DACA

Floor Speech

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Mr. President, I come to the floor today to share the story of an incredible DREAMer from my home State of New Mexico, but first I would like to commend my colleague, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, for his tremendous leadership in standing up for DREAMers-- young undocumented immigrants who are brought to the United States as children. I am proud to join him in this effort.

Four years ago, the President announced that DREAMers would have the opportunity to apply for temporary protection from deportation through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program, known as DACA.
Today, more than half a million young people across the country have benefited from DACA, including more than 6,500 in my home State of New Mexico.

Across this country, there are DREAMers working to become doctors, scientists, lawyers, and engineers. They want to start businesses and teach in our classrooms and serve in our military. DREAMers want to earn an education and contribute to our economy, to pay taxes and give back to their communities and their country. I would argue that most DREAMers don't know how to be anything but Americans.

Over the last month, I have heard from many New Mexicans who are fearful and uncertain about just how the new Trump administration could impact their community, their neighbors, their friends. This is particularly true for the thousands of young people who applied for temporary status under the DACA Program.

Over the last few years, I have come down to the floor to tell stories of DREAMers from my home. I told the story of twin sisters who graduated from college and are now both seeking advanced degrees, one in law, one in medicine. I told the story of a young man who applied for DACA and wanted to pursue graduate school for biology. I am happy to report that he is currently studying to earn a joint Ph.D. and M.D., with the hope of working on disease prevention. I will continue to tell the inspiring stories of DREAMers who demonstrate why we should protect them from deportation.

Today, I would like to tell you about one of those New Mexicans, someone I heard from last week when I held a listening session with community and faith leaders, immigrant rights advocates, and DREAMers from across New Mexico. She and her family live in the Mesilla Valley in southern New Mexico. The Mesilla Valley is a rich agricultural region. It is home to dairy farms, pecan orchards, and many of New Mexico's famed green chile fields. Generations of farmers and families in the Mesilla Valley have shaped the rich history and, fundamentally, the culture of my home State.

Today, families like the family of the DREAMer I heard from are working hard each and every day to improve their community, many of which lack adequate transportation and water infrastructure. They are working to create a better future for the next generation.

This young woman's strength is rooted in her family and in her faith. She is the oldest child in her family and is the first person in her family to seek higher education. She told me that through her education and her work ethic, she wants to set an example to her five younger brothers and sisters. She teaches catechism classes for children at her church, where she also helps with fundraisers, cooks meals, and assists with church events.

Since graduating from high school, she has started working toward her associate's degree in nursing. In a State like New Mexico, where we badly need more nurses and medical professionals in our rural and underserved communities, her professional dreams and aspirations are truly critical.

DACA allowed her to get a work permit to hold a job that assists her in paying for her education, for her textbooks, but now, with the President-elect pledging to rescind DACA, this young woman fears that everything she has worked so hard to achieve could be lost. She fears that her family will be separated and that she might be deported from the only community she knows and the community she calls home. She told me, ``If [DACA] were to be removed, then my dream would be destroyed.''

This young woman's dream and her drive to give back to her community in southern New Mexico are incredible, but her story is far from unique. Her story is similar to thousands of other DREAMers in my home State and hundreds of thousands across our country, some of whom have escaped unthinkable hardships. They are working to contribute to their communities and to create a brighter future. These DREAMers should be met with compassion.

During my listening session, I also heard from a Catholic priest who serves many immigrant families in his parish. He said he was deeply impacted by hearing this young woman's story during our listening session. He told me that her story ``reflects exactly what [he's] seen and heard from many families not only from [his] parish but also from neighboring parishes.'' He said, ``There is a lot of fear and people are so concerned and worried--especially families--[about] what can happen after the election.''

I want to make it very clear that in the coming years, I will not waiver in standing up for all New Mexicans in my role in the Senate. We should never be a country that kicks out some of our best and brightest students, and we should not be a nation that tears families apart. I will not stand for policies that are contrary to our fundamental American ideas and values.

I would like to thank the young woman who shared her story with me for having the courage to speak out, particularly with the uncertainty of her situation and in the wake of the recent election. The idea that young men and women like this hard-working nursing student in southern New Mexico will have to retreat back into the shadows or fear being removed from their homes as a consequence of congressional inaction on immigration reform is simply unconscionable.

I am calling for the Obama administration to take every possible legal action to protect DREAMers--individuals who are American in every way but for their immigration status--so that they are not targeted for removal by the incoming administration. Last week, I sent a letter to the White House urging President Obama to use his pardon authority to protect DREAMers from deportation.

I also plan to continue pushing for comprehensive immigration reform in the new Congress, which I still strongly believe has bipartisan support among my colleagues--those colleagues who want real solutions rather than rancorous rhetoric. We need to modernize our immigration system to meet the needs of our economy and provide an accountable pathway to earn citizenship for the undocumented workers living here in the shadows, including making the DREAM Act law.

As southwest border security is discussed in the context of immigration reform, I will continue to be focused on pragmatic and accountable policy decisions that include the many concerns of our border communities. As the son of an immigrant myself, I am familiar with the unique promise that America represents for so many families. I am grateful that when my father and my grandparents fled Germany in the years leading up to World War II, our country chose to see them for what they were--enthusiastic American immigrants.
Our Nation's remarkable spirit is rooted in our diversity, our history, and our culture, which has always been enriched by our immigrant communities and their family members. I encourage my colleagues and our incoming President-elect to look at the human faces of our broken immigration system and to work toward real solutions.

I yield the floor.

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