Dreamers Are Americans

Floor Speech

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Mr. VARGAS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New York for yielding.

I rise today on behalf of hundreds of thousands of Dreamers.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court heard arguments over the future of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or, as you heard, DACA recipients. This decision will determine whether nearly 800,000 Dreamers will lose their legal protections to live and work in the United States.

The average DACA recipient came to the U.S. as a young child and has called our country their home for nearly 20 years. Denying their legal rights or rescinding the promise made to them 7 years ago would be immoral and wrong. They are students, teachers, first responders, entrepreneurs, and community organizers who make our country stronger and contribute to it every day.

Approximately 27,000 DACA recipients are currently employed as healthcare workers and support staff. Rescinding DACA would be a direct threat to the public health, as we heard from our colleague, Dr. Ruiz. We rely on these people. So, at this moment, it would be a disaster to not give them the legal status they need to remain in our country.

DACA recipients and their households hold a combined $24.1 billion in spending power each year. In addition, DACA recipients boost Social Security and Medicare through payroll taxes.

Many DACA recipients have completed high school, entered 4-year colleges and universities, and graduated. College enrollment rates have dramatically increased for DACA-eligible individuals, and completion rates have skyrocketed.

Dreamers are our brothers and our sisters and our neighbors. They don't know any other country as home. They were brought here as children and, many times, as infants.

They built their lives here since they were little kids. They grew up here in America learning our history and loving and celebrating our culture and freedoms, just like any other American.

They work, they pay taxes, and, like millions before, they dream of serving, too. Turning our backs on them is against our American values.

The choice is clear: We must keep our promise to Dreamers. We must protect the dream and uphold DACA in the highest court of the land.

We heard here very recently from a friend on the other side how we should open our hearts this holiday season to children who need adoption, and he is correct. At the same time, we should open our hearts to these children who came here, oftentimes, when they were infants--no fault of their own; their parents brought them here. They grew up in our country. In fact, many of them thought they were American citizens until they became older.

Madam Speaker, in the words of our great colleague who recently passed, Elijah Cummings: We are better than this. We are better than deporting these children who have never known another country other than our own. We are better than this, and hopefully the Supreme Court is better than this.

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