Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I was honored today to attend the second hearing I have attended in the Supreme Court of the United States. If you stand right here on the floor of the Senate and look east through these glass doors, you can almost see the Supreme Court buildings directly across the street. The Supreme Court is, many times, the last stop when it comes to human rights and civil rights. After all the work that has been done by the Congress, by the President, many times, it is the Supreme Court that has the last word.

In the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, when the Supreme Court held that segregation was constitutional, that last word was a disappointment. And Korematsu v. The United States, when the Supreme Court upheld the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, that was another disappointment.

But other times, the Supreme Court has risen to the challenge: The famous case of Brown vs. Board of Education, which finally struck down the concept of separate but equal; Obergefell vs. Hodges, where the Supreme Court recognized the right to marriage equality.

Well, today, the Supreme Court faces another human rights issue involving another group. Just a few hours ago, the street between the Capitol and the Supreme Court was literally filled with thousands and thousands of demonstrators. The issue before the Court today was the fate of DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

This measure, DACA, is one that I have worked on for many years--many years. Nineteen years ago, I introduced the DREAM Act. Before that, the term ``Dreamer'' was hardly ever applied in the conversation about immigration, but now, it has become standard and really defines this group of Americans, people living in America.

In their case, they came to the United States, brought here by their parents, when they were children. They may have had legal entry into the United States, but at some point in their lives, they no longer were legal. They became undocumented, in the words of the law. Most of these young people never knew that status until they reached their teenage years and their parents finally told them the truth of their legal condition.

They had no control over the decision of their parents to come to this country or file the necessary papers. Frankly, many of them were shocked to learn that they were undocumented. They went to school with our kids. They grew up in our communities. They played on the sports teams. They probably attended the same churches and temples and synagogues as our own kids. They were just part of the group. But they knew--they privately knew they were not. They knew that they were one knock on the door away from being deported from the United States.

It was because of one of these young people that I decided to introduce that DREAM Act legislation 19 years ago. Her name is Tereza Lee, brought to the United States at the age of 2 from Korea by her parents to Chicago. She grew up in a family that struggled to make ends meet. Her father wanted to be a minister, but never quite put that church together. Her mother worked in a dry-cleaning establishment to feed the family. She went to public schools, and as luck would have it, there was a program at one of these schools called the Merit Music program that gave her a chance to learn how to play the piano.

She started playing, and she followed her father around to these churches. Then she took it seriously, and she became an amazing pianist to the point where, when she finished the public high school, she was offered an opportunity to go on for music education at the Manhattan Conservatory of Music. When she filled out her application and reached the point where they asked her nationality and citizenship, she asked her mom: What am I supposed to put on here? Her mom said: I am not sure. We better call Senator Durbin's office.

They did, and we checked the law, and the law is very harsh. For Tereza Lee--who had lived 15 or 16 years in the United States, beat the odds by finishing high school and developing this great talent at the piano--the law told her that she had to leave the United States for 10 years and apply to return. That is the law.

It seemed unfair to me that a young woman, brought here at the age of 2, should face that as her only legal choice, so I introduced the DREAM Act. It said, if you were brought here as a child, raised in the United States, went to school, and had no criminal record of significance, that you should be given a chance--the chance to make it in the United States to earn your way to legal status and citizenship.

That is what the DREAM Act was all about. We passed it in the House and in the Senate, but never in the same Congress, so it is still not the law of the land. It was 8 years ago when I appealed to my former colleague in the Senate, Barack Obama, as President, to try to help, and he did.

By Executive action, he created DACA, which said that young people like Tereza Lee could apply, go through a criminal background check, fill out the necessary forms, pay the filing fee, and be allowed to stay in the United States for 2 years at a time, renewable, not to be deported, and be able to legally work.

After President Obama came up with DACA, over 780,000 young people came forward and became protected by DACA. It really changed their lives. For the first time in their lives, they had some government- recognized status. They were no longer just undocumented. Then amazing things happened. They went on and pursued an education, a career, a life, a future. They started realizing their dreams. It was a good and positive thing all around.

Then, President Trump came into office. Initially, he was very complimentary of Dreamers, saying positive things about them, but, unfortunately, over a period of time he changed his attitude about this issue. On September 5, 2017, President Trump announced he was going to end the DACA Program, end the protection for these young people.

It was a sad day and a challenge for us to decide what to do, to try to pass legislation in the Congress that would protect these young people, and we rolled up our sleeves and put together several bipartisan measures in the Senate. President Trump rejected every single one of them. He wasn't going to have it. He was opposed to our enacting legislation that dealt with it.

