[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 94 (Wednesday, June 3, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2504-S2505]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
IMMIGRATION
Mr. DURBIN. We heard it so many times: Rapists, murderers,
terrorists, the criminally insane, child predators--we are going to
unleash the forces of the United States to keep us safe from these
threatening people and dangerous people.
No argument here. But I think you can find, on both sides of the
aisle, Democrats and Republicans who agree those people should be the
subject of law enforcement, and they shouldn't be allowed to live in
our communities, period.
But what has actually happened with this war on immigration from the
Trump White House? I have seen it firsthand in the city of Chicago,
Aurora, and many other places in my State, where the ICE agents have
arrived. America saw it firsthand in Minneapolis, when the ICE agents
on the streets killed--murdered--two innocent people who were merely
protesting, as they have a right to do under our Constitution.
So where are we today? Well, we are considering an appropriations
bill, I assume today or at least this week, called reconciliation,
which will appropriate more money for immigration enforcement than ever
in our history.
And to give you an idea of perspective of whether it is proportionate
to the threat that we face, consider this fact. The amount of money
that will be appropriated for ICE agents--remember the people wearing
masks in Minneapolis? The amount of money that the Republicans want to
appropriate is larger than the appropriations for the U.S. Marine
Corps--the U.S. Marine Corps--one of our best fighting units in the
history of the United States. They want more money to go after illegal
immigrants.
So the question, obviously, is how are they doing with the billions
of dollars that are being spent on ICE and Border Patrol? How are they
doing? It turns out that six out of the seven people who have been
arrested by this immigration force had no criminal record whatsoever--
six out of seven.
[[Page S2505]]
You ought to listen to the story of one of these people and come to
understand what I am talking about.
This is Juan Chavez Velasco. What does he do for a living? He is a
medical laboratory scientist.
How long has he lived in the United States? Twenty-five years.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Juan was a frontline worker at the
hospital in his hometown. He never missed a day of work.
Juan has a problem, though. He is undocumented. His parents brought
him to the United States when he was 8 years old. They made the
decision to come to this country. Juan was in the backseat of the car.
For more than a decade, his ability to live and work in this country
has been protected by one thing: DACA. You see, Juan is a DACA holder.
What is the DACA Program? Let me give you a minute or two of
background. Over 20 years ago, I introduced a bill called the DREAM
Act. And the DREAM Act said, if you were brought to the United States
by your parents as a child--an infant, a toddler, a child under the age
of 18--they made the decision to come to this country. You came with
them. You were part of the family. And they didn't file the right
paperwork for you. You are undocumented in the United States. The DREAM
Act said, if there was a violation of law, you shouldn't be held
responsible at 8 years of age due to your family's decision to come to
this country.
What have you done with your life since? Have you gone to school?
Have you committed a crime? There are serious questions we should ask.
But if you pass those tests, if you pass a criminal background
check--a criminal background check--if you pay $600 every 2 years, you
can have what is known as DACA. DACA is protection for you to work in
the United States legally and not be deported.
Juan is one of those people, a medical laboratory scientist,
protected by DACA, and he has been for years. With DACA, Juan has been
a contributing member for our country for years.
And then President Trump was elected to a second term. Everything
changed.
In February, Juan was driving to deliver milk to a hospital to his
infant daughter in the NICU, and he was stopped by ICE agents. You
remember that you saw them on television. They wear the masks. They
dress in camo. They carry guns around.
His wife Stephanie was on the phone with him as ICE agents questioned
his immigration status, and they decided to detain him. He told them
point-blank: I am a DACA holder. Every 2 years, I have to register and
pay $600 and go through a criminal background check, as required by
Executive order and law. I have done all those things. They ignored
him.
What happened to Juan? He was retained in ICE detention for 3 months.
When his son Damien visited him in detention, he sobbed at the sight of
his father behind a glass barrier. He could not understand why the
government took his dad away from him.
