[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 100 (Monday, June 15, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2796-S2797]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                  DACA

  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I am honored to join my colleagues 
this afternoon in celebrating the Deferred Action for Children 
Arrivals, or DACA, Program and its absolutely historic impact on our 
country, but also to mourn and to express outrage at the all-out 
assault launched against this program by the Trump administration.
  The point of it, once again, seems to be cruelty--purposeful, 
relentless cruelty--which we have seen in the implementation of 
immigration practices in so many different ways by this administration.
  Just this morning--literally, this morning--I participated in the 
announcement of a lawsuit against the government by a woman who was 
seized from her car taking her children to school, a year ago, leaving 
her children unattended in the car, shackled, sent to a detention 
center, and then summarily deported without even a shred of due 
process. And she is suing the U.S. Government because she is still in 
Mexico, separated from her two young children--at the time, 13 and 8 
years old--as well as her husband.
  She was on a screen today from Mexico--heartbreaking--as her two 
children listened to her in the Yale Law School conference room where 
the lawsuit was announced.
  This kind of cruelty should have no place in our great country. I 
don't recognize the America that separates a mother from her children 
without any reason. She has no criminal record. She has been in this 
country for 15 years. Her two children are American citizens because 
they were born here. Cruelty and stupidity.
  DACA, since its creation 14 years ago, has transformed the lives of 
hundreds of thousands of young people--people who came to this country 
as infants or young children--and it has given them the opportunity to 
work, to contribute; to educate, to support their families; to 
contribute to this great country. There are nurses, doctors, and 
engineers. They strengthen America. DACA has strengthened America.
  In Connecticut alone, numerous DACA recipients actively contribute to 
our economy and enrich our communities. And yet despite the enormous, 
obvious, indisputable benefits of this program, the Trump 
administration has declared war on DACA.
  Again, the point seems to be cruelty. The administration has slow-
walked DACA renewals. They have purposely allowed Dreamers' work 
authorizations to expire through no fault of their own--cruelty and 
stupidity because they are harming the employers who depend on those 
DACA workers and the skills that they bring to jobs every day.
  The Department of Education has investigated five universities that 
offer financial help to DACA recipients. What purpose does it serve to 
punish universities for developing talent that will then serve our 
country?
  In the latest affront to legal protections, the Board of Immigration 
Appeals has ruled that DACA status alone will not shield Dreamers from 
deportation, despite the fact that DACA is a mechanism of deferred 
action.
  I mentioned the title in the first sentence of my remarks here--
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program--because the point is 
action is deferred. And now the administration is defying the law and 
common sense in this policy of stupidity and cruelty.
  As a result of these illegal policy changes, DACA recipients have not 
only lost their sense of safety and security but, in some cases, their 
freedom--and their place in this country. It is the only place they 
call home. English is the only language many of them speak. And we are 
depriving them of that sense of home and security and safety.
  I will just give you one example: Jose, of Connecticut. He is a DACA 
recipient. He came to Connecticut from Mexico when he was young. Thanks 
to DACA, he was able to put himself through college while working full 
time, and he built a successful career at a Fortune 500 company. He has 
worked there for 12 years. And now, because of the Trump 
administration's efforts to delay renewal requests at USCIS, Jose's 
DACA status and his work permit have not been renewed. No fault of his 
own. Jose lost the job. He lost that job that he held for 12 years, and 
today he is struggling to pay his bills. He faces eviction.
  What purpose does it serve to drive him into financial peril and even 
bankruptcy, to deprive his employer of his skills, to, in effect, make 
him homeless?
  President Trump's treatment of DACA recipients is the latest failure 
of his promise that his immigration efforts would focus on the worst of 
the worst.
  Americans like the idea of deporting dangerous criminals, people who 
have been convicted of crimes--not Nancy Martinez, who was separated 
from her children as she took them to work in her car, having committed 
no crime; not Jose, who is the opposite of the worst of the worst, a 
productive member of our society, doing good work at a good corporation 
over 12 years.
  These DACA recipients like Jose are far from the worst of the worst. 
They are our neighbors, coworkers, classmates, and friends. They are 
some of the best--not the worst--of us.
  We are not talking here about securing our borders. We are not 
talking about deporting dangerous criminals. We are talking about 
rolling back and

[[Page S2797]]

reversing progress that has been made on behalf of young people who are 
here through no choice of their own; they were brought here, and they 
call America home because it is their home.
  I call on the Trump administration to resume prompt review of renewal 
applications and halt unlawful detention and deportation of DACA 
recipients. I am under no illusions that my calling on it to do so is 
going to automatically have an effect on this cruel and stupid set of 
policies and practices, but I hope my colleagues on the other side of 
the aisle will heed this peril, this danger to America, and that they 
will come together with us and say on a bipartisan basis: An assault on 
DACA makes no sense for America. It is not the America that we 
recognize.
  And as we approach our 250th anniversary, we have an opportunity to 
reflect on who we are and, equally important, whom we aspire to be. 
Whom do we want to be? That has always been America. It isn't only 
about what America has done or who we are today. America is an idea, an 
aspiration, and a future.
  DACA recipients embody the values that we celebrate as America: hard 
work, resilience, a commitment to our country and to building a better 
America. Let's provide Dreamers with the respect and dignity and future 
they have earned.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.

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