Speech #CREC-2017-11-29-pt1-PgS7376_t0

DURBIN. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to speak about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program, known as DACA. DACA, an Executive order of President Obama, provided temporary, renewable legal status for immigrant students if they registered with the government, paid a filing fee of $500, passed a criminal and national security background check. About 780,000 young people stepped forward and did something they had been warned their entire lives never to do. Their parents knew they were undocumented. They knew that they had been brought to this country at an early age. They knew that they weren't technically legal, and their parents had warned them: Stay away from cops and government. All that can happen is that they will discover you are undocumented and deport you and maybe your family as well. Be careful. So President Obama stepped up and said: If you will step forward, tell us who you are, and let us do a background check on you, we are going to give you a chance--a chance to earn your way to legal status in America--and 780,000 young people took that chance and signed up for DACA. Just this last Monday I was up in New York City, and I went to Hunter College, which is part of the City University of New York, and there were about five young people on a forum with me to discuss this bill and the issue of Dreamers and immigration. It was interesting because each one of them--bright students, impressive young people--before they would say anything, they would introduce themselves by saying something like ``My name is Isadora, and I have 465 days.'' And the next one would say, ``My name is Evelyn, and I have 270 days.'' They were telling me how much time they had left, protected, to continue on as students. They know that President Trump's decision on September 5 to abolish DACA means that their protection is going to end as of March 5 next year, and then they face some terrible possibilities. The first is deportation. These people have turned themselves in. They have stepped up and identified themselves to our government with the belief that our government would not hold it against them, and now they worry that has changed. They are worried about what will happen to their family because they had the courage to come up and sign up for this program. These are very real, lifetime problems and challenges these young people face. If you look through the list of those who could be affected if DACA disappears, as President Trump has called for on March 5, there are some heartbreaking stories. Do you know there are 900 DACA-protected young people who have volunteered and now serve in the U.S. military? That is right. Even though they are undocumented because of DACA, they were allowed to sign up for a program known as MAVNI, which is a specialized program for those who have talents that are needed in our military, and they literally signed up. Think of that for a moment. Here they are, illegal in America, undocumented in America, willing to risk their lives for America. Why? Because it is the only country they know.