Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, what has happened to the State Department under this administration is almost impossible to imagine. What we are seeing there is a devastation and a decimation of the resources of a great part of our government, one of the most important parts. It is a small percentage of our budget, but the work done by the State Department is critically important in maintaining the position of the United States around the world, projecting our image--our values--where we can, helping the helpless in parts of the world where many countries come to their aid.

Under this administration in the last year, we have seen things happen that are unimaginable. When it gets down to the basics, key posts are unfilled at the State Department. There are more than 30 vacancies in ambassadorial positions. Don't blame Congress for it. In many cases, they have not even sent us the names of the nominees.

Can anyone here believe that we still do not have an ambassador from the Trump administration to South Korea? South Korea? We spend time talking about the Korean Peninsula and the future of the Korean Peninsula, and this President cannot find an ambassador to represent the United States in South Korea. What is the possible explanation for this? He can't blame anyone but himself. He has not sent us a nominee to even consider.

We are faced with a nuclear-armed North Korean dictator. We have 28,000 American U.S. military personnel who are literally risking their lives in South Korea, and we don't have a diplomat on the scene to try to make sure that the United States is well represented.

The Department is also hemorrhaging top staff. Under Secretary Tom Shannon--one of the most respected--is scheduled to leave soon. It is no surprise this is happening. President Trump has repeatedly proposed dramatic, irresponsible cuts in the budget of the Department of State. His administration has kept top diplomats out of key discussions and deliberations. How, at a time of such international unrest in this dangerous world we live in, can we be diminishing and demoralizing our topline diplomats? How can that be a smart way to keep America safe?

I have been hoping someone would come along to right the ship at the State Department--someone to draw on this amazing reservoir of American talent in the areas of diplomacy and foreign policy, someone to make sure our best diplomatic efforts are projected to prevent conflict and to further American interests, someone who could be a proud face of America around the world.

It was in this context and with this challenge that I met with Mike Pompeo. He and I have met and had serious and challenging discussions before, notably when he was nominated to be Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. We met again a few weeks ago. It was a good, candid conversation. He seemed to understand the desperate situation at the State Department and that the State Department's top experts should be included in key administration discussions.

This conversation left me in the same place, I believe, that Senator Menendez pondered at the end of Pompeo's Foreign Relations Committee hearing: Who is the real Mike Pompeo?

You see, I find it hard to square the reasonable man I met with the other day with some of his actions and comments. For example, has Michael Pompeo completely renounced the use of torture? He said he would not obey an order from the President to use torture. Let me add it is tragic that we have a President who brags about using such illegal, abhorrent, and un-American approaches, but we still have to worry about this. Contrast that with Mr. Pompeo's previous defense of waterboarding or his jarring comments about the 2014 Senate Intelligence Committee's torture report when he said ``Senator Feinstein [today] has put American lives at risk'' and that the intelligence operatives whose acts were scrutinized were ``heroes, not pawns in some liberal game being played by the ACLU and Senator Feinstein.''

Or what about Mr. Pompeo's association with prominent anti-Muslim figures in the United States, like Frank Gaffney? The Southern Poverty Law Center calls Mr. Gaffney one of America's most notorious Islamophobes. For example, Gaffney favors congressional hearings to unmask subversive Muslim conspiracies and was even banned from the far-right Conservative Political Action Conference events after accusing two of its organizers of being agents of the Muslim Brotherhood. Yet Mr. Pompeo appeared on Mr. Gaffney's radio show at least 24 times between 2013 and 2016.

What about when Mr. Pompeo used his position on the House Intelligence Committee to accuse then-Secretary of State Clinton of orchestrating a wide-ranging coverup of the Benghazi attacks that ended in the tragic loss of American lives in Libya? Is there anyone here who believes for a minute that was not a political witch hunt, which in part led to the further discrediting of the critical congressional committee involved--a committee that, incidentally, has lost all legitimacy in the current investigation over Russia's involvement in our election?

I face this decision on Mr. Pompeo with real concern. There are many policy issues on which Mr. Pompeo and I might disagree, notably on the Iran nuclear agreement. I asked him point-blank: What do you think is going to happen to this nuclear agreement to stop the Iranians from developing a nuclear weapon?

His conjecture was that this President would walk away from it and hope that our European allies, who also signed on to this agreement, would enforce it. Does that sound like a cogent foreign policy for a leader in the world like the United States?

Our Nation desperately needs someone to bring leadership to the State Department, but torture, Islamophobia, and wild political conspiracy theories don't seem to mesh with being our Nation's top diplomat from where I am standing.

I will vote against Mr. Pompeo's nomination. I sincerely hope I am wrong about this nominee. I believe he will be approved by a very small margin. I hope he will, in the end, uphold our Nation's laws and values when it comes to torture, tolerance, and international cooperation. I hope he will make sure diplomacy is exhausted before we turn to yet another war and, in particular, that he will resist John Bolton and others who are notorious for wanting to rush into military conflict. I hope he will listen carefully to Secretary Mattis at the Defense Department--someone I supported and someone I trust. I hope he will be clear to this President, as the man who is the Secretary of State in his administration, that climate change and Russia are truly threats to our Nation and well-being. Doing this will help strengthen America's leadership abroad and help build greater trust and cooperation in Congress. DACA

Mr. President, on September 5, the Trump administration announced its repeal of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program, known as DACA. As a result, hundreds of thousands of immigrants who came to the United States as children, toddlers, and infants--known as Dreamers-- face losing their right to stay here without being subject to deportation and the right to legally work in America.

DACA provides temporary legal status for Dreamers if they register with the government, pay a substantial fee, go through a criminal background check, and return every 2 years for renewal. It has been a great success. More than 800,000 Dreamers have come forward and received DACA protection.

