    [Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 6 (Wednesday, January 10, 2018)]
    [Senate]
    [Pages S130-S135]
    From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

                                      DACA

      Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, every Member of this body is only a few
    generations removed from the immigrant experience. At some point in the
    recent past, each of our ancestors made the courageous decision to
    leave his home in search of a better life in America. Each of them took
    a risk. They didn't know what awaited them in this country, but they
    believed that through their own hard work and determination, they could
    succeed.
      My mother took a huge risk when she brought my brothers and me to
    this country. Leaving her entire family behind, she packed our
    belongings into one suitcase, and we set sail for Hawaii. We grew up
    poor, but Mom worked so hard every day to build a life for us in this
    country. She worked minimum-wage jobs with no health insurance. We
    moved apartments and schools every few years. Eventually, we were able
    to bring my grandparents to Hawaii from Japan. So I understand as an
    immigrant how important family unification is to immigrant families.
      I share my story not because I think it is particularly extraordinary
    but because it is a story that millions of families in our country
    share. The same hopes that drove my mom to risk everything to bring us
    to America are reflected in the stories of millions of immigrant
    families across the country, and they are reflected in the lives of
    Dreamers, whose futures are now at risk because of the President's
    decision to end the DACA Program.
      More than 15,000 young people have already lost their protection from
    deportation as a result of the President's decision, and 122 more will
    lose DACA protection every single day. It was with this sense of
    urgency in mind that I joined a bipartisan group of my colleagues at
    the White House yesterday to find a path forward to protect the
    Dreamers. The President took great pains to appear reasonable and eager
    to make a deal, but we left yesterday's meeting without much clarity
    about where he stood.
      Only a few days ago, the President threatened to hold Dreamers
    hostage until he got $18 billion to build the wall. I would call that
    his vanity project. In response to my question at yesterday's meeting,
    the President appeared to demonstrate some flexibility on this issue,
    but after the Freedom Caucus spent yesterday afternoon warning of a
    potential betrayal on so-called ``amnesty,'' the President reaffirmed
    in a tweet his hard-line position that funding for the wall must be
    part of any deal on Dreamers.
      Between insisting on building an unnecessary wall, demonizing family
    reunification, and peddling misinformation about the diversity visa
    lottery, the President lost track of what is really at stake here--the
    inspiring young people whose lives he has left hanging in the balance.
      Before the holidays, it was heartening to see so many Dreamers from
    all across the country taking direct action in the halls of Congress to
    fight for their futures. I spoke with a number of these young people,
    like Victor from Houston, who traveled for days to make his voice heard
    in Congress.
      Victor's parents were seasonal farmworkers who traveled to the
    strawberry fields of Florida every year. They settled down in Houston
    and saved money for a car and an apartment. They sent for Victor and
    his sister when he was only 4 years old.
      Victor spent most of his childhood not even knowing his immigration
    status. It wasn't until he came home one day with a permission slip to
    join his middle school class on a trip to Spain that his mom told him
    that he was undocumented. Learning what it meant to be undocumented--
    that if he traveled to Spain he couldn't come home--was really hard for
    Victor, but he tried to put it from his mind.
      As the years passed, it got harder for Victor to grapple with his
    status. He loved going to school, but he knew as an undocumented
    immigrant that his options after he graduated from high school were
    limited. He developed depression, and his grades suffered. But a few
    months after graduation, President Obama created the DACA Program, and
    Victor successfully applied for it.
      Victor told me that even though he had DACA, he was still too afraid
    to talk about his status with anyone. During the 2016 election, this
    changed. He confronted his friends who voted for Donald Trump and
    shared what losing DACA would mean for him.
      On September 5, Victor knew there would be an announcement about his
    future. He put his phone away and started cleaning his house to
    distract him from what was about to happen. Eventually he ran out of
    distractions and sat down to watch Attorney General Jeff Sessions' DACA
    announcement. Victor began to cry. In the days that followed, Victor
    started having panic attacks--sometimes as many as five to seven per
    day. He was afraid to get in the car because he didn't want to hurt
    anyone if he got a panic attack while driving. A few weeks later,
    Victor showed up for his first United We Dream event in Houston. There
    he met fellow Dreamers and allies committed to fighting for him. He
    told me that it was amazing to see so many people show up in support
    and solidarity.
      Victor made himself a promise that once the Dream Act passes, he is
    going to go back to school to study psychology so that he can help LGBT
    youth like him. Before he left, Victor said something really
    insightful. He said that it is really important for people to come out
    of the shadows to tell their stories because once you tell your story,
    then they can no longer demonize you.
