[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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