Minnesota GOP Senate candidate Michele Tafoya signaled openness to a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants when pressed on Republican amnesty legislation.
During an April 9 appearance on Will Cain’s radio show, the former sports broadcaster was asked where she stood on the DIGNIDAD (Dignity) Act — legislation backed by several Republican lawmakers, including Florida Rep. Maria Salazar and New York Rep. Mike Lawler, who insist it is not amnesty. Tafoya responded that parts of a bill could be acceptable, even if she disagrees with others. (RELATED: Senate GOP Bets On Ex-Sports Broadcaster To Flip Minnesota — Local Republicans Aren’t Buying It)
Tafoya said she would need to see the specifics on the Dignity Act, telling Cain, “A bill can be really good and you can slide in a specific I would not agree with.” She asserted that immigration is a “very nuanced problem.”
“I’ve had people come to me Will, and say, ‘What’s your number?’ And I’m like, ‘What do you mean?’ ‘Well how many have to leave and how many do you let in?’ And I said, ‘I don’t think that’s a number that I want to set.’”
She continued, recalling conversations with people in favor of stricter limits. “‘No it needs to be a zero sum game. You kick some out and you don’t let any in.’ And it’s like hold on, hold on, this is such a more nuanced issue.”
The Minnesota senate candidate also pointed to conversations with Minnesota farmers who rely on seasonal labor, claiming it may be worth looking into ways to make the system more fair for the seasonal workers entering the U.S.
“We need to look at the people who have been here for years, and years, and years. And decide are they people that we want to stay here? Do we give them full citizenship? Or do we say ‘yeah you know, there’s a different level of citizenship for different kinds of people? Do they get to vote? Do you pay taxes?’ I think anyone who lives here as a person who’s living in our country needs to be a taxpayer,” she said. (RELATED: Maria Salazar And Brandon Gill Throw Down Over Amnesty Bill)
Meanwhile, a group of 18 farmworkers — along with the United Farm Workers of America and the UFW Foundation — has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California challenging a Trump administration rule that they claim lowers the wages of U.S. agriculture workers and threatens to expand the H-2A guestworker program.
The plaintiffs argue the rule undercuts U.S. workers and expands a program that has already grown significantly, with almost 400,000 foreign workers participating in 2024, according to a UFW press release.
The Department of Labor rule, announced October 2, reduces H-2A wages by an estimated $5 to $7 per hour — a shift the administration projects will transfer roughly $2.46 billion annually from workers to employers yearly, the press release stated. Critics say the policy could also depress wages for American workers on the same job sites and incentivize employers to hire foreign labor over U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents.
The lawsuit further alleges the rule was implemented without proper public input, in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act. A similar effort during the first Trump administration was blocked in court after a judge found it harmed U.S. workers’ wages and working conditions, according to the press release.
Tafoya added during the interview with Cain that multiple categories must be considered when evaluating legal status and potential pathways to citizenship.
Oh my god.
On the radio, NRSC-endorsed Michele Tafoya says that gas prices are spiking because of the Iran war that she supports and that people should “take one less trip to Starbuck’s” and to “just try to be patriots” about it.#mnsen pic.twitter.com/GOvkgZTqV7
— danny (@dabbs346) March 19, 2026
She also raised concerns about vetting, arguing that under the Biden administration, the sheer volume of migrants made proper screening difficult. She told Cain that “things were so bad” and the volume was so “massive” the U.S. was unable to handle it, making sufficient vetting “next to impossible.”
Tafoya pointed to an example involving relatives of Qasem Soleimani — a commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who was killed in a January 2020 U.S. strike — citing reports that his niece and her daughter had been living lavishly in Los Angeles, suggesting gaps in oversight.
Cain pointed to improvements made under the Trump administration, but urged Tafoya to further examine the Dignity Act.
“The hard part is to ever answer this question, ‘When did you come in?’ Because it proposes if you’ve been here for over five years and doesn’t apply to the Biden administration’s open border era. But you never know, that’s the point of being illegal. ‘How long have you been here?’ We don’t know,” he said. (RELATED: GOP Lawmaker Mike Lawler Attempts To Resurrect Amnesty Plan)
Tafoya agreed, emphasizing the difficulty of verifying such information, stating, “You don’t know. We don’t know. They don’t know, unless there is a record of it and like you say it’s impossible to know.”
For years, I walked the sidelines when the stakes were the highest, and that job taught me how leadership really works.
I’m running for U.S. Senate to bring that experience to Washington and deliver the real results Minnesota deserves. pic.twitter.com/vDbHWpAXg9
— Michele Tafoya (@Michele_Tafoya) January 21, 2026
The former sports broadcaster previously published a 2022 Substack post urging then-former President Donald Trump not to run again, arguing the GOP needed a candidate “without the baggage.” She has since walked back those comments, but continues to oppose abortion restrictions.
Her candidacy has drawn skepticism from some Minnesota Republicans over her past positions, even as she quickly secured backing from the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC).
The Caller reached out to Tafoya for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.
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