers in support of the DIGNITY Act (35:40).
  • Gingrich calls for a constructive immigration conversation that balances law, economic reality, and American values (36:57).
• Final Words:
  • Salazar: “Listen, we're fortunate to live in the United States of America... We count our blessings and we're grateful. And that's why we need to do what we're doing...” (39:14)

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Important Timestamps

| Time | Section / Quote / Topic | |----------|----------------------------------------------------------------------| | 04:05 | Salazar describes her family’s exile, poverty, and patriotism | | 06:35 | Discussion of Cuban regime, Castro’s tactics | | 07:59 | Salazar on Venezuela’s path to stability and U.S. role | | 10:15 | On Castro’s enduring, fear-based regime | | 12:33 | Importance of generational memory in immigrant families | | 13:52 | Cuba’s pre-revolution prosperity | | 18:34 | Welcoming Venezuela’s legitimate president to U.S. Capitol | | 22:50 | Salazar explains the DIGNITY Act in detail | | 30:07 | Gingrich on American power and dignity | | 32:58 | Salazar on why dignity, not citizenship or amnesty, is essential | | 35:47 | How to learn more about the DIGNITY Act; direct message to Trump | | 37:54 | Labor shortages/endgame realities; support for the DIGNITY Act | | 39:14 | Final gratitude and mission statement |

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Tonal and Stylistic Notes

• The conversation blends heartfelt personal history with policy analysis, moving fluently between family stories, international affairs, and legislative details.
• Salazar is direct, passionate, and emphasizes gratitude and duty to America.
• Gingrich is reflective, amplifying Salazar’s points, recalling history, and lending institutional wisdom.

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Summary Takeaway

This episode offers a deeply personal and pragmatic look at American immigration policy, rooted in both lived experience and legislative realities. Rep. Salazar’s DIGNITY Act is framed not as amnesty, but as an American solution tailored to current demographic and economic needs, anchored in the ideal that human dignity is central to the republic’s moral and material future. The conversation is a call to break partisan deadlock, to center immigrant dignity, and to secure America’s blessings for future generations.

Transcript

[Congresswoman Maria Salazar]

This is an iHeart podcast guaranteed human.

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[Congresswoman Maria Salazar]

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[Congresswoman Maria Salazar]

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[Congresswoman Maria Salazar]

See Terms.

[Newt Gingrich]

On this episode of Newts World. My guest today is Congresswoman Maria Salazar. She proudly represents Florida's 27th congressional district serving the people of South Florida. I have to say I'm particularly proud because she represents my daughter, my son in law she currently serves on the House Committee on Foreign affairs and the House Committee on Small Business. She's really remarkable. I've gotten to know her over the years. She is a five time Emmy award winning journalist. She has spent her career holding the corrupt and powerful accountable. She's gone toe to toe with Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro, Chile's Augusto Pinochet, and most notably Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Starting at the age of 22, she's worked for every major US Spanish language broadcasting network. She's joining me today to discuss Venezuela, her new book, Dignity Not Citizenship, the truth about Immigration no one is telling you, and her proposed legislation, the Dignity Act. So I'm really pleased to welcome my guest, Congresswoman Maria Salazar. Welcome and thank you for joining me on Newts World.

[Congresswoman Maria Salazar]

Oh, even more pleased and thank you for those kind words. Yes, I do represent your daughter and your son in law and I am delighted to be with you because when you presented Contract with America, I was a rookie journalist and I admired so much what you did. After how many years? 435 years of, of Dem's control in the House, you grabbed it back. And that's why I'm delighted to be able to be talking to you. Because we need to do the same thing now in 2026, in November. So my honor and my deepest respect for you, sir.

[Newt Gingrich]

Well, thank you. And I actually think you have a very real likelihood of pulling it off again this November. I'm very excited by it. I want to start with your own background because I think it's fascinating. You're the daughter of Cuban political refugees. As you were growing up in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood, what were the conversations like and what was the sense you got about what had gone wrong in Cuba and what needed to be done?

