Speech #1140086234

As Commander in Chief. shouldnt that be his highest priority. to make sure anyone who is a danger to the United States is gone? He knows he cant deport all even if he wished to. so he focuses on those who may be a danger to the United Statesprosecutorial discretion. The Department of Homeland Security only has enough funding to deport a small fraction of undocumented. so the President wants to focus the limited resources on those who could do us harm. That is just common sense. At the same time. the President said that we should not waste our resources on deporting young immigrant students who grow up in this country. such as Tereza Lee. whom I mentioned earlier. or tear apart families by deporting the parents of U.S. citizens. The Presidents policy is focused on deporting felons. not familiescriminals. not children. In November of 2014. President Obama established this program. DAPA. Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents. Under DAPA. undocumented immigrants who have lived in the United States for more than 5 years and have American children would be required to come forward. register with the government. pay a fee. go through a criminal background check and a national security background check. and pay their taxes. If the government determines these parents have not committed any serious crimes and dont pose any threat. this Executive order says: On a temporary. renewable basis. they will not be targeted for deportation. President Obama also expanded the DACA Program for children. as I mentioned earlier. at the same time. Why did he do that? Because for years Republicans in Congress have refused to consider legislation to fix our broken immigration system. On the floor of the Senate on June 27. 2013. I joined a group of seven other Senatorsfour Democrats and four Republicans in total. We had worked for months to construct a bipartisan. comprehensive immigration bill. We had to give a lot. There were things in that bill which I didnt like at all and things which some of the Republican Senators didnt like. but it is the nature of legislation and compromise that that happens. We brought the bill to the floor for a vote after a lengthy markup in the Senate Judiciary Committee. and dozens of amendments had been offered. The Senate passed comprehensive immigration reform legislation on June 27. 2013. 68 to 32more than 2 to 1. That bill would have strengthened border security. protected American workers. and established a tough but fair path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants who were then currently living in our country. What happened to the bill after it passed the Senate? I take you back to how laws are made and your civics course. It went across the Rotunda to the House of Representatives. which was under Republican control. The majority in the House of Representatives refused to call the bill. refused to even bring it to the floor for a debate. and refused to offer any substitute. They did nothingnothing. despite our broken immigration system. In the face of this. the President was left with no choice. For the good of the American people. he used the authority given him as President to try to make some reforms to our immigration system. The Center for American Progress has studied what the President proposed. and they say that over the next 10 years. if these two programsDACA and DAPAwere passed. the gross domestic product for my home State of Illinois would increase by $15 billion and the earnings of Illinois residents would increase by almost $8 billion. Could your State use thatmore economic activity. more people paying taxes to the Federal Government and to your State?