Department of Homeland Security Funding
Floor Speech
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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, this week we are deciding whether we are going to shut down the Government of the United States of America again. Again. I think it was about a year and a half ago that the Senator from Texas on the other side of the aisle took to the floor and called for shutting down the Government of the United States of America, protesting President Obama's Affordable Care Act. He did it, and the hardship that created for people all across the United States who relied on essential government services is well documented. The impact it had on the men and women who work in our government was also documented. It cost our economy. It was a bad thing to do. It was a political strategy which on reflection was the absolute worst, to shut down our government.
Well, this week we face another shutdown, and this time it is the Department of Homeland Security. This Department is the one Department that is charged with keeping America safe from the threat of terrorism. It was created after 9/11 because we wanted to make sure we put together 22 agencies that worked together to protect us. You see them in so many different places. This agency runs the Coast Guard. Its cutters are patrolling Lake Michigan and our coastline--the Atlantic and Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico as well. You see them when you go to the airport--TSA is under the supervision of the Department of Homeland Security. You may not know it, but your local fire department is depending on grants from this same agency so they can buy new equipment and train the people who are responding to fires in their community.
Over and over again the Department of Homeland Security invests in the safety of America. So why in God's name would we have a political strategy to stop funding the Department of Homeland Security? That is exactly what we are faced with--exactly. Come the end of this week, this Department will basically lose its funding and be on emergency status. Why would we do that at a time when we have been warned about terrorist groups attacking malls across America? We are going to shut down the agency, stop funding the agency that protects us against terrorism in the streets of America.
At a time when ISIS is kidnapping people from all over the world, beheading them, burning them to death, killing them by execution, we are going to drop our guard and say: Well, we are not going to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Why in the world would any politicians in either House of Congress think this is a wise tactical move?
It turns out this funding bill was sent to us by the House of Representatives on the condition that we take up the debate over immigration policy in America. I think we need to debate that policy. I have no objection to it. I feel very strongly about some aspects of it. But why would we make the Department of Homeland Security play the role of hostage over this debate on immigration? The right thing to do to protect America and the people who live here is to fund the Department of Homeland Security.
I offered a unanimous consent on the floor 2 weeks ago asking the Republicans to join the Democrats in funding this Department. Senator McConnell, the majority leader, objected. I think that was a mistake. Now I think we understand, as we reach this deadline of shutting down this valuable agency of our government, that we cannot let this happen.
What is it about this immigration debate that has driven some politicians in Congress to the point where they are threatening to shut down this Department, to cut off its funding? It turns out they object to some of the Executive orders issued by the President on immigration.
Remember, it was the Senate that passed a comprehensive immigration bill 2 years ago. I was part of the group that wrote it. We passed it on the floor with 68 votes, and the Republican House of Representatives refused to even call the bill, or any bill, on the subject. And when they failed do anything to fix our broken immigration system, the President said: I am going to issue some Executive orders to deal with this problem if Congress refuses to act, and he did.
The Republicans hated those Executive orders by President Obama like the devil hates holy water. They hate them so much that they would shut down the Department of Homeland Security in protest over the President's action. One of the things that troubles them the most is something called DACA. DACA is a shorthand description of the President's Executive order which allows those who would qualify under the DREAM Act to stay in the United States and not be deported.
The DREAM Act is a bill I introduced 14 years ago. I introduced it because I learned there were children brought to America by their undocumented parents, who grew up in this country, went to school in this country, were good citizens in America, but had no future because they had no home. My DREAM Act said if you were one of those children brought here by your parents, we are not going to hold you responsible for your parents' decision. We will give you a chance to become legal in America. That is what the DREAM Act said. That is all it said. The President's Executive order said: We are not going to deport these young children now growing up in America. We are going to give them a chance to stay here, to study here, and to work here. Many of the Republicans hate the idea of giving these young people a chance. Sadly, what they are doing is turning down an opportunity for America to benefit from some of these extraordinary young people.
Time and again I have come to the floor of the Senate to tell the stories of these young DREAMers, and I will tell another one today.
This lovely young woman is Mithi Del Rosario. Her parents brought Mithi to the United States from the Philippines when she was 5 years old. There was no question about whether she was going to come; she was part of the family.
