[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 13393-13395]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                  DACA

  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I am here today to talk about the DACA 
Program, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program, which is 
very important in my State. We actually have 6,000 kids who have gone 
through that program.
  As we all know, 800,000 young people who have lived in the United 
States

[[Page 13394]]

since childhood are included and affected by this recent action by the 
administration, which I strongly oppose. These Dreamers were brought to 
the United States as children through no fault of their own and are 
working hard to educate themselves and contribute to our Nation. In 
fact, more than 97 percent of DACA recipients are now in school or in 
the workforce, and all DACA recipients are required to meet the 
program's education requirements. One recent study found that 72 
percent of all DACA recipients who are currently in school are pursuing 
a bachelor's degree or higher. According to the American Association of 
Medical Colleges, more than 100 students with DACA status applied to 
medical school last year.
  The young people who have benefited from DACA have often been in our 
country almost their entire lives after having been brought here as 
children. They are valuable members of our community, and they have 
contributed to our economy and to the fabric of our society. In fact, 
one recent study estimated that ending this policy would cost the 
country over $400 billion over the next 10 years.
  Ending DACA, which has been in place since 2012, would create 
tremendous uncertainty and risk deportation for nearly 800,000 Dreamers 
who are studying and working across our Nation.
  When I think of the Dreamers, I think of, first of all, the night 
that the Judiciary Committee, on a bipartisan basis, passed 
comprehensive immigration reform. There were Dreamers there. They were 
there late at night and had tears streaming down their faces. Then I 
think about the time that President Obama put DACA into place and made 
it so that they could come forward, sign up, and legally work. Now we 
are going to turn our backs on those same people, those people who were 
brought here through no fault of their own. Whether or not the current 
administration disagrees with the past administration, our country made 
a commitment to them that they could sign up for this program. Back 
when we passed comprehensive immigration reform, I felt that our 
committee--the Senators who voted for that bill, both Democrats and 
Republicans--made a commitment to them that day that we were going to 
work on their behalf. That is why this is so wrong.
  I do appreciate that this morning the President said that he wants to 
work to pass this bill and that he said the DACA young people do not 
have to worry over the next 6 months about any actions taken against 
them. Those are, of course, good things. I just wish this had not 
happened in this way, but it did.
  I am also not surprised that so many people have stood up in support 
of Senator Durbin and Senator Graham's bill, that so many Republicans, 
Democrats, leaders in business, leaders in labor, and religious leaders 
have stood up.
  As we discuss the fate of these young people under DACA, I am 
reminded of someone who is not young--Joseph Medina, who is a decorated 
Army veteran and an immigrant who just celebrated his 103rd birthday 
this July. He is 103 years old. When I found him, he was a young 99 
years old. The reason I found him was that we were talking about this 
very issue--about DACA and about kids, actually, today who want to 
serve in the military. As we know, through various ways, some of the 
DACA kids are courageously serving in our military right now. Of 
course, they will not be able to if they are deported, but just think 
that we are actually considering deporting people who are currently 
serving in our military.
  In any case, let's go back 103 years ago or so--actually, maybe a 
little before that. Joseph Medina came to the United States from Mexico 
when he was only 5 years old. He did not actually know he was born 
outside of our country. He had been brought across the border as an 
orphan by his aunt and his stepfather, and he did not know that he had 
been born outside of the United States. He had lived his whole life in 
Sleepy Eye, MN, until he was in an Army boot camp in 1944. At that 
time, Joseph Medina wanted to serve our country, but he found out that 
he actually was undocumented.
  In his own words to me, he said: Well, back then, the Army really 
wanted us. The Air Force wanted us. The Navy wanted us. Everyone wanted 
us.
  So what did they do back then?
  He said: We would go over to Canada under, actually, the guidance of 
our military for 1 night.
  He said he got to stay in a nice hotel. Then he came back, and he was 
a legal citizen. I have not looked into how they did this, but that is 
how they did it. That was, simply, back then.
  Then what did Joseph Medina do? He went and served our country. He 
served under General MacArthur in the Pacific. That is what he did. 
When he came back after bravely serving our country, he got married, 
and he had a boy. I met that guy. That guy served in the Vietnam war.
  So we have a dad who served our country in World War II, and we have 
a son who served our country in Vietnam, all because at that time there 
were people who said: Do you know what? You were not brought over with 
any knowledge that you were even being brought over. You were only 5 
years old.
  They did not deport him when he wanted to serve in our military; they 
made him a citizen.
  Joseph Medina came out here to Washington, DC, at the age of 99 to 
see the World War II Memorial for the first time. I stood there with 
him as he looked proudly as that memorial, along with two Dreamers, who 
were high school students, who actually wanted to sign up and serve in 
the Air Force, but they were barred from doing that under the way our 
laws worked at the time.
  I am proud of Joe's service, but I even want more. Joe's spirit and 
his devotion to our country can continue on and be passed on to other 
generations. That is what this Dream Act is really all about. It is 
about other kids who were brought into this country without their 
knowledge and without their even understanding what was happening and 
allowing them to be part of that American dream.
  America is a country created by immigrants. Immigrants have been part 
of our Nation's greatest achievements. We need to fix our broken 
immigration system. Of course we do. That is why I supported 
comprehensive reform so that we would have had money for order at the 
border, which would have created a very, very long glidepath to 
citizenship, but there also was a moral compass to that bill. It has 
been 4 years since we passed that bill, and as we all know, despite the 
bipartisan support in the Senate, the House failed to act.
  By the way, despite reform being good for our economy, I always like 
to point out to people that of the Fortune 500 companies, 70 of them in 
America are headed up by immigrants. Of our U.S. Nobel laureates, 25 
percent of them were born in other countries. We literally cut off 
talent when we cut off immigration.
  In my own case, my great-grandparents on my dad's side came over from 
Slovenia to work in the iron ore mines. When he was in about the sixth 
grade, my grandpa had to quit school to go work to help raise his eight 
or nine brothers and sisters, but he always had this immigrant spirit. 
He never even graduated from high school, but he saved money in a 
coffee can so he could send my dad to college.
  On my other side, my mother's parents--my grandparents--came over 
from Switzerland. My grandma came over when she was very young--I think 
at 3 years old. My grandpa came over when he was about 18. He was 
detained at Ellis Island because they had reached their quota of Swiss 
immigrants, so he put on his form that he was going to Canada. He did 
go to Canada, but he did not stay in Canada. He somehow got through to 
Wisconsin and was there as an undocumented alien, and he lived that way 
for 20 years. He married my grandma, had my mom and her brother.
  When World War II came along, they required those aliens to register, 
so he had to register. That is when they found out how he had come in, 
and they still said that it was OK, that he

