[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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