      I couldn't agree more.
      Fighting to protect Dreamers is about much more than the law. It is
    about compassion and basic human decency. Late last night, Dreamers won
    a temporary reprieve when a district court judge in San Francisco
    issued a preliminary injunction to reinstate the DACA Program for
    existing enrollees. The judge said that ending DACA in the way the
    administration ended it was arbitrary and capricious. This was an
    important victory, for now. It is just a temporary injunction, a
    temporary reprieve. So I agree with my Democratic leader that we cannot
    allow this decision to make us think that we are out of the woods, not
    at all. It cannot dim our resolve to pass the Dream Act. The fight
    continues.
      I yield the floor.
      I suggest the absence of a quorum.
      The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
      The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
      Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
    the quorum call be rescinded.
      The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
      Mr. KAINE. Thank you, Mr. President.
      I rise as many of my colleagues have this afternoon, and I have risen
    on the same topic often to talk about our Dreamers.
      Usually, when I have risen in the past, I have told stories about
    Virginia Dreamers. We have about 13,000 Dreamers in Virginia. I have
    highlighted stories of Dreamers from Latin America, Africa, Sweden, and
    Asia. One of the students I talked about, Gloria Oduyoye, just
    graduated from William & Mary Law School within the last month and thus
    became the first Dreamer to be a law school graduate in Virginia and
    one of the few Dreamers who attained a law degree in the United States.
    I talked about her story.
      Today I decided not to talk about stories of individuals again but to
    try to put it in context, with the message really being that the time
    is now to make a decision. We don't need more information. We just need
    the will to act and do what I think is the right and the fair thing to
    do because we have been at this discussion now--it is hard to believe
    we have been at this discussion for 16 years.
      The American public--Democrats, Republicans, and Independents--
    overwhelmingly support a permanent solution for Dreamers. It is not
    that we need to know anything more to solve this. We have been talking
    about it for a very long time.
      I want to encourage Members of this body and in the House who are
    involved in the negotiation to come to an agreement and provide
    permanent protection for the Dreamers before next Friday so that we can
    protect this community, which is frightened because

    [[Page S131]]

    they are so worried about being deported or losing their ability to
    work, to go to school, losing the ability to protect their families.
    But it is more than just protecting people because they are frightened;
    it is protecting them because, as I have seen in Virginia and in every
    State, they so enrich this country.
      The first version of the DREAM Act, it is hard to believe, was
    introduced in 2001. The Senator from Illinois, Mr. Durbin, who has been
    a champion of this and has my deepest admiration for his persistence in
    this endeavor, introduced the first version of the DREAM Act together
    with the senior Senator from Utah, Mr. Hatch.
      The bill has evolved since then. It wasn't exactly the same as we are
    contemplating now, but it was the first version of the bill. It sought
    to repeal a provision of the 1996 immigration reform that prohibited
    undocumented immigrants from eligibility for higher education. Instead,
    what the bill, in its original version, did 17 years ago was to grant
    permanent resident status to young, undocumented immigrants with a high
    school degree or equivalent GED who fulfilled certain residence
    requirements and did not have criminal records. That was the start of
    this discussion. We are still looking for the permanent answer.
      The DREAM Act first almost passed in 2007. It attained more than a
    majority vote in the Senate, but it didn't get to the 60-vote
    threshold, so that was insufficient for passage. In 2010, the House
    passed the DREAM Act, but the Senate again failed to approve it with a
    60-vote threshold.
      In 2013, just a few months after I came to the Senate, we
    contemplated, debated, discussed, voted upon comprehensive immigration
    reform in June. I was kind of proud then. I was a young Senator, had
    been here a couple of months and stood in my chair and offered a speech
    on the floor of the Senate in Spanish to describe what was in the bill
    for the 45 million Americans who get their news every day in the
    Spanish language. After I was finished describing it, people came up to
    me and said: Has anybody ever done that before? And I said: Frankly, I
    don't know.
      It turned out that it was the first time in the history of the body
    that a speech had been given in a language other than English. But what
    was important about that moment in June of 2013 was not the speech; it
    was the vote. The package was comprehensive. It included not just the
    DREAM Act but border security, assistance for employers to determine
    the immigration bona fides of those applying for work. These are
    reforms--an approval for people here on temporary protected status from
    El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Somalia, Sudan, and Haiti to become
    permanent residents and then convert that into a path to citizenship.
