[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 20567-20574]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                  DACA

  Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, I wish to talk about the Dreamers.
  As I have from the time I was a school superintendent in Denver until 
now, I had the opportunity to spend time last weekend or the week 
before with a group of Dreamers in Alamosa, a small town in Southern 
Colorado.
  These meetings are usually occasions for people to lay out their 
dreams for the future in America, the only country they know and the 
only country they love. This meeting was different than other meetings 
I have had recently. Instead of the hope and self-confidence I am so 
used to hearing from young people, what I heard was fear, anxiety, and 
pain.
  Everybody in the group I met the other day came to this country as 
undocumented immigrants when they were children, some just months old. 
None of them made the decision to come here. They grew up here, and 
they know no other country besides the United States of America.
  In 2012, they joined 800,000 Dreamers who came forward across the 
country to share their information for temporary legal status under the 
DACA Program. Over the past 5 years, many of these Dreamers grew into 
young adults, finishing school, starting families, launching 
businesses. They went about their lives, trusting our government would 
keep its word and find a way for them to stay in the only country they 
know. Then, in September, President Trump rescinded DACA, throwing 
every one of their lives into chaos.
  During our meeting in Alamosa, not a single person could share their 
story without breaking into tears. One young man, Julio Maldanado, told 
me about the iPhone repair business he opened on Main Street. Like so 
many immigrants, he poured himself into that enterprise as an 
entrepreneur. Thanks to his efforts, it is now not only turning a 
profit, it is providing a service to his community and supporting his 
family. Now all of that is in jeopardy.
  As I said, Julio couldn't tell his story without starting to cry. 
When he turned to his business partner who was also there to help, his 
partner began crying too. Versions of that played out again and again 
in our meetings and in the meetings I have been having here in 
Washington, DC, as Dreamers take the risk to travel to Washington to 
share their stories--honest dream after honest dream being crushed by 
uncertainty, young people trembling in fear.
  We hear a lot around this place about how we don't have to act until 
the last moment. We don't have to act until March 5. This is not true. 
There are so many children, young people, and young adults in my State 
who are losing their status as we sit here, unable to accomplish 
something everybody seems to say they want to accomplish. The President 
says he wants to accomplish it. The Speaker says he wants to accomplish 
it. Senators on both sides say they want to accomplish it. We have 
created this crisis that President Trump set off when he rescinded 
DACA.
  This isn't just affecting Dreamers, although that ought to be enough 
for us to do the job we are supposed to do. For years, farmers and 
ranchers have told us they need workers with clear legal status. 
Undocumented workers have told us they face exploitation without legal 
resources. Families have told us they fear being split apart and sent 
to places they hardly know, and, today, this week, those fears were 
confirmed again as we lost another father from Colorado. Just last 
week, we had a family torn apart in Colorado.
  Melecio Andazola came to America in 1998 as an undocumented 
immigrant. Over the last 19 years, he has paid taxes in America, he has 
raised four children in America, he has followed the rules. Then, on 
Friday, he was deported.
  Now it is unclear whether he will ever see his daughter walk across 
the stage for her college graduation next spring at Yale, in New Haven. 
It is unclear how he will be able to support his four kids. Because of 
the choices we have made in Washington, the lives of everyone in that 
family have been spun into chaos, like so many other families across 
the country.
  For years, stories like this have demanded action. That is why the 
Senator from Illinois who is here today, Senator Durbin, has led this 
charge for so many years, standing on the floor with photos of the 
Dreamers from his State and across the United States. It is the reason 
I was so honored to have the chance to work with him and six others of 
our colleagues back in 2013, the so-called Gang of 8, a group of four 
Democrats and four Republicans.
  I was just talking with my friend from Oklahoma about how this place 
doesn't work. That was an instance where it worked. We came together to 
write a bipartisan proposal for immigration reform. Over the course of 
8 months, in Washington, we worked through a process that I think would 
make every American proud for once--both sides sitting down to solve 
problems. The result was a great piece of legislation.
  Our bill had more funding for border security, not just a wall but 
smart and effective border security. It had more funding for internal 
security. It had a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million 
undocumented people who are here, including all of the Dreamers. Part 
of that bill had the most progressive DREAM Act ever written. It got 68 
votes on the floor of the Senate. Not everyone got what they wanted. As 
I just said to the Senator from Oklahoma in a different context, it is 
unreasonable to expect that here. Each side had to give, but the result 
was a great vote. It got almost 70 votes in the Senate, at a time when 
you can't pass anything through the Senate.
  For the first time in a generation, we had a real opportunity to 
resolve our differences on immigration, but as is so often the case in 
Washington, politics got in the way. In the House, Republican leaders 
denied our bill a simple up-or-down vote, which would have passed. They 
preferred to keep immigration alive as a political weapon to divide the 
American people and distract from the real challenges in our economy.
  By the way, the Senator from Illinois will remember this. We heard a 
lot of stretching this week about how much economic growth this tax 
bill was going to create--0.6 percent here or 0.1 percent over there. 
The CBO estimate on the Gang of 8 immigration bill was that by bringing 
people out of the shadows and putting them in a position to contribute 
legally to the economy, that would have added 3 percentage points to 
our GDP, to our Nation's economy over the first 10 years, and

