[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 142 (Wednesday, November 19, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6115-S6117]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              IMMIGRATION

  Mr. DURBIN. There was a moment in the Civil War when President 
Abraham Lincoln sent a message to General McClellan. General McClellan 
was in charge of the Union troops, but he wouldn't use them. He sat 
encamped, intense, preparing for battle, and never going forward.
  Lincoln, in his frustration, understood as he waited that the 
Confederate forces were getting stronger and the opportunities were 
slipping away. Lincoln sent a message to General McClellan. His message 
was this: If you are not going to use your Army, would you send it my 
way so I can use it?
  I am reminded of that story when I address this issue on the floor of 
the Senate this morning because the issue I am going to address is the 
issue of immigration.
  I come to this issue with personal and family experience, as so many 
Members of Congress do when it comes to an issue. In this circumstance, 
my mother was an immigrant to this country, and she was brought here at 
the age of 2 from Lithuania. Somehow my grandmother, with my aunt and 
uncle, made it across the ocean to Baltimore, landing in 1911, and then 
catching a train heading for the land of opportunity--East St. Louis, 
IL, which is where many Lithuanian families gathered and where my 
grandfather was waiting.
  That was the city of my birth. My mother grew up there speaking 
Lithuanian and English--an immigrant family who worked hard and 
struggled. From family stories, I know they had little or nothing in 
their lives but the hope that the next generation, their children, 
would have a better life.
  That is my story. That is my family's story, but that is America's 
story, too.
  If we chart immigration as an issue in the course of America, we will 
find something very interesting. Political parties that become anti-
immigrant parties eventually wither and disappear. Why? Because they 
are denying the fundamentals of America. They are saying that we are 
going to close the doors and pull up the ladder, and we don't need any 
more of those people.
  We do need more of those people because the immigrant families who 
come to this country bring more than just determination and strength 
and a work ethic. They bring a level of courage that many families 
can't muster. These are families in different parts of the world who 
say at some point we are going to America. We may not speak the 
language, we may not even know what will happen to us once we arrive, 
but we are going to America--and they do. The vast majority of them who 
come to this country stay and make a difference. They sacrifice. They 
work night and day, but their moment comes when they become part of 
America. They are proud of where they came from but even more proud of 
the fact that they are part of the United States of America.

[[Page S6116]]

