[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 99 (Tuesday, June 10, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3300-S3304]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
DREAM Act
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, it was over 20 years ago that our office
was contacted in Chicago. It was a young woman named Tereza Lee. She
had been born in Korea and as an infant was taken to Brazil. And then
her father, who was a Protestant minister, brought her and her mother
to Chicago.
She contacted our office because she had a problem when it came to
her citizenship. It seems that the decision to move her around as an
infant, made by her parents, left her undocumented.
Her family didn't have a lot of money. She grew up with her father
who was a Protestant minister, trying to find the proper church. And
she went from church to church as her father preached sermons and made
a few dollars to keep the family together.
While her father was practicing his sermons at the church, she was in
the back room banging away at the piano. As a student in public schools
in Chicago, she got her first opportunity for real lessons through
something called the Merit Music Program. She was great--extraordinary.
By the time she finished high school, people recognized in her an
extraordinary musical genius. They encouraged her to apply to the
best--Juilliard and Manhattan Conservatory of Music. As she filled out
the application to go to these great schools, she would run across that
question: What is your nationality? What is your citizenship?
She never thought to ask. Turns out she was undocumented. She didn't
know what that meant in terms of her future, and a friend of hers
contacted our office to see what we could do.
The law is very clear for Tereza Lee. Although it was her parents and
others who made decisions in her life that resulted in an undocumented
status, the law of the United States said that she had to leave the
United States for 10 years and apply to come back in.
Didn't sound right to me. She didn't make any of those decisions; her
parents did. She had done everything she was supposed to do: go to
school, get good grades, develop her talent. And yet, we were rejecting
her and sending her out of the country.
It is at that point that I introduced a bill called the DREAM Act. If
you talked about Dreamers before that bill was introduced, most people
would refer you to the British rock group Freddie and the Dreamers,
which very few people remember.
But since then, the word ``Dreamers'' has come to characterize these
young people who, by decisions of their parents, are in the United
States undocumented.
Today, we mark the 13th anniversary of the program called Deferred
Action for Childhood Arrivals Program, known as DACA. It is a program
which affects these Dreamers and their future.
I first introduced the DREAM Act with Republican Senator Orrin Hatch
in 2001--24 years ago. I have included it in many forms of legislation
that comes to the Senate floor, repeatedly introduced it as an
amendment over the years. I have never quite been able to reach the
point where I can meet the 60-vote requirement to waive the filibuster
or to pass it in the House the same year.
After years of congressional action, in 2010, I wrote a letter to a
man who is my former colleague from Illinois who had been elected
President of the
[[Page S3301]]
United States, Barrack Obama. And I asked him--and Senator Richard
Lugar, a Republican from Indiana, joined me in asking President Obama
if he could do something to stop the deportation of these young
Dreamers.
Two years later, President Obama announced the DACA Program. The DACA
Program has protected nearly 835,000 Dreamers, many of whom who have
gone on to pursue higher education, purchase homes, start businesses,
and make America a better country to live in.
These young people who grew up in this country alongside my own kids,
went to school, stood up in the morning before class and pledged
allegiance to that flag and believed that they were real Americans from
the start--but not in the eyes of the law.
DACA recipients have started families; 37 percent have U.S. citizen
children; and 935,000 U.S. citizens live with DACA holders. It is a
large chunk of our population, and they have done dramatic things to
make this a better country.
DACA recipients greatly contribute to our labor force. They are
teachers, nurses, workers, doctors, and more. They boost our economy,
providing nearly $16 billion to the U.S. economy each year.
I have been coming to the Senate floor for 20 years telling the
stories of Dreamers and DACA recipients. I don't think there is any
better way to describe who they are and what they go through to try to
become American citizens and be part of the future of this country.
I would like to highlight one of them today.
This is the 149th story of a Dreamer that I have shared on the floor
of the Senate. Alondra O. was born in Mexico and moved to the St. Louis
metropolitan area when she was 5 years old. She was a great student.
She became a member of the National Honor Society. She was certified
as a nurse assistant, a patient care technician, and phlebotomist all
by the time she graduated from high school. Her dream was to become a
full-time registered nurse. Do we need more nurses? Absolutely.
