Mr. President, I rise today to speak on behalf of nearly
800,000 Dreamers, young people who were brought to this country as
children who today are living in fear and uncertainty. As a result of
the Trump administration's decision to end the DACA Program, these
young people are at risk of losing their legal status and, in fact,
face deportation from the only home that most of them have ever known,
and that home is the United States of America. This is one of the great moral issues of our time, and it is an issue
that must be dealt with now as part of the budget negotiations. It
cannot be kicked down the road any longer. We must pass the Dream Act
now as part of the current budget negotiations. In the last 6 years since the DACA Program was established, these
young people--again, people who were brought to this country as
infants, in many cases--were finally able to breathe a sigh of relief. For the first time in their lives, they could walk the streets of this
country without fear, without worrying about being arrested, without
worrying about being deported. Think about what it means to live in
this country every single day knowing that, at any moment, you could be
arrested or deported. What DACA finally did is to give these 800,000
young people a legal status and a protection so they could go out and
work, so they could go to school, and so they could serve in the U.S.
military without fear. As we all know, tragically, on September 5, 2017, President Trump
announced the end of the DACA Program through Executive order. President Obama had established it through Executive order, and
President Trump ended it through Executive order. In his announcement,
President Trump noted:
I look forward to working with Republicans and Democrats in
Congress to finally address all of these issues. As I have
said before, we will resolve the DACA issue with heart and
compassion, but through the lawful democratic process. It is
now time for Congress to act. That is Donald Trump.
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