Juan was finally released last month, after his wife Stephanie
bravely testified at a spotlight hearing that I convened. But he is not
yet free. Juan still lives in fear that, any day, ICE agents could
return and take him away from his family and deport him to Colombia.
Juan's story is heartbreaking, but it is only one of many stories
from Dreamers who have been targeted by the Trump administration.
He is no danger. He is no criminal. He shows up, as the law requires,
every 2 years, pays $600, and goes through a criminal background check
and then goes to his job at a medical laboratory in his hometown.
Upon returning to office, the President has used every tool at his
disposal to thwart the protections of DACA, which was created to give
young people like Juan a chance to remain in the United States. Last
year, ICE arrested 261 people just like Juan, deporting 86 of them, all
of them DACA holders.
And even those who have not been detained have been facing
unprecedented delays in renewing their DACA status. They have shown up,
as they are supposed to, when they are supposed to, and they are told:
We are not going to approve you.
Without renewal, these young people will lose their ability to work
legally in the United States and will not be protected from
deportation.
The administration's attack on immigrants goes far beyond DACA. With
President Trump and his close friend and adviser Stephen Miller in the
White House, no immigrant is safe from this administration.
Last month, the Trump administration announced it would force legal--
legal--immigrants to leave America and apply for a green card back in
their country of origin, except in rare circumstances. That means
immigrants who may have been here for years, who married a U.S.
citizen, who have children who are citizens, would have to leave their
families for God knows how long.
Rural communities, incidentally, have doctors and medical
professionals that fit right into this category. They would lose the
only doctor in town.
And with bans in effect preventing consular processing for green card
applicants from 75 countries, there is no assurance that once having
left the United States, they could ever return.
Of course, the implementation of this policy has been chaotic. After
an outcry across the country, the Department of Homeland Security
claimed to have rolled back their decision, saying applicants who
``benefit the national interest''--whatever that means--would not be
affected.
But it remains to be seen how this administration will define
``national interest.''
Will spouses of U.S. citizens qualify? Will immigrants sponsored for
a green card for their work as doctors and nurses be allowed to stay in
this country? We honestly don't know the answer to that.
The terror and fear that this administration seeks to inspire in
legal immigrants does not make our Nation great. It undermines the
promise we made to these people. We said to them, under DACA, if you do
the right thing, if you work with government Agencies, if you are
honest and don't commit a crime, we will protect you. And now the Trump
administration is reversing this.
These are individuals who have lived in America for years, graduated
alongside our kids, married and had their own U.S. citizen children,
and are contributing to our communities.
Why would we want them to leave? As the Senate prepares to consider
the upcoming Republican budget bill, which would put another $70
billion into the President's mass deportation program, I urge my
Republican colleagues to stand up and look at this honestly. I think we
can agree on some basics. Let me say a few.
No. 1, we should never knowingly allow a dangerous person to come
into this country.
No. 2, if someone is in this country, seeking legal status or
permanent status, and has committed a dangerous crime, they are gone.
Period.
No. 3, the United States cannot absorb every person in the world who
wants to come into our country at this time. It has to be an orderly
process.
If we agree on those three basic things, can we finally sit down and
write immigration laws that make sense in the 21st century? I think we
can. But we have got to take hatred and cruelty off the table. We have
got to be honest and sincere.
Juan should have a future in this country. He is doing something good
for this country now in this medical laboratory. He is obeying the law.
He is showing up as he is supposed to. He is paying every 2 years his
fee of $600, and he goes through a criminal background check.
He was brought here at the age of 8, for goodness' sake. Wouldn't you
give him a chance to earn his way toward legal status in this country?
I would, the DREAM Act would, and so would DACA.
As the Senate considers the appropriations before us for
recordbreaking amounts of money, to the poor people like Juan, I ask my
colleagues on both sides of the aisle: Take a look at the reality of
the situation. Stop depending on labels. These are real human beings
who are doing their best to make this a better country.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
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