The DREAM Act

Floor Speech

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, what if I came to the floor today and said I have a new law I want to introduce, and here is what it says: If you stop motorists across America, anywhere across America--for speeding, reckless driving, driving under the influence--you can not only arrest that motorist, you can arrest the child in the backseat. You can tell that child in the backseat, maybe 2 years old or 5 years old, you have to pay a price because your parent broke the law. People would laugh me out of the Senate Chamber. That is not right. That is not the way we handle justice in America. You do not impose a penalty on children because of the wrongdoing of their parents.

Keep that in mind for a moment because I want to tell you a story, a story that goes back 10 years in Chicago, IL, when a Korean-American woman called my office in Chicago and said, I have a problem. Actually, I have a good thing to tell you, she said. My daughter, who is graduating from high school, is an accomplished concert pianist. She has gone through the Merit Music Program in Chicago, a wonderful program that allows kids--not from the wealthy families but kids from families of lower income groups--a chance to own musical instruments or take musical lessons and see if they thrive--and they do; 100 percent of them go to college.

Her daughter was one of them, a concert pianist graduating from high school, and her mom said: She has been accepted at the Julliard School of Music in New York. We cannot believe it. She said: I run a dry cleaner and my daughter is going to the best music school in America, and the Manhattan Conservatory of Music has also accepted her. She sat down and she was filling out the application, and she came to the box which said nationality, citizenship, and she said: USA, right? And her mom said: You know, we brought you here when you were 2 years old, from Korea, and we never filed any papers. So I don't know what to call you at this point, I don't know what your legal status is. Your brother and sister were born here and they are American citizens. The mom said, I am a naturalized citizen but we never filed any paperwork for you. I don't know what to tell you. They called my office. We checked the law. Do you know what the law said? The law said that young girl had to leave the city of Chicago and America for 10 years--10 years--and then apply to come back in. You see, her mother did not file the papers, and at age 2 she became undocumented and illegal.

That is not right. It is no more just than to arrest the child in the backseat for the speeding parent. But it was happening right before our eyes. We started looking at it, and said the only way to deal with this is to change the law, and here is what we said. If you came to the United States as a child under the age of 16--as a child; if you finished high school; and if you had no problems, no significant criminal record--we will give you two chances to become a legal person in America. First chance: Enlist in our military. If you are willing to risk your life for this country, you deserve a chance to be a citizen. Second: Finish at least 2 years of college. Not a lot of kids do that, but if you finish 2 years of college we will give you a chance to be legal. We called it the DREAM Act. For 10 years I have been standing on the Senate floor trying to pass the DREAM Act.

Time and again we have had a majority vote here. The last time I think there were 55, if not 53, Senators. But because it is controversial, someone objected and we needed 60 votes and we failed.

When I first introduced this bill, I would stand up in the Hispanic neighborhoods of Chicago and I would talk about it. A lot of people would listen intently. Then I would leave and go outside to my car to leave and, without fail, usually in the dark of night, there would be a young person standing by my car and that person would say to me: Senator Durbin, I am one of those kids. Can you do something to help me? Can you pass the DREAM Act? Many of them with tears rolling down their cheeks, and they would tell me their stories, how they had no future, no place to go. They couldn't go to college. If they graduated from college, and some of them had, they could not become engineers or doctors or lawyers or what they wanted to be. They were without a country.

Time has changed that approach. These young people no longer stand in tears in the darkness. They filled the galleries last December when we voted on this. They were all over the galleries with caps and gowns like graduates, and signs that said, ``I am a DREAMer.'' They waited and watched, and the bill failed.

It broke my heart, and many of them left in tears. But they are standing up to tell their stories now and some of them are brave enough to stand up and let America know who they are and why they should have a chance. I think they deserve a chance.

