Dream Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, earlier today I was proud to join my colleagues in witnessing the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on the west front of the U.S. Capitol.

I remembered, as I walked away from that inauguration ceremony, the experience I had 4 years ago. There was a luncheon. Traditionally there is a luncheon given for the new President and Vice President. That luncheon was my first opportunity to meet President Donald Trump. I had never met him before.

I went up to him at the head table, and I introduced myself and said: I just want to tell you that I am working in the U.S. Senate for the DREAM Act. I believe that these Dreamers deserve a chance to become part of America's future.

President Donald Trump, minutes after having taken the oath of office, said: Senator, don't worry about those young people. We will take care of them.

That was my first conversation with President Trump. What transpired afterwards is a matter of record in the history of this country. We know also what happened in this Capitol Building just 2 weeks ago.

That is why this inauguration was so different. We were battling a deadly virus and possibly a deadly attack by American terrorists. The U.S. Capitol was as closely guarded as I have ever seen it. We estimate that 25,000 soldiers--National Guard and Active-Duty soldiers--were in town to protect us from all around the United States, including 260 from the State of Illinois, I am very proud to announce. They did their job and did it well. I thank them for their service and sacrifice and separation from their families. But at the same time, we are facing a deadly virus. In the midst of a global pandemic, today's celebration had to be tempered so that people were safe from wherever they sat and from wherever they gathered.

President Biden and Vice President Harris understand that our Nation faces a unique set of circumstances. They also understand that we are a unique nation. What makes us special is that people from all over the world come to our shores to become Americans, not because of their race or ethnicity but because they embrace America's values.

Never before in American history have those ideals been tested as they have been in the last 4 years. A hallmark of the former administration was a relentless attack on immigrants. One of the main targets were the very Dreamers whom I spoke to President Trump about, young immigrants who came to the United States as children.

It was 11 years ago that I joined with then-Senator Dick Lugar of Indiana on a bipartisan basis to call on President Obama to use his legal authority to protect Dreamers from deportation. Our argument was simple: These young people were brought to the United States as children. Their parents made the decision to come here. They grew up here, went to school here, pledged allegiance to that very flag every day in their classrooms, and believed they were part of this country.

Usually sometime in their teenage years, their parents sat down with them and told them the grim reality: They have no country--not the one they left nor the one they currently live in.

So I introduced legislation 20 years ago, the DREAM Act, in an effort to give them a chance, a chance to earn their way to legal status and citizenship, but I have been unable to enact that into law in both the House and the Senate in any given year. I have been stymied and stopped by the filibuster too many times.

President Obama knew that. When he was a Senator here before being elected to be President, he was a cosponsor of my DREAM Act, so I knew where his heart was and I appealed to him--could he do something. And he did. He created DACA.

DACA, by Executive order, provided temporary protection from deportation to Dreamers. If they register with the government, pay a fee, and pass a criminal and national security background check, they could have a temporary right to work here in the United States and be free from deportation.

More than 800,000 Dreamers came forward with President Obama's DACA. DACA unleashed the full potential of these Dreamers, who are contributing to our country this very day as soldiers, teachers, and business owners. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 200,000 DACA recipients have been characterized as ``essential critical infrastructure workers'' during this pandemic. That wasn't my designation; it was the designation of the Trump administration. Among those essential workers are 41,700 DACA recipients in the healthcare industry--doctors, intensive care nurses, paramedics, and respiratory therapists.

Well, on September 5, 2017, former President Trump repealed DACA. Hundreds of thousands of Dreamers faced losing their work permits and being deported to countries they barely remembered, if they remembered them at all.

Last summer, the Supreme Court rejected President Trump's effort to end deportation protection for Dreamers. In an opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Court held that the President's attempt to rescind DACA was ``arbitrary and capricious.''

Today, in one of his first official acts, President Joseph Biden signed an Executive order to restore DACA. I am eternally grateful for President Biden's courage and commitment in keeping his word. Without DACA, hundreds of thousands of talented young people who have grown up in our country cannot continue their work and risk deportation every single day.

