WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) marked the fifth anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which grants temporary reprieve from deportation to certain undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children. In a speech on the Senate floor, Durbin highlighted DACA’s benefits, for DREAMers and the country, and outlined the consequences of eliminating the program.
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“In April 2010, I sent a letter to President Obama. Dick Lugar, the Republican senator from Indiana, joined me. On a bipartisan basis, we said to President Obama, ‘Stop deporting these young kids. They did nothing wrong; their parents made the decision to come here. Give them a chance.’ The president responded,” said Senator Durbin. “It’s now clear that the DACA program he created by executive order has been a dramatic success. More than 780,000 dreamers have come forward and received DACA protection and status. That has allowed them to contribute more fully to this country – as students, as teachers, as nurses, as engineers, as entrepreneurs. A recent study by the Center for American Progress finds that ending DACA – saying to the 780,000 young people that they are no longer part of America – would cost us. It would cost our economy over $400 billion in gross domestic product over the next ten years.”
Video of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor are available here.
Audio of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.
In 2010, Senator Durbin became the first member of Congress to call for the establishment of deferred action. He has been a leading voice in the fight to protect young undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children. Durbin has shared the stories of nearly 100 DREAMers on the Senate floor since he introduced the original DREAM Act in 2001.
Earlier today, Durbin met with DREAMer Jessica Colotl, an honors graduate currently working as a paralegal who grew up in Georgia after moving to the United States from Mexico in 1999 at the age of 11. Earlier this week, a federal district court granted a preliminary injunction ordering U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to reinstate Ms. Colotl’s DACA status and reconsider her application.
