The Dream Act

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, we have been speaking on the Senate floor about students who are being exploited by for-profit colleges. I think about turning on the television in Washington and the ad that really troubles me which shows a lovely young woman who says: You can go to college in your pajamas. You don't even have to get out of bed to go to college. And she has a computer on the bed.

It strikes me that--I don't believe anybody should fall for that, but some must, and they end up signing up for these for-profit schools, getting deep in debt, with a worthless diploma when it is all over. The exploitation of veterans, Senator Harkin is bringing that out. I hope the people who are going to give the patriotic speeches in this Chamber about our love of country and our love for the men and women in uniform will love them enough to put an end to this exploitation.

I wish to speak about the DREAM Act. It is legislation which I first introduced 10 years ago and came to my office when we were approached by a Korean-American woman in Chicago whose daughter was brought to the United States when the little girl was 2 years old. She was brought on a visitor's visa. Her mom stayed, had other children, started a business. Eventually, she became a naturalized citizen. The other brothers and sisters were born in the United States, but this young girl who was brought from Korea literally had no papers filed.

Well, she turned out to be an amazing concert pianist. She was accepted at the Julliard School of Music. When she went to apply and was asked about her citizenship, her mom realized she had never done anything about her daughter's citizenship. So they called our office. We checked, and the laws of the United States were very clear. They said this young girl who had never remembered ever being in Korea was told to return to Korea and wait at least 10 years to try to get back into the United States. I thought that was unfair. It turns out she wasn't alone.

Young people all across the United States, who were brought here by their parents, undocumented, have lived their lives here, have gone to school here, have grown up here, have pledged allegiance to the flag in the classrooms here, have known no other flag or National Anthem, and then they learn as they graduate from high school they are without a country. They have no place to go.

For many of them, it is a rude awakening, after all the effort they put into school, to realize they can't do anything. They can't qualify for student loans even at good schools. They can't qualify for a lot of jobs they might otherwise have if they graduate--engineers, nurses, doctors, teachers--because they have no citizenship.

So I said: Let's at least agree on something basic. You shouldn't hold a child responsible for the wrongdoing of their parents. I hope we all agree on that.

Secondly, if we have spent so much time and resources in giving this young person a chance to be educated, and they have paid us back by working hard at graduating, isn't it in the best interests of America to give them a chance to help our country move forward?

That is why I introduced the DREAM Act. It says: If you graduated from high school--if you came to this country under the age of 16 and you graduated from high school, you have had no serious problems with the law, you have had no issues of moral character, and you go on to do one of two things--either serve in our military or finish at least 2 years of college--we will give you a chance to become legal in America. It is called the DREAM Act. We have been considering it for 10 years.

Last December, the Senator from New Mexico knows we voted on it.

Fifty-five votes on the Senate floor--a majority but not enough. There was a Republican filibuster requiring 60 votes. We fell short. We had three Republicans join us in voting for it. We lost a handful of Democrats. We are going at it again.

I have reintroduced the bill. The reason I have done it is because the challenge is still there. These young people are still out there, and their lives are still hanging in the balance. I think it is time to give these young people a chance. I don't want to give them amnesty. I want them to earn everything they are going to get. If they have to pay a fine or tax on the way, so be it. They will pay it. They are determined to become part of America. These are young people who have become superstars in their own rights.

By every account they are the leaders of tomorrow but for the fact that they don't have citizenship or legal status in America. The DREAM Act is supported by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. He believes it will bring diversity to our Armed Forces. It is also supported by General Colin L. Powell, a man I respect very much, who believes, as I do, that we should give these young people a chance.

This DREAM Act will stimulate our economy with a lot of new people in professions we need to have filled, including nurses and teachers, engineers, doctors, and lawyers. That is why the DREAM Act has the support of such a diverse group, including Rupert Murdoch and the CEOs of companies such as Microsoft and Pfizer.

Every day I get contacted by these students across America. They keep looking to us and wondering if the day will come when we will give them their chance.

I wish to share two stories very quickly this evening. This is Elier. I will show his photo because he is a handsome young man. Elier's parents brought him to the United States in 1994 when he was 4 years old. He is a computer wizard. In high school he won awards for outstanding achievement in science and information technology. He graduated in the top 5 percent of his high school class. He was named Tech Prep Student of the Year in Cincinnati, OH. He has even started a computer repair business.

Now, Elier is a 19-year-old honors student at the University of Cincinnati majoring in information technology with a 3.8 GPA. Here is what one of his professors said about Elier:

I have worked with thousands of students over the past 30 years and Elier Lara is that student who comes along every 10 years or so who just makes your heart sing.

Elier sent me a letter, and here is what he said in the letter:

Technology and computers is where I want to spend the rest of my life. I'm sure I'll find my place on the forefront of the technological frontier, implementing and discovering the new technologies of the future. I am dreaming big and will continue to do so.