[Congresswoman Maria Salazar]

Wonderful question. Three things come to mind. Number one, long live the aunties. We love the Americans, which is the same sentiment that Marco Rubio has. You know, we come from the same neighborhood. He is also the son, first generation American, son of political refugees, Cubans who came out of that island which was the pearl, the jewel of the Caribbean. They had fallen into socialism, into that dream. They drank the Kool Aid and then they had to leave. And the sorrow, the sadness of living in exile is something that we have in our DNA and I'm sure that Marco has it too, number one. But then what? We are in the United States. Oh my God, what a wonderful, glorious country. And that is the force and the power inside of my heart that it's propelling and sending me forward in order to help and protect the republic. That's number one. Number two, living in Little Havana with nothing in poverty but with hope. And number three, Cuba, socialism. They drank the Kool Aid. They really believed that Fidel said, oh, we're going to be in 18 months, we're going to be conducting free and fair elections. Sure. And Fidel, we know what he did with that island and we know what the ideology does, the socialism. It's beautiful in theory, beautiful. It's miserable in practice.

[Newt Gingrich]

Secretary of State Rubio, National Security Advisor Rubio was deeply, deeply shaped by his parents experience and his own experience. And I can't imagine anybody better prepared in this moment with everything going on in Venezuela and elsewhere. I can't imagine anybody who would be better suited to be Secretary of State at this point.

[Congresswoman Maria Salazar]

No, I agree. When it comes to the Western Hemisphere, we know what that story looks like. And we know with Venezuela now that you mentioned that when he said stabilize, restore and transition, that's exactly what we're going to do. And I was saying, Newt, that Trump has created a new blueprint, like a new groundbreaking model on how to deal with the Western Hemisphere, with our enemies and with allies, which is different to what we did in other parts of the world. This time we're going to use their resources, in this case the oil, we're going to take it away from them. We're going to use those resources to rebuild, to reconstruct civil society, the electoral system, and then transition and give it back to the Venezuelans.

[Newt Gingrich]

There's something like 8 million Venezuelans who have left the country. Do you think a substantial number of them will go back? Once there's stability, they're going to start.

[Congresswoman Maria Salazar]

Trickling back little by little because you know that you need political stability which will bring then economic stability. And it's very important. Who is going to be running the show, which I do believe there's going to be Machado, but with the help and the support and the guidance of the Americans, very important to leave the Americans in place because that way she's going to be able to weed out the scum that was created for 25 years. The Chavistas destroyed the country.

[Newt Gingrich]

You actually met with and interviewed Maduro. What was your sense of him?

[Congresswoman Maria Salazar]

I interviewed Fidel Castor. So I do have a point of reference. And I can say to you that Maduro is no Fidel. Maduro was just a puppet that was following instructions from Havana because you know Havana, they do this quid pro quo. I give you, I send you the Book on how to repress, chapter 1, 2, 3, 4. And then you send me back resources that I need because I, Havana, only produce repression. And Maduro was just following, was just following the textbook, surrounded, mind you, by Cubans that were helping him and guiding him. That's why 32 Cubans died protecting Maduro. There's no reason why Cubans need to be protecting the Venezuelans. We know the drill. He is nothing. Delsey is worse because she's more intelligent, she's more an ideologue, she is better prepared. She speaks three languages, therefore she's more evil and more pernicious. So we got to be very careful with her and her brother, who is a psychiatrist, who happens to be running. They ran the secret police, they ran the jails, and they ran the repressive apparatus, while Diosdaro Cabello, who is also indicted by the United States, was running the military along with Maduro and the Sun's cartel. So they had divided the chores, the division of labor.

[Newt Gingrich]

Fidel, actually, I guess in part with Russian help, developed a model of totalitarian government which has been remarkably durable. I mean, they have really survived a lot.

[Congresswoman Maria Salazar]

No doubt about it. Fidel, 50 years from now, historians will look back and will look at Fidel as someone who learned not only how to obtain the power, but how to maintain it. And unfortunately for the Cubans, he is going to surpass Lenin and Stalin because he was able to create something that you call the invincibility of the system in the hearts and minds of the Cubans. Meaning the Cubans know that it's better to go into the Florida Strait and face the sharks because they have 50% chance of living. But they do know that they have 100% chance against them to confront the regime. And that's Fidel's genius, unfortunately for evil.

