[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 169 (Tuesday, September 28, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6713-S6714]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Immigration

  Mr. President, coincidentally, last Friday, you and I made a trip to 
Chicago.
  Senator Padilla, as chairman of the Immigration Subcommittee of 
Judiciary, joined me in visiting one of the most amazing neighborhoods 
in the city. We spent the day in Little Village, a neighborhood in the 
southwest part of the city known as the ``Mexican Capital of the 
Midwest.
  During our visit, we walked down 26th Street, the commercial heart of 
Little Village. It is lined with more than 100 family-owned shops and 
restaurants. People travel from all over the country to try their 
homemade tamales, stop for their quinceanera dresses, and experience a 
little slice of Mexico right here in America.
  Families who own the businesses on 26th Street are proof that the 
American dream is alive and well.
  Remember La Chiquita Grocery? I think that the founder--I guess it 
was almost 35 years ago--took the venture of opening a grocery store 
and now has seven or eight of them in the region. And they are so proud 
of their anchor store that we were guests in, to show us all the things 
available to folks in the neighborhood.
  Whether these folks arrived in our country a few years ago or a few 
generations ago, these families contribute to the economic vitality of 
the city of Chicago every day. Little Village, that we visited, is a 
major economic engine in Chicago. That 2-mile stretch of 26th Street is 
the second highest grossing shopping district in all of Chicago. And 
those family-run businesses generate nearly $1 billion in sales each 
year.
  Bilingual communities like Little Village make America richer and 
stronger, culturally and economically. They are living proof that 
immigrants are still an essential part of America's future. And there 
are millions of people who have been contributing to our economy and 
our communities for years. But they have been left behind by our broken 
immigration system.
  That is exactly what the Presiding Officer and I, along with many of 
our colleagues in the Democratic caucus--that is exactly what we are 
trying to include as an immigration reform in the Build Back Better 
package that will come before the Senate in the coming days.
  Let me tell you about one of these immigrants that we are focused on.

[[Page S6714]]

Roughly 10 miles south of where Senator Padilla and I toured Little 
Village, there is a trauma center, Advocate Christ Medical Center. It 
is one of the busiest in Chicago's South Side.
  One of the doctors who recently completed his residency in that 
trauma center is Dr. Manuel Bernal Mejia. During this pandemic, Dr. 
Bernal has been saving lives every day in the emergency room. He cared 
for Chicagoans at all stages of life, from delivering babies to 
providing comfort to patients during their last moments. And he has 
cared for more COVID patients than he can count.
  It is in our country that Dr. Bernal works every day to take care of 
our friends and loved ones; it is in our country that Dr. Bernal 
graduated from college and medical school; and it is in our country 
that Dr. Bernal has lived since he was 2 years old.
  Despite that, Dr. Bernal, who is now an emergency room physician in 
nearby Rockford, has still been left behind by our broken immigration 
system. And there are thousands more just like him.
  According to the definition established by former President Trump, 
there are more than 200,000 DACA recipients that have served as 
``essential critical infrastructure workers'' during the pandemic. That 
includes more than 40,000 healthcare workers like Dr. Bernal. Some of 
them work in emergency rooms like him and others as nurses, paramedics, 
respiratory therapists.
  So let's ask a basic question when it comes to immigration. Would 
America be better? Would Illinois be better? Would Chicago be better 
without Dr. Bernal? All of the Dreamers who are working every day to 
save American lives in our hospitals? I don't think so.
  For Dreamers like Dr. Bernal, DACA has been a lifeline. It has given 
them a chance to give back to the only home they have ever known. But 
we all know DACA is not a permanent solution. The reality is, Dreamers 
have been standing on shaky ground for far too long.
  These young people are the best. They defend us as members of our 
military, care for our parents and family members as home health aides, 
and they teach our children in school. But because Congress has failed 
to fix our broken immigration system, Dreamers with DACA can only plan 
their lives in 2-year increments. And every day, they live in fear that 
the rug is going to be pulled out from under them at any moment. It 
happened under President Trump. He tried to eliminate the program. It 
was finally saved at the highest Court in the land across the street, 
in the Supreme Court.
  Dreamers and immigrants like them, who give everything they can to 
our country, deserve a path to legal status. The fact is, their future 
is our future.
  As I mentioned, the budget reconciliation package the Senate is 
expected to vote on soon contains President Biden's Build Back Better 
Plan, a blueprint for our Nation to mount an enduring economic 
recovery.
  The proposals included in that plan would supercharge our economy by 
cutting taxes for working families; making childcare, healthcare, and 
transportation more affordable; providing a path to legal status for 
undocumented immigrants.
  Let me say that another way. Immigration reform would drive our 
Nation's economic recovery for years to come. A pathway to legal status 
for Dreamers, TPS recipients, and essential workers could boost our 
Nation's GPD by $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years--$1.5 trillion.
  Additionally, a path to legalization could create 400,000 new jobs 
and increase every American's annual wage by an estimated $600. How can 
that be? Putting these immigrants to work on the payroll, how could 
that help other people? Because we have a dynamic economy, and what we 
saw on 26th Street in Chicago can be replicated over and over again if 
these new immigrants are given a chance to work hard, as they all do, 
show their skills, and build the economy around them. Our Nation is 
leaving billions, if not trillions, of dollars on the table by failing 
to fix our broken immigration system.
  Earlier this month, the White House published a report that found 
that providing a path to permanent legal status would ``allow . . . 
currently unauthorized immigrants to pursue and accept jobs for which 
their skills are well-suited.'' Many of these immigrants are of prime 
working age, which means they could help grow our Nation's tax base for 
the foreseeable future. That is money that can go towards shoring up 
Social Security, Medicare, and funding our Nation's priorities. In 
fact, leading economists have argued that America needs immigrants to 
keep these programs solvent.
  In the words of Mark Zandi, Moody's chief economist, the United 
States is ``not going to be able to address our fiscal problems . . . 
if we don't change our policy with regard to immigration.'' He is not 
alone. Other economists agree. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the 
right-leaning American Action Forum, has argued that, in the absence of 
immigration, America will ``shrink in population . . . become older, 
and . . . become less important on the world stage.''
  With the Build Back Better plan, this Senate is finally taking up the 
important work investing in America's future. That means building 
railroads and transit networks that will connect communities and 
providing funding for high-quality childcare so every parent can have a 
safe place to leave their child during the workday. It also means 
providing immigrant families the stable footing they need to contribute 
to our future.
  For these families, make no mistake, America is home. Every day, they 
help to make our communities better and our economy stronger. That is 
the case we plan on making to the Senate Parliamentarian once again. 
This is the first opportunity we have had in a long, long time to begin 
building an immigration system that works for America. And for our own 
sake, I hope we can get it done.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.