[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 5 (Tuesday, January 9, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S91-S92]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                  DACA

  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I rise today to speak on behalf of nearly 
800,000 Dreamers, young people who were brought to this country as 
children who today are living in fear and uncertainty. As a result of 
the Trump administration's decision to end the DACA Program, these 
young people are at risk of losing their legal status and, in fact, 
face deportation from the only home that most of them have ever known, 
and that home is the United States of America.
  This is one of the great moral issues of our time, and it is an issue 
that must be dealt with now as part of the budget negotiations. It 
cannot be kicked down the road any longer. We must pass the Dream Act 
now as part of the current budget negotiations.
  In the last 6 years since the DACA Program was established, these 
young people--again, people who were brought to this country as 
infants, in many cases--were finally able to breathe a sigh of relief. 
For the first time in their lives, they could walk the streets of this 
country without fear, without worrying about being arrested, without 
worrying about being deported. Think about what it means to live in 
this country every single day knowing that, at any moment, you could be 
arrested or deported. What DACA finally did is to give these 800,000 
young people a legal status and a protection so they could go out and 
work, so they could go to school, and so they could serve in the U.S. 
military without fear.
  As we all know, tragically, on September 5, 2017, President Trump 
announced the end of the DACA Program through Executive order. 
President Obama had established it through Executive order, and 
President Trump ended it through Executive order. In his announcement, 
President Trump noted:

       I look forward to working with Republicans and Democrats in 
     Congress to finally address all of these issues. As I have 
     said before, we will resolve the DACA issue with heart and 
     compassion, but through the lawful democratic process. It is 
     now time for Congress to act.

  That is Donald Trump.
  The President was right. It is time for Congress to act. It is time 
for Congress to not kick the can down the road.
  Our Republican President, Mr. Trump, told the Republican-led Congress 
to get to work on a DACA fix, and I say today to the Republican 
leadership: Let's do it. Let's do it now. That is what President Trump 
asked you to do. Listen to him, and let's do it--not next month, not in 
March, but right now--as part of the budget agreement.
  People are working on this issue now. We can come to a consensus. We 
can pass the Dream Act if there is a political will to do it.
  Let us also be very clear. Despite what some have said, this is an 
urgent matter that must be addressed now. Since President Trump 
rescinded the DACA Program in September, more than 15,000 Dreamers have 
already lost their DACA status and are now subject to deportation. Each 
day the Congress does not act, 122 people lose their DACA protections, 
and 851 people each and every week. This is a matter of urgency, and we 
have to act accordingly.
  But I want to assure my Republican colleagues that not only is this 
the right thing to do from a moral perspective and from an economic 
perspective, but it is also exactly what the American people want. 
Nobody here is asking anybody in the Senate to rise up and to be 
extraordinarily brave and courageous. Why don't you just do what the 
American people want us to do? No profiles in courage are needed now. 
Poll after poll has shown that the overwhelming majority of the 
American people want to provide legal status to the Dreamers and to 
protect them from deportation. From a political perspective, this is 
not a difficult decision.
  A Washington Post-ABC poll from September 2017, a few months ago, 
found that 86 percent of Americans support allowing Dreamers to stay in 
the United States. So 86 percent of the American people support 
providing legal status to Dreamers. This is not a tough political 
decision.
  Another recent poll conducted by Quinnipiac found that 77 percent of 
voters and 65 percent of Republicans support legislation to protect 
Dreamers and provide them an opportunity to work, to go to school, and 
to pursue a pathway to citizenship.
  Another poll conducted by CNN last month found that by an 83-percent 
to 13-percent margin, Americans support efforts to allow Dreamers to 
remain in the United States instead of facing potential deportation. 
Only 15 percent believed that Dreamers should be deported.
  Passing the Dream Act is also in our national security interests. 
Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently noted:

       The United States faces extraordinary security challenges 
     that are placing growing pressure on our Armed Forces. That 
     is why we need legislation that will provide a pathway to 
     citizenship for those immigrants who, among other attributes, 
     are serving or have served in the military, whether they are 
     in America legally or were brought here illegally as 
     children.

  That is former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.
  In addition, just last week three former Secretaries of Homeland 
Security wrote to House and Senate leadership expressing both their 
strong support for a DACA fix and for the urgency of acting now. 
Secretaries Chertoff, Napolitano, and Johnson warned of the need for 
Congress to act immediately and emphasized how the agency needs time to 
implement a new program. Without it, they caution that the delay will 
sow uncertainty in the business community and drive undocumented 
individuals further into the shadows, with immediate deportation 
looming for tens of thousands every single month.
  Let us be very clear that when we talk about the DACA Program and 
when we talk about these young people receiving legal status, these 
young people are vetted, they pay a fee, and the vast majority of them 
are now at jobs important to our economy. They are in school or they 
are in the military. In order to get DACA status, they could not be 
convicted of a felony or a significant misdemeanor or pose a threat to 
national security or public safety. As almost everybody recognizes, 
these

