WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) is calling on President-elect Donald Trump to ensure that his Administration shield the young immigrants known as Dreamers from deportation. In a speech on the floor of the Senate, Durbin appealed to their shared immigrant roots, urging Trump to protect beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which grants temporary reprieve from deportation to certain young undocumented immigrants.
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“As a first step in bringing our nation together, I hope Mr. Trump will change his rhetoric and his approach to immigration…During the campaign, President-elect Trump pledged that he would end DACA. I hope that he’ll reconsider that position,” said Durbin. “I would appeal to the President-elect to think long and hard about the future of this country, and realize that he and I, the president-elect and myself, as first generation Americans, have to understand that it’s immigration that has brought so much by way of diversity and talent to this great United States. Now is the time for America – this nation of immigrants – to heal the wounds that divided us during this election. I hope and pray that the President-elect, by word and action in the coming weeks and months, will truly bring us together.”
Video of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor are available here.
Audio of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.
Footage of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available for TV Stations using FTP in high definition and standard definition.
In April 2010, Senator Durbin was the first member of Congress to call for the establishment of DACA. Durbin has shared the stories of more than 75 DREAMers on the Senate floor since he introduced the original DREAM Act fifteen years ago. He was a member of the “Gang of 8” Republicans and Democrats that authored comprehensive immigration legislation that passed the Senate in 2013.
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