American Dream and Promise Act of 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. More than that, I thank her for the thousands of hours that she has put in over the years in trying to address in a positive, constructive way our broken immigration system and for her leadership in forging a bill that is a step--just a step.

I want to thank Mr. Nadler, the chairman of the committee, for ensuring that this bill came forward.

Mr. Speaker, I have been sitting here for a few minutes, and I have heard a number of my Republican colleagues bemoaning the fact that we could have done this in a bipartisan fashion and come with up with a much better bill. Many of those folks who said that have been serving here over the last 8 years in the majority, and we have been pleading with them over those 8 years: Bring us a bill, a bipartisan bill.

Mr. Speaker, as you so well know, you and Mr. Hurd, a Republican from Texas, worked tirelessly in fashioning a bipartisan bill, and the Republicans refused to bring it to the floor; although, in my view it had a majority of votes on this floor.

Indeed, it was about to be petitioned out of the committee and brought to the floor in a process that you can do that without the committee's voting for it. Just short of the 218 votes necessary to do that, the Republican leadership put all sorts of pressure to assure that that bill was not discharged from the committee.

So spare me the crocodile tears about a bipartisan bill. We tried to do a bipartisan bill. The Senate did a bipartisan bill in 2013, and we pleaded for the Republicans to bring it to the floor, a bipartisan Senate bill, and they refused, all the time saying the immigration system was broken. But they refused to fix it.

So, now they come to the floor, bemoaning the fact that a bipartisan bill did not come forward. If they had intended to work on a bipartisan bill, as the majority leader, I will tell you, Mr. Speaker, a bipartisan bill would have come forward.

So sad, so unfortunate that that didn't happen.

Mr. Speaker, I want to read something:

``We're going to work something out that's going to make people happy and proud.

``They''--referring to the Dreamers--``got brought here at a very young age''--1, 2, 3 years of age.

``They've worked here. They've gone to school here. Some were good students. Some have wonderful jobs. And they're in never-never land because they don't know what's going to happen.''

Who said that? Donald Trump said it.

When did he say it? After he was elected, but before he was sworn in as President of the United States.

I met with the President, along with a few others, at the White House, and he said to us: ``Send us a bill,'' then he created the problem we are confronting today. And he said: ``Congress, fix it, and I will sign it.''

Well, today, Mr. Speaker, we are fixing it. And I hope that my Republican colleagues would join us and that the President of the United States would sign a bill which will take these folks out of never-never land.

The bill we have on the floor today is called the American Dream and Promise Act--the American dream and American promise.

We lift our lamp beside the golden door. That is what we have said to the world. That dream is to see hard work rewarded with opportunity.

My father came here at the age of 32 in 1934, an immigrant from Denmark. That promise is the commitment of our Founders and every generation since to ensure that this Nation makes that dream a reality for all.

Today, more than a million people who grew up in America don't know any other home, yet they live in fear of being sent to a home they never knew. They live in fear of being deported to countries they never or barely knew.

These Dreamers, these yearners for justice and opportunity, deserve to live without fear. They deserve to access the opportunities of America that they have been helping to build already--a Nation of immigrants, made great by immigrants.

This bill will remove that fear. It will give them the opportunity to stay in the country they know and love and to know their hard work and contributions will give them a chance to make it in America and that they can give back by serving in our military or creating jobs or working in their communities; that they can have a pathway to citizenship, which is in their interest and in the interest of our country.

This bill will keep the promise of our Founders and our forebears, and it will keep the promise of policymakers from both sides of the aisle who agree they should stay, along, I might add, with 86 percent of the American people.

They are American in every sense. They are patriots and dreamers.

President Trump campaigned on a promise to help Dreamers--a promise he broke. It was President Trump who created the crisis we now face by rescinding the DACA program 2 years ago and allowing the Republican- controlled House to stand in the way of a legislative solution.

Now, the Democrat-led House is taking action. With this bill, we proclaim to the Senate and President: Take the advice of the American people. Pass this bill.

For these Dreamers are, in all but a certificate of citizenship, brothers and sisters.

One of them from my district, Gabby Hernandez, is here today, Mr. Speaker, to watch us take this important vote. She arrived in this country from El Salvador at the age of 4. She attended school in Prince George's County, Maryland, which I represent, and she has been studying these last few years to be a social worker and help people in our community.

I hope we can give Dreamers like Gabby reassurance that their country, America, will not abandon them.

In addition, this bill would also allow those who have been on temporary protected status and deferred enforced departure to remain as permanent residents.

One of them has a business in my district. He employs 40 people. Forty families would be affected by his leaving. He has been here for 25 years. He is, in every sense, a member of our community.

These are people who fled a natural disaster and violence and were welcomed into our country as refugees. Here, they have helped build a stronger community and have participated in building our economy.

I am proud to represent a strong community of Liberians in my district, many of whom fled war and disease outbreak and built new lives here. We should not allow them to be uprooted from their homes a second time.

Some of them are here today in the gallery as well.

Let's show them. Let's show them that we stand together with them and cherish their contributions to America.

Whether we are Irish or Danish or Italian or Jews or Poles or Germans, all who came here in great numbers immigrated to this country and have made us great.

This bill is not perfect. No bill is perfect. But it is a step, a very important step, a down payment on fulfilling that promise.

But change happens most often in steps, and today the Democrat-led House is taking that step forward by keeping our promise to Dreamers.

I want to thank Lucille Roybal-Allard, Nydia Velazquez, Yvette Clarke, Jerry Nadler, and--yes, once again--Zoe Lofgren for all the work that they have done to get us to a place where we have a fair bill--not amnesty, a fair bill for America.

I hope my Republican colleagues will join us in voting for this bill. Together, let's send a message of inclusion and acceptance of these Dreamers, whose dreams are the same as ours, whose patriotism is the same as ours, and whose Nation is the same as ours.

Vote ``aye.'' Vote for America.

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