    That comprehensive immigration reform bill, in my view, represents the
    Senate working at its best: a bipartisan working group, coming through
    committee, coming to the floor with amendments. It passed this body
    with 68 votes in favor.
      It was evidence of the naivete of a young Senator at the time that I
    assumed, of course, something was going to happen because it passed
    here with 68 votes. I knew the House wouldn't do exactly what we did,
    but I thought they would do something, and we would be conferencing it.
    But alas, I was naive; that was not to happen.
      We are now in a different place, and we have the ability to act.
      I supported President Obama's actions in June of 2012 to protect
    Dreamers--the DACA Program; and then later, the DAPA Program. I felt
    that those actions were completely in accord with earlier Executive
    actions Presidents had taken in the area of immigration.
      Since June of 2012, 800,000 young people have achieved Dreamer
    status. Some of them aren't so young anymore. I sometimes refer to them
    as students and kids, but they are in the military, they are parents,
    they are teachers, and they are active in their communities. As I said,
    there are 13,000 in my State. DACA has allowed them to continue their
    education, to work legally, and to remain in the only country they have
    ever known.
      I will say I was disappointed when President Trump in September
    announced that he would terminate the program in 6 months--in March. I
    felt like it was the breaking of a promise to these young people
    because he had said, even as a candidate and then as President, that
    Dreamers were good kids and that they wouldn't have anything to worry
    about from him.
      I will say there was one aspect of what the President said--I can't
    just be critical without pointing out that there was one thing about
    what he said that I thought was right. He said: And Congress should fix
    it. I agreed with President Trump on that. I wish he hadn't terminated
    the program, but he was right that this is something for Congress to
    fix because anything done by Executive action, even fully within the
    power of a President to take it, is subject to being changed by another
    Executive. The lives and futures of these young people are such that we
    shouldn't be scaring them about whether they are protected or maybe
    back to being protected depending upon who was the occupant of the
    White House.
      That Presidential announcement in March, although I was disappointed,
    on that core piece of it, that Congress should fix it, I think
    President Trump was right and I think he is right. I think this is
    something that Congress must fix, should fix, can fix, and we have all
    the information about it to fix it right now.
      It has been difficult and a little bit heartbreaking to talk to these
    young people and their families about the fears they have. I don't live
    under the fear of deportation. I don't live under the fear of my job
    being taken away because of my status. I don't live under the fear of
    my kids not being able to get instate tuition and instead having to pay
    out-of-state or not being able to afford it at all. It is not a fear I
    walk around with every day. It is hard to put yourself in somebody
    else's shoes and experience the fear and even terror they are feeling
    when you yourself don't have that same exposure.
      I have spent a lot of time listening to these young people and their
    parents in Northern Virginia and Richmond, especially, where I live,
    and the fear they feel is very palpable, and the panic they feel is
    very palpable, and I understand why. I think part of our job should not
    be to increase anxiety and fear; part of our job should be--when we
    can, when it is the right thing to do, when it is within our grasp--to
    take action and provide clarity and certainty so people will know what
    their status is. I think the time for that is now after 16 years.
      Maybe the most important thing I am saying is that this is not a new
    issue. It is not that we need another week or another month or another
    year to figure out the answer. The first bill was introduced in 2001,
    and I think January 19, 2018, is ample time for us to now get this
    right and make it either part of the spending bills that we will do at
    year-end or part of a stand-alone bill that we could embrace as a body.
      I was heartened by some of the comments by the President, as reported
    yesterday, during the meeting with bipartisan leadership at the White
    House about this. We can do it, and the time is right to do it now. So
    I would ask my colleagues and especially urge all those in the
    negotiations to make this decision and provide these wonderful young
    people with certainty about their future.
      Mr. President, I yield the floor.
      The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
      Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I join my colleague from Virginia, as
    well as Senator Durbin, who has been working so hard to get this done,
    to stand up for the Dreamers. I give my strong support once again for
    taking action on the Dream Act. We need to take up this bill.
      As Senator Kaine just noted, I was also heartened, after the meeting
    at the White House, by the fact that this President understands--he
    said he understands that we can't wait until March to get this done,
    that we need to get this done soon. For me, the easiest way to do this
    is by passing the Dream Act.
      The Federal court decision in California yesterday will provide some
    temporary relief, as every single day more and more kids fall out of
    status. That sounds like a legal term, but for them, it changes their
    whole life. These are kids who literally believed our government. They
    were told: You register. You sign up. We are going to allow you to
    stay.

