[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 182 (Monday, December 9, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6859-S6860]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Immigration

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, tomorrow the Senate Judiciary Committee 
will hold a hearing on President-elect Trump's planned mass deportation 
of undocumented immigrants in the United States.
  Millions--some 13 million--of undocumented immigrants live in this 
country, and many have been here for a decade or longer. These 
immigrants have become our Nation's healthcare workers, teachers, farm 
workers, entrepreneurs, police--you name it. And many of them grew up 
alongside our own kids, with the same hopes and dreams of their first 
job, getting a driver's license, and a college acceptance letter.
  Twelve years ago, in response to a bipartisan request from myself and 
the late Senator from Indiana, Richard Lugar, President Barack Obama 
established the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program, known 
as DACA. DACA was a program where, if you were brought to this country 
under the age of 18 as a child and you had lived here, you had an 
opportunity to apply for a 2-year period of grace and not be fearful of 
deportation, through the DACA Program.
  More than 830,000 young people came forward to sign up for DACA, all 
of whom were brought here as children, some as young as a few months 
old, and they became known as the Dreamers.
  The DREAM Act, the legislation which would have made this law and 
made it unnecessary for an Executive order, was a bill I introduced 23 
years ago. You have to be patient in the U.S. Senate, but 23 years is a 
long, long time--long for me to sponsor but even longer for those 
affected by it.
  These young Dreamers, part of our country, with DACA and otherwise, 
earned $27.9 billion and contributed $2.1 billion to Social Security 
and Medicare in the year 2022. They are a big part of America and a big 
part of our economy.
  One of those DACA recipients I am going to highlight today. This 
gentleman's name is Foday Turay. He is currently a prosecutor, a 
husband, and a father; and he is going to testify before our Judiciary 
Committee tomorrow.

  Foday is the 148th Dreamer whose story I have shared on the Senate 
floor. He came to the United States from Sierra Leone when he was 7 
years old, after his grandmother became ill and died.
  Foday didn't know he was undocumented until much later in life. He 
decided to apply for a driver's license, and they said: You are not a 
citizen; you can't apply. He was devastated. He had dreamed of going to 
law school and becoming an attorney. And now everything seemed utterly 
impossible because of his citizenship status.
  But Foday never wavered in his faith and hope to make it in America. 
He said the day DACA was announced was the best day of his life.
  Thanks to Barack Obama's DACA, Foday attended college and then Penn 
State Dickinson Law School, where he received his Juris Doctorate 
degree.
  He works full time as a prosecutor for the district attorney's office 
in Philadelphia. He protects his community from violent crimes, and he 
helps crime victims navigate a complex legal system.
  Growing up in the United States since he was 7 years old, Foday has 
put down deep roots. He met and married his wife, who is a U.S. 
citizen. And he is a proud homeowner and father to a beautiful 18-
month-old baby boy.
  DACA allowed Foday to pursue his dreams of becoming a lawyer, 
husband, father, but his life is still in limbo.
  Why? Consider what happened to DACA the last time President-elect 
Trump was in office. In 2017, President Trump shut down the program. 
Thankfully, the Supreme Court blocked his effort, but he also 
encouraged MAGA Republicans to file lawsuits against DACA, endangering 
the program's future.

[[Page S6860]]

