[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 85 (Wednesday, May 6, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2267-S2268]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
DACA
Ms. CORTEZ MASTO. Mr. President, I rise, along with my good friend
and colleague, the senior Senator from Illinois, to stress the
importance of what is happening in this country right now and who is on
the frontline during this healthcare crisis and why we need to support
them. There is no doubt.
I just came from Nevada. There are so many essential workers who are
risking their lives, as well as their loved ones, to provide essential
care and help for individuals, not just in Nevada but across the
country. We are talking about healthcare workers. We are talking about
transit drivers, sanitation workers, first responders. We are talking
about those who are working with the grocery stores, showing up every
day to make sure that individuals in need can have the groceries they
so require during this healthcare crisis.
So much is at stake right now. I do not want to forget all of those
State and local government workers. Right now in my State, there are so
many
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State workers who are showing up to ensure that individuals get the
essential paycheck or the expanded unemployment insurance that we
fought to make sure they can receive, and they are showing up, as well.
I, too, stand with my colleague because I think it is important that
we recognize not only our healthcare workers but some of those who need
extra help from this legislature. We have spent, unfortunately, the
last 3 years of this administration attacking them. These are our
immigrants in Nevada and across this country who are actually going out
every day and risking their lives to help others in need, and they are
working in our healthcare.
One of them I rise to talk about today is Anna Ledesma. She is a DACA
recipient in Nevada, and she works in a pediatric ICU in Nevada as a
nurse, in Las Vegas. Anna has been in the United States since she was 7
years old. She got interested in medicine because an aunt who was a
nurse thought it would be the perfect career for her. Her aunt was
right. Anna loves biology and she loves learning how disease process
works. But, most of all, Anna loves her patients. She said: ``I love
connecting with them over Disney stuff.'' Anna will tell you: ``I think
I'm a good pediatric nurse because at heart, I'm still a kid too.''
All across Nevada, immigrants like Anna are working on the frontlines
to help others in need during this healthcare crisis. They are working
as teachers for children learning from home. They are staffing
retirement homes, taking care of at-risk seniors in the middle of a
pandemic that targets our elders. They are harvesting, they are
shelving, and they are cooking food for all of us.
More than 200,000 DACA recipients in the United States are on the
frontlines of healthcare, education, agriculture, and other essential
jobs. There are almost 5,000 of them in Nevada alone among the 12,000
Nevada DACA recipients. These are our friends, and they are our
neighbors.
Yet this administration continues to demonize them with anti-
immigrant rhetoric and has turned their lives upside down by trying to
end DACA. These are the young professionals at risk if the Supreme
Court upholds President Trump's decision to terminate DACA.
These young men and women have grown up in our communities, and they
are giving back. Even in the face of their uncertain futures, they are
still showing up to work each shift and still demonstrating by their
everyday heroism that they belong here.
Now, more than ever, we need to understand that those who come to
America in search of a better life don't diminish us. They enrich us.
You can see how cruel and twisted the immigration debate in this
country has become if you just think about this: In the middle of a
worldwide health crisis, when they should be focused on keeping their
patients alive and limiting their own exposure, the 27,000 DACA
recipients in healthcare have to worry about their own legal status.
Anna says that the health crisis her hospital is facing has almost
managed to push out the fear that is always in the back of her mind
about attacks on DACA and attacks on her future--almost, because it
never really goes away. A few weeks ago, Anna was transferred to other
parts of the hospital to help adult patients with COVID-19. She told me
about the utter isolation of these patients who are fighting for their
lives far from their loved ones. She told me about former University
Medical Center friends and colleagues, now in New York and in Seattle,
who are witnessing the same scenes.
Lately, the number of children suffering from COVID-19 has increased
in Nevada. Anna is back in the pediatric ICU, where patients are mostly
asymptomatic. With these healthier patients, it is easier to do what
she does best, which is to teach kids the things they need to know
about a procedure or an operation they are facing, distracting them and
making them laugh.
We need to let Anna do her job. We need to let the thousands of
immigrants who are on the frontline right now continue to do their
jobs. We must allow her to keep serving the only community she has ever
known. We need to create a pathway for citizenship for so many like
Anna. We need to give them all the tools they need to keep themselves
and the rest of us healthy.
Anna's story is an American story--one of struggle, courage, and
sacrifice for your community in order to build a brighter future for
those who come after.
I am going to continue to fight for DACA recipients and immigrants
like Anna and everyone else who has contributed, not just in my State
but in this country, to not only enrich all of our lives but to
continue to contribute to our economy and to make our lives better. The
least we can do is to give them peace of mind and let them know that
the only country they have ever known is one they can stay in forever.
That is my fight. I hope that is the Presiding Officer's fight and of
many of my colleagues. This is something that must be done. We have to
pass legislation to make sure Dreamers in this country and their
parents have every opportunity to stay and find that pathway to
citizenship. They are already contributing.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I want to thank my colleague from Nevada.
Anna's story is so touching. This young girl, concerned about her own
future, worried about deportation, gets into a giving, caring
profession and risks her life in caring for those who may be suffering
from COVID-19. To think someone would question whether we want that
kind of person in America's future is beyond me.
Thank you for telling that story. It is an important part of the
Record
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