So rather than ending up with a 50-percent unemployment rate,
our U.S. employment doubled. It is an expanding and dynamic economy. The case can be made effectively that the DACA recipients are people
who can add to the economy. All of them have to have the equivalent or
a high school education. Many of them--large percentages of them--have
college degrees and even more. So they can bring a lot to the economy. The other point or the other myth that Mr. Bier addresses is whether
repealing DACA would benefit taxpayers. The point he makes is that
these DACA recipients are paying taxes in the jobs they are working
and, by and large, are ineligible for any Federal programs or any
Federal assistance. So they are a net gain in terms of our Treasury and in terms of what
they can do. For example, if you are protected by DACA today on a 2-
year renewable basis, you do not qualify for a Pell grant to go to
college. You don't qualify for a Federal Government loan. You have to
find out how you are going to do it some other way. So these young
people who are working and paying taxes are not drawing from any of the
government programs that other people their age draw from. There is also this argument that DACA somehow is going to make
America less safe and that there will be more criminals. Don't forget
what I said earlier. To qualify for DACA, you have to submit yourself
to a criminal background check. The likelihood of the next crime being
committed by a DACA recipient is very narrow. The likelihood that it is
committed by someone who is already an American citizen is much more
likely. Finally, there is the argument that DACA is just about politics. Well, it can be about politics, unless we do our job in Congress. We
are supposed to pass the laws. The President has challenged us to pass
a law that will help deal with DACA. We have, I think, an awesome
responsibility to do just that. I was at Loyola University's medical school on Friday and met several
of the DACA students who are in medical school at Loyola. They are
extraordinarily bright individuals who competed and were accepted at
Loyola's medical school. Now they have a program. As they complete the
4 years of medical school at Loyola, they want to apply for residencies
so they can specialize. If you are going to be a resident, you had
better be prepared to work. If you don't have DACA protection, you
can't legally work in the United States. Thirty-two aspiring, really
bright, young medical students soon to be doctors will be stopped in
their tracks if we don't replace DACA because they cannot apply for
residency because they cannot legally work in America without DACA
protection or something like it. Would we be better off in America if those 32 individuals did not
become doctors? Of course not.