[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 129 (Thursday, July 22, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5029-S5031]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
IMMIGRATION
Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, America is a nation of immigrants. But
for the Native Americans, the first people over here, all of us have
come to this country in various stages in our family life: personally,
through our parents, grandparents, and beyond. We have built, within
the confines of our Nation, an amazing story to tell the world of how
such a diverse group of people can come together in one place and make
a nation that has an impact on the world itself. That makes it very
difficult to understand sometimes why we struggle so much with the
issue of immigration. It is so central to who we are, what we have
done, what we will become. Yet, when the conversation comes around
about immigration policy, immigration law, we dissemble into warring
factions and too often get little or nothing done.
The Presiding Officer may be surprised to know that it has been
almost 36 years--36 years--since this Congress has passed any
meaningful or substantive immigration law. The last real effort was
under President Ronald Reagan. That is not an indication that our
immigration system is perfect. It is far from perfect. There are many
problems with it, as we look at it in a critical and important way.
I look at it from a perspective that maybe is different than some. I
am the son of an immigrant. My mother was brought to this country at
the age of 2 from Lithuania, became a naturalized citizen, and was very
proud of that fact and raised her three boys to be proud of it as well.
Just a few steps from this Chamber is my office that I have decorated
with the naturalization certificate of my mother right next to my desk,
a reminder of who I am, where I came from, and also a warning to anyone
coming into the office that this Senator feels very strongly about the
issues of immigration.
Now I have the responsibility, as chairman of the Senate Judiciary
Committee, to actually deal with the laws surrounding immigration. It
is not an easy assignment. If we have failed for 36 years to come up
with a law, it is because there are strongly held views on both sides.
Yesterday was a good illustration of that.
I called for a hearing with my friend and colleague Senator Alex
Padilla, a California Senator, on farm labor, farm workers. The reason
we wanted to call this was because it was not untimely that we had
received a bill from the House of Representatives, which they passed on
a bipartisan basis, to rewrite the laws on farm workers. They did a
great job. I want to commend them for the effort of sending this
legislation our way, this bipartisan legislation with 30 Republicans
joining most of the House Democrats to enact it in the House of
Representatives. And now it is over on our side of the Rotunda. It is a
timely and important question.
We estimate that there are 2.4 million farmworkers in the United
States who plant and pick our crops, milk the cows, process the food,
and work in poultry and meat processing. And without them, these
industries would struggle to survive.
That is not my analysis; it is the analysis of the American Farm
Bureau and many other organizations that represent agriculture in
America.
Of the 2.4 million farmworkers in the United States who pick these
crops, half of them are undocumented. That means that, literally, they
work in the fields picking the crops that reach our tables and they
could be deported at any minute.
The bill that came over from the House of Representatives addresses
that. Here is what it says. It says: If you can prove that you have
worked picking crops for at least 10 years--10 years--and you can pass
a criminal background check, we will give you the opportunity to apply
for citizenship. But it is not instantaneous. Ten years is just the
starting point. You then have to give us 4 years more of working in the
fields, and then we will give you a green card. And in 5 years more,
you could be eligible for citizenship. You are going to go through all
kinds of reviews and background checks on your path to that moment.
So literally, we are saying to farm workers: If you will give us 19
years of your life picking our crops, we will give you a chance to be a
citizen.
I have just heard that process characterized as amnesty--amnesty. For
people who are breaking their backs, in the sweltering heat of America,
with the toughest jobs imaginable, spending 19 years of their life
putting food on our table and then passing a criminal background check,
some call amnesty. I won't.
And if you had listened yesterday to the hearing, you would
understand why even that process, as bipartisan as it was in the House,
is in a tangle of politics here on the Senate side. Two speeches given
by members of the Republican membership of the committee really told
the story. They started talking not about farm workers picking crops or
milking cows or processing our food, they started talking about
terrorists, drug dealers, human traffickers, violent criminals coming
across our border.
And they rejected the notion that we should give any of them the
opportunity for citizenship at any point. They didn't even read the
bill. About 19 years of hard work in the field before you could
possibly qualify, they just said ``reject it.''
And when I listened to that, I wondered what they had for dinner last
night because it is quite likely that whatever they had--whether it was
a vegan diet or one that included meat or other food products--it was
on their plate because one of these people that they have just
characterized as a potential terrorist is breaking his back, day in and
day out, to make sure that there is food for every American.
We heard stories. Linnea Kooistra was a dairy farmer in Woodstock,
IL. She and her husband own a dairy farm. That may be one of the
hardest assignments in the world. Those cows are going to get milked
twice a day if you are going to make a living, and you better be
prepared to give time to do it every single day, twice a day. She and
her husband did it for years, won awards for their work.