Despite the national nursing shortage and her excellent
qualifications, Alondra was unable to get a nursing license in her home
State of Missouri because State law there prohibits DACA recipients
from becoming nurses.
But she didn't give up.
Missouri's loss became my home State of Illinois's gain. And today,
Alondra serves as an emergency department registered nurse in Alton,
IL, just across the river from Missouri.
Sadly, Alondra still lives in fear today every day that all of her
hard work would mean nothing if DACA is eliminated. She has lived in
this country since she was 5 years old. She should not be forced to
leave the only home she has ever known simply because Congress has
failed to do its job to fix our broken immigration system.
Alondra should be able to work in this critical field where we
desperately need nurses, wherever her services are most needed, and do
so without fear of deportation.
I have heard a lot said in political campaigns about murderers,
rapists, terrorists, and mentally deranged people who were seeking to
make a future in the United States. What about Alondra? Does she fit
any of those categories? Of course not.
She, against the odds, built a great reputation and a great resume,
with her education, training, and work experience. She is doing work in
her field in a part of our State where we desperately need nurses. She
is no threat to anyone. She is not a danger. She is, in fact, a beacon
of hope for those people who are sick and need a good nurse.
Unfortunately, there has been a relentless campaign to eliminate DACA
and deport Dreamers, so the future for Alondra and other DACA
recipients remains legally uncertain.
Basic question: Is America better off to have Alondra the nurse in
Alton, IL, here or to deport her from the United States to a country
she hasn't seen since she was 5 years old?
More than 100,000 Dreamers have initial DACA applications that are
still pending. They are in limbo because for years we haven't allowed
those who qualified to apply to join the ranks of DACA. DACA was always
intended to be a temporary program to give Congress time to pass a
permanent solution. We are not very good at passing anything in
Congress.
Now in their 13th year, it is time for us to honor the Dreamers'
patience, act on our promises, and provide them with a pathway to
citizenship.
My mother was an immigrant to this country. I am proud of immigrants.
Our family came here with nothing, not even speaking the language,
worked hard, and established themselves.
My mother--eighth grade education, no experience in high school or
college--raised three boys to serve this country. My two brothers were
in the U.S. Navy, and I serve here in the U.S. Senate. Is immigration
important for this country? The Durbin family believes that it is.
I am going to continue to fight for the Dreamers, continue to fight
for DACA.
I urge my Republican colleagues, be thoughtful on the issue of
immigration. Don't penalize Alondra, this wonderful young woman who has
worked so hard to become a registered nurse in my State of Illinois.
Give her a chance to make America and my State a better place.
We remember this anniversary of the DACA Program and thank President
Obama for his vision to realize these young people could make this a
better country and realize we have to be thoughtful when it comes to
immigration.
If you are a danger to this country, we don't want you here, we don't
want you coming here, but if you are going to make this a better place
to live, we not only want you, we desperately need you. The DACA
Program represents hundreds of thousands of young people who prove that
every single day of their lives.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nevada.
Ms. CORTEZ MASTO. Mr. President, first of all, let me thank the
Democratic whip from Illinois. He has been steadfast and persistent in
his fight for Dreamers in this country and has not given up and has
been a critical and crucial voice not only for Dreamers but for the
fight for passage of comprehensive immigration reform that puts
Dreamers on a pathway to citizenship, and their families, and I thank
him for that.
In 5 days, we will celebrate 13 years since President Obama created
the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, Program, which so
many have been referring to. DACA has proven to be an overwhelming
success, allowing Dreamers who have only ever known the United States
as their home to continue contributing to our economy and our
communities.
DACA protects immigrants who came to the United States as children
from deportation, and it authorizes them to legally work.
Nevada and every State in the country has benefited from DACA. We are
a better, stronger country because of this program.
In my State, in Nevada, nearly 136,000 U.S. citizens live with at
least 1 family member who is undocumented. In Nevada, 10,730 people are
DACA recipients. And we know, no matter what President Trump and others
say, that our immigrant communities are a critical part of what makes
our country great. I know that.