[Newt Gingrich]

So given the collapse of Venezuela as an ally, how much pressure does that put on Cuba, on the current dictatorship? And to what degree does it weaken its survival ability?

[Congresswoman Maria Salazar]

It weakens it tremendously because now they are not receiving any more oil. At one point, Chavez gave Fidel 100,000 barrels a day for free, 100,000 a day for free for years and years and years when the barrel was $120. So the Cubans survived for 20 years living off Chavez and the Venezuelans. Now that has ended, but unfortunately we hear that Shane Bomb from Mexico is saying, hey, I'm going to step in. Why? And that's another issue we have now with Mexico, but that's another story. But right now, Venezuelan oil zero, no More. And that is definitely. But you know, the Cubans are at the beginning of the end as well, because that regime is just hanging by a thread.

[Newt Gingrich]

Standing with Marco, we literally were chatting about the strategy for getting rid of the dictatorship. So I know that it's very high on his list of what he is determined to try to accomplish.

[Congresswoman Maria Salazar]

Of course, we owe it to our grandchildren. I mean, we owe it to our grandchildren and we owe it to our grandparents.

[Newt Gingrich]

That's actually a very good line. That is both the generation that fled and the generation that may have a chance to go back.

[Congresswoman Maria Salazar]

Correct. I always think that it's impossible for my grandchildren to live what my grandparents left behind, which is my concern. That's why I'm doing this immigration movement, because we need to secure the Anglo American agenda. The American agenda needs to continue going forward for the benefit of my grandchildren, because my grandparents fled. And I remember, and Marco remembers his grandfather, who was extremely influential in his life, because I'm not sure if you know this. While his parents went to work, he was taken care of by his grandfather, who was telling him the horrors of communism. And teaching him Spanish was the same thing. In my house, my grandmother Elvira took care of me, taught me Spanish and explained to me. I could see it in her face, the sorrow of what communism did to her.

[Newt Gingrich]

Well, and I think those of us who did not grow up in Cuba really don't appreciate what a remarkable, beautiful place it was prior to Fidel. As you said earlier, it was sort of the pearl of the Caribbean at the time, was one of the great success stories. And I think the highest income in.

[Congresswoman Maria Salazar]

Latin America, the highest. Had the highest per capita income in Latin America. Close to Italy, Argentina. With Peron, it was the jewel because of the proximity and since we had the sugar quota that we were guaranteed, the Cubans had an influx of dollars coming in in order to use it to the creation of that beautiful capital. If you look at Havana right now is the perfect testament to Fidel Castro. The whole capital speaks about himself.

[Newt Gingrich]

If you look at the cars that are there, it's a fossilized economy. It's just astonishing. When you're talking to folks who don't understand what just happened in Venezuela. How do you explain the difference between the things we did in the Middle east and the thing we just achieved in Venezuela?

[Congresswoman Maria Salazar]

It's like Marco said, is apple to oranges. Western hemisphere Venezuela, highly Westernized, very much pro American, had a very strong democratic system. They knew how to conduct elections and what civil rights meant. So they had a platform already of knowledge on where to sustain and to understand what is that we're trying to bring back. So it's not hard when you talk to Maria Corina and she proved to the world that they had won 80, 20 because that 80% of the Venezuelans were voting to go back to democratic institutions. Look at Panama. This is the perfect example. Panama is Grenada with Reagan, but Panama with Bush. I was there, I covered it. And when the Marines were coming in, the Panamanian girls would just throw themselves at the Marines, at the towheads like you and say, please marry me, marry me, marry me.

[Newt Gingrich]

You know, that's wild that I did not know that story.

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[Newt Gingrich]

A year ago, you welcomed Edmundo Gonzalez Arusha, who was the legitimately elected president of Venezuela, to the US Capitol. What did that feel like? I mean, there you are at a moment in history when it looked like Maduro was probably permanent, and yet here's a guy who clearly had won the election.

