Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) is being labeled a Republican In Name Only (RINO) and a traitor by MAGA supporters and other conservatives after he urged lawmakers to carve out a bipartisan pathway to immigration reform, stating that deporting all undocumented people residing in the country is “not realistic.” Lawler shared his views on a recent episode of ABC News program “This Week.”
“We have over 25 million people in this country who are undocumented,” Lawler said during the interview. “You’re not rounding them all up and kicking them out. It’s not realistic.” President Donald Trump made the mass deportation of illegal aliens with a criminal record a top priority during his campaign for the White House in 2024.
Since his victory and return to the Oval Office, the president has ramped up efforts to round up and boot illegal aliens who reside in the country with rap sheets packed full of violent offenses from the U.S. Leftists have been consistently pushing back against the efforts of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to carry out operations to complete this mission, some even violently so, leading to several deaths in Minneapolis.
According to Newsweek, much of the criticism of Trump’s operations stem from the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Good attempted to run an ICE agent over with her vehicle while impeding an active operation, refusing to comply with officer instructions, resulting in her death. Pretti assaulted an officer and attempted to pull a weapon which led to his demise.
During his appearance on ABC News, Lawler addressed the criticism the administration has received in its push to enforce immigration law, saying that the American people are “rightly outraged” by the level of illegal immigration that took place under the watch of former President Joe Biden. He went on to praise President Trump for helping to secure the “porous border.”
“The porous southern border needed to be shut down,” he said. “President Trump did that. The fact is that we have had nine straight months of net zero illegal border crossings. You’ve had 675,000 people deported; 1.9 million people self-deport.” The Republican congressman then explained that there’s a major difference of opinion considering how wide the deportation crackdown has cast its net.
Lawler said that most Americans “do believe that if you’ve been in this country, right or wrong, for 10, 15, 20 years, and you have children and your grandchildren are American citizens, people don’t want to see families broken apart.” He then added that there needs to be a legal path forward, not to citizenship, but that will encourage folks to come out of the shadows.
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“There’s got to be a legal path forward, not a path to citizenship, but a legal path forward for people to come out of the shadows so that they can work legally, that they can pay their taxes, pay any back taxes owed, pay a fine, not collect government benefits, and not commit a crime,” he stated during the interview. This line of thought inspired him to develop the Dignity Act of 2025.
The bipartisan proposal was put forward by Rep. Maria Elvira (R-FL) and Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX) during the summer of 2025. The two women referred to the bill as “a bold, historic, and commonsense immigration reform bill” during a press conference. According to Newsweek, the Dignity Act “stresses an understanding of the fact that some immigrants in the country illegally have developed meaningful roots in the country, and it seeks to reform immigration policy without disrupting what has already been established, including protections for Dreamers and ‘the Dignity Program.'” Lawler then stated that he is hoping to gain support so lawmakers will “solve a crisis that has been in effect for 40 years.”
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video