[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 103 (Thursday, June 25, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Page S4643]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    3RD ANNIVERSARY OF DACA PROGRAM

  Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, I would like to commemorate the third-year 
anniversary of the creation of the Deferred Action for Childhood 
Arrivals, DACA, program. On June 15, 2015, we celebrated this 
successful, although not comprehensive, policy that has provided 
deportation relief to more than 660,000 child immigrants nationally, 
including 14,900 in Colorado.
  This life-changing program has allowed young people who were brought 
to the United States as children--DREAMers--to fully engage in their 
communities by continuing their education and having the opportunity to 
work. They have been able to open bank accounts, obtain credit cards, 
and receive driver's licenses. Deferred action is giving these young 
people relief and some degree of certainty to pursue opportunities that 
would not have been available to them otherwise.
  DACA has given DREAMers hope for their future. They include DREAMers 
like Alex Alvarado-Renteria who has lived in Carbondale, CO for the 
last 18 years and has known no other home outside of the United States. 
Alex's parents migrated from Mexico and worked as farmworkers in order 
to give their children an opportunity for a better life. Alex was 
granted DACA and has since graduated from the Metropolitan State 
University of Denver with a bachelor of arts in history and Chicana/o 
studies. He now plans to become the first in his family to earn an 
advanced degree by attending law school and opening up his own 
immigration law practice one day.
  We also have DREAMers like Lourdes Bustos from Denver, CO who has 
lived in the United States for the last 26 years and who was able to 
stay with her children upon receiving DACA. It was years before Lourdes 
realized she was not documented and would not be able to work legally 
or get a driver's license. Granting her deferred action meant that she 
would not be separated from her family. Lourdes has graduated from high 
school and has opened her own painting business.
  DACA has played a transformative role in increasing social and 
economic integration for youth who have been raised and educated in our 
country. It has given DREAMers an opportunity to invest in their 
futures. It has empowered DREAMers with a sense of community and 
belonging.
  This program has helped many of our young people, but only offers a 
temporary solution to the unfair consequences of our broken immigration 
system. This anniversary should also serve as a stark reminder that 
every day that Congress fails to enact immigration reform, it 
jeopardizes our economy, our safety, and our communities. It is time to 
put politics aside and work to enact comprehensive immigration reform.

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