But the resumption of DACA is just the first step toward long-overdue justice for Dreamers. Only legislation passed by Congress can provide a path to citizenship to the Dreamers. I first introduced the bipartisan DREAM Act 20 years ago, as I mentioned, and I will continue to do so until it becomes the law of the land.

I am honored that I have a chance to serve as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in the 117th Congress. As a child of an immigrant myself, I never dreamed that I would be blessed with the opportunity to lead the committee that writes our Nation's immigration laws.

To all of the Dreamers out there, I have told you many times: I have never given up on you; don't give up on me. I am going to pass the DREAM Act.

Over the years, I have come to the floor with the most persuasive approach I can think of to pass the DREAM Act and make it the law of the land. I tell their stories. These stories show what is at stake when we consider DACA and the DREAM Act. It is not a theory. It is not just a law. These are real, human lives.

Today I want to tell you about Hina Naveed. She is the 127th Dreamer whose story I have told on the floor of the Senate.

Hina was born in Pakistan and came to the United States from Dubai when she was 10 years old. She grew up in Fall River, MA.

She sent me a letter, and here is what she said about growing up:

I had a pretty typical experience navigating a new country and new school system. It wasn't until I turned 16 and my peers were getting their permits and their first jobs that I really felt the impact of being undocumented.

Hina was an excellent student. In high school, she was president of the National Honor Society and Key Club. She graduated as the salutatorian of her class, ranked second out of 350 students with a 4.0 GPA. She received the Outstanding Vocational Student for Health Careers Award and Overall Outstanding Vocational Student Award.

She went to the City University of New York College of Staten Island, where she earned associate's degrees in liberal arts and nursing and a bachelor of science in nursing. She studied at CUNY Law School, where she graduated with a law degree.

Thanks to DACA, Hina became a registered nurse. She worked as director of health services for a nonprofit, community-based organization in New York. Her department provides healthcare services for children in foster care, many of whom are victims of medical neglect. She is also a member of the New York City Medical Reserve Corps. At the height of the pandemic, she volunteered on weekends at a hospital and at a residential facility with COVID-19 patients.

Hina wrote to me about her plans:

I want to work on health policy reform at a local and state level in an effort to achieve health equity for all. This pandemic has highlighted health disparities that have long existed, and I want to be part of making the change I want to see and experience.

Here is what Hina said about DACA and what it meant to her:

DACA has been life-changing. It has allowed me to drive, work, achieve fiscal independence, continue higher education, and contribute to my community more than I would have been able to otherwise. However, it is temporary, and with the benefits it provides, it has also cast a shadow over my life, forcing me to plan my life in 2-year increments.

Well, let me start by saying thank you to her, to Hina Naveed, for her service on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic. All of us are in awe of our healthcare heroes. She is an immigrant healthcare hero. She is a DACA healthcare hero. She has put herself and her family at risk to protect others. She also shouldn't have to worry about being deported tomorrow and her family facing division.

Will America be a stronger country if we just up and deport her or if she became an American citizen? I think the choice is clear.

Hina and hundreds of thousands of other Dreamers are counting on those of us who serve in the Senate. So here is where we stand. The Senate Judiciary Committee will soon organize--I hope very soon--and I will have an opportunity to appeal to my colleagues on both sides of the table to join me in a bipartisan effort to pass the DREAM Act.

President Biden has made it his clear priority, and I share it. I want this to be the first measure that we consider in the area of immigration. But I know we live in a 50-50 Senate, and it is possible that once again I will need to muster 60 votes to pass this on the floor. So, whatever we do, it has to be bipartisan. That means it won't have everything in it that I want or everything that maybe Hina or the advocates want, but we have to take a step forward once and for all to help these young people.

As long as I am a Senator, I will continue to fight for Hina Naveed and for people who have come to this country just to make it better. It would be an American tragedy to deport this brave and talented healthcare professional in the midst of a pandemic. We must ensure that she and hundreds of thousands of our essential workforce are not forced to stop contributing when the need for their service has never been greater, and we must give them the chance they deserve to become American citizens.

I cannot express my gratitude enough for President Biden, in the first hours that he was in office, recognizing the needs of the DACA recipients and the Dreamers. I want to work with him and work with both parties across the aisle to make this dream come true for so many who deserve it. They have waited long enough.

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