[[Page 20568]]

five incremental points over the second 10 years. That would have been 
a useful thing to do for our economy.
  As a result of what happened--or didn't happen--in the House, the 
rhetoric around immigration has just become more toxic, evermore 
divisive, evermore unrecognizable in America, a Nation that has 
inarguably been made great by immigrants.
  As I said, there are a lot of economists who are awfully skeptical 
about the economic claims that have been made about this tax bill. If 
we look at what happened in 2001 and 2003, when they tried to do it 
before, we all know how that story is going to end. On the other hand, 
nearly every expert agrees that forcing out the Dreamers would hurt our 
economy.
  The Cato Institute found that removing the Dreamers would stunt 
economic growth by $280 billion. Another study found that comprehensive 
immigration reform would grow the economy by $1.5 trillion over 10 
years and support nearly 1 million new jobs.
  Despite these facts, there has been a lot of talk around here about 
how immigrants detract from America or how they somehow leach off the 
system and lack our values. Those claims are then used to justify 
actions like canceling DACA. It would be hard for me to believe that 
anybody making a claim like that had ever sat down with a Dreamer.
  Daniela Gomez Castro came to Colorado when she was just a year old. 
As a child, Daniela looked up to her grandmother--one of the few women 
doctors in her area--and dreamed of following her into medicine. She 
took classes in biology and excelled in our public schools, graduating 
from Smokey Hill High School in 2015.
  To become a doctor, she knew college was the next step, so she 
enrolled at the University of Colorado Denver as a prehealth major, and 
in between classes, she worked as a nurse's assistant, restaurant 
hostess, and student mentor to help cover tuition. Everything was on 
track. Then, last year, she learned her legal status meant she couldn't 
get a medical license. After working so hard for so long, her dream is 
now frozen in place by forces in Washington totally beyond her control.
  Today, America--especially places like rural Colorado--is desperate 
for physicians. The Association of American Medical Colleges predicts 
that, by 2030, we will have a shortage of 100,000 doctors nationwide. 
As I say, we are feeling that shortage right now in rural Colorado. We 
don't have enough clinics and treatment centers, even as we face an 
epidemic of opioid addiction. Two of our counties don't have a single 
doctor, and a lot of our rural counties have no primary care doctor or 
nurse.
  Given that, it doesn't seem to me to make any sense that we should 
send Daniela back to a place she doesn't remember and doesn't call her 
home, especially when we need her here. That obviously would be cruel, 
but my point is, it would also be incredibly shortsighted.
  Apolinar Lopez Garcia also came here when he was just a year old. His 
family eventually made their way to Greeley, CO. He thrived in school 
and joined the Junior ROTC Program in Northridge High School, where he 
excelled as a cadet. He relished the ROTC sense of community, self-
discipline, and duty, so much so that after graduating from high 
school, he wanted to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps. He filled out the 
paperwork and waited, but when the reply came, Apolinar was crushed. 
Because of his legal status, the Marines couldn't accept him.
  We should think about that. Of all the paths available to a bright, 
young person like Apolinar, he wanted to serve the country in uniform. 
You don't feel called to serve a place you don't consider home. You 
don't feel called to serve a place where you don't share the values, to 
defend a community that is not your own. Apolinar's choice flies in the 
face of every specious attack we have heard against immigrants in this 
debate. He doesn't detract from America.
  Apolinar wants to defend America. Daniela wants to treat sick 
Americans. Julio wants to create jobs for Americans. They join 800,000 
Dreamers who, for years, have invested in America by paying taxes, 
starting businesses, and serving their communities. For years, America 
has invested in them, by educating them, by training them, and 
instilling in them the confidence and love of country we hope for each 
new generation of Americans.
  It is unimaginable now that we wouldn't find a way to resolve their 
status. We can't avoid this any longer. The Senate and the House are so 
good at putting off what they should have done last week or last month 
or last year. This is not one of those cases anymore.
  On each day we do nothing, 112 people are deported. Over 12,000 
people have been deported since September. Every one of them represents 
a family torn apart, a business shuttered, a payroll not made, an 
education interrupted, a dream shattered. In the end, our most basic 
job here--lost in this sometimes--is to look out for the next 
generation of Americans. Instead of looking after them, we have spent 
an entire year trampling over them.
  Let's review the record.
  With the Dreamers, we have ransomed their futures for political 
leverage. We are doing it right now. With our backtracking on climate 
change, we have made their futures more dangerous and costly. With our 
failure to reauthorize CHIP, we have jeopardized the healthcare of, 
among others, 90,000 kids in Colorado who may lose healthcare if we 
don't act. Now, with this tax bill, we have handed another $1.4 
trillion in debt to people whose futures we are not investing in 
because we say we cannot afford to do it--by rebuilding our roads, by 
improving our schools, by spurring innovation. Instead, we have taken 
another bet on trickle-down economics at a time when we already have a 
substantial budget deficit.
  That is what brings us here at the end of the year, once again, with 
our not having done our work and passing something called a continuing 
resolution that no other government enterprise in America gets to do--a 
temporary budget that doesn't reflect the priorities of the American 
people. In that mix, the Dreamers find themselves caught up in a 
political discussion without any assurance that it will be resolved.
  The good news is that I know there are Republican colleagues here, as 
well as Democrats, who want a solution for the Dreamers. They see in 
these young people all of the qualities we cherish as Americans--
family, community, service, enterprise, and patriotism.
  I would just say, as we get ready to leave here, that I think we 
shouldn't leave here today. I think we should commit to this issue with 
our Dreamers. This should be our No. 1 priority together--to figure out 
how to get this done so we don't have inadvertent casualties occur. 
After a while, something inadvertent has to be advertent because if you 
have knowledge of it and if you know what is going to happen, it leads 
you to believe that you should have acted. We need to stop the 
brinksmanship and the partisanship, and we need to work together to 
ensure that their futures will be here in the United States, where we 
need them, in the only country they know.
  I thank my colleagues for their indulgence.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Colorado. We 
have been engaged in this battle of immigration reform for years. He is 
a worthy ally, thoughtful, and always thinking of a solution. I thank 
him for his continuing commitment to this cause.
  In the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln got so 
frustrated with General McClellan that he sent him a message. He 
couldn't get him to attack. He wouldn't do anything.
  He asked: General McClellan, if you are not going to use your Army, 
can I use it? Can I borrow your Army?
  So I would like to ask the leaders of the House and Senate: If you 
are not going to use your Congress, can I borrow it for a minute? Can 
we fill up this empty Chamber and actually have a real debate over a 
real bill to solve a real problem?

