DACA

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. Speaker, I rise to express my profound disappointment in the President's decision to repeal the DACA program.

This repeal is destroying the lives of nearly 800,000 young people. In my home State of Washington, there are over 17,000 Washingtonians who have been granted this deferred action status. One of them is Larissa Reza Garcia who came to the United States when she was 3 years old. Larissa works with underrepresented young people to connect them with opportunities to pursue their dreams within the education system. DREAMers like Larissa strengthen the fabric of our country.

Mr. Speaker, I also want to express my disappointment that the House will take up H.R. 3697 tomorrow, a bill that would promote racial profiling, expand mandatory detention, and criminalize immigrants without any due process protections.

We should be voting on the Dream Act, not legislation to criminalize immigrants. We have the votes to pass the Dream Act if it were brought to the floor, and I hope and call upon Speaker Ryan to have the courage to bring it to the floor

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source