[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 29 (Wednesday, February 14, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H1129-H1130]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                DREAMERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Espaillat) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ESPAILLAT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my concerns and 
my deep shame for many in this Chamber who continue to gamble with the 
lives of over 800,000 Dreamers, young people who are workers and 
students. They are teachers and members of our Armed Forces. They are 
dads and moms.
  After five continuing resolutions, we still have left them out in the 
cold, over 800,000 of them. This week, the Senate is, once again, 
sandbagging the Dreamers. While Senator McConnell has publicly made 
this an open debate, it is far from being a fair process.
  Just yesterday, a Federal judge in the Eastern District of New York 
ruled conclusively that eliminating DACA and the benefits extended to 
DACA recipients is an illegal act. Just as this is happening, the 
Senate continues and begins to sandbag the Dreamers by first putting on 
the table the issue of sanctuary cities.
  Many have a flawed view of what sanctuary cities are. Many 
erroneously think that sanctuary cities harbor hardened criminals. That 
is far from the truth.
  A sanctuary city is a city that allows a mom to take her child to 
school, who is undocumented, without fear that the principal will call 
ICE or the authorities.
  A sanctuary city is a city that allows a senior citizen to go into an 
emergency room to be treated in a hospital without the fear that the 
nurse will turn him or her in.
  A sanctuary city is a city that allows people who are living under 
the shadows to go into a police precinct and report a crime without the 
fear that they will be deported.
  That is what a sanctuary city is. It is an intricate part of our soul 
as a country of immigrants and States and cities of immigrants.
  The Senate process is far from being fair. A fair process would be to 
start a bipartisan debate on Dreamers. The Speaker of this Chamber has 
yet to make a commitment to bring a clean Dream Act to the floor.
  Dreamers are our children. They are my children. They belong to all 
of us. When we look into their faces, I see my own face. When I look 
into their faces, I see a genius MacArthur Fellow winner like Cristina 
Jimenez and Ivan Rosales, who is working toward becoming a doctor in 
the military.
  There is so much aspiration in these Dreamers. This is why over 80 
percent of Americans in red States and blue States and in Republican 
districts and in Democratic districts support Dreamers staying here in 
the United States.
  They represent the best of us. They represent the foundation of our 
Nation and the tenets of what the Founding Fathers believe in: that 
people should come to America, prosper, and make her a better place for 
all of us to live in.
  Mr. Speaker, the fate of these young people rests right here in the 
palm of our hands. We need to ask ourselves: Are we a nation of 
aspirations? Or are we a nation of deportations?

[[Page H1130]]

  It is in our hands. We cannot keep deferring a vote on a clean Dream 
Act. A deferred vote is a dream denied. Justice delayed is justice 
denied.
  But I tell the Dreamers this: Don't be afraid. Don't be discouraged. 
Don't be deterred. Don't be dismayed. You have to continue to fight for 
the most important issues facing America. You have done a tremendous 
job. Keep this fight moving forward for justice in America.

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