[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 8256-8257]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           IMMIGRATION REFORM

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, for most of her life Anna Ledesma has been 
afraid. She was a model student at Centennial High School in Las Vegas, 
an artist and a member of the Key Club. As one of the top academics of 
a large high school, she received the Millennium Scholarship to study 
nursing at the College of Southern Nevada. Now she is studying hard for 
her nursing exams. But 23-year-old Anna has lived for a long time with 
the constant fear that she will be deported. She is an undocumented 
immigrant. She was born in the Philippines and brought here by her 
parents when she was 7 years old. She was in the second grade.
  This is what Anna told the Las Vegas Sun newspaper:

       I would tell myself that they're not going to deport me 
     because I'm a nursing student and I'm working really hard and 
     I want to make a difference in my community . . . [But] all 
     the time, constantly in the back of my head, I think about 
     being deported and having to start over.

  Thanks to a directive issued last year by President Obama, Anna and 
800,000 other young people like her--young people who are American in 
all but paperwork--won't be deported. President Obama's directive 
suspended deportation of DREAMers--students brought to America 
illegally when they were children. These young people share our 
language, they share our culture, and they share our love for America, 
which in most cases is the only country they have ever known. Like 
Anna, the DREAMers are talented, patriotic young men and women who want 
to defend our Nation in the military, get a college education, and work 
hard to help their communities and our country.
  Still, the Republican majority in the House of Representatives sent a 
chilling message last week to Anna and others when it voted to roll 
back President Obama's directive. Republicans voted to resume 
deportation of upstanding young people--I repeat, just like Anna--who 
were brought to this country illegally through no fault of their own. 
That is why it is vital that Congress act at long last to fix this 
Nation's broken immigration system.
  President Obama's directive is temporary--and squarely in the 
crosshairs of the tea party-driven Republican rightwing. The directive 
is also no remedy for more than 10 million others--many of whom are the 
parents or siblings of DREAMers--who are living here without the proper 
paperwork.
  But a permanent commonsense solution to our dysfunctional system is 
in sight. The bipartisan legislation on which the Senate is now working 
is the solution our economy needs, it is the solution immigrant 
families need, and it is the solution Anna needs.
  This bill isn't perfect. That is the nature of legislating. 
Compromise is necessary and inevitable. But this measure takes 
important steps to reform our broken legal immigration system, 
strengthen border security, and hold unscrupulous employers 
accountable.
  Over the next 3 weeks Senators will propose a number of ideas to make 
the legislation better. Some will offer ideas to make it worse. But 
those suggestions must preserve the heart of the bill--a pathway to 
earned citizenship that begins by going to the back of the line, paying 
taxes and fines, learning English, and getting right with the law. 
Whether we are Democrats or Republicans, whether we are from red States 
or blue States, we can all agree that the current system is broken. We 
can all agree on the need for action. This bipartisan legislation is 
our best chance in many, many years to bend the system toward it 
working right. We need to mend this broken system.
  The Senate is about to engage in this important debate about the kind 
of country we are and must continue to be. This Nation was founded on 
the promise that success should not be an accident of birth but, 
rather, a just reward for hard work and determination. It is no wonder 
so many people from so many nations wish to share that promise, but 
they can't all get the promise of coming to America, and that is what 
this legislation is all about.
  The United States has always welcomed immigrants, and that is never 
going to change. For those like Anna, the words of the Jewish proverb 
are appropriate: Dreams do not die. Therefore, it is up to us to help 
fulfill those

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dreams and fix our broken immigration system.

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