[[Page 20569]]

  I think that might be a worthy thing for us to do. In fact, I think 
that is what we are paid to do; isn't it? Didn't we swear to uphold 
this Constitution? Didn't we take this historic job on with the goal of 
making America a better place?
  On September 5, President Trump, along with Attorney General 
Sessions, eliminated the DACA Program. This was a program that gave to 
almost 800,000 young people--brought to the United States when they 
were little kids--a chance to go to school, to work, to have futures in 
this country. They had to go through criminal background checks, turn 
over all of their information, and pay their taxes--all of the above. 
Then, for 2 years, they could operate in America. They were not 
citizens, but they were legally in America. On September 5, President 
Trump and Attorney General Sessions said: It is over--as of March 5, 
2018, no more.
  Then the President said: I challenge you, Congress. Do something 
about it. Pass a law.
  That was almost 4 months ago. What have we done in 4 months to 
address this problem that affects the lives of 800,000 DACA-protected 
young people? Nothing. We are not using this Congress. General 
McClellan was not using the Army. Isn't it time that we do something? 
Wouldn't the American people be so pleasantly surprised if we did 
something on a bipartisan basis that solved a problem in America?
  I know my Republican colleagues are euphoric over their tax bill. Two 
out of three Americans are not. I am not. I will put it aside for a 
minute. They spent a lot of time. They passed it. So be it. They did it 
on a strictly partisan basis. They had a right under the Senate rules 
to do it that way, and they did it that way. This cannot be done on a 
strictly partisan basis. You cannot fix the immigration system unless 
you engage both political parties in the solution.
  I am lucky. I care about this. I also found some Republican Senators 
who care just as much. Jeff Flake of Arizona announced his retirement. 
I am sorry to see him go because he is a good person of good values. He 
stepped up and cosponsored the Dream Act that we are talking about 
here. I didn't even have to call him on the phone. I thanked him, and 
he said: It is the right thing to do. Lindsey Graham, a Republican of 
South Carolina, was my cosponsor. Cory Gardner of Colorado and Lisa 
Murkowski of Alaska stepped up and said: It is the right thing to do 
for these young people, to give them an opportunity to earn their way 
into legal status, to earn their way to citizenship.
  I thank them for that. We need eight more. If we get 8 more, we will 
have 12 Republicans out of 52. With eight more, we are ready. We are 
ready to put 60 votes up when they call the roll. With 60 votes in the 
Senate, you can get things done.
  What has happened? What opportunities have we had in the almost 4 
months since the President eliminated this program? None--not one.
  Senator McConnell said to Senator Flake when his vote on the tax bill 
was in doubt: I promise you that we will bring this up in January--this 
coming January.
  I can tell you that I read the promise very closely, and there are a 
lot of contingencies on there. I hope that Senator McConnell is going 
to give us our chance early in January to find out if we can come up 
with a bipartisan solution to this problem.
  If you think there aren't other Republicans who support this, 34 
Republicans in the House of Representatives sent a letter to Speaker 
Paul Ryan and wrote: Pass the Dreamer legislation this year--34 
Republicans. So we are not alone. They are not the only ones.
  Yesterday, 11 Governors--11 of them, Republicans and Democrats--sent 
a letter to Congress, calling on us to do this. The letter was signed 
by the Democratic Governors from Minnesota, Montana, Pennsylvania, and 
North Carolina and by the Republican Governors from Nevada, 
Massachusetts, Vermont, and Utah, and by Alaska's Independent Governor.
  We are hearing from those in the business community. They want this 
done. They have seen these Dreamers. They have seen these young people. 
They believe in them, and they want us to do something to help them. We 
have heard it from the labor organizations, and we have heard it from 
the faith organizations.
  Across the board, 76 percent of the American people support what we 
are trying to do here--76 percent. What issues get 76 percent? The 
flag? I will bet you it gets even more, but not many others get 76 
percent approval, including 61 percent of the Trump voters. They think 
it is the right thing to do. Do you know why? Because many of these 
people have met the Dreamers. When you come to know them and hear their 
stories, you come to the conclusion--at least I do--that, for goodness' 
sake, these are extraordinary young people. Somehow or another, they 
have survived and have even flourished in a country that doesn't 
recognize them as legal. They went to our schools. They pledged 
allegiance to our flag. They sang the national anthem. That is the 
country they know.
  Let me tell you about one before I turn the floor over to my 
colleague from Maryland. This young lady's name is Miriam Gonzalez. She 
is the 105th Dreamer whose story I have told on the floor.
  When she was 6 years old, her family brought her to the United States 
from Mexico, and she grew up near Los Angeles. She was a good student 
and a good athlete. In high school she played softball and golf. She 
was a member of the bible club, the chemistry club, and the reading 
club. She was an active volunteer in her community, including assistant 
teaching at the local elementary school. She was the valedictorian of 
her high school class. She was accepted at UCLA. She majored in 
anthropology and minored in classical civilization.
  Let me give a postscript here. If you are undocumented and go to 
college in America, you get no Federal assistance--no Pell grant, no 
Federal loan. You have to earn the money. You have to work jobs to do 
it. She did. She held down the necessary jobs and commuted to school 
from her parents' home by taking public transportation for 2 hours each 
way on every schoolday.
  She was involved in student groups, mentored students at Van Nuys 
High School, and encouraged them to go to college. She continued to 
excel academically. She made the dean's honor roll and was awarded a 
certificate for her research at UCLA. Today, she is assisting students 
in low-income neighborhoods and schools.
  After graduation, she went to work with Teach For America. Do you 
know what that means? It means taking a job that pays hardly anything 
to teach in one of the most challenging schools in America. She did it. 
She taught seventh- and eighth-grade students in L.A. She teaches five 
classes for students who are having trouble with math and reading, and 
she gives one-on-one tutoring.
  She is involved in the school's parents committee and tries to get 
the parents of these kids who need their helping hands to excel as 
well. She is a full-time graduate student at Loyola Marymount 
University, where she is pursuing a master's degree in education.
  I am going to read her letter and then turn over the floor.

