[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 2491-2493]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY FUNDING

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, this week we are deciding whether we are 
going to shut down the Government of the United States of America 
again. Again. I think it was about a year and a half ago that the 
Senator from Texas on the other side of the aisle took to the floor and 
called for shutting down the Government of the United States of 
America, protesting President Obama's Affordable Care Act. He did it, 
and the hardship that created for people all across the United States 
who relied on essential government services is well documented. The 
impact it had on the men and women who work in our government was also 
documented. It cost our economy. It was a bad thing to do. It was a 
political strategy which on reflection was the absolute worst, to shut 
down our government.
  Well, this week we face another shutdown, and this time it is the 
Department of Homeland Security. This Department is the one Department 
that is charged with keeping America safe from the threat of terrorism. 
It was created after 9/11 because we wanted to make sure we put 
together 22 agencies that worked together to protect us. You see them 
in so many different places. This agency runs the Coast Guard. Its 
cutters are patrolling Lake Michigan and our coastline--the Atlantic 
and Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico as well. You see them when you go to 
the airport--TSA is under the supervision of the Department of Homeland 
Security. You may not know it, but your local fire department is 
depending on grants from this same agency so they can buy new equipment 
and train the people who are responding to fires in their community.
  Over and over again the Department of Homeland Security invests in 
the safety of America. So why in God's name would we have a political 
strategy to stop funding the Department of Homeland Security? That is 
exactly what we are faced with--exactly. Come the end of this week, 
this Department will basically lose its funding and be on emergency 
status. Why would we do that at a time when we have been warned about 
terrorist groups attacking malls across America? We are going to shut 
down the agency, stop funding the agency that protects us against 
terrorism in the streets of America.
  At a time when ISIS is kidnapping people from all over the world, 
beheading them, burning them to death, killing them by execution, we 
are going to drop our guard and say: Well, we are not going to fund the 
Department of Homeland Security. Why in the world would any politicians 
in either House of Congress think this is a wise tactical move?
  It turns out this funding bill was sent to us by the House of 
Representatives

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on the condition that we take up the debate over immigration policy in 
America. I think we need to debate that policy. I have no objection to 
it. I feel very strongly about some aspects of it. But why would we 
make the Department of Homeland Security play the role of hostage over 
this debate on immigration? The right thing to do to protect America 
and the people who live here is to fund the Department of Homeland 
Security.
  I offered a unanimous consent on the floor 2 weeks ago asking the 
Republicans to join the Democrats in funding this Department. Senator 
McConnell, the majority leader, objected. I think that was a mistake. 
Now I think we understand, as we reach this deadline of shutting down 
this valuable agency of our government, that we cannot let this happen.
  What is it about this immigration debate that has driven some 
politicians in Congress to the point where they are threatening to shut 
down this Department, to cut off its funding? It turns out they object 
to some of the Executive orders issued by the President on immigration.
  Remember, it was the Senate that passed a comprehensive immigration 
bill 2 years ago. I was part of the group that wrote it. We passed it 
on the floor with 68 votes, and the Republican House of Representatives 
refused to even call the bill, or any bill, on the subject. And when 
they failed do anything to fix our broken immigration system, the 
President said: I am going to issue some Executive orders to deal with 
this problem if Congress refuses to act, and he did.
  The Republicans hated those Executive orders by President Obama like 
the devil hates holy water. They hate them so much that they would shut 
down the Department of Homeland Security in protest over the 
President's action. One of the things that troubles them the most is 
something called DACA. DACA is a shorthand description of the 
President's Executive order which allows those who would qualify under 
the DREAM Act to stay in the United States and not be deported.
  The DREAM Act is a bill I introduced 14 years ago. I introduced it 
because I learned there were children brought to America by their 
undocumented parents, who grew up in this country, went to school in 
this country, were good citizens in America, but had no future because 
they had no home. My DREAM Act said if you were one of those children 
brought here by your parents, we are not going to hold you responsible 
for your parents' decision. We will give you a chance to become legal 
in America. That is what the DREAM Act said. That is all it said. The 
President's Executive order said: We are not going to deport these 
young children now growing up in America. We are going to give them a 
chance to stay here, to study here, and to work here. Many of the 
Republicans hate the idea of giving these young people a chance. Sadly, 
what they are doing is turning down an opportunity for America to 
benefit from some of these extraordinary young people.
  Time and again I have come to the floor of the Senate to tell the 
stories of these young DREAMers, and I will tell another one today.
  This lovely young woman is Mithi Del Rosario. Her parents brought 
Mithi to the United States from the Philippines when she was 5 years 
old. There was no question about whether she was going to come; she was 
part of the family.
  She grew up in California. She was an excellent student and her 
lifetime goal was to be a medical doctor. In high school she was on the 
principal's honor roll and an AP scholar. She received a Golden State 
Seal Merit Diploma and a Governor's Scholar Award. She was quite the 
student.
  Mithi was admitted to the University of California at Los Angeles, 
one of the Nation's top universities. At UCLA she volunteered as a 
research assistant. She wanted to get into a lab that studied the high 
risk of infants to develop autism.
  Mithi also volunteered, while a student at UCLA, as a crisis 
counselor for their peer helpline, advising students who were the 
victim of rape, child abuse, and substance abuse. She eventually became 
a trainer for new counselors. Mithi also volunteered as a mentor and 
tutor for at-risk middle school children in the city of Los Angeles.
  She graduated from UCLA with a degree in psychology. Her options were 
limited in terms of medical school because she is undocumented. She was 
unable to pursue her dream to become a doctor. Then in 2012, President 
Obama issued an Executive order establishing the DACA Program, allowing 
students such as her a chance to stay in America and not be deported. 
Her whole world changed.
  She began working as a research assistant at the UCLA School of 
Medicine, and she has applied to attend medical school. She still 
volunteers at the autism research lab where she started her research 
career 7 years ago. Her ambition is to be part of the treatment and 
research effort to help children with autism. She also has served as 
peer mentor to 10 undergraduate students at UCLA.
  She wrote me a letter and asked that I relay a message to the Members 
of Congress who are engaged in the debate on whether to shut down the 
DACA Program which gives her a chance to stay in the United States. 
These are her words:

       Please, please listen to our stories. This is my home, and 
     the only country I know. DACA gives us greater opportunities 
     to give back to the country we love.

  This young lady, and millions like her, grew up in the classrooms of 
America pledging allegiance to that flag. It is the only flag they have 
ever known. They can only sing one national anthem--the national anthem 
that is closest to their heart for the United States of America. But 
now there is an effort underway by some politicians in Congress to 
deport her and send her back to the Philippines, and to say: Despite 
all you have done with your young life, despite all the talents which 
you bring to Los Angeles and to California, despite your promise to 
enter into the medical profession and to serve in a cause that all of 
us realize is so important, autism research--despite all of that, leave 
America. That is the message that comes through in this bill sent to us 
by the House Republicans.
  They want to deport Mithi Del Rosario. They want to send her out of 
this country and toss her away despite all of the investment we made, 
and she has made, in her life. Mithi, and other DREAMers like her, have 
so much to contribute.
  The Republican bill that is before us would deport hundreds of 
thousands of young people just like her, and it would stop the 
President's effort to give the parents of citizens--American citizen 
children--a chance to work temporarily and legally in the United 
States.
  It is hard to imagine that so many on the other side of the aisle 
have lost sight of who we are as a nation. We are a nation of 
immigrants, and that immigrant spirit has made us different in this 
world we live in.
  The people who risked everything to come to the United States, to a 
country where they may not have even spoken the language and gave up 
everything and came here--they are a special brand of risk takers, and 
we have a little bit of their DNA in our blood.
  My mother was an immigrant. She was brought here at the age of 2, and 
her son now serves in the U.S. Senate. As I have said so many times on 
the floor, that is my story, it is my family's story, and it is 
America's story.
  I cannot believe my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have 
forgotten America's history and America's story and are willing to turn 
their backs on a young woman such as this and say: We don't need you. 
You can leave. In fact, we are going to make you leave. We are going to 
force you out of this country.
  America won't be a stronger country if we deport Mithi and others 
like her. We are not going to be a better country if we tear apart 
American families. We are not going to be safer when we should be 
deporting criminals, not those who aspire to be medical researchers.
  Instead of trying to deport DREAMers and mothers and fathers, 
congressional Republicans should support a

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clean appropriations bill. Let's do that. Let's pass a bill to fund the 
Department of Homeland Security. Let's get that done so once again we 
don't have a Republican shutdown of any branch of our Federal 
Government. Let's get that part done. And then if we are going to 
engage in a real debate on immigration, let's do it. The majority is 
controlled by the Republicans in the House and the Senate and they can 
do that any time they want. Let's engage in that debate and let's do it 
in an honest fashion. Let's do it in a hopeful and positive view of 
what America's future will be when young people such as Mithi Del 
Rosario have their chance to become part of an America that embraces 
talent and skill and thanks young people for the sacrifice they made to 
make a better life for all of us who live in this Nation.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cotton). The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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