Let me tell you right off the bat I have a conflict of interest on this bill. I guess Senators in this time of ethical considerations should confess and make public their conflict of interest. See, my mother was an immigrant to this country. She would have been a DREAMer in her day. She was brought in at the age of 2 from Lithuania 100 years ago. It was only after she was married and had two children that she became a naturalized American citizen. I have a naturalization certificate upstairs in my office. I am very proud of it. She passed on. She saw me sworn into the Senate and passed on a few months after that.

As her son, first-generation American, son of an immigrant, I stand here as a Member of the Senate, a privilege which barely 2,000 Americans have ever had. It says a lot about my family but it says a lot about America that I had my chance; the fact that my mother came here at the age of 2, perhaps under suspicious circumstances, and was given a chance to become an American citizen, raised a family, worked hard, sent her kids to school, and saw one of them actually end up with a full-time government job as a U.S. Senator.

That is why when I hear this debate across America on immigration I wonder who these people are who are talking about how evil and negative it is to have immigrants in our country. I just left an historic ceremony a couple of hours ago. It was at the hall in the new Visitor Center, Emancipation Hall. I could not believe my eyes. It was a special Congressional Gold Medal honoring those Japanese Americans who served in World War II. What astounded me was the number who showed up. These are men who have to be in their eighties and nineties, who came there to be honored with this Congressional Gold Medal, people of Japanese ancestry, whose parents and relatives were often sent to interment camps, and asked for the chance to risk their lives and serve America in World War II and ended up being some of our most heroic warriors.

I looked at that audience and I wondered if some of the critics of immigration would criticize these men and their families, men who had literally risked their lives--some lost their lives--many of whom were seriously injured.

I am honored serving with so many great people in this Senate, but none more than Danny Inouye, who is in my estimation a true American hero, a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor for his service in the 442nd, and a man who still comes and leads the Senate as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Here was a person who was frowned on and even being spit on for being Japanese at a time when Pearl Harbor was still fresh in the minds of many people. But he said: ``Sign me up, hand me a uniform, give me a gun and I will die for this country.'' He risked his life like thousands of others and I am glad this honor was given today. But it is a constant reminder that we are a nation of immigrants, we are a diverse nation, and it is in that diversity we find our strength. We come from so many different corners of the world and we come to America to call it home. These children are in that same position.

When I see the argument being made in Arizona and Alabama, the anti-immigrant argument being made, I am thinking to myself they are ignoring the reality. The reality is the diversity of our Nation is its strength, the fact that we come from so many different places, drawn and driven to this great country for the opportunity it offers. The Arizona law that was passed last year requires police officers to check the immigration status of any individual if they have ``reasonable suspicion'' that he or she may be undocumented. Under this law, any undocumented immigrant

can be arrested and charged with a State crime solely on the basis of their immigration status, if they did nothing wrong. It is a crime for a legal immigrant to fail to carry documents proving their legal status at all times in the State of Arizona.

It doesn't sound right to me in this Nation of immigrants. Last year it was Arizona. This year it is Alabama. Arizona Gov. Robert Bentley recently signed H.R. 56, Alabama's immigration law that requires police officers to check immigration status of any individual they suspect is undocumented. Any undocumented immigrant can be arrested and charged with a State crime. Legal immigrants must carry documents proving their legal status at all times.

It is wrong to criminalize people based solely on their immigration status. That is not the way we treat immigrants in our country and that is not the way our criminal justice system should work. It is not right to make criminals of people who go to work each day, cook our food, clean our hotel rooms, and care for our children and parents. It is not right to make criminals of those who worship with us in our churches, synagogues, and mosques, and send their children to school with our own kids.

I think about this and I think about what a blind eye some of the backers of these laws have when they walk into a restaurant in a major city and don't look up and notice who is cooking, who is cleaning the dishes, who is taking care of their parents at the nursing homes, who cut the grass at the golf course. Many of these people are undocumented. We know it but we are not calling for them to leave. They are serving us, right? No, with these laws we are condemning those in similar status.