       Every day for [my] first two months [as a teacher] my 
     students would ask me if I would be returning the next day, 
     week, and month, and I would reassure them that I was there 
     to stay. Eventually, they began to trust me and believe that 
     I was there to support them. . . . Now students believe that 
     I am there for them and truly care about helping and 
     preparing [them] to succeed academically. My students have 
     made huge improvements academically, [and] I am particularly 
     proud of how hard they all work. After hearing about the fate 
     of DACA--

  She is talking about President Trump abolishing DACA--

     my students were worried that they would be losing me. I 
     continue to reassure them that I am not going anywhere 
     anytime soon and will fight to be able to see them finish 
     middle school.

  What is going to happen to her if we don't do what we are supposed to 
do--if we don't use this Senate and that House to solve this problem? 
What is

[[Page 20570]]

going to happen to her and her students? Are we so busy? Do you notice 
it on the floor? Are we so busy that we can't take up a piece of 
legislation here, debate it, and pass it today?
  Before the end of the day, we are going to pass a measure to keep the 
government open and functioning for about 3 or 4 weeks. It is something 
that may pass the House. We will find out later this afternoon. I am 
troubled by it. It doesn't have one word in it to deal with this 
challenge, and we have known for 4 months that it was coming and that 
we had to do it.
  I am going to be voting no on that, and it is not because of the 
merits of the continuing resolution. Until we address this issue and 
take the time to use the Senate and use the House to solve this 
problem, I am not going to be standing here and saying: I am going home 
for Christmas. I don't know what is going to happen to Miriam. I don't 
know what is going to happen to 800,000 others--get back to you later. 
The time is now for us to solve this problem.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.
  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I thank Senator Durbin for his 
extraordinary leadership on this issue and so many others.
  The Dreamers are part of this country. They are America's future. 
They are helping to build this great Nation, and they need our 
attention now.
  The Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House. 
One of their principal responsibilities is to pass a budget. We are now 
3 months into the fiscal year, and we don't have a budget, and we are 
talking about another continuing resolution. A couple of weeks ago, we 
were told on the floor to give it a couple of more weeks, and we would 
work out some of these issues. I agree with Senator Durbin. The time to 
act is now. We should not be going into recess without dealing with the 
problems of our country. We need to deal with the budget problem, and 
we, certainly, need to deal with the problem of the Dreamers. Let me 
just talk a little bit about them.
  They entered the United States before they were 16 years old--that is 
required--before 2007. Under President Obama's Executive order of 2012, 
they were entitled to a 2-year renewable work permit and the ability to 
remain in this country without being in fear of deportation. Each one 
has to go through a criminal background check. They need to be enrolled 
in school. They must either be high school graduates or in the U.S. 
military. In the United States today, we have 800,000 who are 
registered under the Dreamers. There are 10,000 in my State of 
Maryland, and they are contributing a half a billion dollars to 
Maryland's GDP, or gross domestic product. They are our next generation 
of teachers, doctor, engineers, and entrepreneurs. They are going to 
help build America, and they know no other country but the United 
States, which is their home.
  In our values, what makes America the great Nation that it is is that 
we are a welcoming country. We are a country in which people have come 
over the years to build this great Nation. That is America's strength.
  Are we going to turn our back now on the values that built this 
country? Are we going to rip families apart? Is that what America 
stands for? I find that hard to imagine. Would we do this to our own 
economy and hurt ourselves, as we are growing with their help?
  I have met with many Dreamers, not as many as Senator Durbin. He 
probably has the record. But I met with several Dreamers in Maryland. 
We had one in our office yesterday who had tears in her eyes. She said: 
I have an expiration date on my back. She doesn't know what is going to 
happen when that date occurs.
  How would you like to live under that fear in the United States of 
America? We are not talking about some communist country. We are 
talking about America, where people are living in fear.
  I have had several roundtable discussions with Dreamers in Maryland. 
I have had them in College Park, Baltimore, and in other areas. Let me 
mention two Dreamers I met with. Adam was originally born in Canada. 
His family grew up in Pakistan. He came to the United States with his 
parents when he was very young. Becky was born in Peru and came here 
with her parents to the United States. I mention them collectively 
because they both attend the University of Maryland at College Park. 
Our State allows Dreamers to have instate tuition so they can go to 
college and get the tools they need in order to succeed. They need work 
permits because they have to work. Otherwise, they never would have 
been able to get through school. They need a driver's license. Adam 
explained to me that he needed a driver's license to go to a magnet 
school so that he could advance his own education. That was all 
possible through President Obama's Executive order. Now all of that has 
been put into doubt because of President Trump's announcements that the 
program will end. It puts their lives on hold and in fear, and they 
wonder whether they need to go into the shadows in the United States of 
America.
  President Trump's actions were wrong. We can correct that, and 
Congress must act. We must act now before we go home for the holidays.
  I wish to talk about a similar group of people in our country--a 
large number in my State of Maryland--those under Temporary Protected 
Status, or TPS, because it is a similar situation. There are 437,000 
people in America from El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, 
Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. In Maryland, 22,500 
people are here from El Salvador, Honduras, and Haiti--from those three 
countries alone--and 90 percent of the TPS people in this country are 
from El Salvador, Honduras and Haiti, the three principal countries. My 
own State's recipients contribute $1.2 billion of our gross domestic 
product. This is a very similar situation to the Dreamers. They get a 
6- to 18-month extension. They have been here for decades because the 
underlying conditions in the countries from which they came still exist 
today. I have been to Central America. I can tell you that it is not 
safe for these people to be returned to those gang activities. They 
have the same similar situation. They know no other country but 
America. If they are required to go back to the country in which they 
were born, it will tear families apart. They have been disadvantaged by 
the President's actions where he is now threatening to end these 
programs.
  We need to act. We need to act in order to protect this group of 
citizens. I want to acknowledge that my colleagues have introduced 
legislation on this. S. 2144 provides a pathway to citizenship for 
those with TPS status. It is sponsored by Senators Van Hollen, 
Feinstein, and others. We should take that bill up and pass it. Let's 
provide protections. Let's strengthen American values. Let's do our 
work. Let's do it now. Let's do it before we go on recess. It is the 
right thing to do.
  Let me just conclude by quoting from Becky again, one of the Dreamers 
I met. She said the best present she ever got was on her 13th birthday, 
when President Obama executed the Executive order that gave her legal 
status and hope here in America.
  Well, we can give her an even better present right now before we take 
the recess for the Christmas holidays. We can give her a present of 
Congress, acting to provide protection for the Dreamers and for those 
on TPS so they don't have to worry again and they know they have a home 
here in America.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I am delighted to join my colleagues 
here in support of these kids who are known as Dreamers or DACA kids, 
who came in under the statute or under President Obama's program and 
who have lived here for many years in this country, passed all the 
requirements, and met all the standards. These are good kids. There is 
absolutely no reason for them to be the target of the kind of anxiety 
and fear that they are being put through to score political points. It 
really doesn't make sense.

