Immigration
Floor Speech
Mr. DURBIN. There was a moment in the Civil War when President Abraham Lincoln sent a message to General McClellan. General McClellan was in charge of the Union troops, but he wouldn't use them. He sat encamped, intense, preparing for battle, and never going forward.
Lincoln, in his frustration, understood as he waited that the Confederate forces were getting stronger and the opportunities were slipping away. Lincoln sent a message to General McClellan. His message was this: If you are not going to use your Army, would you send it my way so I can use it?
I am reminded of that story when I address this issue on the floor of the Senate this morning because the issue I am going to address is the issue of immigration.
I come to this issue with personal and family experience, as so many Members of Congress do when it comes to an issue. In this circumstance, my mother was an immigrant to this country, and she was brought here at the age of 2 from Lithuania. Somehow my grandmother, with my aunt and uncle, made it across the ocean to Baltimore, landing in 1911, and then catching a train heading for the land of opportunity--East St. Louis, IL, which is where many Lithuanian families gathered and where my grandfather was waiting.
That was the city of my birth. My mother grew up there speaking Lithuanian and English--an immigrant family who worked hard and struggled. From family stories, I know they had little or nothing in their lives but the hope that the next generation, their children, would have a better life.
That is my story. That is my family's story, but that is America's story, too.
If we chart immigration as an issue in the course of America, we will find something very interesting. Political parties that become anti-immigrant parties eventually wither and disappear. Why? Because they are denying the fundamentals of America. They are saying that we are going to close the doors and pull up the ladder, and we don't need any more of those people.
We do need more of those people because the immigrant families who come to this country bring more than just determination and strength and a work ethic. They bring a level of courage that many families can't muster. These are families in different parts of the world who say at some point we are going to America. We may not speak the language, we may not even know what will happen to us once we arrive, but we are going to America--and they do. The vast majority of them who come to this country stay and make a difference. They sacrifice. They work night and day, but their moment comes when they become part of America. They are proud of where they came from but even more proud of the fact that they are part of the United States of America.
When any political party in history has decided to make anti-immigration their standard and their value, they have withered and disappeared as they should. They are ignoring and turning their back on who we are--what America is all about.
I was part of a group 2 years ago. We sat down--four Democratic Senators and four Republican Senators--and we worked for months to write a comprehensive immigration reform bill. I will tell you the names of the Senators so you know there was no secret deal here. John McCain led the Republicans, the former Republican candidate for President of the United States. By his side was Lindsey Graham, Republican from South Carolina--it was not exactly viewed as a liberal State but a very conservative one--and Marco Rubio of Florida, whose father and mother were immigrants to this country, refugees from Cuba; and Jeff Flake of Arizona, a conservative Republican by every measure. That was the team on the Republican side of the table.
On our side of the table we were led by Chuck Schumer, from the State of New York, chairman of the immigration subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee. I joined him as a member of the Judiciary Committee and someone that has been involved in some of these issues for a long time. There was Bob Menendez, the head of the Democratic Hispanic Caucus, which is a caucus of one at this point, by himself, the son of Cuban refugees who came to the United States; and Michael Bennet of Colorado. The eight of us sat down for months, literally for months, hours at a time, sometimes angry and ready to walk out of the room.
We wrote a bill, a 200-page bill to rewrite the immigration laws in America, to fix the broken immigration system. Then we took it to committee, and the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy, had open hearings and allowed any amendment to be offered that anyone wished.
Then we brought it to the floor after it was reported from the committee. We again gave an opportunity for amendments to be offered. Significant amendments were offered. Senator Corker of Tennessee offered an amendment to even strengthen what was a very strong border security section of this bill. The net result of that of course was we brought it to a vote.
I will tell you, it was an incredible day, because on June 27 of 2013 we passed, on the floor of the Senate, comprehensive immigration reform by a vote of 68 to 32. Fourteen Republicans joined the Democrats in a bipartisan effort to fix our broken immigration system. It was a proud moment. We had the support of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. We had the support of organized labor. We had every major religious group in America supporting our efforts. We had the ultraconservative Grover Norquist supporting this and liberals as well came together and said: Finally, we are going to do something about our broken immigration system.
But under the law of the land, passing in the Senate is not enough. The measure was then sent over to the House of Representatives on June 27, 2013. Today, November 19, 2014, the Republican-led House of Representatives has not only failed to have a hearing on this bill, it has refused to bring this bill to the floor, it has refused to bring any immigration bill to the floor. They refuse to address the obvious. We have a broken immigration system. We need to come up with a fair solution to it.
They refuse to act. It is within their power to call that bill today, as it has been every day since June 27, 2013, but for a year and a half the House Republican leadership has refused to act. Oh, they tempted us. They teased us time and again: We are thinking about it. We are going to put out a list of principles that we Republicans believe in, in the House of Representatives. We are going to tell you that maybe we would support something like the DREAM Act--maybe. We are going to tell you we want strong border enforcement, which of course the bill already has.
They have said all of those things and have done nothing. I am reminded of President Lincoln saying to General McClellan: If you are not going to use your Army, may I borrow it? The House Republicans have refused to address the immigration issue almost entirely, with one exception. They did call one immigration matter to the floor. It was one of the most hateful pieces of legislation which I have seen.
