Daca

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I just left a rally across the street. There are probably 200 young people there. And it was a rally because today is the 14th anniversary of the creation of something called DACA. The story behind it is worth repeating.

It was more than 21 years ago that I introduced a bill called the DREAM Act. The DREAM Act said if you were a child--infant, toddler, young child--brought to this country by your parents, you ought to deserve a chance--you deserve a chance--to aspire to become a citizen in the United States. But it is a path that you have to fight and walk down personally.

I introduced the DREAM Act. I have called for it on the floor of the Senate several times over the last 20 years. I have gotten a majority vote, but I never could hit that magic number of 60 at the right moment.

There came a time when a new Senator came to this Chamber to join me in Illinois with an unusual name: Barack Obama. He was my colleague, my junior Senator, and he was a cosponsor of the DREAM Act, which I just described to you.

The time came, in 2008, when he was elected President of the United States. I had hoped, with his leadership and help, we could finally pass the DREAM Act. But fate didn't give us that opportunity.

There came a time when I realized I had to appeal to him personally to help us with these young people, so that they wouldn't be deported, and he did. I wrote a letter with Richard Lugar, a Republican Senator from Indiana, to President Obama. Then, on a bipartisan basis, we asked him to do something by Executive order to protect these young children from being deported.

He created DACA, and the DACA Program was very straightforward. By Executive order, if you were one of those people brought to the United States as a child and you were living in this country and had no strikes against you--anything serious--you ought to deserve a chance to work without fear of deportation. That is what DACA is. It allows the individuals who qualify to work in this country without fear of being deported.

President Obama signed that Executive order 14 years ago today. Mr. President, 835,000 individuals are protected by DACA, protected from deportation and arrest--835,000.

Who are they? Teachers, nurses, caregivers. They do a myriad of jobs, but they do them all proud to be a part of America.

And every 2 years, they have to be examined again to continue with DACA. Every 2 years, they have to pay a $600 filing fee to go through a background check--a criminal background check--to make sure they are no danger to anyone. They have to pass that every 2 years.

Now, what has happened under President Trump is the worst. What they have done is to shut off this renewal of DACA status for these thousands of people as they become due. It means that many of them are now being deported by Trump--by President Trump--and his administration.

I have heard his speeches so many times I can repeat sections of it. He said he was going to go after the undocumented immigrants in America. He was going after the rapists, the murderers, the terrorists, the criminally insane, and those who prey on our children.

Well, that doesn't apply to DACA at all. Each of these individuals has gone through a thorough background check--a criminal background check--and they don't have anything like that in their background. If something terrible should occur involving them, I would be the first to say they have to be forced out of this country and leave. But for those who were brought here as children, who really want to be part of our future, this is their only chance.

So I left the rally across the street, in the shadow of the Capitol, with hundreds of DACA recipients who are asking for protection to continue, which they believe that they are entitled to under the law.

The courts--the Federal courts--have ordered this administration to start renewing DACA applications. The administration ignores them and doesn't do it. That, to me, is wrong--just plain wrong.

When you think that these kids grew up in America, went to their classroom every day and pledged allegiance to that flag, believing they were part of this great Nation, you must believe, as I do, that they deserve a chance to prove it. Many of them are doing it to this day.

So there will be several of my colleagues joining me on the floor a little later this afternoon to talk about DACA.

But this is an important program for over 800,000 individuals who are critically important to America's future, and I hope that we can find a way in our hearts to realize they are not the worst of the worst. In many cases, they are the best of the best. All they are asking for is a chance to be part of America's future.

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