    [[Page S132]]

      And then, in one little moment and with a signature, that all
    changed. Their lives changed. So it is now our obligation in the Senate
    to get this done.
      We have already seen the harmful effects of the administration's
    decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program, and
    the situation will continue to get worse until we take action. This is
    not just a small thing. I have met these kids. Ninety-seven percent of
    them either work or are in school. The average age they were when they
    were brought to this country is 6\1/2\ years old.
      A few months back, I stood in front of a Catholic church with our
    archbishop of the Twin Cities, Archbishop Hebda, and a number of his
    parishioners and a number of the priests from that church to talk about
    what this meant in people's lives--kids brought over through no fault
    of their own.
      My favorite example of a Dreamer, Senator Kaine and Mr. President, is
    Joseph Medina. He was brought over--and he didn't know this at the
    time--as a baby. His parents had died, and he was brought over to
    Sleepy Eye, MN, where he was raised. This was a long time ago. When he
    got to be the right age, he decided that he wanted to serve our
    country, and he signed up to serve in World War II.
      Well, back then, he went to the military, to the Army, and said: I
    want to sign up.
      They said: Well, it turns out--I don't know what term they used back
    then, but he was undocumented. And when I first met him at the young
    age of 99, as he explained to me, back then, all you did was you went
    to Canada for a day, with our country's OK, and slept in a hotel for a
    night, which is what he did, and then came back. Then he was made
    legal, and the Army signed him up, and he ended up going over and
    serving in the Pacific. He came back to this country, met his wife, got
    married, had a son, and that son served in the Vietnam war.
      A few years ago, when he was 99, I got to bring him to Washington,
    and we stood in front of the World War II Memorial. There he stood. He
    had never seen it before, and he would never go again. He just died at
    the age of 103. He stood there with two Dreamers, suburban high school
    kids from Minnesota who wanted to join the Air Force, but they couldn't
    do it. They didn't have that right status. They were Dreamers too. They
    had been brought over as young kids.
      To me, that just brought it all home. This is a war hero, someone who
    served our country, and this is the kind of person we are talking about
    when we talk about the Dreamers. His last act of patriotism in the last
    few years of his life was to continue to push so that other kids could
    serve their country just as he had and just as his son had.
      While we have not reached an agreement yet on this bill, the reports
    on the bipartisan meeting are hopeful. But time is ticking by. Time is
    ticking. The American public is with us. This is not one of these
    issues where the public says: What are they doing? This makes no sense.
    No. A recent poll found that 86 percent of Americans support action to
    allow the Dreamers to stay here in the United States. So I am very
    hopeful that we can come together on a bipartisan agreement.
      The Dream Act was based on one simple principle, and that is that you
    should have the opportunity--this set of people, 800,000 people who
    came over here through no fault of their own, should have that
    opportunity to call this country home, as they have been doing for so
    many years.
      Passing the Dream Act isn't just the morally right thing to do, it is
    the economically right thing to do. One recent study estimated that
    ending deferred action for childhood arrivals would cost the country
    over $400 billion over the next 10 years. It would cost my State more
    than $376 million in annual revenue. We are proud to be the home of
    more than 6,000 Dreamers.
      Since it was established in 2012, it has helped, as I have noted,
    nearly 800,000 young people who have lived in the United States since
    childhood to have better lives. Think about that--800,000 people. As I
    mentioned, 97 percent of them are in school or in the workforce, and 72
    percent of them are currently in school pursuing a bachelor's degree or
    higher. More than 100 students applied to medical school last year.
    Nearly 100 of them are currently enrolled in medical school at a time
    when we need more doctors, particularly in rural areas. Those are the
    facts.
      I note that at the meeting at the White House, the President actually
    said that when this got done, he wanted to pursue comprehensive
    immigration reform. It is something that we have done before on a
    bipartisan basis in the Senate, and I believe that is where we need to
    turn now.
      We talk about the economic sense of the Dreamers. Look at our country
    overall. Seventy of our Fortune 500 companies are headed by immigrants.
    Twenty-five percent of our U.S. Nobel Laureates were born in other
    countries. Immigrants have been an economic engine for this country.