[[Page 20571]]

  By definition, these kids came to the United States of America under 
the age of 16. You can't even enforce a contract against a minor in 
this country. They do not have the legal capacity in most places to buy 
a sofa. Yet we are holding them to account for decisions that their 
parents made when they were small children.
  One of the Rhode Islanders who will be affected by this came to the 
United States when she was 8 years old. Think of the kind of decisions 
that your 8-year-old kids make or that you were making when you were 8 
years old. This is a very successful young lady who is now at the Brown 
medical school. She is going to make enormous contributions to our 
country. Tossing her out or putting her in peril makes no sense 
whatsoever, particularly when the problems started when she was brought 
to this country by her parents when she was 8 years old.
  Another Rhode Islander who contacted me came to the country when she 
was 7 years old. She is now a teacher in a middle school in Central 
Falls, RI. Central Falls is a community that is emerging from 
bankruptcy. It has got its feet back under it now. It has a wonderful, 
exciting young mayor. Spirits are up, and things are going well. But it 
is not easy to be a middle-school teacher anywhere, and to be a middle-
school teacher in a small city that has just come out of bankruptcy is 
not easy. This is a valuable person to Rhode Island. Losing her adds no 
value to anyone.
  Another person who contacted me came to the United States at 10 
months old. At 10 months old, they barely even knew where they were. He 
came from Portugal at 10 months old. Now he has a college degree in 
computer science. He is ready to make his contribution to our country. 
He has done everything right and has played by the rules, and we are 
loading him up with all this anxiety and peril because of a decision 
his parents made when he was 10 months old.
  You can't go out, as I said, and buy a sofa on the installment plan 
at 8 years old. Yet we are trying to penalize these kids. It makes no 
sense at all.
  It doesn't even make economic sense. The studies I have seen show 
that disrupting the lives of these 800,000 Dreamer kids--90 percent of 
whom are in the workforce--would reduce the U.S. GDP by $460 billion 
over the next decade. They are making a serious contribution here.
  In Rhode Island, the delta is about $200 million in annual State GDP 
between having the Dream Act pass and losing the DACA kids. We would 
stand to gain as much as $150 million in annual GDP if the Dream Act 
passes, and ending DACA will result in an annual loss of $60 million to 
our GDP. So just in my small State, there is $200 million in economic 
result annually from solving this problem in a way that is humane and 
consistent with the way we treat children in virtually every other 
element of the law.
  Sadly, a lot of this is twisted up in the continued fight over 
immigration, which the Senate really tried to solve. I am on the 
Judiciary Committee. Senator Durbin was on the Judiciary Committee at 
the time. Under Chairman Leahy's leadership, we went through hundreds 
of amendments and we took dozens of votes. Some 90 amendments were 
incorporated into the bill. It came out of the Judiciary Committee by a 
bipartisan vote of 13 to 5.
  It came on to the Senate floor, where there were amendments. There 
actually was some regular order. Hundreds of amendments were 
considered, and the final bill passed on June 27 by 68 to 32.
  Then our bipartisan Senate bill went over to the House, where the 
Speaker of the House refused even to bring it up--no hearing, no vote, 
nothing. They just froze it out. So there is a long history of why we 
are here today, but the price should not be paid by these kids, not 
when the original problem was something that was done when they were 
children--10 months old.
  President Lincoln talked about ``the better angels of our nature.'' 
Let's show these kids the better angels of our nature. Let's do 
something decent, something bipartisan, something that is right, and 
let's do it soon.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, over the years there has been a lot of 
debate on the Senate floor, from healthcare to tax reform. There is no 
doubt that some days it feels impossible to get the majority of 
Republicans onboard with policies that truly help the families we 
represent. But there is one thing that unites not only a large 
bipartisan contingent in Congress but also the vast majority of 
American people, and that is finding a path forward for the estimated 
800,000 young men and women whose lives are right now in limbo--800,000 
people, including 17,000 men, women, boys, and girls from my home State 
of Washington who shared their information, paid a large fee, and 
upheld their end of the bargain, only to have President Trump rip the 
rug out from under them 3 months ago when he and Attorney General Jeff 
Sessions announced the end of the DACA Program.
  This Congress may not be able to change the Trump administration's 
hateful rhetoric or shortsighted policies overnight, but we can and we 
should pass the Dream Act as soon as possible. That is why we need more 
Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle ready to roll up their 
sleeves and get this done. Because every single day that Republican 
leaders refuse to bring the Dream Act to the floor to a vote, another 
122 young people lose their DACA status, they lose their ability to 
work legally, and they lose their protection from deportation. That 
means that every day, 122 of our neighbors, students, coworkers, and 
friends could be forced from the only country they know, despite the 
promise the Federal Government made to them when they signed up for 
DACA and despite their immensurable contributions to our schools, our 
hospitals, our universities, our stores, our farms, our churches, our 
offices, and so much more. That means small and large businesses are 
forced to lay off DACA recipients each day--vital employees in whom 
businesses have invested money to train and support, employees who help 
our economy and the small businesses in my State grow.
  My friends on the other side of the aisle are constantly claiming 
they want to help our small businesses grow. I listened to weeks of 
their speeches on this as they tried to justify the tax bill. But 
instead of a giveaway to the wealthiest 1 percent, one way my friends 
across the aisle could actually help small businesses is to bring the 
Dream Act up for a vote.
  This morning, I had the great honor of sitting down with Dreamers who 
traveled all the way here from my State across the Nation to fight for 
action, young people who had no control over how they came to this 
country but who have made conscious choices to improve their own lives 
and make life better for their own community. They are passionate, they 
are frustrated, and their stories need to be heard.
  Here is just one of them. Paul was brought here to this country at 
the age of 7 to be reunited with his father. Paul excelled in schools 
in Pasco, WA, not far from where my own dad grew up. Paul and his 
parents worried that despite Paul's success in K-12, going to college 
and starting a career might be impossible. But DACA provided him and 
his family with stability. Paul went to Gonzaga University in Spokane, 
WA, as a double major in political science and economics, and he now 
works in our State legislature.
  Now, with DACA in question, it is not just Paul who isn't sure what 
comes next for him but also his younger brother, Jose. Jose, who was 
only 2 years old when he came here, grew up seeing what Paul, his older 
brother, was able to achieve. He saw that DACA allowed Paul to live 
without that constant fear. Jose was ready to follow in Paul's 
footsteps and enroll in the DACA Program so he could pursue his dream 
of an engineering degree at the University of Washington. Now, if 
Congress doesn't act, we will have one less engineer in this country.
  Paul and Jose are great examples of Dreamers who have worked hard. 
They have aimed high, and they participate in our community and our 
economy,

