America's Small Business Tax Relief Act of 2015
Floor Speech
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Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, today the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in United States v. Texas. This case is a challenge to President Obama's Executive actions to prioritize U.S. immigration enforcement.
In 2012, the President used his legal authority to establish the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program, or DACA. DACA has given nearly 700,000 undocumented young people the opportunity to come out of the shadows to pursue their dreams through education and jobs.
In 2014, again acting within existing legal authority, the President announced an expansion of the successful DACA Program. He also created a new Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents Program, or DAPA. DAPA allows the undocumented parents of U.S.-born and legal permanent resident children, the majority of whom are U.S. citizens, to stay in this country with their families.
Together, the expanded DACA and DAPA were expected to enable nearly 5 million people to come out of the shadows without fear of deportation. Unfortunately, Texas and 25 other States have challenged the President's authority to issue these Executive orders, resulting in the Supreme Court hearing today.
Hundreds of DREAMers, Muslim students, and activists from California, New York, New Jersey, and elsewhere rallied on the Supreme Court steps this morning. I spoke with them and heard their stories and their hopes that the Supreme Court would make the right decision in support of the President and the millions of DACA and DAPA families. Many carried signs and stickers that read ``Keep families together.'' Keeping families together is at the crux of the President's Executive orders-- families like that of Gabriela Andrade, who, as a teenager, fled violence in Brazil and settled in Texas before coming to Hawaii. While Gabriela's sister and parents were granted visas through a lottery system, Gabriela fell through the cracks. Until President Obama announced the DACA Program, she lived in fear of being separated from her entire family. She said:
DACA pulled me out of limbo and gave me a life again. It allowed me to go back to school to pursue a bachelor's degree in political science, to volunteer with several local organizations.
Today, Gabriela is an advocate for DREAMers like herself. President Obama's DAPA and expanded DACA Programs would help thousands of families like Gabriela's who want to stay together and be contributing members of our communities without the daily fear of deportation. To tear undocumented parents away from their children and put these U.S.- born children in foster care is unconscionable. To deport people who were brought here when they were very young--to essentially tear them away from the United States, the only home and country they have known--is also unconscionable.
These young people would be facing insurmountable odds, and I can certainly relate to some of the challenges they face. When I was almost 8 years old, my mother, brothers, and I legally immigrated to the United States. When we first arrived in Hawaii, we certainly struggled. I had to navigate the public school system without speaking a word of English. My mother worked low-paying jobs with no job security, and we struggled to make ends meet. But we took strength in being together as a family.
However, in addition to facing the kind of challenges my whole family faced when we first arrived in this country, DACA and DAPA families live in constant fear that they will be ripped apart through deportation. These families and children have been living in limbo for over a year while the legal challenges work their way through the system, through the courts.
In addition, United States v. Texas is also pushing DREAMers who are eligible for the original DACA Program, which is not being challenged, further into the shadows.
Singai Masiya, who heads the Aloha DREAM Team in my home State and is a DREAMer himself, told my office that DACA-eligible people in Hawaii stopped applying for DACA. Why? They are afraid that if the Court rules against President Obama's Executive actions, their application information will be used to deport them. This is a real fear in our communities.
United States v. Texas not only affects the lives of the more than 7,000 DACA- and DAPA-eligible Hawaii residents, it affects our economy. Over 10 years, DACA, DAPA, and expanded DACA are projected to provide a $276 million cumulative increase in Hawaii's State gross domestic product. The Center for American Progress also projects that, over 10 years, DACA, DAPA, and DACA expansion would provide a $136 million increase in the combined earnings of Hawaii's residents. However, in order to see these economic benefits, the Justices of the Supreme Court must rule on the side of DREAMers and the DAPA families. My hope is that the Supreme Court rules that the President is well within his legal authority in expanding DACA and DAPA and allows these Executive actions to be implemented.
I note, however, that Executive actions, important as they are, are not enough. The President himself has called on Congress to fix our broken immigration system so that 11 million undocumented people in our country can come out of the shadows and live and work openly.
It has been almost 3 years since the Senate passed bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform. I call upon Congress to do our jobs and enact fair, humane, and sensible immigration reform--recognizing that we are, indeed, a country of immigrants. That fact is at the very root of our strength as a nation.
Mr. President, I yield back.
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