Now, they have just kind of semiretired into row crops, which are
challenging, too, but not like a dairy farm. And she said: You know,
the thought of our continuing our farm was impossible unless we had
immigrant labor.
The jobs on their dairy farm are tough, demanding jobs. People aren't
lining up to apply for those jobs. They needed immigrants to make it
work, and they couldn't get them.
There was a fellow that was there yesterday--an extraordinary guy,
person; I had just met him for the first time--and I ran across him by
watching television. I said, yesterday in a hearing, that my appetite
for television starts with the Chicago Bears and goes through baseball,
a lot of politics and news, but I never miss, if I can help it, the CBS
``Sunday Morning'' show.
[[Page S5030]]
Two weeks ago, this man named Shay Myers, whose home is in Idaho and
who farms in Oregon growing asparagus, came on the show and did such a
remarkable job, and I said to my wife: I would like to get him before
our committee.
Well, he was there yesterday, and he told his story again, and he
told about that asparagus field. There aren't many left in the United
States because it is tough work and it is unpredictable, and some
people just can't make it and how tough it was for him when finally the
entire asparagus crop is ready, but there are no pickers for the crop.
And it is backbreaking, intensive work.
He took his entire production of asparagus and basically said:
Because I can't clear immigrant workers across the border, 90 of them,
to pick my acreage on asparagus, I am just notifying the public in the
area, It is free, come and take it; it is going to rot in the fields if
you don't.
He just gave up and made nothing as a result of it. He grew up, he
said, in a community in Oregon or Idaho--I am not sure which--which was
half and half, half Anglo, half Hispanic. And he said: I am a very
conservative person politically, but how can you say that these people
haven't earned their opportunity for citizenship? They work so damn
hard, and nobody else wants to do this work, and we count on them.
And, he said: I just happen to believe that growing these crops in
the United States is a good thing. American consumers, more and more,
are saying: We want some standards. We want to know about the chemicals
you are going to use on these crops. We want to know about your farming
practices.
He said: I pay close attention to those in America. Other countries
that send us those crops from other countries don't pay any attention
to it.
And he made a very, very valid point. When I think about those
workers and how critical they were to him and his livelihood, it is
hard for me to sit here--or stand here and ignore some of the criticism
of this farm workers bill.
I want to salute Michael Bennet, of Colorado, in particular. He is
our colleague here. And he has, time and again, been able to mobilize
the growers and the farm workers into an agreement on a bill. He did it
again. He did it once before. I saw him do it, almost miraculously,
with our Gang of 8 effort, a comprehensive immigration reform 7, 8
years ago. And now he has done it with this bill. It is amazing.
Arturo Rodriguez was there, one of the founding members of the United
Farm Workers--an organization, you will remember, from the days when
Cesar Chavez was drawing our attention for the first time in America to
who picks the crops. Rodriguez was there, and he was speaking for the
workers again--bringing workers from Michigan and Georgia, who were
young Hispanic women, who were working in the field just a few weeks
ago and now are sitting in the Halls of Congress, begging for this
legislation.
When I think about all that and then hear that work effort, that
bill, being dismissed by the Republican leader this morning as mass
amnesty--``mass amnesty,'' that was the phrase he used--it saddens me,
and it angers me. It saddens me that many of the Senators who are
saying these things aren't listening to these farm workers who are
giving their lives so that we can have food for our families.
Tom Vilsack was there yesterday, the Secretary of Agriculture. I like
him. I voted for him twice to be that Secretary. I am glad he has the
job. He told the story of going to the State of New York, meeting a man
who had been a migrant worker, picking crops for 20 years. This man had
heard about Vilsack's arrival and about this legislation that was
pending, and he said to the Secretary of Agriculture: I hope this
happens so I can see my family.
And Vilsack said to him: Your family, where is your family?
He said: In Mexico. He said: I have been here for 20 years picking
crops in the United States of America, going from field to field and
State to State--20 years--and I haven't been able to see my family in
that time.
And Vilsack said: Why?
He said: Because I am undocumented. And if I cross that border to see
my family, I may never get back here again to pick the crops and earn
the money and send it back to my family so they can get by.
We don't think about that very often, do we? We think, Well, these
workers come in, and everything is just normal. Nothing is normal about
being undocumented and picking someone's crops and not being able to
see your family for 20 years.
I am not going to give up on this issue of immigration. America
shouldn't give up on immigration. There are a million reasons why the
theory that helping to find good immigration laws is mistaken in some
way when you consider the fact that each year we naturalize a million
people in America. Those are people who went through the process I
described many times, waiting for years for that opportunity. And we
say a million new Americans, through this legal process, is normal and
good for us. I think it is.