That repeal of DACA has created uncertainty for hundreds of thousands. A lawsuit was filed in an effort to try to protect them, and the courts said their protection would continue while the case was being argued. The case worked its way through the courts and ended up, this morning, at the U.S. Supreme Court across the street.

I was proud to lead 172 current and former Members of Congress on a bipartisan amicus brief in support of DACA. Now it is clearly up to the Justices in the Supreme Court to follow the law and to reject what I consider to be President Trump's illegal repeal of DACA, but only Congress can provide a permanent solution for Dreamers.

The U.S. House of Representatives has responded to President Trump's cruel decision to repeal DACA by passing the Dream and Promise Act on a strong bipartisan vote of 237 to 187. This legislation is based on the DREAM Act I originally introduced 19 years ago. This bipartisan legislation would give Dreamers a chance to earn their citizenship. The bill passed the House. It is here. It is now up to Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, to call the Dream and Promise Act for a vote in the U.S. Senate.

Mr. President, I want to make a unanimous consent request in relation to that measure and ask for a consent after we debate my UC request to complete my remarks. I see a Senator on the floor who I believe is here to object. I want to be courteous to her because she has been in the Chair for a while. Can I have a unanimous consent to return to the debate after I make my unanimous consent request?

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Mr. DURBIN. I am making this on behalf of Senator Schumer, Senator Leahy, Senator Rosen, Senator Tim Kaine, Senator Menendez, and Senator Cardin.

112, H.R. 6; further, that the bill be considered read a third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon table, with no intervening action or debate.

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, for the record, how many pieces of legislation did we consider in the Senate last week? None. The week before? None. How many months has this measure been sitting in the Senate, the Republican-controlled Senate? Five months, and for five months the Republican leader has not considered it worthy to even bring it before the Senate for debate.

I don't control the agenda. Senator McConnell does. He has decided this measure is not worth debating on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

When I come and make a unanimous consent request to bring this measure to the floor, it isn't as if we are taking away an option, which the Republican leader is using. He is not. When we look back to the debate or at least the effort to find a compromise with President Trump on this issue, it is next to impossible. He is surrounded by people who are completely against DACA and Dreamers. Stephen Miller is a good illustration of one. It used to be Jeff Sessions. He is no longer with the administration. Every time the President starts to lean toward DACA and the Dreamers, these people intervene and stop him, and negotiations come to an end.

It is time for us in the Senate not to wait for a permission slip from President Trump to pass legislation. I am prepared to bring this matter to the floor and to accept the decision on the amendments on the floor. We are in the minority. We will lose some of these amendments. So be it. Let's let the Senate be the Senate and deliberate these measures. To argue that I shouldn't be asking to bring it to the floor because it has to go through regular order, the obvious question is: When is Senator McConnell going to pursue regular order on a measure that has been sitting here for 5 months?

Let me say a word, if I can, while we are on the subject, about the people who are involved. We can talk about Senate procedure and law all we wish, but what we should do is discuss the real people who are involved.

In 1,000 days in office, this President has issued 11,000 tweets. No surprise, is it? There are 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 a day. He issued one this morning about the young people who are in question here. I would like to read President Donald Trump's tweet from this morning, as the case was headed to the Supreme Court. Here is what he tweeted:

Many of the people in DACA, no longer very young, are far from ``angels.'' Some are very tough, hardened criminals. President Obama said he had no legal right to sign order, but would anyway. If Supreme Court remedies with overturn, a deal will be made with Dems for them to stay!

May I address one particular aspect of the tweet of the President of the United States on this subject affecting the fate of 780,000 young people living in the United States? Probably the best thing is not to do it generically but to talk about specifics.

Let me tell you a story about two DACA recipients, both attending Loyola University in Chicago--the city I am honored to represent. They both came to Washington, DC, today, and sat in the Supreme Court during the argument. I am going to leave it up to my Members and colleagues in the Senate, as well as those who are following this debate, to reach their own conclusion about these two whom I am about to tell the story of. You decide whether this man is a tough and hardened criminal. His name is Cesar Montelongo. He grew up in the State of New Mexico. He was a pretty good student. In fact, he was an excellent student. He graduated from high school with a grade point average of 4.0 and ranked third in his class. He went on to New Mexico State University, where he was a triple major in biology, microbiology, and Spanish, as well as two minors in chemistry and biochemistry. Cesar graduated with a 3.9 GPA.

This hardened criminal then went on to earn a master's degree in biology, with a minor in molecular biology, while working as a teaching assistant. Then DACA came along. For the first time in his life, he had a chance to apply for medical school. He never thought that could happen. He applied and was accepted at Loyola University's Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. It is quite an achievement.