[[Page 20572]]

making our country a better place. This country should be rolling out 
the welcome mat to our Dreamers, not slamming the door shut on them. 
And that is why I am here today with my colleagues to echo their fear 
and frustration on the floor of the Senate and to call on Republican 
leaders to work with us. Stop letting so many promising young men and 
women fall off the rolls of this program each and every day. Stop 
kicking this can down the road. Come together to do what is right for 
these young people.
  Ending the DACA Program is not what our country is all about. It 
doesn't do anything to fix our immigration system, prepare for our 
future, or grow our economy. Ending DACA won't heal the divisions we 
have seen in our communities or make them any easier to fix. And ending 
the DACA Program certainly doesn't reflect a country of opportunity or 
promise--something the United States has always aspired to be.
  I urge my colleagues here in the Senate and over in the House to 
think about the communities you represent. Think about the young men 
and women who are currently studying for finals or caring for our sick 
or teaching our children or responding to natural disasters or opening 
businesses in the communities you travel to and live in. Think about 
the young men and women who hope to serve in our military and defend 
your freedom some day. Think of the Dreamers who have grown up in our 
country and whose children are the future of our Nation. Think about 
how much good we could do for these young men and women if my 
Republican friends brought the same commitment and zeal to this task as 
they did to their tax bill. Finally, work with Democrats to find a real 
solution to end this unnecessary uncertainty.
  I want to thank Paul and all the other advocates from my State whom I 
met with in my office this morning and the many thousands of others who 
are showing up in every way they can to make their voices heard and to 
call on us here in Congress to act. Dr. Martin Luther King once said 
that justice too long delayed is justice denied, and Dreamers are not 
asking for anything other than what we have promised to them.
  This is an incredibly difficult and uncertain time for so many 
people, but Dreamers need to know that many of us in Congress and so 
many across the country have their backs. We will get this done. We 
have to get this done.
  Thank you, Mr. President.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
  Ms. WARREN. Mr. President, just yesterday, the Republican-controlled 
Congress passed a massive tax giveaway that will shovel truckloads of 
money into pockets of giant corporations and the superrich, while it 
leaves working families behind. And that is just the latest in a 
laundry list of presents that have been doled out to folks at the top. 
For everyone else, it has been one broken promise after another.
  One of those promises was to protect 800,000 Dreamers who were 
brought to the United States as kids. Trump broke this promise when he 
ended DACA, the program that allows Dreamers to live, work, and study 
in the United States without fear of being deported to countries they 
barely know. Because Trump broke his promise, it is up to Congress to 
stand up and protect Dreamers by passing a clean Dream Act--a bill that 
gives legal status and a path of citizenship to those young people.
  I want to introduce you to one of those Dreamers--Elias Rosenfeld. 
Elias was 6 years old when his parents brought him and his sister to 
the United States. He doesn't have many memories of his life in 
Venezuela, but he did hear stories from his parents and his grandfather 
about the everyday risks that they faced. One day, while his mother was 
driving, she pulled up to a stop light, and a man pulled a gun on her. 
Another day, his grandfather withdrew money from an ATM and then was 
robbed at gunpoint.
  So when Elias's mother, who was an executive at a multimedia company, 
had an opportunity to transfer to an office in Miami, FL, she jumped at 
it. Elias's family came to the United States legally. They applied for 
and they received a visa that allows executives and managers from other 
countries to work in the United States and eventually apply for 
permanent resident status. Under that visa, the entire family would 
become permanent residents and would never have to worry about losing 
their status in the United States. ``Permanent'' is the key word here. 
Well, at least that had been their plan, only things didn't go the way 
they had been planned.
  When Elias was 11, his mother died of cancer. He didn't know it at 
the time, but the day his mother died, Elias and his family lost their 
path to permanent resident status and became undocumented.
  After his mother died, Elias clung to the belief that an education 
was his ticket to a better life. He challenged himself academically, 
taking 13 advanced placement courses and earning A's in almost every 
class. He also juggled a number of extracurricular activities, 
including speech and debate, student government, volunteering with 
children and the homeless, and starting his school's first traveling 
Model United Nations. His excellence earned him a place on the dean's 
list, as well as a long list of awards, including the Miami-Dade 
Homeless Trust Change Maker Award.
  Elias so impressed the school's staff that his high school activities 
director called Elias a hero and said: ``I've been teaching for 20 
years and I have never seen a student like this young man.'' 
Scholarship committees also recognized Elias's accomplishments, and he 
won a coveted Myra Kraft Transitional Year Program scholarship, which 
provided him a full ride to Brandeis University in Waltham, MA. He is 
now a sophomore at Brandeis, where he continues to make his mark.
  Before DACA came along, Elias lived in constant fear that ICE would 
break down his door and deport him and his sister. DACA changed his 
life. The fear subsided. He knew that ICE agents wouldn't break down 
his door or seize him on his way to school. Elias told me that DACA has 
been a source of optimism and a light of protection.
  America is the only country Elias knows. It is the only country many 
Dreamers know. This is their home. Dreamers like Elias have had the 
courage to step forward. They have come out of the shadows to tell 
their stories. Now Congress could show some courage and protect 
Dreamers by passing a clean Dream Act. We have waited too long already. 
Every day that we delay, more than 100 Dreamers lose protected status. 
They must return to the shadows. They must think about ICE agents 
breaking down their doors or seizing them if they go to school or to 
work. The time for Congress to act is now, right now, today. We should 
not leave here so that we can celebrate the holidays with our families 
while nearly 800,000 Dreamers fear being ripped apart from their 
brothers, their sisters, their mothers, their fathers, and deported to 
countries they barely know.
  If we held a vote today on the Dream Act, it would pass. So my 
question to Senator McConnell is this: What are you waiting for? Let us 
vote.
  Thank you, Mr. President.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia.
  Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, I also rise to advocate the passage of a 
clean Dream Act now.
  I had a youngster say to me--and I am going to tell the stories of a 
few of the youngsters--at an event in November, a Dreamer in Northern 
Virginia: ``You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.'' It 
is a beautiful line, as we know, from the song ``Imagine'' by John 
Lennon. ``You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.''
  There are 800,000 Dreamers in this country--more than 800,000. More 
than 13,000 of the Dreamers live in Virginia, and they are from all 
corners of the world. I have met with Dreamers in Virginia who were 
originally born in Sweden, Nigeria, Latin America, many countries in 
Asia. They are a rainbow but also a source of strength for our country, 
and we need to act on their behalf.
  I also stand here in the Christmas spirit. We will all, so many of 
us, hear

