HIRE or Dignity | What are American lawmakers offering international students, aspiring workers with their pro-immigration bills? | Education News
Over six lakh Indian students are currently studying in North America, including more than 2.5 lakh in the United States alone, even as the debate over immigration and policy shifts continues to intensify. According to data tabled by the MEA in the ongoing Lok Sabha Winter Session, a total of 2,55,247 Indian students are enrolled in the US, as of January 2025. The year following President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January has seen sweeping changes across the American immigration landscape. This includes tightened financial scrutiny and proposed visa caps to expanded border-control measures, and new legislative proposals affecting students, workers, and long-term residents.
It is against this backdrop of shifting immigration rules that two major legislative proposals have stood out in the US Congress this year for their scale and what they seek to change. Among them, the DIGNIDAD or Dignity Act of 2025 — introduced by Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar with bipartisan support — seeks a sweeping overhaul of border management, visa frameworks, and long-term legalisation pathways. Complementing this is the High-skilled Immigration Reform for Employment (HIRE) Act — introduced by Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi in late November 2025, which focuses specifically on high-skilled worker visas and STEM education funding.
Though both bills remain at the introductory stage, they have sparked considerable interest among students and professionals tracking US immigration policy. To understand what these proposals could mean for study-abroad aspirants and those pursuing careers in America, indianexpress.com examined the full texts of both bills, and here’s what they contain.
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What the HIRE Act Proposes
The HIRE Act is narrowly tailored and makes a series of direct amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act. Its most consequential change appears under Section 2, where the bill explicitly states an alteration to the annual H-1B numerical limit. On page 2, lines 5–6, the bill instructs the statute to be amended by “striking ‘65,000’ and inserting ‘130,000’,” effectively doubling the yearly H-1B cap. On the same page, line 8 removes the long-standing exemption ceiling for US master’s degree holders by striking the clause that limited the advanced-degree exemption “until the number… exceeds 20,000.”
Read | More hurdles in H-1B process as US Embassy in India defers visa interviews
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The bill also rewrites the definition of an H-1B-dependent employer by changing several numerical thresholds that trigger additional regulatory obligations. In Section 212(n)(3)(A)(i)(I), page 2, line 13, the HIRE Act replaces “25” with “50,” and in the corresponding provision at subclause (II), it changes “7” to “12” (page 2, lines 15–16). The bill continues similar upward adjustments in the following lines, such as replacing “at least 26 but not more than 50” with “at least 51 but not more than 100” (page 2, line 20).
These collectively make fewer employers fall under the definition of H-1B-dependent entities, thereby reducing the number of firms subject to additional attestations and compliance checks.
A third component in the HIRE Act establishes the Promoting American Ingenuity Grant Program administered by the Department of Education. Page 3, lines 4–7 specify that grants may be used “to strengthen elementary school and secondary school education in the fields of science, mathematics, engineering, and technology,” along with teacher retention and higher-education training in these areas. The funding line on page 3, lines 18–20 states that Congress would authorize “$25,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2026 through 2030” to administer these grants.
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Taken together, the bill’s provisions indicate an effort to expand high-skilled immigration while simultaneously supporting domestic STEM education pipelines. For workers and students, these changes could translate into higher H-1B availability and expanded investment in state-level STEM programming. For employers, altered H-1B dependency thresholds would reduce compliance requirements for a segment of mid-sized firms now moved outside the dependent category.
What the Dignity Act attempts to redesign
Unlike the targeted HIRE Act, the “Dignity for Immigrants while Guarding our Nation to Ignite and Deliver the American Dream Act of 2025” or simply the Dignity Act is a massive multi-division bill that attempts to reshape border security, asylum processing, employer verification, visa caps. The Bill has three major divisions: Division A–Border Security, Division B–Dignity and American Dream, and Division C–American Prosperity and Competitiveness, encompassing several hundred sections.
Under Division A, the bill mandates expansive border infrastructure. On page 5, lines 10–18, the text directs the Department of Homeland Security to “design, test, construct, install, deploy physical barriers, tactical infrastructure, and technology” to ensure “situational awareness and operational advantage of the border.” A statutory definition later in the same title specifies that “physical barriers” include “reinforced fencing, border barrier system, and levees” (page 11, lines 13–15).
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Division A further restructures employer verification by incorporating a full nationwide E-Verify mandate. Title IV of the division rewrites Section 274A of the Immigration and Nationality Act. The bill’s text, in a section titled “Legal Workforce Act,” amends employer responsibilities under subsection (b) and inserts detailed instructions establishing a mandatory electronic employment-eligibility verification system.
The language establishes attestation procedures and imposes compliance obligations across all US employers once fully implemented.
Division B of the Dignity Act contains two of the most substantial immigration status provisions. The Dream Act section provides “permanent resident status on a conditional basis for certain long-term residents who entered the United States as children,” as stated in Section 2102.
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Eligibility criteria are printed directly in the bill and include physical presence, age of entry, and educational or military service requirements.
Separate from that, the Dignity Program creates a multi-year legal presence and work authorization track for undocumented individuals already living in the United States. In Section 2301 and the following provisions, the bill requires applicants to undergo background checks, submit biometrics, pay restitution funds, and maintain continuous physical presence. The statutory text authorizes DHS to issue an identification document that “will provide deferred action on removal and authorize employment and travel” for eligible participants, as printed in the program’s operative clauses.
Division C introduces a series of visa modernization measures. The text increases per-country limits for family- and employment-based green cards and reclassifies certain doctoral-level STEM graduates as individuals of “extraordinary ability.” These changes appear throughout Title III of Division C, with statutory amendment instructions laid out in the bill’s annotated sections. The provision aims to ease green-card backlogs and update classifications aligned with domestic labor needs.