Can we use a person with those talents in America? You bet we can--in Illinois, in New Mexico, in Ohio. Look at leading American technology companies such as Google, Yahoo, Intel, and eBay. They were founded by immigrants to the United States. That could be Elier's future and part of America's future.

Here is the sad part of the story of this otherwise amazing young man. Elier is in deportation proceedings. After having won all the awards for a great academic background and demonstrating the kind of leadership we need in America, our government has officially decided it is time for him to leave. Here is what he said about being deported:

I have been living in the United States for the last fourteen years of my life. The most important years of my life were spent here in America. I cannot speak, read or write ..... Spanish. I have never been back to Mexico since the day we moved here.

At the age of 4.

Mexico is not home for me and I fear going back.

So would it be a good use of taxpayer dollars to deport this young man and send him back to a country where he can barely speak a few words of the language--a place he can never remember?

Elier has asked the Department of Homeland Security to grant him a stay, and I am going to work hard to make sure he gets it. I do not know if I will be successful. It makes no sense for us to lose Elier. He has so much to contribute, and we need to have him here.

In the past, I have spoken about Oscar Vazquez. Oscar is a student from Arizona. I would like to update you on Oscar's situation because while we take our time addressing this issue, the lives of these young people go on.

Oscar Vazquez was brought to Phoenix, AZ, by his parents when he was a child. He spent his high school years in Junior ROTC, as we can see from his uniform. He dreamed of enlisting in the military. Here is a picture of him in his uniform.

But at the end of his junior year, a recruiting officer told Oscar he was ineligible to serve in our military because he was undocumented. Oscar found another outlet for his talent. He entered a college-level robot competition sponsored by NASA. Oscar and three other DREAM Act students--the four of them--worked for months in a storage room in their high school. They were competing against students from MIT and other top universities. Oscar's team won first place.

This is Oscar today. I show you an updated photo--a good-looking young man.

In 2009, he graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in mechanical engineering. He was one of the top three students in his class at Arizona State.

Following his graduation, he took a brave step. He voluntarily returned to Mexico--a country where he had not lived since he was an infant--and he said:

I decided to take a gamble and [try to] do the right thing.

Last year, the Obama administration granted Oscar a waiver to reenter the United States. Without this waiver, Oscar would have been barred from returning to the United States for at least 10 years. He would have been separated from his wife Karla and their 2-year-old daughter Samantha, both of whom are American citizens.

When Oscar returned to the United States last year, he did two things. He applied for citizenship, and he enlisted in the U.S. Army. He is in basic training right now. He wants to be an Apache helicopter pilot.

In June, Oscar will complete basic training and be sworn in as an American citizen. The story of Oscar Vazquez is the story of America, and it is the story of the DREAM Act. This young man, determined to serve in our military, was turned away as undocumented. He went on and earned a college degree, with no help from Federal programs, graduating at the top of his class. He then went to Mexico and took a chance that he could get back here so he could enlist in the Army, and he made it. Tell me, what is fairness and justice for Oscar Vasquez? That is what the DREAM Act is all about.

I introduced this bill in 2001. I have met so many young students such as these who are my inspiration to come to this floor regularly and remind those who follow the Senate this is an issue that will not go away--as these lives will not go away. We need these young people.

I wish to call on other students all across America--who were lucky enough to be born in America, who never had to question their own citizenship or future--I am asking them to stand in solidarity with these young men and women, people who may be sitting next to them in a lecture hall or just across the aisle at a desk. They are like you, and they need you to stand for them. If we can have students across America mobilize on behalf of DREAM Act students, we can create a force for change--a force that can pass, even with 60 votes, this DREAM Act in the Senate.

I need my colleagues to not forget the DREAM Act, not forget these young people, and not forget what America is all about.

Just a few steps from here is my office, and right behind my desk is a certificate that I have had displayed as long as I have been in the Senate. It is my mother's naturalization certificate. She was an immigrant, and she came here at the age of 2. She would have been one of the DREAM kids of her generation. It was not until after she was a parent and had two children that she finally took the classes and was naturalized as a U.S. citizen. She was a young mom in East Saint Louis, IL, and I have her picture right there on the naturalization certificate to remind me not only who I am but to remind me of her and her journey.

Her journey to America is the same journey these young people made: coming as an infant and striving to succeed in a place which did not always welcome immigrants. But, thank goodness, this Nation of immigrants, from time to time, will rally and celebrate our diversity, celebrate the length and breadth of the American family and all the cultures and all the ethnic backgrounds it comprises.

I am so proud of this great Nation, and I am proud of who we are and what we are. This Nation of immigrants should remember that fine young people such as these DREAM Act students deserve a chance. Given a chance, they will continue to prove to America that this is, indeed, a great and noble experiment in our country, bringing together people from all over the world.

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