But I
didn't waste any time after he was elected President calling him and
saying: Help me. We have to do something to help these young people. I wrote him a letter, cosigned by Republican Senator Dick Lugar of
Indiana, asking him to think of a way he might be able to protect the
Dreamers from being deported until we passed the law. I didn't get a
response. A year passed--a year. I sent a second letter, this time with 23
Senators signing it, urging President Obama to do something, and he
did. He created the DACA program. The DACA Program was basically an opportunity for young people to
come forward, to register with the government, pay a filing fee, submit
to a criminal background check, and then see if they qualified for a 2-
year protection from deportation and a 2-year opportunity to legally
work in the United States. Well, I was just reminded: August 15, 2012, was the first day to sign
up. I joined with my friend and colleague, Congressman Luis Gutierrez,
of Chicago. We decided we would create a sign-up, an opportunity at
Navy Pier, a historic place in the city, and invite young people who
qualified for DACA--Dreamers--to come in and sign up. We got volunteer
immigration lawyers who wouldn't charge these young people anything,
and we sent out the notices to every group we could think of: Come on
in if you are eligible to sign up for DACA. Congressman Gutierrez and I didn't know how many would show up. We
were afraid it might be 200 or 300 people, and we didn't know if we
could handle any more than that with the volunteer attorneys we had. Then something happened. It was amazing. At midnight, the night
before, they started queueing up outside of Navy Pier, families--mom,
dad, and that young son or daughter who qualified for DACA--and they
waited in the dark all night for the chance to sign up. When it was
over, it wasn't hundreds, but thousands--thousands--who came to Navy
Pier. We couldn't handle them.
Keywords matched
deported immigration DACA deportation