[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 51 (Thursday, March 18, 2021)]
[House]
[Page H1504]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
DREAMERS MUST BE SUPPORTED
(Mr. SUOZZI asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute.)
Mr. SUOZZI. Mr. Speaker, 100 years ago, my father was born in a small
medieval village in the mountaintops of southern Italy.
He came to America as a young boy, and in his St. Dominic's High
School senior yearbook, he wrote that his goal in life was ``to become
a real American.''
Twenty-seven years ago, I served as the young mayor of my hometown of
Glen Cove. I addressed the issue of a growing population of new
immigrants from Central and South America who gathered on street
corners looking for daywork by creating the first day-worker site
anywhere on the East Coast of the United States of America.
Today, those same men who gathered on street corners have their own
businesses, own their own homes, and their children went to school with
my children.
One Dreamer from El Salvador, who graduated high school with my
daughter, went on to graduate from college with a degree in biomedical
engineering, got a master's in biomedical engineering, and is now
pursuing a doctorate in the same subject.
Today, I will support the American Dream and Promise Act, for Mario,
for Nelson, and for all the other Dreamers whose goal is, like my
father's, to become a real American.
____________________