  When any political party in history has decided to make anti-
immigration their standard and their value, they have withered and 
disappeared as they should. They are ignoring and turning their back on 
who we are--what America is all about.
  I was part of a group 2 years ago. We sat down--four Democratic 
Senators and four Republican Senators--and we worked for months to 
write a comprehensive immigration reform bill. I will tell you the 
names of the Senators so you know there was no secret deal here. John 
McCain led the Republicans, the former Republican candidate for 
President of the United States. By his side was Lindsey Graham, 
Republican from South Carolina--it was not exactly viewed as a liberal 
State but a very conservative one--and Marco Rubio of Florida, whose 
father and mother were immigrants to this country, refugees from Cuba; 
and Jeff Flake of Arizona, a conservative Republican by every measure. 
That was the team on the Republican side of the table.
  On our side of the table we were led by Chuck Schumer, from the State 
of New York, chairman of the immigration subcommittee of the Judiciary 
Committee. I joined him as a member of the Judiciary Committee and 
someone that has been involved in some of these issues for a long time. 
There was Bob Menendez, the head of the Democratic Hispanic Caucus, 
which is a caucus of one at this point, by himself, the son of Cuban 
refugees who came to the United States; and Michael Bennet of Colorado. 
The eight of us sat down for months, literally for months, hours at a 
time, sometimes angry and ready to walk out of the room.
  We wrote a bill, a 200-page bill to rewrite the immigration laws in 
America, to fix the broken immigration system. Then we took it to 
committee, and the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patrick 
Leahy, had open hearings and allowed any amendment to be offered that 
anyone wished.
  Then we brought it to the floor after it was reported from the 
committee. We again gave an opportunity for amendments to be offered. 
Significant amendments were offered. Senator Corker of Tennessee 
offered an amendment to even strengthen what was a very strong border 
security section of this bill. The net result of that of course was we 
brought it to a vote.
  I will tell you, it was an incredible day, because on June 27 of 2013 
we passed, on the floor of the Senate, comprehensive immigration reform 
by a vote of 68 to 32. Fourteen Republicans joined the Democrats in a 
bipartisan effort to fix our broken immigration system. It was a proud 
moment. We had the support of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. We had the 
support of organized labor. We had every major religious group in 
America supporting our efforts. We had the ultraconservative Grover 
Norquist supporting this and liberals as well came together and said: 
Finally, we are going to do something about our broken immigration 
system.
  But under the law of the land, passing in the Senate is not enough. 
The measure was then sent over to the House of Representatives on June 
27, 2013. Today, November 19, 2014, the Republican-led House of 
Representatives has not only failed to have a hearing on this bill, it 
has refused to bring this bill to the floor, it has refused to bring 
any immigration bill to the floor. They refuse to address the obvious. 
We have a broken immigration system. We need to come up with a fair 
solution to it.
  They refuse to act. It is within their power to call that bill today, 
as it has been every day since June 27, 2013, but for a year and a half 
the House Republican leadership has refused to act. Oh, they tempted 
us. They teased us time and again: We are thinking about it. We are 
going to put out a list of principles that we Republicans believe in, 
in the House of Representatives. We are going to tell you that maybe we 
would support something like the DREAM Act--maybe. We are going to tell 
you we want strong border enforcement, which of course the bill already 
has.
  They have said all of those things and have done nothing. I am 
reminded of President Lincoln saying to General McClellan: If you are 
not going to use your Army, may I borrow it? The House Republicans have 
refused to address the immigration issue almost entirely, with one 
exception. They did call one immigration matter to the floor. It was 
one of the most hateful pieces of legislation which I have seen.
  Here is what it said. Before they adjourned in August, the 
Republicans in the House of Representatives passed a measure with only 
four of their Members refusing to vote for it. Here is what it said. We 
have created an opportunity for about 2 million children brought to 
this country who have lived good lives, finished school, have no 
problems with the law and want to become part of America. The President 
has created an Executive order giving these children a chance to come 
forward, register with the government, pay their filing fee, and not be 
deported.
  Madam President, 600,000 of them have taken advantage of that. This 
is called DACA. The President's Executive order gives them a chance to 
live in America, to go to school in America, to get a job in America, 
to make this a better nation. So 600,000 have done it. We believe 1.4 
million more are eligible. They have not signed up yet.
  So the Republican House of Representatives, in August, before they 
adjourned, passed a measure which said: The remaining 1.6 million who 
may be eligible for this protection cannot be allowed to be part of the 
DACA Program. Those 1.6 million young people should be subject to 
deportation--deportation.
  Think about that for a moment; brought here at the age of 2 or 3 as 
infants, living in the United States their entire lives, standing in 
classrooms across America every morning pledging allegiance to the only 
flag they have ever known, and the Republicans voted, with an 
overwhelming majority, to deport them--to deport them.
  That is not bad enough. That overwhelming vote that they cast, that 
hateful vote that they cast--they were so proud of themselves, that 
after voting they stood and applauded themselves. What a great moment 
in their minds for the House of Representatives.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
  Mr. DURBIN. I ask unanimous consent to speak for an additional 5 
minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DURBIN. What a terrible moment in the history of this Nation. The 
President of the United States, having waited for a year and a half, 
having heard all of the promises of the House Republicans, that they 
would move forward and finally call this bill, having been promised 
privately and even publicly by many of those Republicans that they were 
going to do something, now the President has said: I am going to use my 
authority, my authority under the law, to try to fix at least some part 
of this broken immigration system.