      Everyone in this Chamber came from somewhere. Their relatives came
    from somewhere. My grandparents on my mom's side came from Switzerland,
    and on my dad's side my great-grandparents came from Slovenia. They
    worked in the mines. They worked so hard just to send my dad to
    college. They saved money in a coffee can in a basement. I am here
    today with great-grandparents who came straight from Slovenia, a
    grandfather who worked in a mine, a dad who grew up there and was the
    first one in the family to go to college and get a 2-year degree and
    then a 4-year degree, and I literally stand here on the shoulders of
    these immigrants.
      On my mom's side, the Swiss side, my grandpa came over and ended up
    at Ellis Island when he was 18 years old, and they had reached the cap
    on Swiss immigrants. That might sound amusing, but that was the case.
    He then somehow got himself to Canada--I think he said he was going to
    live there--came back through--because he wanted to be in our country--
    came back through, ended up in Wisconsin, like all good Swiss, with my
    other relatives on my grandma's side, worked at a cheese factory, and
    was an alien for 20 years. He finally applied for citizenship when
    World War II was breaking out, and that is when they found out that, in
    fact, he maybe had come into the country two different ways. But back
    then, they listened to his story, and they gave him citizenship.
    Otherwise, he would have been deported--I think it was 3 weeks before
    the U.S. joined World War II--as a Swiss German. Instead, he married my
    grandma back then, they had my mom and my mom's brother, and here I am.
      I am on the shoulders of those immigrants. So when I see these
    Dreamers, I see my own family, and I hope everyone in this Chamber sees
    the same thing--the American dream. That is why, Mr. President, I stand
    with the Senator from Virginia, Mr. Kaine, with Senator Durbin, and so
    many of my colleagues who have been working on this for so long on both
    sides of the aisle. There has been leadership on both sides of the
    aisle. So let's get this done, let's pass the Dream Act, and let's
    never forget that we all come from somewhere.
      Thank you.
      I yield the floor.
      The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Tillis). The Senator from Connecticut.
      Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, a number of us are here today with a
    very simple, straightforward demand. We must act now to pass a Dream
    Act. Very simply, the honor and integrity of this Chamber are at stake.
      The young people who would be covered under the Dream Act are
    Americans in all but name. They came here as children. They grew up as
    Americans. They go to our schools, serve in our military, and support
    our economy. They work hard and they give back and they believe in the
    American dream. Deporting Dreamers would be cruel and irrational,
    inhumane, and, very simply, repugnant to basic American values.
      Just think of Jonathan Gonzalez-Cruz. He is a college student at
    Southern Connecticut State University. I had the privilege of meeting
    him in December. His story has stuck with me. His story haunts me when
    I think of the moral imperative of this Nation to pass the Dream Act.
      Jonathan was born in Mexico. He came to this country when he was just
    4 years old. The United States is home for him. It is the only country
    he has ever known. He received a full scholarship to attend Southern
    Connecticut

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    State University, and he is set to graduate this spring with an honors
    degree in economics and math.
      His dream is to attend law school, but due to the uncertainty
    surrounding DACA, he has decided to delay applying, knowing he will be
    unable to receive scholarships without his DACA status. He could
    attend, but he can't pay for it with scholarships unless he has that
    DACA status.
      Jonathan first became compelled to speak up and tell his story after
    his father was deported, and they were unable to even say goodbye.
    Despite his own struggles, Jonathan is a passionate advocate for his
    community, and he actively works for Connecticut Students for a Dream.
    That organization, Connecticut Students for a Dream, is a group of
    students who help empower and advocate on behalf of other undocumented
    students. In fact, today, Jonathan is in DC to help ensure that the
    voices of students are, in fact, heard. Jonathan is a volunteer peer
    mentor through that organization because he is so passionate about
    raising graduation rates and ensuring that all students like himself
    have the support they need to succeed.
      During his senior year, Jonathan has been interning at an immigration
    law firm, and he is glad to be helping others gain legal status in this
    country. The irony is not lost on him--and should not be lost on us--
    that he, himself, could face deportation this year. If Jonathan is not
    permitted to stay--if Congress does not act and he loses his DACA
    protection--Connecticut and this Nation will be the losers. Connecticut
    and this Nation will lose an educated and compassionate public service-
    minded individual who gives back to his community, to his fellow
    students, and to our State. He is just one example of the estimated
    10,000 like him in Connecticut--and at least 700,000 around the
    country--who could lose their status in March if Congress fails to act
    now.