[Congresswoman Maria Salazar]

I felt, how unfair. But I knew that under the Trump administration, things were going to change. And even more when I would talk to Maria Karina via satellite from somewhere in a tunnel in Caracas and she had been there for 16 months, someone who not only Maduro said no, even though you won the primary, you are not going to be able to be the presidential nominee because I just don't like. But she won. And you, Maduro, you signed an agreement with the Biden administration to call the Barbados Accord. And you, Maduro, you committed to do free and fair elections. And whomever won was going to stay. But no, now Maduro changed his mind. And then Maria Corina, who then said, okay, I'm not going to be the presidential nominee. Then what do we give that opportunity to? Edmundo? I'm going to be the vice president. And she orchestrated this whole organization where she proved that the tallies proved that they had won 80 to 20. And then on top of that, she had to go into hiding.

[Newt Gingrich]

In the long run, to allow her to stay in power would be a huge mistake. She is the machine, it seems to me.

[Congresswoman Maria Salazar]

She is the machine. She has all the resources and the people, hundreds of thousands of people all around Venezuela who were able to take pictures with their phones of the tallies and count the votes truthfully and prove to the world that they had, with numbers, won the election. So she was smarter than Maduro and the whole repressive apparatus. That's why she deserves our respect.

[Newt Gingrich]

Should the United States basically bring back Russia?

[Congresswoman Maria Salazar]

I think that we should call for three fair elections with international observers the way we know how to do this, and just let the Venezuelan people speak. Allow for those who are out of the country, in Europe and in the United States to be able to vote through the consulates and just let them speak. And all the political parties that want to organize, to be able to go back and just do it the old fashioned way, the way we do it according to the United States Constitution. That's what I think we should do. And I do believe that she will be the winner once again.

[Newt Gingrich]

Good. I've always admired you. And the first time I saw you, I was a candidate. I thought, you clearly know television. I had no idea how deep your knowledge was. Frankly, you look so young. It's impossible to believe that you've done all the things you've done.

[Congresswoman Maria Salazar]

Thank you. Well, you know, it's because this country gives you the opportunity. It's equality of opportunity. And I knew because of what I had heard back at home. Just like Marco. Look at Marco. Marc was the Secretary of State. He's the national security advisor to the United States President. In one generation only in the United States. So we believed it and I grabbed it. And that's why I'm here serving this for 27. Believe me, I could be on television working a lot less and making a lot more. I didn't want to mention that, but you are absolutely correct.

[Newt Gingrich]

But it's true. It's true.

[Congresswoman Maria Salazar]

But you see, the country, we, the Cuban Americans, need to pay back as much as we can to this fantastic country and create the platform for the future.

[Newt Gingrich]

You know, when you first came to Congress, you said, quote, I'm coming to Washington to fix immigration. You have a unique perspective on this and I'd really like you to sort of share with all of us your thinking about immigration and how we need to move on from where we are now to get to a stable system.

[Congresswoman Maria Salazar]

Yes. And I would love for you to help me because if you understand it, I'm sure that you can definitely influence and explain to the powers that be. I'm going to explain to you why the Hispanics are the largest minority in the country and the fastest growing. These are numbers, right? The Hispanics are 23% of the population. There are 60 million votes available from the Hispanic community. The Democratic Party has failed the Hispanics repeatedly for the last 30 years. They have played political football with the Hispanics and I can't prove it. And if you want, we can go Biden, Obama, Clinton, we can go there right now. We have an issue with national security and with immigration and with the economy. Number one, we need to secure the border. The border is secured now. We need to see who and know who our neighbors are. We need to make sure that everyone around us is the good hombre. So national security, number two, the economy. We need to provide to key sectors. Construction, hospitality, agricultural, health care, the butcher houses, agricultural. We need to provide a stable labor force. That labor force is in here. That's the economy. Number four, immigration. We have a broken immigration system, the catch and release, the asylum system, the border, all that. It needs to be revamped and rewritten by the United States Congress. So since I am a legislator, I said okay, so let's write something that fixes the problem. And on top of that, we need to welcome the Hispanics back to the GOP and make them and marry them and have them marry us. Because we have the same values that are enshrined in the Republican Party, God fearing, law abiding, tax paying, small government, pro family, pro God. So welcome them, bring them, and if they have the voting card in their hand, even better. So that's why I created the dignity legislation right now. You know that the word amnesty, what does that mean? No one really knows. But well, let's say that is path to citizenship. Okay, Amnesty. So no amnesty. Indignity. This is not amnesty. This is dignity. Dignity is not amnesty. So what's the plan out of this legislation? Pepe, you've been here for more than five years, which does not include the Biden migrants. If you have been here for more than five years and you have been working and you do not have a criminal record, then you can come out of the shadows. Come out of the shadows and we'll give you the dignity status. You need to buy your own health insurance. No federal programs available to you, meaning no Medicare, no Medicaid, no Social Security, no food stamps, nothing. Then you pay $7,000 as a fine for your crime and you give me 1% of your salary for the next seven years. 1% of your salary and you get to stay. You go home for Christmas, you bury your mom and you get to stay in the country. In the meantime, you will never be deported and we will have secured a stable labor force. We will know who is everyone living in the country and then ICE will have the opportunity to use the money that we gave them from the bbb. We have the opportunity to then use those resources to concentrate on the bad hombres and everyone who's illegal, that is illegal, who has a criminal record or is a murderer or a rapist. Then we can find you and kick you up.

