Daca

Floor Speech

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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I am honored to join my colleagues this afternoon in celebrating the Deferred Action for Children Arrivals, or DACA, Program and its absolutely historic impact on our country, but also to mourn and to express outrage at the all-out assault launched against this program by the Trump administration.

The point of it, once again, seems to be cruelty--purposeful, relentless cruelty--which we have seen in the implementation of immigration practices in so many different ways by this administration.

Just this morning--literally, this morning--I participated in the announcement of a lawsuit against the government by a woman who was seized from her car taking her children to school, a year ago, leaving her children unattended in the car, shackled, sent to a detention center, and then summarily deported without even a shred of due process. And she is suing the U.S. Government because she is still in Mexico, separated from her two young children--at the time, 13 and 8 years old--as well as her husband.

She was on a screen today from Mexico--heartbreaking--as her two children listened to her in the Yale Law School conference room where the lawsuit was announced.

This kind of cruelty should have no place in our great country. I don't recognize the America that separates a mother from her children without any reason. She has no criminal record. She has been in this country for 15 years. Her two children are American citizens because they were born here. Cruelty and stupidity.

DACA, since its creation 14 years ago, has transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands of young people--people who came to this country as infants or young children--and it has given them the opportunity to work, to contribute; to educate, to support their families; to contribute to this great country. There are nurses, doctors, and engineers. They strengthen America. DACA has strengthened America.

In Connecticut alone, numerous DACA recipients actively contribute to our economy and enrich our communities. And yet despite the enormous, obvious, indisputable benefits of this program, the Trump administration has declared war on DACA.

Again, the point seems to be cruelty. The administration has slow- walked DACA renewals. They have purposely allowed Dreamers' work authorizations to expire through no fault of their own--cruelty and stupidity because they are harming the employers who depend on those DACA workers and the skills that they bring to jobs every day.

The Department of Education has investigated five universities that offer financial help to DACA recipients. What purpose does it serve to punish universities for developing talent that will then serve our country?

In the latest affront to legal protections, the Board of Immigration Appeals has ruled that DACA status alone will not shield Dreamers from deportation, despite the fact that DACA is a mechanism of deferred action.

I mentioned the title in the first sentence of my remarks here-- Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program--because the point is action is deferred. And now the administration is defying the law and common sense in this policy of stupidity and cruelty.

As a result of these illegal policy changes, DACA recipients have not only lost their sense of safety and security but, in some cases, their freedom--and their place in this country. It is the only place they call home. English is the only language many of them speak. And we are depriving them of that sense of home and security and safety.

I will just give you one example: Jose, of Connecticut. He is a DACA recipient. He came to Connecticut from Mexico when he was young. Thanks to DACA, he was able to put himself through college while working full time, and he built a successful career at a Fortune 500 company. He has worked there for 12 years. And now, because of the Trump administration's efforts to delay renewal requests at USCIS, Jose's DACA status and his work permit have not been renewed. No fault of his own. Jose lost the job. He lost that job that he held for 12 years, and today he is struggling to pay his bills. He faces eviction.

What purpose does it serve to drive him into financial peril and even bankruptcy, to deprive his employer of his skills, to, in effect, make him homeless?

President Trump's treatment of DACA recipients is the latest failure of his promise that his immigration efforts would focus on the worst of the worst.

Americans like the idea of deporting dangerous criminals, people who have been convicted of crimes--not Nancy Martinez, who was separated from her children as she took them to work in her car, having committed no crime; not Jose, who is the opposite of the worst of the worst, a productive member of our society, doing good work at a good corporation over 12 years.

These DACA recipients like Jose are far from the worst of the worst. They are our neighbors, coworkers, classmates, and friends. They are some of the best--not the worst--of us.

We are not talking here about securing our borders. We are not talking about deporting dangerous criminals. We are talking about rolling back and reversing progress that has been made on behalf of young people who are here through no choice of their own; they were brought here, and they call America home because it is their home.

I call on the Trump administration to resume prompt review of renewal applications and halt unlawful detention and deportation of DACA recipients. I am under no illusions that my calling on it to do so is going to automatically have an effect on this cruel and stupid set of policies and practices, but I hope my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will heed this peril, this danger to America, and that they will come together with us and say on a bipartisan basis: An assault on DACA makes no sense for America. It is not the America that we recognize.

And as we approach our 250th anniversary, we have an opportunity to reflect on who we are and, equally important, whom we aspire to be. Whom do we want to be? That has always been America. It isn't only about what America has done or who we are today. America is an idea, an aspiration, and a future.

DACA recipients embody the values that we celebrate as America: hard work, resilience, a commitment to our country and to building a better America. Let's provide Dreamers with the respect and dignity and future they have earned.

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