Department of Defense, Military Construction, and Veterans Affairs, and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I rise today in the midst of a profoundly important conversation on the floor of this body about the future of our financial situation with the Federal Government, and I want to thank the Senator from Maryland for her extraordinarily impressive work. I thank her on behalf of myself, Connecticut, and the Nation for her very diligent and dedicated labors to bring us to this conclusion, which all of us hope will take place in the next few hours.

DREAM ACT

I want to deal with a separate issue of equal importance that will be enabled on the floor of the Senate if we are able to overcome our differences on this fiscal issue. The issue I am referring to is comprehensive and accountable immigration reform, which this Nation desperately needs. I am working to achieve it, as I know my colleagues are.

The President of the United States has advanced that agenda very compellingly in his proposals that include a path to earned citizenship for the 11 million or more undocumented people in this country, stronger enforcement at the borders against illegal immigration into this country, and stronger enforcement within our borders against illegal employment of undocumented people already here. Of course, we also need a streamlined and fairer immigration process so we can provide a process that comports not only with our due process obligations, but also with the fundamental concept of fairness.

This is not the first time I have come to the floor to deal with one area of immigration reform that ought to be expedited as part of that agenda. I am here to talk about Connecticut DREAMers and their invaluable contributions to their communities and DREAMers across the United States who make those same kind of contributions to our communities and my colleagues on the Senate floor.

Over the last couple of months a tremendous momentum has developed in favor of comprehensive and accountable immigration reform. I am thrilled by these developments. They are tremendously heartening, and I commend my colleagues for their profoundly significant work. Most importantly, I look forward to seizing this unique and historic moment and the opportunity to reform our broken immigration system.

The DREAM Act would give young immigrants who have been brought to this country as children a chance to earn their citizenship through education or military service. The idea about immigration reform is to achieve earned citizenship. These young people--or DREAMers, as they are often called--are undocumented immigrants who were brought to this country at a young age, as infants, or young children through no fault or choice of their own. America is the only home they have ever known. English is the only language many of them know. Their friends are here, their life is in this country, and they make invaluable contributions to this great Nation.

I thank one of my colleagues and friend, Senator Durbin, for his championing this cause over many years, and in fact, he introduced the DREAM Act 11 years ago and has tirelessly and relentlessly fought for its passage. He has come close to success, and my hope is that immigration reform will include this vitally important measure.

The immigrants who would benefit from the DREAM Act identify as American. But our immigration system affords them no direct path to achieving legal immigration status, let alone citizenship.

The DREAM Act would give them a chance to earn legal status if they meet several requirements such as having come to America as children, having good moral character, having graduated from high school, and completed 2 years of college or military service.

A DREAMer who meets these requirements can apply for legal permanent residency and pursue a path to citizenship.

DREAMers who live in our communities but fear deportation have been given some relief by the President of the United States, in effect, a temporary reprieve. But they still lack the security and permanency, and they should be given it, even after the President's program. Because just as they were given that reprieve administratively, they can also lose it in the same way at the end of 2 years, which is the limit currently of the reprieve from deportation they have been granted.

Two million immigrants nationwide would benefit from the DREAM Act. There are between 11,000 and 20,000 DREAMers living in Connecticut, and one of them is Vanessa Bautista. I am going to place her photograph on this stand and say to the people of Connecticut, we should be proud of Vanessa. I am proud of Vanessa. She was born in Ecuador and came to America at the age of 10, raised by her grandmother and reunited with her parents here in America. Soon after joining her parents in Connecticut, Vanessa learned English and she began school. She had a dream to go to college and become a nurse. As a teenager, she worked cleaning houses. She babysat. She saved money as much as she could for college because it was part of her dream of becoming a U.S. citizen and giving back to the greatest Nation in the history of the world.

She was accepted to Southern Connecticut State University, having to pay the entire tuition. During her first year at Southern, she worked full time and went to school full time. She did both full time--had a job and sought an education. She doesn't remember having any rest during that year, not surprisingly. She went to school in the morning and then worked and babysat every night until midnight. Even with this challenge, she achieved a 3.9 GPA that year. She dreams of graduating from college and one day working as a registered nurse. She wants to give back, which she will do, and she will give back to the country she calls home. But she understands these dreams will be out of reach unless this body, this Congress, this Nation, approves the DREAM Act and the rights she is seeking.

I say in conclusion, I urge my colleagues to work hard on the issues at hand, which are fiscal in nature. They are key to our future in this country. But equally important to this great Nation of immigrants is providing a path to earned citizenship for young men and women such as Vanessa, their parents, and the 11 million people in this country who now live in the shadows. Let us enable them to come out of the shadows, pay fines and pay back taxes, show they have no criminal record, and otherwise meet the strong criteria we should establish as part of that pathway to earned citizenship, and truly achieve for Vanessa and the DREAMers what is certainly the American dream: Work hard, play by the rules, and you will be recognized for what you achieve, what you earn, what you give back and contribute to the greatest Nation in the history of the world.

Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source