There are some who say that if we said to farm workers, You have a
path to citizenship, a 19-year path to citizenship, of backbreaking
work in the fields, that we are sending a message to countries to turn
them loose, come on into the United States, no questions asked. I
couldn't disagree more.
We should have a process in America in immigration which we are proud
of, that reflects our heritage and our belief in immigration as part of
our future as well. I think there are just some basic things that every
Member of the Senate should consider and, I believe, should be the
basis of our immigration policy.
First, we need a secure border. In the age of COVID-19 and drug
dealing, I want to know who is coming into this country and what they
are bringing. That is not an unreasonable question to ask at our
borders. A secure border is important for those reasons.
Second, we should never knowingly allow any person to come into this
country who will do us harm, nor allow anyone into this country who
threatens us.
And third, we need an orderly process, one that respects the law
because the United States cannot absorb all of the people who want to
come here right now. We have to have an orderly process, knowing who is
coming into the border and what impact they are going to have on our
Nation.
And then we ought to sit down and, instead of throwing around all the
labels of mass amnesty and terrorism and human trafficking, acknowledge
who these people are.
One of the things that the Senator from Kentucky referred to, I am
sure, is a decision last week in Texas by a Federal court. That judge,
Hanen, again, ruled in a way that troubles me--I think troubles many
people--that the DACA Program, created by President Obama that has
given up to 850,000 young people a chance to become at least legal in
America temporarily, was unconstitutional and wrong. I think his
decision is terrible, and I hope that the Biden administration appeals
it and we win the appeal.
But the people who are affected by that decision, by the DACA
decision, are young people, as I mentioned--infants and toddlers--
brought to this country, who grew up here and know no other country.
They pledge allegiance to that flag in a classroom every morning. They
believe that is their flag, this is their country. And most of them,
when they were teenagers, finally realized for the first time they have
a problem: They are undocumented.
Should they be given a chance to become citizens of the United
States? Overwhelmingly, the American people--Democrat, Republican, and
Independents--say: Yes, that is only fair; give them a chance. They
were brought here as kids. Give them a chance, those Dreamers, those
DACA recipients. And to have them characterized as the beneficiaries of
mass amnesty is unfair, and frankly, it doesn't reflect very well on us
as a nation.
If we cannot find in our values, in our hearts, an opportunity to
give these young people a chance to prove themselves, it really
disappoints me that my colleagues would take that position.
These young people are remarkable. For 20 years of my public life, I
have come to know them, and I am always amazed by the fact that I don't
have to put a footnote at the end of that sentence and say ``except for
a few here and there.'' By and large, I have never run into one who has
run into problems. I know it happens occasionally,
[[Page S5031]]
but it is so rare. These are remarkable young people, Dreamers, who
just want a chance to be part of America's future.
I have come to the floor over 120 times with color photographs
telling their individual stories. Each one is an amazing testimony to
who we are as Americans and why these young people want to be part of
us and what they can bring to this country. Remarkable stories--
doctors, nurses, teachers, engineers, members of our military,
frontline workers--on COVID-19. They do remarkable things.
One of them, yesterday, appeared in a video before our committee,
Vicente Reyes. Vicente Reyes is a DACA recipient. His mom and dad are
undocumented. He is studying robotic engineering at a university in
California.
Do we need him? I mean, can we do without Vicente Reyes? I assume we
can do without him, but wouldn't we be better if he were part of us,
part of the American family, and part of the American future?
That is what DACA is about. That is what Dreamers are about. If we
help him, is that mass amnesty to give that young man a chance?
Incidentally, he told a story. He used to be out there picking those
crops, and his mom and dad still are. Every morning, he said, before
they go to the fields for a 10-hour day of back-breaking work picking
crops, he said: Mom and dad hug me. They hug me and I hug them back
because we know something. There is a secret in our family. My mom and
dad are undocumented, he said. They may not come home tonight.
That is what that family faces to go out and do this back-breaking
work, and that is the reality. And to dismiss this as mass amnesty--to
even talk about a path to citizenship for Vicente, to talk about some
way to help his mom and dad from being frightened every single day of
being deported, that is what I dedicated my work for in this Senate and
the Senate Judiciary Committee for many years.
I hope we can find some Republicans who will step up and join us in
that effort. We need at least 10 of them. That is hard to find. Maybe
we can find them. I am hoping we can do it soon.
We have a lot of work to do in this country for the Dreamers, for the
farm workers, for the frontline workers who were there when we needed
them so desperately during the COVID-19 pandemic and are still there
today doing that work.
We are a big, wonderful nation that has a great story to tell, and it
is a story of success written by immigrants with their blood and their
toil and their dedication to this great Nation. We need to renew that
effort.
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