My grandfather is from Chihuahua, across the border, served in our
military, and became a U.S. citizen.
The Dreamers I know in my community have gone to college, they have
become a part of our workforce, they pay millions of dollars in taxes,
and they are woven into the fabric of every community in Nevada and, I
will say, across this country. Dreamers contribute $810 million each
year to our economy in Nevada alone.
They love this country, and it is their home.
As we celebrate the 13th anniversary of DACA, we must remember that
the young people who became the first DACA recipients are now in their
thirties and forties. They have the responsibilities that all American
adults have: maintaining their careers, caring for elderly relatives,
paying bills and mortgages, and, yes, putting food on the table for
their families. But their ability to remain in the only home they have
ever known is in jeopardy thanks to this administration's threats to
end DACA.
President Trump tried to terminate DACA entirely in his first term,
but he
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was stopped by the courts. Now immigrant families across the country
are once again bracing for their lives to be turned upside down on any
given day because of the threats of mass deportation and further
attacks on the program.
I can't even imagine how exhausting it must be to spend so many years
in fear and limbo--especially for Dreamers who have done everything
right, who know this country as their only home, who want to be the
future leaders, who want to be part of our communities, who want to be
our doctors and our teachers, and to know that they are always
concerned about that opportunity for their future.
They have, for the last 13 years, been met with endless delays and
politics and people playing with their lives for some sort of political
gain. Not only that, but immigrant communities, as you have heard the
minority whip say, are being demonized, and they are facing threats
because of politicians stoking hate and division in our communities.
People who have lived here their whole lives and contribute to our
country are now being told by those politicians that they do not
belong.
Here is the other thing: I know that in my State, they are being
demonized and called out by these politicians as criminals and drug
traffickers and rapists. Well, I invite any of those politicians to
come into my State and meet with my Dreamers.
I challenge anyone in this country who knows these families and knows
these Dreamers to stand by them because right now, they are under
attack. And it is something that is not happening out of sight or
behind closed doors; it is happening in our neighborhoods every single
day.
These Dreamers have families who are a crucial part of our
communities. You know them. We know them. They have families. Many of
them have spouses and children who are U.S. citizens. They just want to
be able to live normal lives and contribute and continue to pay taxes
and be a part of our jobs and our economy and expanding this economy
and this country.
I will tell you, over the years, my office has received stacks of
letters from Nevadans who have been impacted by DACA about the
importance of the program for them and their families. I want to share
just a couple of those stories and those letters with you.
I received a letter from a 10-year-old girl who was born in North Las
Vegas. Her father is a Dreamer who has lived in the United States since
he was 7 years old.
Her father always dreamed of becoming a doctor, but for much of his
career, he was denied opportunity after opportunity. But that changed
when he became a recipient of DACA. He was able to get a good job, buy
a home for his family, and give his kids a better life.
But every day, his daughter lives in fear that her father, who has
worked hard in America all his life, could get deported back to Mexico
and that she and her siblings would have to live in a country whose
language they don't even speak.
She said:
I would love for the government to see that my daddy and
all Dreamers like him only want to be good citizens and have
a better future.
She hopes to be a pediatrician one day and serve her community just
like her dad always dreamed.
The second letter I want to share with you I received from a young
woman whose parents brought her to Nevada when she was just 2 years
old. When she turned 18, she was excited to start working so that she
could earn a living for herself, but as an undocumented Dreamer without
a Social Security number, she couldn't apply for the jobs her peers
were getting.
She said:
I am as much a citizen as them. I can do all that they are
able to do. I have witnessed several individuals around my
age waste their potential. They have everything they could
possibly receive and choose not to take advantage [of it].
I will tell you Dreamers jump at every opportunity to create a better
life for themselves than their parents had. I will tell you these
Dreamers do not run afoul of the law. I will tell you these Dreamers do
everything they possibly can to prove why they want to live here and be
a crucial part of our communities, but all the while, they live in fear
that their families could be torn apart by our broken immigration
system that we have an obligation to fix.
