Providing for Consideration of H.R. American Dream and Promise Act of 2019

Floor Speech

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Ms. LOFGREN. Madam Speaker, I stand here today in strong support of H.R. 6, the American Dream and Promise Act of 2019, a product of decades-long advocacy, grit, and compromise.

I am extremely proud to stand with Dreamers and recipients of temporary protected status and deferred enforced departure. We are here because of their hard work, as well as the steadfast determination of immigrant rights groups, faith-based organizations, labor unions, civil rights groups, business associations, and so many of my colleagues who have worked tirelessly to bring this bill to the floor today.

Our work has paid off. There is widespread, bipartisan support across the country for protecting Dreamers and passing the American Dream and Promise Act.

Just yesterday, over 100 business leaders urged us to vote in favor of the bill, including household companies such as eBay, Hewlett- Packard, IKEA, Chobani, and Levi Strauss. They support the bill because the United States will benefit economically from its passage.

The Chamber of Commerce says that it supports the bill, and it may make the vote on the American Dream and Promise Act a key vote.

Even now, more than 70 percent of the top 25 Fortune 500 companies, which generate $3 trillion in annual revenue, employ Dreamers. Even the conservative Cato Institute found that allowing Dreamers to remain here would add an extra $350 billion to our economy and an additional $90 billion in tax revenue.

On the other hand, failure to support lawful status for Dreamers will directly undermine our competitiveness and subject them to permanent exile. That makes no sense.

We have waited long enough. It is time for us to pass the American Dream and Promise Act in the House of Representatives.

It was 2001 when the first iteration of the Dream Act was introduced. Eighteen years later, we are finally poised to pass it.

We have seen the benefit of President Obama's DACA announcement, a temporary initiative that allowed these young people to temporarily work and to stay without looking over their shoulders. The courts have kept us from seeing the destruction of DACA that President Trump had ordered, even though polls show that almost 90 percent of Americans support legal recognition for Dreamers.

Dreamers are Americans. All they lack is the paper to prove it. They live in every one of our 50 States. Their families hail from every region of the world. Their contributions are felt all across the landscape of this country.

Among them are future industry leaders; nurses; doctors; chefs; construction workers; teachers, including 5,000 teachers in California; and care providers for our children and parents.

Dreamers are joined in their efforts by TPS and DED brethren. In the same month that the administration announced the end of DACA, they also announced the termination of TPS for six countries and, a few weeks later, the termination of DED for Liberians, even though many of them have been here for 30 years.

More than 400,000 nationals of seven countries now face exile from the United States. The majority have lived here for at least 20 years, building their lives, raising families that include more than a quarter of a million U.S. citizen children.

The future for Dreamers and longtime TPS and DED recipients does not have to be uncertain. We have the opportunity to pass the American Dream and Promise Act in the House of Representatives today and, by doing so, put those Dreamers and strivers on the path to legal recognition.

Let's put partisan fights aside for the good of our Nation, for the good of our economy and our communities. Approve this rule and, later today, vote for the American Dream and Promise Act.

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