Mr. President, I stand today to talk about a different
subject; that is, to stand in solidarity with over 12,000 of my
Virginia constituents who are students, entrepreneurs, members of our
military, and individuals who have the distinction of being Dreamers,
like the nearly 800,000 Dreamers across our country. These people, many of them young folks, are worried about facing
deportation--not for anything they have done wrong but because the vast
majority of these young people were brought to this country as children
many years ago. Today, unfortunately, due to no actions of their own,
they are caught up in some of the worst of our Nation's politics. Up until this past September, these young people were living in the
United States legally under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
Program or what has been called DACA. As part of this program, these
young people came out of the shadows, paid a fee, went through an
extensive background check, and complied with all the other
requirements of the DACA Program. Unfortunately, Dreamers and their
families are now in a perilous situation because, unfortunately,
President Trump ended the DACA Program, literally putting hundreds of
thousands of these young people in a state of legal limbo. Unfortunately, while a number of my colleagues on the other side of
the aisle want to work through this problem, we hear the Republican
leadership has done nothing to provide that permanent solution for
these hard-working young Americans. That is who they are, folks who
have lived here oftentimes for decades.
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