She grew up in California. She was an excellent student and her lifetime goal was to be a medical doctor. In high school she was on the principal's honor roll and an AP scholar. She received a Golden State Seal Merit Diploma and a Governor's Scholar Award. She was quite the student.
Mithi was admitted to the University of California at Los Angeles, one of the Nation's top universities. At UCLA she volunteered as a research assistant. She wanted to get into a lab that studied the high risk of infants to develop autism.
Mithi also volunteered, while a student at UCLA, as a crisis counselor for their peer helpline, advising students who were the victim of rape, child abuse, and substance abuse. She eventually became a trainer for new counselors. Mithi also volunteered as a mentor and tutor for at-risk middle school children in the city of Los Angeles.
She graduated from UCLA with a degree in psychology. Her options were limited in terms of medical school because she is undocumented. She was unable to pursue her dream to become a doctor. Then in 2012, President Obama issued an Executive order establishing the DACA Program, allowing students such as her a chance to stay in America and not be deported. Her whole world changed.
She began working as a research assistant at the UCLA School of Medicine, and she has applied to attend medical school. She still volunteers at the autism research lab where she started her research career 7 years ago. Her ambition is to be part of the treatment and research effort to help children with autism. She also has served as peer mentor to 10 undergraduate students at UCLA.
She wrote me a letter and asked that I relay a message to the Members of Congress who are engaged in the debate on whether to shut down the DACA Program which gives her a chance to stay in the United States. These are her words:
Please, please listen to our stories. This is my home, and the only country I know. DACA gives us greater opportunities to give back to the country we love.
This young lady, and millions like her, grew up in the classrooms of America pledging allegiance to that flag. It is the only flag they have ever known. They can only sing one national anthem--the national anthem that is closest to their heart for the United States of America. But now there is an effort underway by some politicians in Congress to deport her and send her back to the Philippines, and to say: Despite all you have done with your young life, despite all the talents which you bring to Los Angeles and to California, despite your promise to enter into the medical profession and to serve in a cause that all of us realize is so important, autism research--despite all of that, leave America. That is the message that comes through in this bill sent to us by the House Republicans.
They want to deport Mithi Del Rosario. They want to send her out of this country and toss her away despite all of the investment we made, and she has made, in her life. Mithi, and other DREAMers like her, have so much to contribute.
The Republican bill that is before us would deport hundreds of thousands of young people just like her, and it would stop the President's effort to give the parents of citizens--American citizen children--a chance to work temporarily and legally in the United States.
It is hard to imagine that so many on the other side of the aisle have lost sight of who we are as a nation. We are a nation of immigrants, and that immigrant spirit has made us different in this world we live in.
The people who risked everything to come to the United States, to a country where they may not have even spoken the language and gave up everything and came here--they are a special brand of risk takers, and we have a little bit of their DNA in our blood.
My mother was an immigrant. She was brought here at the age of 2, and her son now serves in the U.S. Senate. As I have said so many times on the floor, that is my story, it is my family's story, and it is America's story.
I cannot believe my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have forgotten America's history and America's story and are willing to turn their backs on a young woman such as this and say: We don't need you. You can leave. In fact, we are going to make you leave. We are going to force you out of this country.
America won't be a stronger country if we deport Mithi and others like her. We are not going to be a better country if we tear apart American families. We are not going to be safer when we should be deporting criminals, not those who aspire to be medical researchers.
Instead of trying to deport DREAMers and mothers and fathers, congressional Republicans should support a clean appropriations bill. Let's do that. Let's pass a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Let's get that done so once again we don't have a Republican shutdown of any branch of our Federal Government. Let's get that part done. And then if we are going to engage in a real debate on immigration, let's do it. The majority is controlled by the Republicans in the House and the Senate and they can do that any time they want. Let's engage in that debate and let's do it in an honest fashion. Let's do it in a hopeful and positive view of what America's future will be when young people such as Mithi Del Rosario have their chance to become part of an America that embraces talent and skill and thanks young people for the sacrifice they made to make a better life for all of us who live in this Nation.
I yield the floor.
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