(NewsNation) — A bipartisan bill aimed at comprehensive immigration reform would revamp the nation’s border, streamline aslylum claims and create a new legal status, but getting the bill passed could be a massive undertaking. 

The nearly 500-page Dignity Act of 2023, introduced late last month by Reps. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, and Maria Elvira Salazar, R-Florida, outlines sweeping recommendations and changes to the U.S. immigration system. Already, it has garnered support from Republican and Democratic members of Congress.

Its sponsors have touted the bill as the best hope for reform in a decade, but its all-encompassing nature, could be an obstacle, said Tara Watson, Director of the Center on Children and Families at Brookings Institution.

“It’s trying to address a large problem or issue in a pretty comprehensive way,” Watson said. “That also means that it’s going to be potentially difficult to move forward.” 

What would the border look like? 

The bill envisions a more sophisticated and strategically managed southern border, with funding for both infrastructure and technological upgrades. 

About $10 billion would be allocated over five years toward the expansion and modernization of ports of entry. 

That would include expanding vehicle, cargo and pedestrian inspection lanes. It also would create the Immigration Infrastructure Fund, which would provide for the infrastructure, personnel, and other costs.

Notably, the nation’s goal would be redirected to achieving “operational advantage at the border, rather than its longstanding target of “operational control.” 

The current standard aims to prevent all unlawful entries into the U.S., a metric the congresswomen called “unrealistic and unworkable.”

Activity at the border isn’t what it was 20 years ago, Watson said. 

“A lot of people were crossing without authorization, sneaking across the border at night,” she said.

Now, the high level of activity at the border consists mostly of people surrendering themselves with asylum claims, she said. 

“It requires a different approach altogether than what the Border Patrol has been traditionally doing,” Watson said.

Striving for operational advantage would instead prioritize “the ability to detect, respond, and interdict border penetrations in areas deemed as high-priority for threat potential or another national security objectives,” according to a news release the legislators issued. 

Part of achieving that goal would include CBP development of a five-year technology investment plan, including upgrades of surveillance and communication systems. There would be no funding for restarting the construction of the Trump border wall or similar projects, however. 

How would it impact legal statuses? 

Under the proposed bill, migrants could obtain legal status through several avenues, including participating in a so-called Dignity Program. 

The new “Dignity” status would grant undocumented people in the U.S legal status, along with work and travel authority, as well as a permanently renewable legal status for as long as they meet the criteria. 

Anyone participating in the program would be required to pay $5,000 over the course of seven years, as well as pass a criminal background check, pay any outstanding taxes, and begin or continue paying taxes.

The program has the potential to impact as many as 11 million people. 

“There are many people… living in the U.S. without status, who are in political limbo and have been for years,” Watson said. “(They’re) just sort of living day-to-day lives, often very immersed in local communities here and go to bed every night knowing that the next day might be their last day in the U.S. with their kids.” 

Another secondary five-year program available to Dignity recipients after the first seven years would make participants eligible to apply for citizenship upon completion. 

If passed, the act would also create a renewable legal status for undocumented agricultural workers and would grant participants the option to seek citizenship though enlisting in the U.S. military.

How would it impact asylum?

Processing centers in key Latin American countries would offer services like pre-screening for potential asylum seekers or economic migrants. 

If found eligible for asylum, they would receive a humanitarian visa that would allow them to travel to the U.S. to have their claim adjudicated.  

Stateside, the Dignity Act of 2023 would provide a screening process to determine whether an asylum seeker meets the standard for credible fear. That interview would take place within the first 15 days of arrival, following a 72-hour rest period and a chance to speak with a lawyer. 

If a credible fear claim is established, asylum seekers would have their case determined by an asylum officer within 45 days. Asylum officers would also have the option of assigning cases to immigration judges if they are too complex to resolve within the 45-day deadline.

Those whose credible fear claims aren’t approved would have seven days to have their case heard again.

The amended asylum process would require additional hires since it calls for at least 500 asylum officers to help review cases. 

What about people with visas? 

U.S. visa services would undergo several changes under the proposed law. That would include expanding Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Visa Security Units to the 75 most high-risk posts worldwide, as well as enhancing counterterrorism vetting and creating a new 90-day visitor visa. 

A pilot program also would be available for as many as 10,000 agricultural workers. 

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted visa services and caused backlogs across all categories of visas, according to the state department. More than 350,000 eligible applicants are currently awaiting interviews, according to a June report. In 2019, about 60,866 applicants were awaiting the scheduling of an interview each month.

The proposed act would place a 10-year cap on visa backlogs, meaning that family- or employment-based visas will be granted to anyone who has waited that long. 

Additionally, children who are legally present in the U.S. wouldn’t age out of receiving certain visas because of processing delays.

The act would also raise the allowance for how many visa applicants the U.S. can take in.

“We have restrictions on the books about how many people can come through legal channels every year,” Watson said. “Those have not been updated in decades.”

Currently, no country can receive more than 7% of the total number of employment-based or family-sponsored preference visas each year. That would be raised to 15%. 

“I think from the overwhelming majority of undocumented immigrants, being able to stay and work without fear of being removed is really the most critical thing,” Watson said. “And then getting to the next stage, which could be citizenship.” 

What’s next?

The bill, having only recently been introduced, could have a long way to go.

Neither of the bill’s co-sponsors were immediately available to comment. Salazar, however, previously told NewsNation the proposed legislation is “the best bill to revamp immigration in the last 10 years.” 

“Immigration is a toxic topic in Congress, and it should not be that way,” Salazar said. 

Sponsors of the bill have repeatedly stressed that it isn’t perfect and called for other ideas as they hash out proposals.

“I feel like there’s this paralysis,” Watson said. “We could just get out of paralysis by doing something — even if it’s small, even if it’s just solving one little nugget of a very complex problem, it would let us get out of this mindset.”