Speech #CREC-2017-03-22-pt1-PgH2291-4_t1

I discovered something very important. People keep coming back to me and asking: What can I do to fight back? What can I do to help immigrant communities who are under siege by President Trump, ``President'' Bannon, and all the rest of the people who want to drive immigrants out of the country? So I told them they could help others apply for citizenship, and they came in droves--hipsters with funky facial hair, women with pink knit hats they made for the Women's March, environmental and LGBTQ activists, union members, and just plain old folks from my district who are not themselves immigrants but who feel the solidarity with immigrants in their community. You know what? This new group, after getting a little training, sat for a few hours with immigrant families, going over their histories, their stories, their reasons for being here, and their reasons for applying for U.S. citizenship. And they were pretty good at filling out government forms. They formed a bond. They got to know each other. They were helping each other accomplish a mutual goal, which is standing up to xenophobia and the Trump-Bannon era. The citizens and the applicants to become citizens are both worried about Republicans taking away their health care and eliminating the environmental laws that have made the water we drink and the air we breathe so much safer. They worry about where women and girls will get healthcare services in cities like Chicago if Trump and his buddies defund Planned Parenthood, or what happens after the courts are stacked with judges who are so out of step with the modern era on gender and civil rights, consumer protections, women's health, and any of the other issues people care about. Anyone who walked out of that citizenship workshop where 260 new citizenship applications were completed felt a sense of community and interconnectedness with one another. Now, it is sad to report that thousands of my constituents can't spend a Saturday morning applying for citizenship. Many of them are at legal clinics or law offices filling out papers to address the very fear that they will lose their homes, their savings, and their families if Trump's deportation force knocks on their door. They are filling out, by the thousands, power of attorney documents and child custody papers in case they are grabbed off the street, in their homes, or, worse yet, in their places of worship. It is heartbreaking. Moms and dads are making decisions about who their kids will go to live with if they get picked up and deported. Which relative, neighbor, or older sibling will be in charge if mom and dad are taken away? Believe me, these kids know what is going on. The 5 million U.S. citizens who have parents at risk of deportation know that their government is a threat to their safety and their security. Their own government could come to the door and upend their lives at any moment, and their parents are preparing for the worst. It is the humanity, the love, their striving for a better life that comes through in these parents who want what is best for their children and what was unavailable to them in some far-off country. These are very real people who have no legal avenues that allow them to live and work here legally, who have no options other than to hide or leave, who have been cut off from fully integrating into our society as citizens because Congress has been fighting over immigration reform. These are the people that Mr. Bannon, Mr. Sessions, and Mr. King have been working together for years to get out of what they call their country so that our erratic new President can point to deportations and say that he is making America great again. What is clear from the citizenship surge and all those who want to help is that America is not only great, not only kind, not only dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, but there are Americans and those who want to be Americans willing to stand up and resist when leaders take us in the wrong direction. Mr.