[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 171 (Wednesday, November 30, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6616-S6617]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                  DACA

  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, our Nation's immigration system is 
broken. There would be scant, if any, disagreement with that 
proposition in this Chamber. There would be no disagreement among 
anyone who is familiar with this broken immigration system. Far too 
often, that system is not only broken but violates the essential 
fundamental values and core convictions of the American people, values 
that are embodied in our Constitution, in the daily ethics we preach 
and live about fairness and welcoming people who are different from 
ourselves, people who have come here to escape persecution in their 
native lands, much as my father did in 1935 at the age of 17.
  He came alone, he spoke virtually no English, had not much more than 
the shirt on his back, and knew virtually no one. That is the way 
people still come to this great country, the greatest country in the 
history of the world.
  The immigration system that enabled him to come here is now fraught 
with strictures and failings and irrational barriers that work against 
not only the interests of people seeking freedom and opportunity but 
our national interests. That interest is best served when we make 
possible the talent, gifts, and energy of immigrants. We are a nation 
of immigrants, and we should be working to reform the immigration 
system for our national interest.
  No one exemplifies more poignantly and eloquently the flaws in our 
present system than young people known as the DREAMers. For a while, 
not that long ago, I resolved that I would come to the floor every week 
with a photograph of a different DREAMer from Connecticut who would 
demonstrate with a face, if not a voice, why some relief for our 
DREAMers is essential to our national interests.
  DREAMers are members of our society, brought to this country as 
children, some before they even learned to speak, but now, for almost 
all of them, English is their native language. This Nation is the only 
home they have ever known. They pledge allegiance to the flag in school 
and at events with their hand over their hearts, just as we all do and 
just as we begin every day the proceedings of this Chamber. Many of 
them know and never take for granted the gifts of living in the 
greatest, freest, strongest nation ever to exist on the planet. They 
know it. They never take it for granted because they hear stories from 
their aunts and uncles, maybe even their parents about what life was 
like in the place they left when they were brought here as infants and 
small children.

  So they go to our schools. They learn skills. They go to colleges, 
and many go on to higher education. They have skills and training and 
gifts and talents that would be extraordinarily useful and important. 
There is one problem: They are not citizens. They are not citizens. 
They are in constant danger of deportation. They are stuck in a 
potentially illegal and devastating situation because they have no path 
to

[[Page S6617]]

citizenship in a country that should welcome them and make it possible 
for them to come out of the shadows.
  In recognition of those overwhelming merits, President Obama used his 
well-established Executive authority to institute the DACA Program. 
Understand that the DACA Program does not grant citizenship, it just 
defers and delays deportation proceedings. Countless young men and 
women came out of the shadows and made known their presence to the U.S. 
Government to become part of the DACA Program, disclosing their illegal 
status. They are now fearful. In fact, fearful is a clear 
understatement. They are terrified. I have met with many of them. I 
have known many of them over the years. I have come to admire and 
respect their patriotism, their aspirations, and their dreams.
  As DREAMers, their dream is American citizenship, which all too often 
many of us take for granted. Their dream is American citizenship in the 
best sense of it--giving back to the country that they regard as their 
home, giving back by using those talents as nurses and doctors to help 
the sick, as engineers and scientists to build inventions and advance 
our knowledge, as entrepreneurs to build businesses and employ people 
and create jobs and drive the economy forward. In fact, immigration 
reform and these programs are thought to be job creators and sources of 
economic profit.
  The DACA Program was a temporary effort, a respite for them in their 
striving to gain some permanency and some reliable status so they could 
be secure and feel safe in this country. Their terror now is well-
founded, in fact, because the threat to them from the incoming 
administration is that they will be, in fact, deported en masse or 
perhaps their parents will be with them, and the American dream will 
become a fantasy--in fact, a nightmare.
  We are talking about young men, one of them well known to me in 
Bridgeport, who was brought to Connecticut from Brazil at the age of 5. 
He studied in the Bridgeport public schools from kindergarten to high 
school, and then he went on to attend Fairfield University. He majored 
in chemistry, minored in mathematics. He excelled, so that during his 
senior year at Fairfield, he was accepted at the University of 
California, Berkeley's Physical Chemistry Program. But he had to live 
under the threat of deportation because he had no way to apply for 
lawful permanent status while he was continuing his studies here in 
America, potentially contributing greatly to the American quality of 
life.
  There is the New Britain woman who was born in Mexico and brought to 
America when she was 6 years old. The journey for her was terrifying. 
She could not understand what was happening. She certainly had no idea 
that she was entering America in a way that would affect her the rest 
of her life at 6 years old. The idea that she was here in an illegal 
status was incomprehensible. Her family settled in Connecticut. She 
began school immediately in New Britain, and she went through the 
public schools there and graduated from New Britain High School in 
2008. She decided to attend college out of State at Bay Path College, 
earning a great many leadership positions there. She became the first 
in her family to graduate from college and then received a master's 
degree in occupational therapy. She has dreamed about helping people--
maybe at nonprofit--to make sure that families with low incomes have 
access to occupational therapy.
  I think, too, of the young woman I know who was born in Venezuela. 
She was brought here when she was 11 years old. She remembers her 
mother telling her that she was going to America to learn English. Her 
mother also told her that she could be successful if she was bilingual 
and if she worked hard and studied. That is exactly what she did with 
her family when they settled in Norwalk, CT. She began to go to school 
right away. Life at the beginning was difficult. There was a lot to 
learn. By the time she was a junior in high school, she stopped trying 
to get perfect grades because she feared colleges would not accept her 
simply because she was undocumented, and even after she was accepted, 
she could not afford it, but she persevered. She attended community 
college, which was a huge financial burden. After Norwalk Community 
College, she went on to Western Connecticut State University. She 
persevered and she climbed those obstacles that many young American 
young people don't face, but she pursued a double major in accounting 
and finance. She hopes to become an accountant and pursue a career in 
business. But she has no pathway to citizenship or even lawful status. 
She fears that her dream will be unreachable.
  That is why DACA is so important, why it should be extended, why we 
need to reform a broken immigration system that keeps the DREAMers and 
all of those 11 million people in the shadows without a path to earned 
citizenship, why we need to go back to the bipartisan reform proposal 
that passed overwhelmingly in this body with strong support on both 
sides of the aisle and then was denied a vote in the House of 
Representatives. That bipartisan effort needs to be resolved.
  In the meantime, the DREAMers should be given lawful status so they 
can pursue their studies and their careers and give back to the 
greatest country in the history of the world.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DAINES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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