The Presiding Officer, who is also a medical doctor, I am sure understands that, but he did one better. He enrolled in the M.D.-Ph.D. program at Loyola University. He was just in my office upstairs, and he told me that in a matter of 2 or 3 years, he will have completed his Ph.D. in microbiology, and then he can go on to complete his medical degree and his residency.

This tough, hardened criminal--according to the President--has designs on becoming a medical researcher in the United States of America. When he completes this highly competitive program, he will have a medical degree and a doctorate degree in science.

He is one of dozens of DACA recipients at the Stritch School. My hat is off to Loyola University. They have admitted more DACA students to their medical school than any other medical school in the United States. They are amazing students. I have met them. Many, if not all of them, have promised to come back to my State of Illinois, having had this chance to go to medical school in Chicago, and serve in underserved areas after they have become practicing doctors. Loyola doesn't give them any special treatment in the selection process. They are not eligible for any Federal financial assistance.

I just want to thank them and say to the President of the United States: Before you put out a tweet calling Cesar Montelongo or people like him hardened criminals, Mr. President, take a minute and meet these young people.

While you are at it, meet this young lady too. She was just in my office. Her name is Fernanda Herrera Vera. When she was 2 years old, her family brought her from Mexico to the United States. When she was 7, her family was forced to leave Guntersville, AL, when her father lost his job due to his immigration status. The family settled in Gadsden, AL, where Fernanda attended a private Catholic school on a scholarship.

When she was 10, her parents opened a restaurant. Every day after school, she went to the restaurant to wait tables and help run the restaurant, doing her homework in her spare time. During Fernanda's junior year of high school, Alabama passed the harshest anti- immigration law in the country, which forced her family to close down their restaurant.

Alabama barred Dreamers from attending even public colleges, but thanks to DACA, Fernanda was able to attend a private school, Samford University in Birmingham, AL. Her parents worked hard to pay tuition. She qualified for no Federal financial assistance. Her dad worked 80 hours a week at a chicken plant so that she could go to college. She graduated from Samford in 2017, and her experience has driven her to become an immigration activist. She worked at the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice.

After President Trump repealed DACA in 2017, Fernanda came to Washington for a 4-day hunger fast with other DACA recipients on the Capitol lawn.

Last year, Fernanda was admitted to the Loyola University Chicago School of Law. But this spring, her mother was pulled over in Georgia for driving with a broken taillight. Her mother is now in deportation proceedings.

It is tough enough to go to school without Federal financial help. It is tough enough to work your way through it. It is tough enough not to know how the Supreme Court is going to rule tomorrow or the day after and whether it will change your fate. It is tough enough to know that any knock at the door could mean deportation for members of your family. Yet she has persevered.

A hardened criminal, Mr. President?

Fernanda's dream is to become an immigration lawyer. She wants to help people just like her mom.

Without DACA, Cesar Montelongo will not become a doctor. Fernanda Herrera Vera will not become an attorney. Will America be a better country if they are forced to leave, if they are deported? I don't think so.

Cesar, Fernanda, and hundreds of thousands of other Dreamers are counting on the Supreme Court to do the right thing and reject President Trump's repeal of DACA. They are also counting on those of us who serve in the Senate to stop making excuses and solve this crisis.

A bill has passed the House. I tried to bring it to the floor of the Senate, and there was an objection today. It isn't because we are overwhelmed with work. As you can see, we spend a lot of time making speeches.

Since Senator McConnell refuses to take any action to address the plight of the Dreamers, I am going to continue to make this unanimous consent request. Next week, I don't want the excuse to be that we are not following regular order, but in the meantime, I hope the Senate Judiciary Committee will take up this measure, as they have so many times over the last 15 years or so, and bring it to the floor of the Senate.

Once and for all, could we be the U.S. Senate for a week? Could we actually consider a piece of legislation here that addresses an issue that is critically important to hundreds of thousands of people living in the United States of America?

What a relief it would be to see this Senate actually as a Senate, to see Members on the floor debating issues. I am not going to win every debate. Every amendment I want is not going to pass, but I am prepared to accept the outcome. Let's do what the Senate was elected to do.

I am sorry there was an objection today. As long as I am a U.S. Senator, I am going to continue to come to the floor of the Senate to advocate for Cesar, Fernanda and all of the Dreamers. It would be an American tragedy to deport these two promising young people.

Now it is in the hands of Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican majority leader, to give the Dream and Promise Act a vote and to say to those 780,000 who do not know what their future will be just days or weeks from now that there is an answer: We want you to be part of America.

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Mr. DURBIN. Harris), the Senator from Rhode Island (Mr. Reed), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

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