[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 104 (Thursday, June 20, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4164-S4165]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                Dreamers

  The reason it is timely is the doctor who is heading up this research 
at Northwestern University is a Mexican immigrant to the United States. 
He has been here almost 10 years. He has a team of nine other doctors. 
They are all doing this research--critical NIH research--at 
Northwestern, and I am proud of the fact that they are doing it and 
doing it successfully.
  The point I want to make is, the discussion of immigration here in 
the United States often is a discussion about fear and hate; that 
immigrants are somehow a threat to this country. Donald Trump has gone 
so far as to say they poison the blood of America.
  Now, those sorts of bigoted, hateful statements have been used 
throughout history to condemn immigrants who--we have to be honest with 
ourselves: Go to your favorite hospital, wherever it may be. Take a 
look at the roster of physicians and surgeons that are going to treat 
you and your family--and you pray to God they are successful--and 
notice how many names that appear to be immigrants of this country. 
They probably are. And we should be proud of the fact that this Nation 
of immigrants invites people to bring their talents to the United 
States and to succeed.
  Dr. Sonabend, coming to the United States from Mexico, is certainly 
welcome. I want him to stay and be successful--and his team as well. We 
need his immigrant talent as others will throughout our Nation's 
history. They are going to make a difference in the lives of a lot of 
individuals.
  So when President Biden decides that he is going to open up 
immigration in the United States and give people an opportunity to live 
in this country and be part of its future, I say, as long as they go 
through a background check and we know that they are making a positive 
contribution, paying their taxes, and following the law, they are 
welcome here in the United States.
  I say this with some prejudice. My mother was an immigrant to this 
country. Her son is a Senator from the State of Illinois. And that, I 
think, is an indication of what can happen to the sons and daughters of 
immigrants, given a chance. That is what America is all about.
  Madam President, it has been more than 20 years since I decided to 
introduce a bill called the DREAM Act. This bipartisan legislation 
provides a pathway to citizenship for young immigrants who were brought 
to the United States as children. These young people who are known now 
as Dreamers grew up in the United States, went to school with our kids, 
pledged allegiance to the only flag that they have ever known. And poll 
after poll shows a vast majority of Americans believe they deserve a 
chance.
  They didn't make their family's decision to come here; their family 
made the decision, and they grew up here. We support, on a bipartisan 
basis, giving Dreamers an opportunity to become American citizens. I am 
sorry that they were not expressly included in the President's 
proposal, but in one aspect they were.
  Time after time, the DREAM Act has earned bipartisan support in 
Congress, only to ultimately be blocked by Republicans. Without 
congressional action, every day, Dreamers live in fear of their lives 
being uprooted by deportation.
  Now, Dr. Sonabend is not a Dreamer. I don't make the mistake of 
equating that situation. But he is an immigrant. And the point I am 
trying to make is, immigrants can make valuable contributions to our 
lives.
  When I started off on the DREAM Act, I introduced the bill, and there 
was a battle between me and Orrin Hatch. Madam President, you didn't 
get a chance to serve with him, but he was a Republican from Utah and 
proud of it, and he believed the DREAM Act was his first idea. I 
thought it was mine. But the majority at the time was Republican, and I 
said to Senator Hatch: You be the lead. It will be a Hatch-Durbin bill.
  Well, over time, he decided that he didn't like the idea any further 
and dropped his sponsorship of the legislation, but I continued 
pressing forward with it.
  Lucky for me, there was a former Republican Senator from Indiana 
named Richard Lugar, an extraordinarily good man. I asked him to appeal 
to President Barack Obama because they were personal friends, to use 
the President's Executive authority to help Dreamers.
  Twelve years ago, President Obama answered this bipartisan call from 
Senator Lugar and myself, establishing the Deferred Action for 
Childhood Arrivals Program, better known as DACA. DACA is a form of the 
DREAM Act that has protected more than 830,000 young people from 
deportation. Many have gone on to serve our Nation as doctors, nurses, 
teachers, engineers, and first responders.
  President Biden faces a dilemma similar to President Obama's. He has 
tried to work with Congress to fix the

[[Page S4165]]

broken immigration system--and it is broken--but Republicans have 
repeatedly thwarted his efforts.
  Most of us believed that we had an opportunity for a breakthrough, a 
bipartisan effort, with Senator James Lankford on the Republican side 
leading the way, as well as two Democratic Senators, Murphy and Sinema, 
to make this a bipartisan effort. They had a bipartisan border security 
bill that was coming before Congress.
  At the very last minute, when this measure was about to be 
considered, Donald Trump stepped in and said: Stop. I don't want any 
Republicans in the Senate to support a bipartisan effort to solve the 
border crisis. Stop what you are doing right now. I would rather have 
the issue to debate in November than to have you try to solve it and 
give Biden any credit for it.
  Former President Trump said at the end of his statement: You can 
blame me. Well, I am blaming him that he stopped a bipartisan effort to 
solve the border crisis. When the bill came to the floor, the vast 
majority of Republicans opposed it at his request. The fact is, he 
said: ``Blame it on me.'' I do. The former President has made it clear 
he does not want a solution to our immigration challenges before the 
November election; he wants a campaign issue.
  He has demonized immigrants, saying--and this is one of the most 
despicable quotes I can think of--that they are ``poisoning the blood 
of our country.'' He has promised to round up and deport every 
undocumented immigrant in our country, including Dreamers.
  In light of this Republican obstructionism, President Biden has no 
choice but to use his authority as President to improve our broken 
immigration system. That is why 3 months ago I led a group of 19 Senate 
Democrats asking President Biden to protect immigrants with deep roots 
in our country, including Dreamers and the spouses of U.S. citizens. 
This week, President Biden responded, taking action to protect 
immigrants who have been here for decades, paying taxes, and 
contributing to all of our communities.
  The President is helping Americans with noncitizen spouses keep their 
families together by allowing them to apply for lawful permanent 
residence--a status they are already eligible for--without leaving the 
country. He is also allowing Dreamers and other immigrants who have 
earned a degree from an American college and have received a job offer 
from a U.S. employer related to their field to more quickly receive 
work visas.
  I commend President Biden for taking these steps, but ultimately only 
Congress can fix the immigration system in America.
  To my Republican colleagues who may criticize the President, instead, 
I urge them to work with Democrats to pass immigration reform 
legislation.
  I just want to conclude this part of my opening statement by saying 
that this issue means so much to me. It was over 20 years ago that I 
introduced the DREAM Act, as I mentioned earlier. I have come to know 
these young people, and I have come to try to help them over and over 
again.
  We have had some success on the floor, where we would pass a measure, 
and the House would not take it up. But despite that frustration, they 
continue to soldier on every single day, despite fear of deportation, 
to do their best to be part of America. Given that chance, they have 
proven themselves over and over again.
  I often think, when you consider the hundreds of thousands of 
individuals who have been helped by the DREAM Act, by DACA, and other 
provisions, how few cases there have been where they have disappointed 
us publicly. The law of averages says there is bound to be somebody who 
is going to break your heart out there, who calls themselves a Dreamer 
and does something you don't like at all, but by and large, they are an 
amazing group of people who never ever give up.
  Now they have asked, for example, for some help for their parents, 
and President Biden suggested he is going to give them that help. Some 
of the parents now are going to have an opportunity to live in America 
with their families without fear of deportation. That, to me, is what 
this country should be all about.