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[Newt Gingrich]

I voted for the 1986 act. You know, at the time we thought you had to control the border and we thought you had to have some kind of orderly process for people, some kind of way of knowing that people who were here legally could get a job and could be part of the system. I look back on it and frankly, in part because the business community wouldn't cooperate, huge opposition to actually defining whether or not somebody was legally here. I worry very much Lincoln said in 1858 that with popular sentiment, nothing can fail. Without popular sentiment, nothing can succeed. And I'm watching the aggressiveness of ICE begin to lose popular sentiment. It's not going to be sustainable. And I don't think people understand yet in the administration that there was huge support for controlling the border. There is substantial support for getting rid of criminals, but there's remarkably little support for going after people who've been working hard, raising families, going to local pta, participating voluntarily in Red Cross blood drives. Going after those folks is going to rapidly destroy any kind of majority for an effective immigration program. And I think your book and your legislation is really important. That's why I think it's really important that you've written a book designed to allow people to start re approaching thinking about this. And this idea of dignity is really important because being an American involves a sense of being endowed by your creator that makes you different than countries where you're just under the control of the government. On our 250th anniversary, we really do believe the power comes from God to the citizen and then goes from the citizen to the government. But it doesn't come from the government to the citizen. And I think your new book, Dignity Not Citizenship, the Truth about Immigration, no one is telling you. I think that's a very important contribution and I hope you will, as much as you can, go out and talk about it. Because I think we have to break out of the current moment and get back to a much more constructive and much more positive approach which does get us to legality, does get us to a controlled environment, but does so with people having a sense that we're treating human beings fairly and with dignity, we're not just running over them.

[Congresswoman Maria Salazar]

I would have not been able to say it better. I'm not asking our friends on the GOP side, my friends in Congress, to vote for citizenship. I'm not talking about becoming an American, talking about giving them dignity so they can continue working for us. And this is like what I call Solomonic now that you quote the Bible and Lord Almighty. This is what the Lord gives to every single individual. Dignity to live a dignified life in the promised land. Dignity. That's all they want. And what does that entail? No government programs, not becoming an American ever. But being able to come out of the shadows and raise their head and not feel ashamed or in anxiety or in fear that they are going to be disappeared after 23 years of working on the fields. The problem is that there's a lot of fear among the legislators because there are other groups that will accuse them of. You're in favor of amnesty? You're in favor of amnesty? What does that mean? Amnesty is what the legals have now. Free schools, free roads and free hospitals. So what I am saying is, why don't we bring them out of the shadows, make them pay for their crime and make them pay taxes and stop giving them anything for free while they are contributing to those sectors that need them. Construction, hospitality and agricultural. This is good for the average American person. If you are traveling for business, you're going to go to a nice hotel where that's clean and it's cheap. And you're going to be able to go buy fruits and vegetables and meat and poultry cheap because the slaughterhouses are working and they are being manned by people that are willing to do jobs that other Americans are not willing to engage in. No one is taking a job from the Americans. There are a lot of jobs available that Americans do not want to do. I mean, you've heard this before. But then on top of that, we have the Democratic Party. Now let's get into politics. That has been infiltrated by this type of ideology, which is not very American, which is Mondami. This is democratic socialism. What do you mean, socialism? And then my concern is that that is going to come all the way up to Washington and we may have a democratic socialist president. The Founding Fathers will be very concerned if that were to happen. So what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to tell that pool of voters in the middle, the Hispanics that are growing, growing, growing to be part of the gop.