[[Page 20573]]

the retelling of the Christmas story. In the aftermath of the birth of 
the poor child in a manger, the story goes that he was taken by his 
parents to another country essentially as a refugee. There were threats 
of violence against the firstborn children of the land, and so he was 
spirited across a border into Egypt to be protected.
  I know many of these Dreamers, and I know so many like them. I worked 
as a missionary in Honduras in 1980 and 1981, and I had the opportunity 
to work with youngsters in a country that was then and still is beset 
with violence and poverty and where so many parents have to make an 
agonizing choice. In some instances, they make the choice to try to 
find a better land for their children, just as Jesus and Mary did as 
they fled to Egypt at the Christmas season more than 2,000 years ago.
  So I stand here in that moment, in that spirit, knowing that hundreds 
of thousands of Dreamers need our protection and, frankly, deserve it. 
Are we less compassionate than those societies of old that have found 
refuge for those who have come fleeing hardship? I don't believe we 
are. I know the American public isn't, and I know the Virginia public 
isn't. The question is, Is Congress as compassionate as we need to be?
  We tell the story of some of the Dreamers in Virginia, and I have 
made many speeches on this floor and told many of their stories.
  Juan de la Rosa is a DACA recipient--one of our 13,500. He is a 
Richmonder. I first came to know Juan when I was the mayor of Richmond. 
He arrived at age 5. In a comment to me, he said: In one way or 
another, you have always been an active part of teaching me how being 
involved in the political process is the key toward positive change.
  He started when he arrived here at 5 years old, and he excelled 
immediately. He went to Manchester High School in Chesterfield County 
and graduated in 2014. He was a drum major in the marching band, class 
representative, and a president of several honor societies.
  After graduating at the top of his class at this very competitive 
suburban high school, he continued at Virginia Tech. At Virginia Tech, 
he started Tech DREAMers, which is a student organization there trying 
to create a more inclusive environment for the Dreamers on the campus. 
Through Tech DREAMers, he hosted dialogues around immigration reform 
and other issues--not just with Hokies but with students all around 
Virginia and around the country.
  This past May, Juan de la Rosa graduated magna cum laude from 
Virginia Tech, and he continues to be active. He works in the 
admissions office as a Dreamer, traveling the country and telling 
students all over this country about the opportunity that was offered 
by this great university in the Commonwealth. He says: ``All of this 
would not have been possible, had it not been for the opportunities 
afforded me because of DACA.''
  Juan, like so many other undocumented young people, is the very 
embodiment of the Virginia Tech motto. The motto of Virginia Tech 
University is ``Ut Prosim,'' Latin for ``That I May Serve.'' That is 
what Juan is doing. He wants Congress to pass a clean Dream Act now so 
there is a permanent solution for him and so many others.
  Alejandro Zuniga is the internal president of DREAMers Empowered at 
Northern Virginia Community College. I sat down with him a few weeks 
ago at a roundtable I held with these Dreamers. He was from Bolivia. He 
lived there until he was 7. His parents brought him here. He was not 
fully aware of what it was to be undocumented until he was ready to go 
to college, and his parents explained it to him. His favorite thing as 
a kid growing up in the DC area was to go to the Air and Space Museum. 
Now he is at Northern Virginia Community College making honor grades, 
studying to be an aerospace engineer.
  Monday, I sat down at the Richmond Public Library with a group of 
Dreamers from the Richmond area. A few stopped by my office on a day I 
wasn't there and asked for a meeting. We sat down together. Let me tell 
you about some of them and some of their parents.
  Mateo is a Dreamer and sophomore at VCU. He went to the same high 
school my daughter went to. My daughter Annella graduated from the 
Governor's School in Petersburg in 2013. Mateo was a freshman, and he 
graduated in 2016. He is part of a group called UndocuRams, a student 
organization whose mission is to foster inclusion for Dreamers on the 
VCU campus.
  Mateo's mom came with him to the meeting to show her support for her 
son. She is heartbroken seeing him work so hard and so afraid of what 
might happen to him and so afraid of what might happen to her. She 
prays that this system may find a just result for her child and for 
herself.
  Finally, at the same meeting, I had Bertha. Bertha is both a Dreamer 
and a mom. She is a young mother. Her parents brought her here in 1998 
from Mexico as a young child. She is an exceptional member of her 
community. She works in a local Catholic Church, volunteers with the 
PTA at her children's school, and coaches her children's and other 
children's soccer teams. Bertha told me she has learned the values of 
volunteering and helping others from being here in the United States. 
This is an interesting one. I hadn't heard this before. Bertha told me 
that where she came from in Mexico, there wasn't a great tradition of 
volunteer organizations. There was sort of the government, and there 
were churches. She said, coming to the United States, she has become 
aware of a whole sector of society that was not familiar to her: 
volunteer organizations--groups of people who get together to try to 
tutor other kids to be Big Brothers or Big Sisters.
  She said what she has learned from the United States, more than 
anything else, is this amazing power of volunteerism and the network of 
social service groups that are run by volunteers. She said: I want to 
be just like that--and that is what she is doing.
  Why would we want to lose a mother, a Dreamer like Bertha from our 
community? She has explained, as so many have--folks here on the Hill 
engaged in rallies have explained with tears in their eyes the fear 
they feel. They had a President, who, though he said some tough things 
about immigrants during the campaign, he always said about Dreamers: 
Dreamers will have nothing to worry about in me. These Dreamers are 
good kids. They were taken by complete surprise when, in September, the 
President announced he would terminate the DACA Program in 6 months. 
From that moment, it has been unremitting fear for these young people 
and for their families.
  The only thing in the President's announcement that I think we could 
probably all agree to is--even though I was a strong supporter of 
President Obama's Executive action; firmly believed it was within his 
legal power--a statutory fix is better than an Executive action because 
an Executive action depends upon the temperament of the particular 
President; whereas, a statutory fix provides people with some 
permanence, some confidence, and some security, and that is what we are 
called to do.
  Again, in the spirit of the Christmas season--and because I am seeing 
this particular Presiding Officer--I am reminded of a beautiful phrase 
of Pope Francis whom the Presiding Officer and I have talked about 
before. In a letter he issued on Ash Wednesday in 2015, he called on us 
to be ``islas de misericordia en el medio de un mar de indiferencia''--
islands of mercy in the middle of a sea of indifference. That is a 
powerful phrase. Let's be islands of mercy in the middle of a sea of 
indifference. It was interesting. He didn't say: In the middle of a sea 
of hatred, in the middle of a sea of prejudice. He could have said all 
of those things. What he said was: ``in a sea of indifference.''
  Surely, as we hear of the virtues and the dreams, the achievements 
and the accomplishments of these beautiful young people, we can call on 
our inner spirit to be merciful, rather than indifferent. That is my 
hope; that this body will do that by passing a clean Dream Act and 
accepting with open arms the wonderful gifts these young people bring 
to our communities.

