3rd Anniversary of DACA Program

Floor Speech

Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, I would like to commemorate the third-year
anniversary of the creation of the Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals, DACA, program. On June 15, 2015, we celebrated this
successful, although not comprehensive, policy that has provided
deportation relief to more than 660,000 child immigrants nationally,
including 14,900 in Colorado.

This life-changing program has allowed young people who were brought
to the United States as children--DREAMers--to fully engage in their
communities by continuing their education and having the opportunity to
work. They have been able to open bank accounts, obtain credit cards,
and receive driver's licenses. Deferred action is giving these young
people relief and some degree of certainty to pursue opportunities that
would not have been available to them otherwise.

DACA has given DREAMers hope for their future. They include DREAMers
like Alex Alvarado-Renteria who has lived in Carbondale, CO for the
last 18 years and has known no other home outside of the United States.
Alex's parents migrated from Mexico and worked as farmworkers in order
to give their children an opportunity for a better life. Alex was
granted DACA and has since graduated from the Metropolitan State
University of Denver with a bachelor of arts in history and Chicana/o
studies. He now plans to become the first in his family to earn an
advanced degree by attending law school and opening up his own
immigration law practice one day.

We also have DREAMers like Lourdes Bustos from Denver, CO who has
lived in the United States for the last 26 years and who was able to
stay with her children upon receiving DACA. It was years before Lourdes
realized she was not documented and would not be able to work legally
or get a driver's license. Granting her deferred action meant that she
would not be separated from her family. Lourdes has graduated from high
school and has opened her own painting business.

DACA has played a transformative role in increasing social and
economic integration for youth who have been raised and educated in our
country. It has given DREAMers an opportunity to invest in their
futures. It has empowered DREAMers with a sense of community and
belonging.

This program has helped many of our young people, but only offers a
temporary solution to the unfair consequences of our broken immigration
system. This anniversary should also serve as a stark reminder that
every day that Congress fails to enact immigration reform, it
jeopardizes our economy, our safety, and our communities. It is time to
put politics aside and work to enact comprehensive immigration reform.

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