Here is the reality. Criminalizing immigrants will not help combat illegal immigration. Law enforcement does not have the time or resources to become the immigration office of America. That is why the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police opposes the Arizona law. It makes it more difficult for them to keep people safe--not easier, more difficult. Immigrants will be much less likely to cooperate with police who can arrest them on the spot.

Alabama's law goes even further. Most contracts with undocumented immigrants are declared null and void, including, for example, rental agreements and child support agreements. Schools have to check the immigration status of every student and parent and report that information to the State. Schools are authorized to report students and parents they believe to be undocumented to the Federal Government.

I am concerned about the use of our schools in enforcing immigration laws. The Supreme Court has made it clear that it is constitutional to provide elementary education to children and not discriminate based on their immigration status. The Education Department of our Federal Government has warned States, including Alabama, not to use education as a device to exclude those students who are otherwise eligible to be taught.

It is good to tell these stories. It is good to speak to these issues. But what I found over the years--and I am sorry it has been years; I wish we had passed this long ago--the best way to tell the story of the DREAM Act is to tell the story of the DREAMers. Let me tell you a couple at this moment.

The first is about Amanda Uruchurtu. Here is Amanda. She is a pretty young woman. She was brought to the United States at the age of 10. She lives in Tuscaloosa, AL. When Amanda first arrived here she did not speak a word of English. She sent me a letter about what it was like, and here is what she said:

I remember how frustrating it was in school because I had no clue what was going on, but I told myself that all the frustration and fear should be blocked and I should concentrate on learning English. ..... Some made fun of the way I talked but that helped because it made me work even harder and try to assimilate even more. Little by little I worked with my accent to the point that it was hardly noticeable.

There is Amanda. When she started high school she decided she knew what she wanted to do with her life. She wanted to serve in the U.S. military. She was No. 5 in her high school class. She was a member of the National Honor Society and, listen to this, she received the Daughters of the American Revolution award at her high school. Amanda overcame great obstacles and wants to be part of America's future.

She asked, when she wrote to me, if I would tell her story and let those who hear it know that Amanda wants to serve in the U.S. military, but under our law she cannot. She is undocumented. If the DREAM Act passed she would have her chance.

Here is another story, another lovely young lady, Karla Contreras, brought to the United States at the age of 3. Today Karla is 16. She lives in Pelham, AL. She is a sophomore in high school.

She is a leader in the Alabama Dreamers for the Future, an organization of students of similar status, in her State. Her dream? To become an attorney. Her family's considering moving to Washington State because of this new Alabama law, this anti-immigrant law. Here is what Karla wrote to me:

I have never really lived anywhere besides Alabama. I have been here practically all my life. Alabama is my home.

Karla sent me a powerful essay about the Alabama immigration law. She said:

All that people want is a better future, a job to maintain them in an average way, a place they can call home with no fear of being kidnapped by a drug dealer, a place where they are not afraid to walk out to their yard. It is so hard for me to see how these things could be a crime in anyone's eye. This law is putting children in fear for their parents. Now tell me who on earth would want to purposely frighten a child.

In 1982, Texas passed a law that allowed elementary schools to refuse entrance to undocumented children. The Supreme Court of the United States of America struck down that law. As a result, millions of children have received an education and millions have become citizens. They are doctors, soldiers, policemen, lawyers, engineers, and businesspeople who make America a better nation. Imagine what would have happened if the Texas law had been allowed to stand. Incidentally, that is exactly what Alabama wants today. Alabama should know--every State should know--that no State is above the law. No State is above the findings of our Supreme Court.

The American people have a right to be frustrated. Congress has repeatedly failed to fix our broken immigration system. The casualties--many are young DREAMers whom I talked about today, and many have been around many years and still live in the shadows and live in fear every single day. We are a better nation than that. We are a nation of immigrants, a nation of justice, and a nation that can find its way to give an opportunity to young people who have attended school every day, stood, put their hand over their heart, and pledged allegiance to the only flag they have ever known. They are asking for a chance to be part of the future of America.

I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to help me pass the DREAM Act.

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