Here is what it said. Before they adjourned in August, the Republicans in the House of Representatives passed a measure with only four of their Members refusing to vote for it. Here is what it said. We have created an opportunity for about 2 million children brought to this country who have lived good lives, finished school, have no problems with the law and want to become part of America. The President has created an Executive order giving these children a chance to come forward, register with the government, pay their filing fee, and not be deported.
Madam President, 600,000 of them have taken advantage of that. This is called DACA. The President's Executive order gives them a chance to live in America, to go to school in America, to get a job in America, to make this a better nation. So 600,000 have done it. We believe 1.4 million more are eligible. They have not signed up yet.
So the Republican House of Representatives, in August, before they adjourned, passed a measure which said: The remaining 1.6 million who may be eligible for this protection cannot be allowed to be part of the DACA Program. Those 1.6 million young people should be subject to deportation--deportation.
Think about that for a moment; brought here at the age of 2 or 3 as infants, living in the United States their entire lives, standing in classrooms across America every morning pledging allegiance to the only flag they have ever known, and the Republicans voted, with an overwhelming majority, to deport them--to deport them.
That is not bad enough. That overwhelming vote that they cast, that hateful vote that they cast--they were so proud of themselves, that after voting they stood and applauded themselves. What a great moment in their minds for the House of Representatives.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
Mr. DURBIN. I ask unanimous consent to speak for an additional 5 minutes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. DURBIN. What a terrible moment in the history of this Nation. The President of the United States, having waited for a year and a half, having heard all of the promises of the House Republicans, that they would move forward and finally call this bill, having been promised privately and even publicly by many of those Republicans that they were going to do something, now the President has said: I am going to use my authority, my authority under the law, to try to fix at least some part of this broken immigration system.
We are expecting, any day now, for the President to announce his Executive order. He will not be the first President to do this. Past administrations, Democratic and Republican, have stopped the deportation of low-priority cases in our country. Every President of the United States--every President of the United States since Dwight David Eisenhower has used his Executive authority to improve our immigration system by Executive order, every single one of them.
President George H.W. Bush issued a family fairness policy allowing 1.5 million people in America to apply for deferred action and work permits. It is clear that Presidents have the authority to do this. Yet the Republicans in the Senate and House have threatened this President that if he uses his Executive authority, as every President since President Eisenhower has done: We are going to hold it against you and you are going to pay a price, President Obama.
I hope the President pays little or no attention to that kind of threat. What is at stake is the future of millions of family members who are now subject to deportation. What is at stake is whether the Republican Party will come into the 21st century in this land of immigrants and join us in a bipartisan effort to fix this broken immigration system.
What is at stake are literally the futures of millions of families who just want a chance. That is all they are asking for, to earn their way into legal status in America. It is almost 13 years now since I introduced the DREAM Act. The DREAM Act--I described it earlier--gives young people brought to the United States at an early age, who had no voice in what their families were going to do, to come to this country and eventually find their way to legal status.
At one point even the House Republicans said they supported this so-called DREAM Act. Time and again we have faced filibusters stopping the DREAM Act from passing in the Senate, but it was part of comprehensive immigration reform. This DREAM Act all started with this young lady, Tereza Lee, Korean, brought to the United States at the age of 2, grew up in a poor family in Chicago, had an amazing musical talent and was accepted to the Manhattan Conservatory of Music and the Julliard School of Music. Because she was undocumented she had no place to go.
Her mother called our office. Her mother, who incidentally worked night and day in a dry cleaning establishment in Chicago said: What can we do? The law had no real answer, other than to say to this then-18-year-old girl: Go back to where you came from for 10 years and try to come here legally.
That was the law. I introduced the DREAM Act. Since then we have seen a growth in support for this because it is only fair. We cannot, should not, hold children responsible for the decisions and wrongdoing of their parents. These kids deserve a chance. That is what the President's Executive action is about. That is why the action by the House Republicans was so reprehensible.
Tereza Lee, incidentally made it. She went to the Manhattan Conservatory of Music. She ended up not only getting a bachelor's degree, she did not receive any government assistance. She had friends and sponsors who stepped in to pay for it. She played at Carnegie Hall. She is now working on her Ph.D. in music.
She is now an American citizen, by virtue of the fact that she married this young American jazz musician. They are living in New York and recently had a baby.
I could not be prouder of Tereza Lee and what she has done with her life. There is a picture with her mom and dad. Her dad passed away. He had a serious medical illness that could not be treated adequately because he does not qualify for any kind of government health insurance. They did not have the money to provide him the care he needed.
But Tereza Lee's story is one that inspires me every day to come to this floor and remind my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, these are real human beings we are talking about. These are not political pawns. These are young people who deserve a chance to become part of the future of America. Sometime soon, I hope very soon, maybe even this Friday, the President of the United States is going to announce his Executive order.
He is going to say that, as he did with DACA, the Deferred Action Program, he is going to give more undocumented people in this country a chance. It will be a narrow category, not as broad as we would like it--at least some of us would like it--but it will be consistent with what every President of the United States has done since President Eisenhower.
It is fair. It is just. It recognizes our birthright as Americans, as a nation of immigrants. It says we are willing to stand and fight for fairness. I would hope--I would just hope that a few Republicans will stand and acknowledge this. I hope a few of them will join us in a bipartisan recognition that our broken immigration system cannot be fixed if the Congress of the United States--particularly the Republican House--refuses to even call the bill for a year and a half.
Instead, the President is using his authority and doing the best he can to make this Nation of immigrants proud again that we are welcoming a new generation of people who will make us even stronger in the future.
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