Veterans Day

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, next week, our Nation will commemorate Veterans Day. It will be the first time in a generation that we will honor that day as a nation no longer at war.

With the conclusion of the war in Afghanistan--the longest war in our history--thousands of American troops finally came home. These heroes have returned to our shores, just as this Veterans Day stands as a reminder of everything we owe them, as well as every American who has served this Nation in uniform. More than 2,400 Americans perished in the war in Afghanistan. Thousands more return home with wounds--visible and invisible--that will stay with them for life.

Words are not enough to honor that sacrifice. We need to ensure that our veterans and families have access to the best healthcare in the world, affordable housing, programs that support them as civilians, whether it is students, employees or businessowners.

To serve our Nation in uniform takes a special measure of courage and devotion. For some members of our military, it also takes a great deal of persistence and determination.

Let me tell you about one. I am speaking, of course, of those members of our military who were born in other nations and want to serve America. Over the years, I have shared the story of one of these heroes--his name: Oscar Vasquez.

When Oscar was 12 years old, his family made the journey across the border from Mexico to America. They settled in Arizona. From the time he was a child, Oscar dreamed of serving America in the military. He studied hard in high school, even joined high school ROTC.

But during his junior here, he ran into a problem. He tried to sign up for basic training, but the recruiter informed him that he couldn't serve in the U.S. military without a U.S. birth certificate. It was a tough setback, but Oscar was determined.

He was awarded JROTC officer of the year by his high school, and he led a group of students in an underwater robotics competition. They squared off--these high school students--squared off against college students from schools like MIT. Guess what. They won. The victory led him to Arizona State University, where he earned a degree in mechanical engineering.

After graduating, Oscar got married and had a child, but his undocumented status still prevented him from reaching his full potential, so he moved back to Mexico--a country he hadn't lived in since he was a young boy--to apply for legal entry into the United States. He would have been barred from reentering the United States and separated from his family for 10 years without a special waiver, so he decided to call my office.

He reached out to us and said: ``Can you help me get a waiver?''

When the Department of Homeland Security finally granted it, Oscar came home to America.

What was the first thing that he did?

He got his paperwork in order and enlisted in the U.S. Army. Within 6 months of returning to the United States, he was off to basic training. Oscar served our Nation with honor as a cavalry scout in Afghanistan. And, today, he is finally an American citizen.

We spend so much time around here talking about immigrants in negative terms. You look at Oscar and the sacrifice he made to serve our Nation in the military--this man who came to the United States as a little boy, knew what his goal was, and it was to risk his life for this great Nation.

When I hear some of the speeches given on the floor--one yesterday about how the United States is going to give a million dollars to every one of these undocumented people--I think to myself, these preposterous, outlandish, exaggerated stories told about these immigrants belie the real determination many of them have to come to this country and make a difference in their lives and a difference in our future.

Oscar is a living example. Oscar, like so many others, fought for our Nation in every war in our history. But even those who are ready to risk everything in America, for them, our immigration system still is broken.

During this pandemic, thousands of DACA recipients and undocumented immigrants have actually helped save lives across America. They didn't enlist in the Army. They used their skills as doctors and nurses and paramedics and respiratory therapists. They may have saved a member of your family, these immigrants.

On farms throughout the country, thousands more performed backbreaking labor to put food on our table. Donald Trump's administration classified them as ``essential workers.'' I think, for once, President Donald Trump was right.

The pandemic has proven how much we depend on immigrants as members of the military, first responders, and agriculture workers. We couldn't function without them.

That is precisely why reforming our broken immigration system is an integral part of President Biden's Build Back Better. We must include protections for immigrants, like Oscar Vasquez, who have given everything they can to America.

If we want to rebuild our economy and drive its growth for years to come, we should begin by ensuring that immigrants can earn their place in the American story.

How many examples do each one of us know in our own families and other families where these immigrants came to America with literally nothing?

Many of them couldn't speak the language and went hard at work to establish a life, a family, a community, a business that ended up helping the entire Nation.

Immigration reform could boost our Nation's GDP by more than $1 trillion over the next 10 years--hundreds of thousands of new jobs. And don't buy this theory that it is zero-sum when it comes to the creation of jobs. We have found over and over again that a determined, hard-working person takes a job and helps create a new job in the process. It happens with the creation of business, the creation of jobs over and over again.

It is far past time to reform our immigration system. With the Build Back Better package, we can finally get it done.

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