Democrat Calls for 'Speedy Path to Citizenship' for 11 Million Migrants
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
Democratic Representative Maxwell Frost has called for a simpler path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, saying that the U.S. "should document every single one of them."
Speaking at a Wednesday press conference in Orlando, Florida, Frost proposed the move while announcing new legislation about transparency with ICE.
If documenting "every single" undocumented immigrant happened, it would make 11 million migrants legal, according to figures from the American Immigration Council.
Why It Matters
Immigration has been a central pillar of Trump's second-term agenda. The president has pledged sweeping crackdowns on border security, expanded deportation operations, and an end to federal benefits for undocumented immigrants.
In recent weeks, there has been public resistance to this immigration enforcement. A series of immigration raids sparked a large protest in Los Angeles earlier this month. In response to some incidents of violence and looting, Trump announced the deployment of National Guard troops.
Meanwhile, there have also been legal challenges to the administration invoking the wartime Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to broaden deportation authority.
Representative Maxwell Frost announces his filing of the Stop Unlawful Detention and End Mistreatment Act (SUDEM) at his office in Orlando, Florida, on Wednesday, June 18, 2025.
Representative Maxwell Frost announces his filing of the Stop Unlawful Detention and End Mistreatment Act (SUDEM) at his office in Orlando, Florida, on Wednesday, June 18, 2025.
Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel via AP
What To Know
Frost said that "being undocumented is not a crime" and called to give undocumented people "a speedy path to citizenship."
The conference was called to unveil his new bill, the SUDEM Act, which stands for Stop Unlawful Detention and End Mistreatment.
If passed, it would give detainees, their families and lawyers more information about who is being detained, where, when and why, the legal authority behind each detention and make public other data.
What People Are Saying
William F. Hall, an adjunct professor of political science and business at Webster University in St. Louis told Newsweek: "Notwithstanding the potential benefits that may be realized, if such a program to achieve a goal of mass documentation of all undocumented U.S. residents could be achieved, in my view, it would still appear that successful implementation of such an ambitious program for mass documentation of undocumented, would be highly improbable, mainly due to the estimates of the vast numbers that would be required to be documented, approximately 11-12 million, and the significant difficulties related to implementation of such an ambitious mass documentation program that would have to be successfully overcome.
"This would also entail the need to develop, implement and administer a program that would require additional personnel, and perhaps even more significantly, development of a program that would allow undocumented individuals to feel safe in both accessing as well as participating in such a documentation system, two challenges that would appear to be extremely daunting at the very least and highly improbable, if not totally impractical or even impossible, especially given the current highly tense environment with respect to enforcement by ICE and implementation of immigration policies in general, at present."
Frost at the conference: "I want to be clear, being undocumented is not a crime. My Republican colleagues who say I don't want any undocumented people in this country, I actually agree with you. So let's document every single one of them with a speedy path to citizenship. That's how we fix this problem."
"We can't let politicians like Donald Trump pit us against one another," he added. "We are an immigrant filled community."
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican called "blanket amnesty" a "dangerous idea."
"We must defend common sense and the rule of law," he wrote on X.
You can't make this stuff up!
At a Democrat rally today, Rep. Maxwell Frost proposed BLANKET AMNESTY for EVERY SINGLE ONE of the MILLIONS of ILLEGAL aliens Joe Biden let into the country.
Republicans will never let this dangerous idea happen. We must defend common sense and the… pic.twitter.com/cRJE8rt6DM — Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) June 18, 2025
On X, Texas Republican Brandon Gill said: "Dems want mass amnesty for every single illegal alien Joe Biden brought into our country. Why? So they can turn them into Democrat voters. And so they can rig congressional apportionment in their favor. We will never let that happen.
What Happens Next
Frost's bill is unlikely to pass given it would need bipartisan support and the Republicans have a majority in the House of Representatives. Nevertheless, Frost told the press he will head to Washington D.C. to gather cosponsors.
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