When President Trump repealed DACA 7 months ago, he set an arbitrary March 5 deadline of this year for Congress to act and replace it. We tried. We offered to this President six different bipartisan alternatives to continue the DACA Program. He rejected every single one of them. He sent to Congress his own plan for dealing with immigration. It received 39 votes in the U.S. Senate--39. Remember, there is a Republican majority of 51. The President struggled to get his own party to support his ideas on immigration.

Luckily, a Federal court stepped in and issued an order blocking President Trump's repeal of DACA. This means those Dreamers who have DACA can continue to apply for renewed status. I certainly urge every DACA recipient to file for renewal as quickly as possible. There was a ruling yesterday, as well, in one of the DC district courts which also said that perhaps the President's actions on DACA can be questioned, and he gave the government 90 days to produce evidence of what authority the President used to reach that conclusion.

The Trump administration is doing everything in its power to fight this injunction, and it could be lifted any day. We don't know when the courts will turn and make a decision. This means there is still an urgent need for Congress to act to overcome the decision of the President of the United States of last September 5.

Last week, the Department of Homeland Security released updated statistics on DACA. It shows, as of March 31, more than 32,000 DACA renewal applications are pending. Of these pending renewal applications, more than 9,000 were from recipients whose DACA protection had already expired, and tens of thousands more Dreamers have DACA protection due to expire very soon.

The President has created chaos, not just in the White House but clearly at the Department of Homeland Security as they try to respond to his decisions. Secretary Nielsen of DHS has promised me and has said publicly that she will not be party to deporting any DACA recipient with a pending DACA application, even if their DACA status has expired. We will hold her to that commitment.

However, for DACA recipients whose status has expired, they are not going to be given any work permits while their renewal applications are being considered. It means tens of thousands of DACA-eligible individuals could be forced to leave the jobs they have--such as teachers in our schools or even in our military--because of the chaos that has been created by President Trump's decision.

Consider the fate of Dreamers who are eligible for DACA but have never quite reached that status. Until this decision is made in the court hearing in the District of Columbia, they can no longer apply for DACA protection because of President Trump's decision to prohibit new applications after September 5 of last year.

The nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute estimates that--in addition to 800,000 DACA recipients--there are an additional 1 million Dreamers who are eligible for DACA. President Trump's cruel decision to end DACA means that some 1 million DACA-eligible people cannot even apply.

On September 5, President Trump called on Congress to legalize DACA. As I mentioned, he has refused to accept six different bipartisan approaches that would. He even rejected one approach that offered $25 billion for his infamous wall on the Mexican border. Instead, the President has tried to put the entire hard-line immigration agenda on the backs of DACA recipients.

It is not working, for 85 percent of the American people are on the side of these young people who were brought to the United States as kids, children, infants who grew up in this country, pledging allegiance to that flag, and wanting to be part of our future. There are 85 percent of Americans, including many Trump voters, who believe that is the right and fair thing to do, but a handful of hard-liners in this administration are determined to exact a punishment on these young people and their parents. That is why we find ourselves in this situation today.

I have come to the floor more than 100 times to tell the individual stories of these Dreamers. I do that today as well.

This is Karina Macias. She is the 114th Dreamer whose story I have told on the floor.

At the age of 3, her family brought her to the United States from Mexico. She grew up in East Palo Alto in Northern California. She loved to read and spend her afterschool time and summers at the local Boys & Girls Club. Karina was an excellent student, and she received numerous awards in high school, including the Mount Holyoke Book Award, the AP Scholar Award, and a Rotary Club Academic Achievement Award. She was the coeditor of her yearbook and copresident of the Community Service Club. She volunteered as a tutor and worked as a volunteer in food distribution centers. She attended Saint Mary's College of California, where she continued to excel academically and to receive many awards. In May 2016, she was awarded a bachelor's degree in communications.

She works today as a project manager at a biotechnology firm. She volunteers with the Peninsula College Fund, where she organizes career development and college success workshops. She tutors elementary students and mentors middle school youth who compete in local science competitions.

What is her dream for the future? She wants to pursue an advanced degree so she can become a biotechnology researcher.

Here is what she wrote in a letter to me:

DACA is my hope for a future in which, with hard work and perseverance, I can achieve any dream imaginable. It's my protection from being ripped away from the only place I've known as home. It's the promise to my baby brothers--both U.S. Citizens--that I'll be around to watch them mature into exceptional young men. It's the ticket that allows me to be a contributing member of society. I credit my success to the endless support I have received from so many sources. I want to give back so my fellow Americans have the opportunities to achieve their dreams.

What a tragedy it would be to deport this young woman. Why would America do that? What sin has she committed? What crime is she guilty of? Who will feel so good to see her leave America? It will certainly not be the many people whom she currently works with and serves in her community.

That is what we face because of President Trump's decision to end DACA. That is what hundreds of thousands of young people face every single day, who are just like Karina, because of this President's personal, unilateral decision. President Trump created the DACA crisis we face today.

Instead of working toward a solution, a few hard-liners around him have sabotaged every effort to help the Dreamers. In fact, the President quickly adds: Don't use the word ``Dreamer.'' He doesn't like that word. It is why I have used it so often today. I introduced that DREAM Act 17 years ago, and I am glad it has become common parlance in America when referring to the plight of these young people.

Congress needs to do its job; most importantly, the President needs to do his. If he truly wants to lead this Nation and bring us together, if he wants to stand for fairness and justice and the opportunity for young people to make America better, then this President has to step up and admit that the problem he created on September 5 of last year can only be solved if he stands up and shows the courage and determination to find a solution.

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