[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 180 (Tuesday, November 12, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S6491]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Immigration

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, today, the Supreme Court heard oral 
arguments in the case against the President's decision to cancel DACA, 
the program that grants legal status to over 600,000 Dreamers who were 
brought to this country through no fault of their own, who voluntarily 
came forward and registered with the government in exchange for 
protected status, who work in our factories and our hospitals, who 
teach and learn in our schools and serve in our military. Before the 
highest Court in the land, President Trump and his administration 
cruelly argued that these Dreamers do not belong in America and must be 
ripped away from their families and sent back to countries that many of 
them do not even remember.
  The President once tweeted: ``Does anybody really want to throw out 
good, educated and accomplished young people who have jobs, some 
serving in the military? Really!'' Now the same President is saying 
some Dreamers are ``very tough, hardened criminals,'' and his 
administration has argued they should be deported. Donald Trump's 
hypocrisy when it comes to Dreamers knows no bounds. After flip-
flopping again and again on the issue and after failing to lead an 
effort to pass comprehensive immigration reform, it is abjectly 
shameful that President Trump is trying to get the Supreme Court to do 
his dirty work and put the Dreamers under threat of mass deportation.
  When the DACA Program was established in 2012, under a long tradition 
of administrative discretion, it changed the lives of thousands and 
thousands of Dreamers for the better, and it made our country better. 
Yet, because of President Trump and his relentless scapegoating of 
immigrants--his cynical use of trying to tell too many of the American 
people that the Dreamers are the reason they are not doing well, which 
is despicable--these hard-working and patriotic Americans are haunted 
by the possibility they could be forced to leave this country at any 
moment--be pulled away from their families, their jobs, their homes. It 
is cruel. It is counterproductive. It undermines American values and 
all that America stands for.
  Thankfully, one of the first things the House Democrats did when they 
won the majority was to pass a permanent legislative solution for DACA 
recipients and TPS holders. It is legislation I wholeheartedly support. 
Now it is up to the Supreme Court to defend the program. It is up to 
Majority Leader McConnell to bring the Dream and Promise Act to the 
Senate floor.
  My good friend Senator Durbin, who has been a champion for Dreamers 
for as long as I can remember, will ask for the Senate's consent this 
evening to take up these bills. I thank him for his moral and continued 
strong leadership on this issue. I could not agree more with what he is 
trying to do. It is time to do the right thing for Dreamers and 
enshrine DACA into law.
  We will see how my Republican friends respond. After all, the House 
has done its job. Where are the Senate Republicans who claim to stand 
with the Dreamers? We will see this evening.
  From my home in Brooklyn, I can see the great lady in the harbor who 
welcomed my ancestors many years ago. If America is to remain the 
greatest Nation in the world and a beacon of hope and freedom for 
people everywhere--a light among nations--we must live up to our best 
values. That means we must stand totally and wholeheartedly with the 
Dreamers and all 11 million who now live in the shadows.