      Very simply, we have an obligation to do our job and provide
    permanent status and a path to citizenship for the Dreamers. The
    hopeful news is, there is broad bipartisan support for affording the
    Dreamers protection against mass, draconian deportation. Our challenge
    is to make sure that what we do here reflects that broad bipartisan
    support in this Chamber and around the country because America knows it
    has made a promise. It made a promise to those Dreamers, and great
    countries do not break promises.
      Last night, a Federal district court issued a preliminary injunction
    ordering DHS--the Department of Homeland Security--to resume accepting
    renewal applications. Once again, the courts have served as a bulwark
    for basic rights under rule of law, but this reprieve is no final
    remedy. We must redouble our determination to protect these young
    people from draconian, mass deportation--a continuing threat as long as
    President Trump refuses to reverse his cruel, unconscionable policy.
      A Federal judge has struck down President Trump's order as
    unconstitutional, but a Dream Act is no less necessary today than it
    was yesterday. Congress should waste no time in swiftly passing clean
    legislation--a clean Dream Act to protect these young people.
      When DACA was adopted in 2012, it changed the lives of young people
    like Jonathan. It opened new vistas. It provided Dreamers with the
    opportunity to get driver's licenses, to attend college, to become
    productive members of our economy.

      Importantly, when DACA was adopted, we made that promise to these
    young people. We promised that if they came forward and provided the
    United States of America with information, some of the most personal
    information any of us have--information about their addresses,
    employment, dates of birth, their families--we would not use that
    information against them. They had a place here under DACA. They had
    rights--moral, if not legal. That promise is now about to be broken.
      Great countries keep those promises. The United States is the
    greatest country in the history of the world. It should not be breaking
    promises to innocent young men and women who know only this country,
    who believe in the American dream, who believe in America's promises,
    who believed those promises when they offered that information and now
    are relying on the good faith of America. The rescission of DACA
    threatens to tear apart families, destroy lives, create disarray, and
    derail futures. We are a country that is better than this rescission.
    We are a country that keeps promises, and Congress must now act to
    protect these young people.
      DACA protections are set to expire in 2 months. Already, tens of
    thousands of DACA recipients are estimated to have lost their
    protection from removal. The longer Congress takes to act, the longer
    these young people, who were promised the American dream, continue with
    anguish, with targets on their backs.
      Continued waiting means instability to the job market because
    companies are forced to hire replacements for DACA recipients and train
    new workers in anticipation of the March deadline. It could mean a
    massive ejection of qualified, hard-working people vital to our
    economy.
      This kind of massive deportation by plane, by boat, by car, by foot
    would be unprecedented. We have never seen anything like it before. As
    I have said repeatedly, this kind of mass, draconian deportation would
    be a humanitarian nightmare, a betrayal of America.
      If Congress fails to pass the Dream Act, we will lose nearly $500
    billion over the next 10 years. Let me repeat. We will lose $500
    billion over the next 10 years. We will lose $25 billion in Medicare
    and Social Security taxes alone. In my home State of Connecticut, we
    stand to lose $300 million in economic benefits a year.
      Now is the time to abandon the myth that the Dreamers work on the
    sidelines of American society. They are part of the fabric of this
    Nation. Their lives are woven into the great tapestry of America. They
    drive our economy. They give back to our communities.
      The administration has thrown a ticking time bomb into their lives,
    but it is also a ticking time bomb in this Chamber. We have the power
    to defuse it. In doing so, we can give hope to hundreds of thousands of
    members of our society and reaffirm the greatness of our country. At
    stake is nothing less than the character of our country, and that is
    why there is such bipartisan support for the Dream Act, as evidenced
    yesterday in the Cabinet Room when the President met with Members of
    the Congress on both sides of the aisle.
      In the Dreamers, we see ourselves. We see relatives who came to this
    country years ago, many of them as teenagers. My father fled Germany at
    17 years old with nothing more than the shirt on his back, speaking no
    English, knowing virtually no one here. Like him, they believe in
    America's promise, America's dream, and we should believe in the
    Dreamers.
      Thank you, Mr. President.
      I yield the floor.
      I suggest the absence of a quorum.
      The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
      The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
      Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
    the quorum call be rescinded.
      The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
      Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to speak about
    the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program, known as DACA. That
    was an Executive order of President Obama's which provided temporary
    legal status to immigrant students and young people if they registered
    with the government, paid a fee, and passed a criminal and national
    security background check. It was for 2 years and renewable.
      Young people who are protected by DACA are known by some as Dreamers.
