Mr. President, I rise today, along with so many of my
colleagues--and Ms. Stabenow, who just spoke--with regard to DACA. We
are here to oppose President Trump's unnecessary, political, and
damaging decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
Program, the DACA Program. To close the door on the American dream for nearly 800,000 people who
are American in every way but on paper goes against every measure of
sound public policy, productive economics, and basic decency. Today, I
join my colleagues in Congress, hundreds of American business
executives, thousands of higher education officials and faith leaders,
and a majority of the American people who have made their voices heard
over the past few days to denounce President Trump's elimination of
DACA, and call for legislative action to protect Dreamers and provide
them a realistic and responsible pathway to citizenship. We must be absolutely clear about what President Trump has done, on
his own, without any need or, in my view, legal requirement to do so. By his choice, in less than 6 months, the administration will begin
forcing hundreds of thousands of Dreamers, many in their twenties and
thirties, out of their jobs, out of our military, out of our schools,
and out of the United States--the only country that most of them have
ever really known.