[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 116 (Thursday, July 11, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4785-S4786]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Border Security

  Mr. DURBIN. I want to thank my colleague and friend, the Democratic 
leader, Senator Schumer, for raising the issues of immigration.
  We are at a moment in the history of this country that I am sure will 
be reviewed and reflected upon for many generations to come. Decisions 
that are being made in the White House today in the area of immigration 
will be criticized, analyzed, and in many cases repudiated in years to 
come. It is time for us, at this moment, to have a sober reflection on 
what this administration has done in 2\1/2\ years with the issue of 
immigration and where we stand at this very moment.
  This President came to the White House promising he was going to get 
tough on immigration--immigration. Probably at the heart of America, 
more than anything, has been the issue of immigration. We are a nation 
of immigrants. My mother was an immigrant to this country.
  I believe the diversity of our Nation is one of our core strengths 
because we have attracted people from all over the world. This 
President doesn't understand it. If he does, he is not pushing policies 
that show any reflection on that reality and that historic background.

[[Page S4786]]

  Think of how this administration started. Within hours after this 
President was elected, he announced the Muslim travel ban; that he 
would single out countries with Muslim-majority populations and say 
that their people were not welcome in the United States. The reaction 
was immediate across the United States. In the city of Chicago, I can 
remember the supporters of those coming from other countries heading 
out to O'Hare and attorneys volunteering to give them counsel. There 
was an outpouring of support for these people, realizing that 
fundamentally innocent people were traveling to this country. Yet the 
President, with his travel ban, made it clear from the very start of 
his administration his view on these immigrants.
  What followed from there was a decision by this administration to 
eliminate temporary protective status. Three hundred thousand 
immigrants in this country came here because of natural disasters and 
political upheaval and got protection in the United States. The 
President wanted to turn them away. Was there any measurement as to 
which ones might be dangerous? No. All would be turned away.
  Then, of course, there was the President's decision to eliminate the 
DACA Program. The DACA Program was created by President Obama. These 
people were brought to the United States as children because of 
decisions by their parents. They grew up in this country, and every day 
in classrooms they pledged allegiance to that flag, believing it was 
their flag too. At some point in their lives, they learned they were 
undocumented. They didn't have legal status in America. President Obama 
felt--and I, as a sponsor of the Dream Act, agreed with and encouraged 
the creation by Executive order of the DACA Program. So 790,000 of 
these young people came forward, paid a filing fee, went through a 
criminal background check, and after they were approved, they were 
given 2 years to stay in the United States, renewable, where they 
couldn't be deported, and they could work legally in this country. That 
program, as I said, attracted 790,000 successful applicants, many of 
them outstanding students and amazing young people. I told their 
stories on the floor of the Senate. President Trump decided to abolish 
that program and to end the protection for these young people--790,000 
of them.
  That wasn't the end of it. The President continued with policies such 
as zero tolerance. Do you remember that one? Last year, the Attorney 
General of the United States stood up and quoted from the Bible as to 
how it was the right thing to do to separate 2,880 infants, toddlers, 
and children from their parents at our borders. Zero tolerance; treat 
the parents like criminals and separate the kids.
  What was worse was that no effort was made to track those children as 
to where they were placed and what happened to their parents. It wasn't 
until a Federal judge in Southern California came forward and forced 
this administration to finally match up the children with their parents 
that the effort was undertaken, and still more than 100 of them were 
never matched--lost in the bureaucratic sea of the Trump 
administration. That wasn't the end of it by far.
  What we have seen at the border in the last several months has been 
shocking and unprecedented in American history. This ``get tough'' 
President, who says he is going to cut off foreign aid to countries in 
Central America and get tough at the border with his almighty wall, has 
ended up attracting larger numbers of people who are presenting 
themselves for asylum status at the border of the United States than we 
have ever seen--dramatic increases we haven't seen for decades with 
regard to the number of people at the border. The President's 
immigration policy has backfired.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for an 
additional 2 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DURBIN. The net result of this has been the announcement by the 
administration that, come Sunday, we will see mass arrests and 
deportations in this country. Reports from the New York Times are that 
thousands will be rounded up, arrested, and deported. When possible, 
they say, family members will be arrested together and will be held in 
family detention centers.
  Have these people committed crimes since they have been in the United 
States? There is no evidence of it. It is simply the fact that they are 
undocumented at this moment, and many of them may have lived here for 
years. These arrests and mass deportations are going to create fear in 
communities across the United States, including in the city of Chicago, 
which I am honored to represent. For what? It will not make America 
safer for us if we deport these people. Sadly, it is going to mean that 
their families will be torn apart and that there will be more children 
and families in detention.
  We were told there was a humanitarian crisis and that we needed to 
apply ourselves and make certain that we had billions of dollars to 
deal with it, and we did. Now the administration has turned around and 
announced a new wave of splitting up families and deporting them from 
the United States. This is not what America is all about. There is a 
way for us to deal with immigration in a sensible, thoughtful, rational 
way. Cruelty has no place in the history of this country, and it has no 
place when it comes to the treatment of those who are in the United 
States today.
  I yield the floor.