    They came to the United States as children. They grew up singing the
    ``Star Spangled Banner'' and pledging allegiance to our flag. They
    believed that they were Americans, but legally, they are not. The
    average DACA recipient came to the United States at the age of 6 and
    has been here for approximately 20 years.
      It was 7 years ago that I sent a letter to President Obama. I was
    joined in that letter, incidentally, by Senator Dick Lugar, a
    Republican from Indiana. In that letter, I asked President Obama: Can
    you find a way to protect these young people?

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      We passed the Dream Act on the floor of the House. We passed it on
    the floor of the Senate. We have never managed to pass it in both
    Chambers in the same year. And the President created the DACA Program.
      The DACA Program has been a success. Approximately 800,000 Dreamers
    have come forward and received DACA protection. Let's allow them to be
    part of America as teachers, as nurses, as engineers, as first
    responders, and even serving in the U.S. military.
      But on September 5 of this last year, 2017, Attorney General Jeff
    Sessions announced that the Trump administration was setting out to
    repeal DACA, to put an end to it. That same day, President Trump called
    on Congress to come up with a solution to legalize DACA. He challenged
    us. He said to the U.S. Senate and House: Pass a law. If this is a good
    idea, pass a law.
      It has been more than 4 months since the President issued that
    challenge. The Republican leadership of Congress has not proposed any
    legislation to legalize DACA as the President asked.
      The deportation clock is ticking for these young people who are
    protected. Already, 15,000 have lost their DACA status. Beginning on
    March 5--the deadline that initially was imposed by President Trump--
    every day for the next 2 years, 1,000 DACA young people will lose their
    ability to work legally in the United States and will be subject to
    being deported from this country.
      Who are they? Some 20,000 of them are teachers in our schools who
    would lose the right to work legally and have to leave their
    classrooms. Nurses would leave their patients. First responders would
    leave their posts. And 900 soldiers would lose their ability to
    volunteer to risk their lives for America's future.
      This isn't just a looming humanitarian crisis; it is an economic
    crisis. More than 91 percent of DACA Dreamers are gainfully employed
    and paying taxes. Many of them are students; yet they are still
    gainfully employed because they don't qualify for Federal assistance
    for higher education, so they have to work jobs, sometimes many jobs.
      The nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy reports
    that DACA-eligible individuals contribute an estimated $2 billion a
    year in State and local taxes. The Cato Institute, a conservative
    operation in Washington, estimates that ending DACA and deporting DACA
    recipients will cost the economy $60 billion and result in a $280
    billion reduction in economic growth over the next decade.
      Poll after poll shows overwhelming bipartisan support for the
    Dreamers. FOX News found that 79 percent of Americans support a path to
    citizenship for Dreamers, including 63 percent of Trump voters.
      The answer is clear. It was 16 years ago that I first introduced the
    DREAM Act--bipartisan legislation to give these young people a path to
    citizenship. In July of last year, I introduced the most recent version
    with my colleague, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. We need to
    pass the Dream Act, and we need to do it now, before January 19.
      Over the years, I have come to the floor to tell the story of the
    Dreamers. I can give a pretty nice speech here, but these stories tell
    the story of this issue more than anything I can add to them. These
    stories show what is at stake when we consider the fate of DACA and the
    Dream Act.
      Today, I want to tell you about this young lady. Her name is Evelyn
    Valdez-Ward. This is the 107th Dreamer story I have told on the floor.
    Evelyn was 6 months old when her family brought her from Mexico to
    Houston, TX. She was quite a good student. She graduated 11th in her
    high school class of 650. She took all advanced placement classes and
    was a member of the National Honor Society. She was a member of the
    color guard in the marching band and regularly volunteered at homeless
    shelters and animal shelters.
      It wasn't until she began to apply for college that she finally
    learned her immigration status. She wasn't like the other students with
    whom she had grown up and shared classrooms and experiences. Evelyn is
    undocumented, but it didn't stop her--she was going to pursue college.
      One of her teachers believed in her because she was such a bright
    student and wrote her a letter of recommendation to go to college. She
    was accepted into the University of Houston. She received multiple
    awards while in college, including the Excellence in SI Leadership and
    Mentoring Award, the American Society of Plant Biology Award for
    Outstanding Research, and the Outstanding Biology Leadership Award.
      The summer after her freshman year, she was offered a great research
    opportunity through the National Science Foundation. Because of DACA,
    she was allowed to work legally in the United States, and she was able
    to pursue this important research. That opportunity was in plant water
    transport research in California. This is where Evelyn fell in love
    with ecology and plants.
