[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 184 (Monday, November 18, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S6620]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
IMMIGRATION
Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, earlier this week, I sat in the Supreme
Court and listened to the oral arguments in the case challenging
President Trump's decision to shut down the deferred action for
childhood arrivals program, or DACA.
DACA is the program we fought so hard for. It is what has allowed
nearly 700,000 undocumented youth across America--the bright young
people we call Dreamers--to come out of the shadows and to pursue their
dreams without fear of deportation. That includes nearly 17,000
Dreamers in my home State of New Jersey.
We all remember the heart-wrenching stories before DACA--kids
applying for driver's licenses on their birthdays only to discover they
weren't citizens; students opening college acceptance letters with
pride, only to learn they couldn't receive financial aid; young people
trying to enlist in the military, only to find out their undocumented
status disqualified them. These are the stories that I shared with
President Obama during a meeting several years ago when I made the case
for DACA with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. I thought back to that
meeting as I sat in the Supreme Court earlier this week. I remembered
bringing along a legal memo that made clear the Federal Government had
the authority to use prosecutorial discretion to protect Dreamers from
deportation. After years of pushing the administration and fearless
advocacy by thousands of Dreamers nationwide, President Obama
eventually saw the light, and the program we now know as DACA was born.
DACA offered law-abiding young people who were brought to this
country as children through no decision of their own the opportunity to
come out of the shadows and step into the light to fulfill their God-
given potential. And that is exactly what they did. Dreamers put their
faith in our government.
They registered with the Department of Homeland Security, paid fees,
passed criminal background checks, and handed over personal details
about themselves and their families to authorities they have been
hiding from their entire lives. They did this all to qualify for DACA's
promise of a 2-year renewable work permit and protection from
deportation. Dreamers put their trust in the U.S. Government, but as we
all know by now, President Trump betrayed that trust. He betrayed young
people like Manny Sanchez, one of the many Dreamers from New Jersey who
traveled to Washington, DC, this week to make their voices heard.
Manny was brought to the United States at just 1 month old. Today he
is 20, attending Brookdale Community College in Middletown, NJ, where
he studies nursing and volunteers with local emergency medical
services. Without DACA, he risks being deported to Mexico, a country he
doesn't even know. ``I wouldn't know what to do, where to go, what my
future would be like,'' Manny said. ``This is really my home.''
These kids are as American as apple pie. Dreamers grew up pledging
allegiance to our flag, singing our national anthem, loving our
country. They are American in every way except for a piece of paper.
Dreamers are succeeding in our schools, playing on our sports teams,
attending our colleges, serving in our military, and loving our country
because it is their country too. Their home is here. So I refuse to let
their lives be ruined in the name of White nationalist fear mongering.
And I refuse to let them be used as bargaining chips for this
administration's anti-immigrant agenda which seeks to tie protections
for Dreamers to radical cuts to legal family-based immigration and
billions of dollars for the President's hateful, ineffective border
wall. Should the Supreme Court strike down DACA, we will have a
national emergency on our hands. It will shatter families. It will
strike fear into our communities. And it will cost our economy dearly.
In New Jersey alone, ending DACA would shrink our economy by nearly
$1.6 billion a year and reduce U.S. GDP by $460 billion over the next
decade. This is not what I call law and order. This is what I call fear
and chaos. There is no way to spin this. When President Trump said he
wanted to ``treat these young people with love,'' I say, ``Love like
this we don't need!'' Ending DACA and threatening to deport hundreds of
thousands of upstanding young Dreamers, that is not love. That is hate.
That is why now, more than ever, we in the U.S. Senate must show real
love for our Dreamers. The House of Representatives passed a bill, the
American Dream and Promise Act, a bill that would protect Dreamers and
offer them the path to citizenship they deserve, a bill that would
honor the service of our men and women in uniform, harness the
potential of talented young students across our Nation, and help create
a brighter future for all Americans.
For years, I have heard my Republican colleagues talk glowingly about
America's Dreamers, talk about how they are incredible kids, talk about
how we must protect them from deportation, and talk about how they
deserve a path to citizenship. Well, our Dreamers deserve to know
whether it was all just talk. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
must pull this bill out of his legislative graveyard and hold a vote
the American Dream and Promise Act. Let's find out exactly who in the
U.S. Senate wants to keep the dream alive and who wants to snuff it
out. There is no excuse for decrying the President's decision to end
DACA but doing absolutely nothing about it. This is the U.S. Senate. We
don't have to leave the future of America's Dreamers in the hands of
the Supreme Court. We don't have to sit on our hands and wait for this
ruling to come out. And we certainly don't have to let one reckless
decision by President Trump ruin the lives of nearly 700,000 Dreamers
and the millions of Americans who know them, love them, work with them,
serve with them, and depend on them. Only Congress can provide a
permanent pathway to citizenship for Dreamers. It has never been more
urgent that we do so.
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