She is going to get that
bachelor's degree, and I pray that we in the Senate and the House--with
the President--will give her a chance to be part of America. President Obama did. He created DACA. I had introduced the DREAM Act
years and years ago--16 years ago--when President Obama was my
colleague in the Senate from Illinois. He was the cosponsor. I joined
with Senator Lugar, a Republican Senator from Indiana, writing to
President Obama, saying: Find a way, if you can. Find a way to protect
these Dreamers from deportation until we pass a law that needs to be
passed. And he did it. He created the DACA Program, where young people
could come forward, pay the fine and fee of almost $500 or $600, submit
themselves to a criminal background check to make sure there were no
problems in their background, show proof that they had graduated from
high school, and then--only then--would they be allowed to stay in the
United States for 2 years and not be deported and legally be allowed to
work. Well, President Obama created by executive order the DACA Program. At
the end of the day, 780,000 of these young people stepped forward. It
was a leap of faith on their part.
Keywords matched
deported DACA deportation