Daca

Floor Speech

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Mr. GARCIA of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I rise today with fellow members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus because we are running out of time to save the DACA program. We can save the program through congressional action in the waning days of this Congress.

Since 2012, DACA has created a glimpse of hope. DACA provides temporary legal status to thousands of people who know no other country than ours in the United States. They are our teachers, our nurses, our firefighters, our friends, our neighbors, and our loved ones.

Let's be clear: 75 percent of the American people support DACA. We know it strengthens our economy and makes us a better country, and both Republicans and Democrats agree.

Still, the program has faced multiple court challenges, and if we don't do something to save it, the program will end.

We need to save the DACA program, not only because it grows our economy, but because it is simply the right thing to do.

Let me tell Yesenia's story.

When it became time for a driver's license in high school, Yesenia's teacher forced her to provide a Social Security card, even though he knew Yesenia was undocumented and did not plan to get a license and had no real need to bring a Social Security card to class.

When Yesenia was unable to produce a Social Security card, a classmate mocked her saying, ``she can't bring it because she's illegal.'' Yesenia nearly broke down in tears.

Thanks to DACA, Yesenia was afforded a stability she has never known, no longer carrying the fear of being deported or separated from her family.

Or think about Elizeth. She would wake up at 3:30 a.m. every day to prepare tamales and sell them before hurrying to school. She did this through elementary and middle school.

Classmates belittled Elizeth, calling her ``la tamalera.'' Like Yesenia, Elizeth applied for DACA when the program was created. Eventually, Elizeth saved enough by selling tamales to pay her way through college. This is what they do. This is who they are.

Both Elizeth and Yesenia are my constituents; and to my colleagues in the Senate, DACA recipients are your constituents too.

Every DACA recipient has a story of homes lost and new homes found, stories of growing up, stories of pain and perseverance that demand action.

Ending DACA will shatter the lives of nearly 2 million people in our country brought here as children; and it will hurt their families as well. It will separate families and tear communities apart.

The stakes could not be higher. The end of DACA would uproot the lives of 600,000 DACA recipients, in addition to the more than 1.3 million migrants eligible for the program.

Aside from the fact that DACA recipients pay almost $10 billion in taxes each year; aside from the fact that more than 200,000 DACA recipients across the country stepped up for us as frontline workers during the pandemic; our obligation to save DACA, above all else, is a moral one. It is about who we are as a country.

The House has done its job. We passed the American Dream and Promise Act, and now we need the Senate to act on it. It is time to step up, save DACA, and codify it through congressional action.

Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ. I thank the gentleman for sharing the economic impacts of DACA recipients because we need to highlight that; that any opposition to the American Dream and Promise Act is not based on the benefits it brings to our country because the economic benefits are amazing, so I appreciate the fact that the gentleman raised it.

The gentleman said how much taxes are paid. Households with DACA recipients pay $5.6 billion in Federal taxes and $3.1 billion in State and local taxes every single year. They create lots of after-tax income that leads to economic activity in the communities that they come from.

In fact, the importance of DACA and our Dreamers is so great that on October 20, 80 major businesses and trade associations wrote to congressional leaders in support of a bipartisan American Dream and Promise Act. The letter was signed by, among others, the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Retail Federation, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Microsoft, Amazon, and many, many more because we know that Dreamers are essential to our economy.

What would happen if we let DACA die? If we let DACA die, an average of 1,000 Dreamers will lose their jobs each week in labor markets already experiencing shortages, such as healthcare, education, service industries, food production, and more because they would lose their jobs as their ability to renew would disappear. So every week, we would lose that.

It is like a drum, a drum, a drumbeat toward financial trouble when we already need to address the need for more workers in our country. We would lose the benefit that they develop for our economy; $400 billion in economic benefit if we pass the American Dream and Promise Act, because we need to say, we are not just trying to save DACA, we actually want DACA to end because we are going to replace with the American Dream and Promise Act. We are looking for the American Dream and Promise Act because that ends DACA the way it should; not by death to a core that doesn't understand the benefit of this, but to the codification to give our Dreamers the path to citizenship they deserve.

That is why we are calling upon the Senate. We are asking to have-- all of the Democrat Senators presently support the American Dream and Promise Act. So what we are looking for is 10 Republican Senators to join with the Chamber of Commerce, to join with the trade associations, to join with the people across this country, to join with their own constituents, with their own constituents.

I think we need to remember the amount of Republicans who supported the Dream and Promise Act in the 1970s. It is what our constituents want us to do. It is what the Senate constituents want them to do, from whatever State you are in.

We must ask the Senate to take action now. Let's codify this. Let's not punt down the road any more times. Let's actually pass the American Dream and Promise Act. Everybody wants it because we know without it, the consequences are dire.

I also want to remind everybody that many of these Dreamers are in mixed-status households, as we say. The Dreamers live with their children, if they are old enough, who are citizens; they live with spouses who may be citizens and legal residents; and they provide for the families at the same time that they are providing for our communities. They are providing for their families.

They come from many, many countries, not just Latin American countries. If you will notice up here, I cannot read it, but Koreans-- we have many, many DACA recipients who speak Korean.

We have DACA recipients who speak all of the different languages of our world because they come from the many countries of our world to the United States. They have been brought here; and, once here, we have to remember the Dream and Promise Act has been introduced time and time again.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, DACA, was put in place as a placeholder so that we could pass the American Dream and Promise Act. The placeholder is calling upon us now to act. The placeholder must be replaced with the American Dream and Promise Act so that our children, those who will lead us up and will lead great lives in our community can find that path to citizenship.

So that is what we are asking our colleagues in the Senate to do. We sent you this bill months and months ago. You saw this bill in the 115th, 116th, and 117th Congress, and now it is time to pass it; now or never because we cannot wait. We cannot wait for the courts to act because Congress' duty is to act. Our duty is to see a problem and take action to correct it.

In Jeremiah 29:11 God's plan for us is not to suffer, but to have prosperity, hope, and a future. Our job in Congress is to create that prosperity, hope, and a future. This bill, the American Dream and Promise Act, has accomplished that plan to create prosperity, hope, and a future for those who have come and lived in our communities from the youngest of age. So, we call upon the Senate to act.

On behalf of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, I am proud to stand with my colleagues who stood here and spoke in favor of passing the American Dream and Promise Act because, make no mistake: The DACA program is the result of the failure of Congress to live up to its obligation to create that prosperity, hope, and a future.

We need the DACA kids to continue their education. We need those who have been in this country from a very young age to be able to assert and have the protections of those who are presently enrolled in DACA.

Dreamers have been raised and educated here. They work in our communities. They raise their families. They attend our colleges. They serve in our military. They die for the country and the home that they have known.

We now ask Congress, we ask the Senate Republicans to hear those dreams and to pass the American Dream and Promise Act in whatever vehicle it must be. We urge them to consider including it in the omnibus, to include it in the NDAA, but to pass it. General Leave

Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ.

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