      She graduated magna cum laude in 2016 with a bachelor of science in
    biology. Today, she is a second-year Ph.D. student at the University of
    California, Irvine, in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary
    Biology. She is researching the effects of climate change on the
    interactions between plants and soil. Evelyn's dream is to continue her
    research as a scientist and to become an advocate for strategies to
    mitigate climate change.
      In September, the American Association for the Advancement of Science
    wrote a letter opposing the White House decision to rescind DACA. Here
    is what they said:

           Many DACA students make significant contributions to the
         scientific and engineering enterprise in the United States .
         . . high-achieving young people in DACA contribute in many
         ways to our nation. Many are studying to become scientists,
         engineers, medical doctors and entrepreneurs. Given the
         administration's decision, we urge Congress to craft
         legislation that provides long-term protection for these
         young people who seek to continue their education and
         contribute to society. . . . Our nation needs an immigration
         policy that advances U.S. innovation and prosperity, and
         stays true to foundational American goals that seek
         contributions to society from all.

      The Presiding Officer and I had a unique invitation yesterday. I
    would just say that as a Member of the House and of the Senate, I have
    never been invited to a meeting quite like the one we had yesterday
    with the President in the Cabinet Room of the White House. It was the
    President's idea. I don't know if it was a spur-of-the-moment idea, but
    it is one that came together very quickly in a few days.
      I think there were almost 26 of us--Democrats, Republicans, House and
    Senate Members--who were called together by President Trump. I was kind
    of surprised, but there I was sitting right next to the President of
    the United States. It was only the third time we had ever spoken. The
    other two times, incidentally, were about DACA and the Dream Act, as
    you can probably guess. He invited me to sit next to him as we talked
    about this issue.
      Then he did something that was really unusual. I have been to some
    meetings with the President in the Cabinet Room with President Obama
    and President George W. Bush. Usually, what happens is, the cameras
    come in, the President says a few words, then the staff tells them to
    leave, and they reluctantly pull out and leave. Yesterday was quite
    different. The President told the press they could stay, and they did,
    for almost an hour. The conversations between the President of the
    United States and Members of Congress were shared with the American
    people. I had never seen anything quite like it.
      I kind of liked it, to be honest with you. I think there was a lot of
    candor in the room. People were expressing their points of view, and
    there were many different points of view, but I think I came away from
    that meeting with more hope than ever that we can do something about
    DACA and the Dream Act. The President told us he would like to see it
    done. He added, though, there were things he wanted to be a part of it.
    One of them dealt with border security, which has been a priority for
    all of us from the beginning.
      We want to establish--both political parties want to establish that
    we are committed to border security, and we are. How you define it,
    what it costs, and how it is implemented--some of these things we can
    define in our agreement; others will be left to future efforts by
    Congress and the President.
      Then he talked about the family unification, and that is an issue
    that is very delicate. It is one that, as my colleagues can imagine,
    really hits home.

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    It is very personal as to whether a member of a family can bring
    someone they love--some relative in their family--to the United States.
    Even if they decide to bring them--incidentally, they may be waiting 30
    years, in the case of those who are seeking entry into the United
    States through family visas; 80 years, from China; 160 years from
    Mexico. Some of these things are unrealistic and will never happen, but
    to talk about family unification really strikes home with a lot of
    families.
      I want to hear the President's point of view, but I want to deal with
    this in the most sensitive and sincere way. We don't want to flood the
    United States with people who are any danger to us, No. 1, or
    nonproductive citizens, but we certainly want to see families unified.
      There is a question about diversity visas. I will not go into it
    because it is a long story--the creation of this program, where it is
    today, and where it might be in the future.
      Here is what I do believe after yesterday's meeting. I believe
    President Donald Trump called for that meeting because he wanted to let
    the American people know he was serious. He wanted to show them he
    could be a President presiding over a table with 24, 25 Members of
    Congress from both political parties and tackle a sensitive, delicate,
    challenging issue. He wants to show the American people he can lead. I
    want to help him lead if the goal is to make sure DACA and the Dreamers
    ultimately have their chance to be part of America's future.
      I am willing to work in good faith with the President to compromise,
    whatever it takes, to bring this forward. There are so many lives
    hanging in the balance, and this is one of them--this wonderful,
    brilliant young woman who wants to make not only the world a better
    place but America a better place. She simply wants the chance to be
    here and be part of America's future. We can give her no less.
      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. McCONNELL. 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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