[[Page 20574]]

  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I rise, once again today, to express my 
strong support for taking action on the Dream Act. I thank all the 
Dreamers who, in recent weeks, traveled from all across the country to 
Washington to make their voices heard.
  Last month, I met with 50 Minnesotans, who traveled here by bus to 
show their support for the Dream Act. They took time away from their 
jobs, from their education, and from their families because this issue 
is so critical to them and to their loved ones.
  I want to get this bill passed, and while I remain hopeful we will 
reach an agreement soon, I know this has real consequences with each 
and every day, as over 100 Dreamers lose their status per day.
  We have already seen the harmful effects of the administration's 
decision to end DACA, and the situation will continue to get worse 
until we take action. For the eligible DACA recipients with statuses 
set to expire over the upcoming weeks, the uncertainty is unbelievably 
difficult.
  These are people who were told previously by our government that they 
could stay. They registered with our government, and now, with each and 
every day, more and more of them are losing their status. Just since I 
spoke about this issue on the Senate floor last week, an estimated 800 
additional Dreamers have lost their DACA status. In March, the number 
of Dreamers with expiring protections will increase to 1,000 a day if 
we have not found a solution by that time.
  This is an issue where we should be able to find bipartisan 
consensus. Americans want us to protect Dreamers. In fact, one recent 
poll found that 86 percent of Americans support action to allow 
Dreamers to stay in the United States. The Dream Act, which my 
colleague Senator Durbin has led in the Senate for 16 years now, is 
based on a simple principle: Dreamers who are brought to the United 
States as children, and only know this country as their home, should be 
given the opportunity to contribute to our Nation and become citizens.
  These young people were brought here through no fault of their own. 
On average, when they came over, they were only about 6\1/2\ years old. 
Imagine being told that you have to go back to a country you have not 
stepped foot in since you were 6, where you may not know anyone or even 
speak the language.
  To receive DACA status, all Dreamers have already passed background 
checks, paid fees, and met educational requirements. They already did 
this so they could stay in the United States and contribute to our 
communities across the country.
  Dreamers are already contributing. More than 97 percent of these 
Dreamers, of the DACA recipients, are now in school or in the 
workforce. In fact, 72 percent of them currently in school are pursuing 
a bachelor's degree or higher. The American Medical Association has 
urged us to take action on this issue, noting our current shortage of 
physicians in the United States--something the Presiding Officer is 
aware of--and estimating that passing the Dream Act could add 5,400 
physicians to the U.S. healthcare system in the coming decades. 
According to the American Association of Medical Colleges, more than 
100 students with DACA status applied to medical school last year, and 
about 70 Dreamers are currently enrolled in medical school.
  In Minnesota, our large refugee and immigrant community has 
contributed so much to the cultural and economic vitality of our State. 
We are proud to have big communities of Somali, Liberian, and Oromo 
populations, as well as the second largest Hmong population. In fact, 
we have the biggest population of Somalis in the country, the biggest 
population of Liberians, the biggest population of Oromos, and we are 
also proud to be the home of more than 6,000 Dreamers.
  Ending DACA in my State, where the unemployment rate is hovering in 
the 3-percent range, would cost Minnesota more than $376 million in 
annual revenue, let alone the immeasurable impact to families who may 
be ripped apart.

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