DACA has been an essential way to provide stability for the Dreamers
and their families, but right now in my State and across the country,
Dreamers haven't been able to apply for new DACA protections. Nearly
half of Nevada's Dreamers are eligible for DACA, but unfortunately
thousands of Dreamers in my State are currently vulnerable because this
administration is refusing to accept their DACA applications.
Now it is in direct defiance of a court order. As of March of this
year, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Trump
administration must start accepting new DACA applications because that
is the law, but months have gone by, and we have not seen any progress.
Yesterday--yesterday--my staff learned for the first time that one
single new application had been processed and accepted--just one. Well,
while one is better than zero, I will say this administration has a lot
of work to do to follow the law and accept more applicants into the
DACA Program.
I am so pleased my colleagues and I are here today to keep the
pressure on, to make sure this administration follows the law but also
to appeal to our Republican colleagues. It is time we come together and
work together to put Dreamers and their families on a pathway to
citizenship. These Dreamers are as American in their hearts as you and
I. Our country is better with them in it. As we celebrate the 13th
anniversary of DACA, I remain committed to working with anyone--
anyone--who is willing to protect them and do the same.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.
Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I so appreciate the comments of my
colleague from Nevada. So many of us are so frustrated with the failure
of this legislature to address this fundamental injustice to our
Dreamers.
Certainly immigration has been a part of the American spirit for a
very long time. In 1752, three Merkle brothers--a name that was later
converted to Merkley--arrived from Germany to be the first three of
four settlers of the town of New Durlach.
More than a century later, we had those powerful words written by
Emma Lazarus carved into the base of the Statue of liberty:
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning
to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp
beside the golden door!
Generations of immigrant families that were brought in through the
Statue of Liberty island immigration center read those words as they
arrived and were inspired as they began their American dream. But those
who didn't come through that immigration center were also inspired by
that vision of people coming from around the world to build this land,
this land in which we have government of, by, and for the people.
Among those who have been inspired are those who arrived in more
recent times. And our Dreamers, those who were less than 16, arriving
before 2007, they were being given the chance, through the decision of
President Obama, to grant them status in 2012 to have their American
dream. And their success as a group shows it was the right policy and
that it is long past time for Congress to pass a Dream Act to give them
a path to citizenship.
Our good colleague from Illinois, Senator Durbin, has been fighting
for these young people for passage of the Dream Act time and time
again. And it is the Senate's 40-vote veto that has stopped us from
ever having a vote on that policy, a final vote on that policy.
You know, the Dream Act didn't simply come from one side of the
aisle. It was Senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican, who first introduced
it in 2001. But the bill for the Dreamers has languished in Congress
year after year after year. In 2012, President Obama, therefore, took
action and announced a deferred action for childhood arrivals, the DACA
policy, to protect those children who were brought here as youth, knew,
often, no other country, often spoke no other language. This is their
home.
[[Page S3303]]
And he noted at the time that this was to be ``a temporary stopgap
measure'' for Congress to be able to debate and vote on a permanent
legislation, the Dream Act. But Congress hasn't voted--that is, the
Senate has never voted on final passage--despite decades, despite
bipartisan support. And even now, in December, President Trump said on
``Meet the Press''--so we are talking just months ago, after he won
reelection: ``We have to do something about the Dreamers.''
So let's do something here as we note the 13th anniversary of DACA.
More than 825,000 young men and women--approximately 8,000 in my home
State of Oregon--are caught in legal limbo yet ``yearning to breathe
free.'' Won't they be able to breathe a lot freer if we were able to
resolve their legal status?
In 2022, the Department of Homeland Security codified DACA. But due
to litigation, more than 100,000 applications are still pending from
people seeking DACA protections. The Trump administration has been
quite aggressive about deporting undocumented immigrants. And it could,
in fact, rescind DACA's protections. So let's act. Let's resolve this
situation.
Here is what we understand. In 2012, President Obama described
recipients as ``young people who study in our schools, who play in our
neighborhoods, who are friends with our children, who pledge allegiance
to the flag.'' But while Congress waited to act all these years, those
young people have grown up. DACA's protections allowed them to graduate
from school, to apply for jobs, to become pillars in our communities.