[Newt Gingrich]

People who want to know more about the Dignity act, how can they find all the details?

[Congresswoman Maria Salazar]

They can go to my website. Representative Salazar. They can just Google or they can buy the book. They can go to Amazon and go to Salazar Dignity. And it's in English and in Spanish. And it's 199, 199, the digital copy. And I have written it television style. The legislation and the explanation as to why this is needed in this country at this time. But to be honest with you, this is an audience of one President Trump. And if you have an opportunity to talk to him, please explain what you think. You will pick the words that you need to use because you are highly influential. All I'm helping everybody is to help me help the Republic and why it's an audience of one. Because the guy comes from construction and hospitality. He knows. And he's a business guy. And he dares to do things, look at Venezuela, that no one else dares. He will be for immigration while Lincoln was for slavery and Reagan was for communism. I mean, gop. I wrote it. Here it is, sir. Now it's yours. Dignity is yours, sir.

[Newt Gingrich]

I love the way you just described that. That's good. That would appeal to Trump, that he can be for immigration what Reagan was for communism and Lincoln was for slavery. You've got the rhythm here. If I didn't know better, I'd say that your TV years had taught you a lot about communicating. I'm going to encourage everybody who's listening to both. Go to the book, but also consider writing your own congressmen and your own senators about the Dignity act, because it's really important that we have this kind of a conversation. Dignity, not citizenship. The truth about immigration, no one is telling you. It's available at Amazon and elsewhere. And what Maria Salazar is doing is an important act of leadership that I think is vital. And I hope that everybody who listens to us today will decide they're going to get involved also, because the more people who speak up about this, the better off we're going to be.

[Congresswoman Maria Salazar]

Yes, we have the evangelicals, we have the Southern Baptists, we have the United States Chamber of Commerce. We have the manufacturings, of course, the agricultural. We have those sectors that are desperate for hands. There's no way that we're going to be able to continue being the number one economy in the world with the number one military in the world if we do not have economic growth. And how can we grow if people work? It's impossible. Newt, the national association of Manufacturers has told us that they have 400,000 jobs available. 400,000 jobs. You need to fill those jobs. And those people are here. And on top of that, like you were saying about ICE, we do not have enough agents to deport 10, 12 million people. We may deport what, 10%, 20%? What about the other 80%?

[Newt Gingrich]

The country won't tolerate it. You can't have that level of turmoil. You got to do things people will support because they believe they're right. And I think your approach with dignity is very, very important and actually very wise. So I want to thank you, Maria. You've been a great guest. You're always amazing. You've certainly lived up to your billing. And I will report to my daughter and my son in law that they're very fortunate to have such an intelligent and competent member of Congress.

[Congresswoman Maria Salazar]

Listen, we're fortunate to live in the United States of America. I have not asked the Cubans, the Iranians, the Venezuelans, the Nicaraguans, the North Koreans. We count our blessings and we're grateful. And that's why we need to do what we're doing so we can continue being grateful to the Lord Almighty. And may the Lord guide us. And thank you very much for those words. They come from a very important member, Founder of the GOP the Way We Know It. I'm going to deputize you so you can help me.

[Newt Gingrich]

Thank you to my guest, Congresswoman Maria Salazar. New Toworld is produced by Gingrich360 and iHeartMedia. Our executive producer is Garnesy Sloan. Our researcher is Rachel Peterson. The artwork for the show is created by Steve Pendley. Special thanks to the team at Gingrich 360 if you've been enjoying Newts World, I hope you'll go to Apple Podcasts and both rate us with five stars and give us a review so others can learn what it's all about. Join me on [e-mail] I'm Newt Gingrich. This is Newt's World. Foreign.

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[Congresswoman Maria Salazar]

This is an iHeart podcast.

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