  I was listening closely--as many Americans were--yesterday to the 
interview of President-elect Trump on ``Meet the Press.'' President-
elect Trump stated in an interview yesterday that he now wants to 
``work something out'' to protect Dreamers. My ears perked up. After 23 
years, I am ready. Then, he went on to say that Democrats have made it 
a very, very difficult thing to do.
  I just want to say to President-elect Trump--and I have said it to 
his face, and I will say it again: Anytime, anywhere, let's sit down; 
let's start talking about these hundreds of thousands of young people 
who are doing their best to lead a good life and to help America, who 
just want a chance for a future.
  I am ready and willing to negotiate in good faith with my Republican 
colleagues in the Senate, too, and the President-elect to finally 
provide Dreamers with a pathway to citizenship, which they deserve.
  But there is reason to be skeptical, if not cynical. Last term, 
President-elect Trump walked away from four different bipartisan 
compromises with Democrats to solve the DACA crisis. Democrats were 
willing to provide billions of dollars at one point for President 
Trump's unpopular border wall in exchange for a bipartisan Dream Act. 
But we just couldn't seem to reach a positive answer.
  I am not giving up on this quest, because I am not going to give up 
on these DACA students.
  Madam President, you know them, too. You have met them in your State. 
We all have. They are wonderful people, waiting patiently, hoping the 
day will come when they get a chance to prove their commitment to this 
country.
  Just this year, President-elect Trump demanded congressional 
Republicans to reject a border deal that was bipartisan. And I thought 
it was a good bill. When the bill finally came to a vote, the vast 
majority of Republicans voted against it.
  So President Trump has in his power the ability to bring around many 
Republicans on the issue of immigration. I hope DACA and the Dreamers 
become the exception to some of the rhetoric we have heard.
  The President-elect has pledged to pursue mass deportation on day 
one. He has threatened to use the military for that purpose. He has 
announced the appointment of some hardliners in his Cabinet.
  We can all agree that any undocumented immigrant found guilty of a 
serious crime should not be allowed to stay here. I am a Democrat, and 
I just said that. And I think I speak for my caucus. Virtually all of 
them agree with what I just said. If you are a danger to this country, 
we don't want you here, and we don't want you to find entry into our 
country to lay some claim to citizenship. That is very basic.
  But the last time the President-elect was in office, it wasn't just 
criminals who were deported. We saw parents separated from their 
children, causing permanent trauma. Amazingly, sadly, some of those 
kids have never been reunited with their families.
  We saw meatpacking plants and other workplaces raided. This was a 
raid not targeted to criminals or even those without citizenship 
status. At some of these raids, we saw U.S. citizens detained for 
hours.
  We saw Dreamers like Foday deported, immigrants who were pillars of 
their community.
  So once again I come to the floor and say: Would America really be 
better off with an outstanding public servant like Foday gone from this 
country? I think not.
  Would our county be better if we lost farmworkers who have 
contributed to America for decades or if the military was used to round 
up hard-working immigrants with no serious criminal backgrounds? The 
answer is, over and over again, a resounding no.
  Most Americans agree. Nearly 65 percent of Americans, regardless of 
party, support a pathway to citizenship for longtime undocumented 
immigrants. And a majority oppose the use of military to conduct mass 
deportations.
  At tomorrow's hearing, we will examine the need to protect taxpaying, 
hard-working Americans like Foday, and we will discuss the cruelty and 
chaos that will inevitably result in mass deportation without some 
thought.
  Immigrants like Foday deserve stability and certainty, not fear. I 
stand ready to work on a bipartisan basis to protect families like 
Foday's and provide them with the security that they deserve.
  I am not sure if you were in the Senate when we considered 
comprehensive immigration reform. It was a bipartisan effort. We 
brought it to the floor, and the bill passed with 68 votes. And what it 
basically said, if you are undocumented in America, we want to hold you 
accountable. You have got to come forward and identify yourself, where 
you live, where you work to our government so that there is a record of 
who you are and where you are.
  As I said earlier, if you have a serious crime that you committed or 
committed once you are here, you are ineligible, as far as I am 
concerned. If you are a danger to this country, we don't want you; and 
you should know better than to try to become a citizen of America.
  But the vast overwhelming majority of people we are talking about 
don't have criminal records. They go about their lives every day, and 
we don't know the difference. They are the same people who are in the 
nursing home taking care of your mom. They are at the daycare center 
taking care of baby boys and baby girls every single day. We see them 
at banks. We see them at grocery stores. They are everywhere. They sit 
next to us in church, and they are undocumented.
  Should they be deported from the United States simply because of 
this? I think not. I think the reality is that they can make a great 
contribution to this country. I think the starting point for our 
conversation on this subject should be that comprehensive immigration 
bill that we passed on the floor.
  I stand ready to work with President Trump and any Member of either 
party who in good faith wants to solve this problem.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Welch). The Senator from Montana.