Over the last 13 years, they contributed more than $140 billion to the
U.S. economy and more than $40 billion in Federal payroll, State, and
local taxes.
They enrich our country in so many ways, serving as teachers, as
nurses, as police officers, in addition to being our colleagues, our
neighbors, and our friends.
We are a nation of immigrants. Unless you are part of the Tribal
communities that have been on this land from time immemorial, unless
you just arrived as a new immigrant, you are descended from immigrants,
immigrants who arrived here often with welcoming arms, as mentioned in
Emma Lazarus's poem engraved in the foundation of the Statue of
Liberty.
We should not be slamming that door shut on the Dreamers who were
brought here as children, who already contributed so much to our
country.
Let's not just give speeches about the 13th anniversary, let's get
those 100,000 pending DACA applications processed. Let's get the Dream
Act to the floor to give DACA recipients a legal path to citizenship,
and let's finish the work that Senator Durbin and so many others have
been carrying forward for so many years to ensure that the American
dream is open to all.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.
Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, colleagues, time and time again, we have
seen one of the most frequently called plays out of the Trump playbook.
When everything else is going wrong, shift the narrative, scapegoat
immigrants, blame immigrants for whatever your failure is at the
moment.
Well, today, between his failing trade wars that are raising the cost
of living on working families across the country to his losses in
Federal court and delays in the Congress on the efforts to give
billionaires even bigger tax breaks, and even the embarrassing breakup
recently with his former BBFF--billionaire best friend forever--Elon
Musk, it is safe to say that Donald Trump is grasping for anything he
can do to change the narrative, to distract us from the damage that his
political agenda has going on.
The smart thing would be to actually change course, rectify things,
do things in the interest of our Nation and our economy. But what has
he chosen to do instead? To double down. In order to distract the
country from his failures and his efforts to ``flood the zone,'' Donald
Trump is expanding his deportation agenda far beyond the focus and
targeting of violent and dangerous criminals that he claimed would be
the strategy.
He is so desperate to show quick results that he is even throwing due
process rights out the window for so many; the due process rights, by
the way, that I know most of you, if not all of you, should agree are
paramount, foundational to our democracy.
As you continue to see this week, Trump is launching indiscriminate
ICE raids in the Los Angeles region followed by a chaotic escalation
federalizing California's National Guard and even mobilizing the
Marines.
It is personal for me, not just because Los Angeles is home--I was
born and raised in Los Angeles--but as a proud son of immigrants. I
know the true story of the vast majority of immigrants and immigrant
families in Los Angeles, throughout California, and throughout the
country.
But instead of honoring those contributions--there is no disagreement
with the prioritization and targeting of violent criminals--but the
vast majority of folks, their contributions deserve to be honored.
Instead, Donald Trump is manufacturing a crisis to, once again, not
just distract us but divide us. Just as he has always done, he is using
immigrants to do it.
I can't help but speak up and remind us, immigrants are not political
pawns for his agenda, just as servicemembers--women and men--are not
political pawns for his agenda.
So, yes, as we should be celebrating the 13th anniversary of DACA
this week, hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients and Dreamers are
actually now worried that they are at risk--at further risk--that they
could be next as President Trump struggles to find enough violent
criminals to detain and deport to meet a campaign promise. Since he
can't get his numbers there, he will look elsewhere.
I want to take this moment to make very clear: Dreamers are our
neighbors. Dreamers are our loved ones. These are young people who are
Americans in every sense of the word except for one important piece of
paperwork, including over 160,000 DACA recipients in the State of
California, alone.
Yet because of Congressional Republicans' refusal to act, Dreamers
live, at a minimum, in a constant state of uncertainty but oftentimes
in a constant state of fear. They deserve better.
They deserve permanent protections. This isn't just a moral issue, as
righteous and compelling as those moral arguments should be.