[[Page 13395]]

could register. Then he was kind of emboldened, so he decided to sign 
up for citizenship. That was when they really looked into it, so he had 
to have a hearing. He made his case that he had lived here forever and 
had been there, had had two kids, worked his entire time at a pie shop, 
and they gave him citizenship. I still have that picture of his shining 
face with that bow tie. I wonder what would happen to him today if he 
were to come forward. I am not sure he would be made a citizen despite 
the long time he had spent in our country.
  Now it has happened on both sides of my immigrant family.
  My dad ended up being a newspaperman and got to interview everyone 
from Ginger Rogers, to Ronald Reagan, to Mike Ditka. My mom became a 
teacher and taught second grade until she was 70 years old. And I stand 
before you as the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from the State 
of Minnesota.
  That is the immigrant story. That is a story of a family who came in, 
not in an easy way, with my grandpa in an uncertain status, clearly, 
when he came into the United States. So you ask me why I support these 
Dreamers? Because I had Dreamers in my own family.
  I am pleased that so many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle 
have spoken out in support of DACA, and it is essential that we now 
pass this legislation to protect these Dreamers. I stand ready to work 
with my Republican colleagues. I thank Senator Durbin and Senator 
Graham for their leadership. Let's get this done.
  Thank you, Mr. President.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. PERDUE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cassidy). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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