[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 162 (Monday, September 20, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S6539]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Immigration

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I understand Senator Whitehouse has 
reserved time on the floor, and I will yield to him when he does 
arrive, but I would like to say a few words.
  I would like to talk about the state of the coronavirus epidemic in 
our country. But before I do I want to respond to the Senate 
Parliamentarian's ruling last night on immigration reform.
  While I am disappointed by this decision, I am not giving up on this 
fight. There are too many lives at stake. Over the past 18 months, 
thousands of DACA recipients and other immigrants have saved American 
lives as doctors, intensive care nurses, paramedics, respiratory 
therapists. They have risked their own lives for us, for our friends 
and loved ones. The least we can do to honor their sacrifice is give 
them a path to legal status in America.
  In the coming days, Senate Democrats will present an alternative 
proposal to the Senate Parliamentarian. But the fact is, we already 
know how essential immigrants are to America and our economic future.
  During the pandemic, undocumented immigrants have not only been 
saving lives in our Nation's hospitals. They have been toiling in 
extreme heat on farms across the country to secure the food that we eat 
every day in America. They have defended our national security as 
members of the military. They have been working as home health aides, 
helping care for our parents and family members with disabilities. And 
they have been caring for our children as teachers and childcare 
workers.
  They are Americans in every way except for their official legal 
status. It is far past time to fix that, and that is exactly what 
Senate Democrats intend to do through budget reconciliation.
  This is an issue which is not new to the Senate. It is certainly not 
new to me. It was 20 years ago that I introduced the DREAM Act--20 
years.
  Of course, many people have said: Durbin, if you are such a great 
legislator, what are you waiting for?
  And a lot of these Dreamers and DACA-protected people have said the 
same.
  I will tell them that, on at least five separate occasions, we have 
brought the DREAM Act to the floor of the Senate only to be stopped by 
the filibuster--five times during the course of 20 years.
  The one time that it was passed during comprehensive immigration 
reform, the Republican leadership in the House refused to consider the 
measure, and it was left in the current state.
  I recall the previous President, Donald Trump, assuring me that he 
was going to take care of those kids--in his own words. Well, he 
certainly did. He tried to abolish DACA and to remove the protection 
which 780,000 of these young people have.
  You see, these are young people who came to the United States as 
infants, toddlers, and little babies. They were brought here by their 
parents, and they grew up in America and did everything you were 
supposed to do--went to school, had the odd jobs, worked around the 
house, believed in the future of this country. But when they showed up 
in the classrooms every day, they lifted their hands and pledged 
allegiance to that flag. They believed it was their flag. And it wasn't 
until later in life that their parents leveled with them, told them 
that wasn't the case at all; they were undocumented--technically 
illegal, in the words of some.
  I can't imagine having that hanging over your head, knowing that any 
day there might be a knock on the door, that someone in your family 
might be removed, or your whole family deported, for that matter. They 
lived under that shadow their entire lives, and they still did 
remarkable, courageous things.
  I have come to the floor of the Senate 125 times to tell their 
stories individually with color photographs, to let my colleagues know 
that there are people behind these numbers--real people, amazing 
people. And over the years that I have told their stories, more and 
more of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle have come up afterward 
and said: What can we do?
  Well, what we can do is we can pass legislation to give these young 
people a chance, to give many others a chance too.
  These farm workers, for goodness sakes--half of the farm workers 
toiling in America today are undocumented. We don't think twice about 
whether we are going to eat the fruit that they pick or the vegetables 
they deliver to the market. We take it for granted that it will be 
there. Many of these people have spent a lifetime working for dirt 
wages in miserable jobs that many Americans wouldn't consider.
  To give them a chance to become legal in America is a reflection on 
who we are.
  I know my critics will say: Aren't you paying any attention to the 
southern border?
  I am. There is a lot to be done. Right now, we are dealing in Del 
Rio, TX, with thousands of Haitians who were lured by some of these 
smugglers and others to come to that port in the hope of being able to 
enter the United States. That is not happening in most cases. Many of 
them are even being returned to Haiti.
  It doesn't solve the individual family problem but addresses the 
reality of immigration in America today. There are certain fundamentals 
we need in any immigration system. We won't get those fundamentals with 
the current laws.
  What are they? Basically, we need border security. In an age of 
terrorism and drugs, we need to know who is coming into this country 
and whether they are bringing anything with them that will hurt anyone. 
Secondly, we should never knowingly allow a dangerous person to come in 
the United States or to stay in an undocumented status, period. And 
number three, America cannot absorb, at any given time, everyone who 
wants to come and live here. We have to have an orderly process, one 
that reflects our values, particularly for those who are seeking asylee 
and refugee status.
  The refugee issue was brought home to us a few days ago in 
Afghanistan, where families in that country, who had helped American 
soldiers in every way that they could and risked their own lives, asked 
for refuge in the United States. The outpouring of support for those 
refugees outweighed the numbers of critics and cynics, and I am glad 
because I think that reflects who we really are.
  In the next few hours and days, we will be preparing an alternative 
approach to the Parliamentarian in the hopes that it can be included in 
reconciliation and not be stopped again by the filibuster, which has 
held it in the past.
  I see my colleague, Senator Whitehouse, has arrived.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.