Colleagues, if that doesn't get you, you should be moved by the
economic issues that this represents because if, through the President
or through Republicans' actions in Congress, you were to take away work
authorization for hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients, that is
reducing our workforce at a time when we are trying to grow the
workforce and grow the economy. If DACA were to come to an end, it
could strip our workforce of over 400,000 workers and cost our country
nearly $650 billion.
Yes, they, too, are productive. I am talking about Dreamers who work
as teachers, as caregivers, as nurses and doctors, as construction
workers, as food service workers, and so many other key industries for
our economy. And they are hard-working community members who pay taxes
just like the rest of us and just want a chance to work hard and raise
a family in the country that they love.
They deserve peace of mind, the peace of mind to know that they are
safe here at home. And that is why I am proud to support the Dream Act,
a bill to provide permanent protections for Dreamers who contribute so
much to our country. It is the least that we can do for Dreamers who
have spent decades contributing to the Nation.
And for my Republican colleagues who may be caught up in the heat of
the moment and trapped in this anti-immigrant rhetoric in our current
political climate on the right, I will say this: Dreamers make our
communities better; Dreamers make our economy stronger; and Dreamers
make our Nation stronger.
The Dream Act is a commonsense bill that has enjoyed bipartisan
support. So I urge you to join me in supporting the Dream Act now and
in giving these young people the certainty and the protections that
they deserve and strengthen our Nation in the process.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nevada.
Ms. ROSEN. Mr. President, as we approach the 13th anniversary of
DACA, I rise today in support of this program and the thousands of
Nevadans who rely on it.
My State of Nevada is home to more than 12,000 DACA beneficiaries who
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know of no other country as their own. They grew up in our communities
and contribute to our Nation and to our economy. They are our
neighbors, our friends, our family members. Many of them are now even
raising their own families here--sending their kids to school, taking
them to soccer practice, and going to the park on weekends.
But Washington has failed them. What started out as a temporary
program meant to protect Dreamers, while Congress worked to pass a more
permanent solution, has turned into a decades-long lifeline for so
many. Washington's gridlock and its inability to pass comprehensive
immigration reform, with a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, has
left them to depend on DACA. It has also opened the doors to attacks
from the Trump administration and rightwing extremists.
During his first term, Donald Trump rescinded DACA and threw this
critical program into a tailspin, leaving the future of Dreamers and
their families to depend on court case after court case.
Can anyone in this Chamber imagine the stress, the fear, the
uncertainty that they have had to endure all of these years, not
knowing if they would be separated from their families or not?
In his second term, Trump has been relentless--relentless--in
attacking and separating hard-working, law-abiding immigrant families,
increasing fear and worry in our immigrant communities, including DACA
recipients.
If DACA were to end, millions of Dreamers across our Nation would be
at risk of having to leave the only country they have ever known, the
only place they have ever called home. Parents would face separation
from their children, leaving families forever traumatized. And our
economy and communities would greatly suffer.
And just imagine--just imagine--the message we would be sending.
Nevadans who have done everything right since they arrived in our
State, Nevadans who were brought here as kids through no fault of their
own and who followed the rules when government asked them to--who
followed the rules--Nevadans who have graduated college, Nevadans who
have served in the military, Nevadans who have started businesses in
our communities, Nevadans who are currently protected could now lose
the only life they have ever known.
So it is past time that politicians in Washington stopped using
Dreamers as a political football and finally passed a law that
permanently protects them. These hard-working Americans deserve to have
peace of mind, and they deserve a life without fear.
I want Dreamers to know they have allies in their corner. As Nevada's
Senator, I will do everything in my power to protect all of our
communities and keep families--keep families--together. Since day one
in the Senate, I have been pushing my colleagues to come together, in a
bipartisan way, to pass a permanent solution, one that gives Dreamers
permanent protections and a pathway to citizenship--a pathway to
citizenship now, now--while we continue to work on comprehensive
immigration reform that this country so surely needs--surely needs. It
shouldn't be a partisan issue.
As long as I am in the Senate, I won't stop fighting for it. I want
everyone to know that, in the meantime, I will continue to do
everything in my power to protect DACA and the thousands of Nevadans
who rely on it.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.