[[Page S92]]

are fine young people whom we should be very proud of and should not be 
talking about deporting them.
  DACA gave these young people a shot at the American dream, and having 
been given that opportunity, they seized it and they are excelling and 
contributing to our country--to their country--in so many ways. With 91 
percent of DACA recipients in the workforce, they play an important 
role in our economy. Many hundreds of Dreamers have taken up the call 
to serve in our Armed Forces. Can my colleagues imagine a young Dreamer 
now serving in the Armed Forces, putting his or her life on the line to 
defend this country, and then reading about Members of Congress who 
think we should deport them? How outrageous is that?
  Furthermore, there are some 20,000 DACA recipients who are currently 
teaching in our schools. We desperately need good teachers, and 20,000 
DACA recipients are doing just that.
  Yet, because of President Trump's cruel decision to rescind the DACA 
Program, as well as the Republican-controlled Congress's failure to 
act, these young people's lives and livelihoods have been thrown into 
chaos and uncertainty.
  It is our job to enact a legislative fix now. The President has 
called for a fix. The vast majority of the people of this country want 
to see a fix. A fix is important to our national security. It is the 
right thing to do. Let us do it.
  I am, however, very concerned that President Trump is using the 
800,000 Dreamers as a bargaining chip to force the taxpayers of this 
country to pay for an $18 billion wall. Now, some may remember that 
during his campaign for President, Donald Trump told the American 
people that it was the Mexican Government that would be paying for the 
wall. Well, it turns out that it didn't quite work out that way, and 
now it is the taxpayers of this country who are supposed to pay for a 
wall.
  Let me be as clear as I can be. We cannot and we must not hold the 
lives of 800,000 young Dreamers hostage in order to fund a wall that 
the vast majority of the American people oppose. We cannot and we must 
not allow Donald Trump to shut down the government to fund this wall, 
but that, it appears, may very well be--for whatever reason--what 
Donald Trump wants.
  Let me remind my colleagues what Donald Trump said last August at a 
rally in Arizona, the Presiding Officer's home State: ``Believe me, if 
we have to close down our government, we're building that wall.'' 
August 22, 2017, Donald J. Trump.
  Now, I do not know why Donald Trump may be pushing for a government 
shutdown. Maybe he thinks it will work well for him or work well for 
the Republican Party politically. I have no idea, but I do know that 
the idea of a government shutdown is a very bad idea. Maybe Republicans 
will gain from it, maybe Democrats will politically gain from it. I do 
not have a clue. What I do know is, the American people will lose from 
a government shutdown, and, in a bipartisan manner, we must do 
everything we can to prevent that shutdown.
  A shutdown would harm tens of millions of Americans who would be 
unable to access vital government services; it would disrupt the lives 
of hundreds of thousands, or more, Federal employees who depend upon a 
check to provide for their families; and, in fact, it would endanger 
members of the U.S. military who are putting their lives on the line to 
defend our country.
  The U.S. Congress has a responsibility to the American people to 
prevent a government shutdown and to work in a bipartisan manner to 
reach a budget agreement that is fair and that addresses the very 
serious problems facing not only DACA recipients but the working people 
of our country.
  So I say to my Republican colleagues, you control the White House, 
you control the U.S. House, and you control the U.S. Senate. You have a 
responsibility to govern.
  For President Trump and the Republican leadership to allow DACA to 
expire without a new program in place is not only a failure to govern, 
it is an act of extraordinary cruelty.
  We know President Trump wants to build a wall, I guess somewhat like 
the Great Wall of China. The problem is, building walls may have made 
sense in the 14th century, but I would inform the President that 
technology has somewhat changed since then, and our job is to provide 
strong border security in the most cost-effective way we can, and that 
way is not building a wall. Ironically, while the President wants to 
spend $18 billion to build a wall, he is taking money away from other 
far more important and effective border security measures.
  Let me quote from an article that appeared in today's New York Times:

       The Trump administration would cut or delay funding for 
     border surveillance, radar technology, patrol boats and 
     customs agents in its upcoming spending plan to curb illegal 
     immigration--all proven security measures that officials and 
     experts have said are more effective than building a wall 
     along the Mexican border.
       The wall also has become a bargaining chip in negotiations 
     with Congress as lawmakers seek to prevent nearly 800,000 
     young undocumented immigrants from being deported.
       But security experts said the president's focus on a border 
     wall ignores the constantly evolving nature of terrorism 
     immigration and drug trafficking.

  In other words, if we want strong border security, if we want to keep 
people out of this country who should not be coming into this country, 
if we want to keep drugs out of this country, building a wall is not 
the most cost-effective way. It may have been a great idea in the 14th 
century in China when they built their Great Wall, but it is not a 
great idea in 2018, in the United States of America.
  So let me just conclude by saying, we are at a very important moment 
in history. If we do not do the right thing, if we do not do the moral 
thing, if we allow some 800,000 young people--people who have spent 
virtually their entire lives in this country, who know no other 
country, who see the United States of America as their home--if we 
betray them, if we take away their legal status, if we allow them to be 
deported, this will be a moral stain on this country that will never 
ever be wiped out.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Indiana.