  We are expecting, any day now, for the President to announce his 
Executive order. He will not be the first President to do this. Past 
administrations, Democratic and Republican, have stopped the 
deportation of low-priority cases in our country. Every President of 
the United States--every President of the United States since Dwight 
David Eisenhower has used his Executive authority to improve our 
immigration system by Executive order, every single one of them.
  President George H.W. Bush issued a family fairness policy allowing 
1.5 million people in America to apply for deferred action and work 
permits. It is clear that Presidents have the authority to do this. Yet 
the Republicans in the Senate and House have threatened this President 
that if he uses his Executive authority, as every President since 
President Eisenhower has done: We are going to hold it against you and 
you are going to pay a price, President Obama.
  I hope the President pays little or no attention to that kind of 
threat. What is at stake is the future of millions of family members 
who are now subject to deportation. What is at stake is whether the 
Republican Party will come into the 21st century in this land of 
immigrants and join us in a bipartisan effort to fix this broken 
immigration system.
  What is at stake are literally the futures of millions of families 
who just want a chance. That is all they are asking for, to earn their 
way into legal status in America. It is almost 13 years

[[Page S6117]]

now since I introduced the DREAM Act. The DREAM Act--I described it 
earlier--gives young people brought to the United States at an early 
age, who had no voice in what their families were going to do, to come 
to this country and eventually find their way to legal status.
  At one point even the House Republicans said they supported this so-
called DREAM Act. Time and again we have faced filibusters stopping the 
DREAM Act from passing in the Senate, but it was part of comprehensive 
immigration reform. This DREAM Act all started with this young lady, 
Tereza Lee, Korean, brought to the United States at the age of 2, grew 
up in a poor family in Chicago, had an amazing musical talent and was 
accepted to the Manhattan Conservatory of Music and the Julliard School 
of Music. Because she was undocumented she had no place to go.
  Her mother called our office. Her mother, who incidentally worked 
night and day in a dry cleaning establishment in Chicago said: What can 
we do? The law had no real answer, other than to say to this then-18-
year-old girl: Go back to where you came from for 10 years and try to 
come here legally.
  That was the law. I introduced the DREAM Act. Since then we have seen 
a growth in support for this because it is only fair. We cannot, should 
not, hold children responsible for the decisions and wrongdoing of 
their parents. These kids deserve a chance. That is what the 
President's Executive action is about. That is why the action by the 
House Republicans was so reprehensible.
  Tereza Lee, incidentally made it. She went to the Manhattan 
Conservatory of Music. She ended up not only getting a bachelor's 
degree, she did not receive any government assistance. She had friends 
and sponsors who stepped in to pay for it. She played at Carnegie Hall. 
She is now working on her Ph.D. in music.
  She is now an American citizen, by virtue of the fact that she 
married this young American jazz musician. They are living in New York 
and recently had a baby.
  I could not be prouder of Tereza Lee and what she has done with her 
life. There is a picture with her mom and dad. Her dad passed away. He 
had a serious medical illness that could not be treated adequately 
because he does not qualify for any kind of government health 
insurance. They did not have the money to provide him the care he 
needed.
  But Tereza Lee's story is one that inspires me every day to come to 
this floor and remind my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, these 
are real human beings we are talking about. These are not political 
pawns. These are young people who deserve a chance to become part of 
the future of America. Sometime soon, I hope very soon, maybe even this 
Friday, the President of the United States is going to announce his 
Executive order.
  He is going to say that, as he did with DACA, the Deferred Action 
Program, he is going to give more undocumented people in this country a 
chance. It will be a narrow category, not as broad as we would like 
it--at least some of us would like it--but it will be consistent with 
what every President of the United States has done since President 
Eisenhower.
  It is fair. It is just. It recognizes our birthright as Americans, as 
a nation of immigrants. It says we are willing to stand and fight for 
fairness. I would hope--I would just hope that a few Republicans will 
stand and acknowledge this. I hope a few of them will join us in a 
bipartisan recognition that our broken immigration system cannot be 
fixed if the Congress of the United States--particularly the Republican 
House--refuses to even call the bill for a year and a half.
  Instead, the President is using his authority and doing the best he 
can to make this Nation of immigrants proud again that we are welcoming 
a new generation of people who will make us even stronger in the 
future.

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