DACA

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. President, it would have taken moral courage--something he doesn't have--for President Trump to stand in front of the American people to say why he was going back on his word to ``deal with DACA with heart'' and help these ``absolutely incredible kids'' in a way that is going to ``make people happy and proud.'' Instead, he sent out his Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, long a foe of immigration reform, to break the bad news to 800,000 young people and their families that he was rescinding DACA. This was bloodless, heartless, and completely unjustifiable. In his remarks, the Attorney General composed an elaborate fiction about DACA, a program that has transformed the lives of 800,000 young people, and the Attorney General actually thought the American people would fall for his made-up remarks. He not only claimed that DACA was unconstitutional but also falsely claimed that Dreamers were taking hundreds of thousands of jobs away from Americans and that they deserved to be punished.

The fact is, a strong majority of the American people are siding with the DACA participants. The American people aren't threatened by these inspiring young people. They are not criminals. They aren't causing trouble. They are students, doctors, nurses, teachers, and entrepreneurs making real and meaningful contributions to our society.

They are simply asking for the opportunity to pursue their dreams-- hence, they are called Dreamers--in the only country they know, the United States of America. It is why so many people across the country are speaking out forcefully against the President's decision to end DACA.

While I was back home in Hawaii last month, I met with activists, community organizations, and State leaders to rally support for DACA and to call for establishing permanent protections for these Dreamers across the country. Hawaii is home to 600 DACA recipients and thousands more Dreamers who could have qualified for the program but were reluctant to expose themselves to the government. I would like to share some of their compelling stories.

Gabriella came to the United States with her family in 2001, fleeing violence in Brazil. They came here out of love and hope for a better future. Every day Gabriella and her family worried about being sent back to the violent situation they escaped. Gabriella graduated from high school with a 3.8 GPA and had big plans to pursue higher education, but at that time she couldn't enroll in college because she was undocumented.
DACA changed her life. She said:

I had been living here undocumented for 10 years and had seen a lot of opportunities pass me by. I knew I couldn't continue to live this way.
[DACA] changed my life for the better. Since getting DACA in 2012, I have been able to get a driver's license, to have a career, to go to school, and leave my home every day knowing that I could come home to my family at the end of the day.

Another story. Mahe came to Hawaii from Tonga when he was a child.

When he turned 21, he learned he might be deported. Before receiving DACA, the only job Mahe could find was building rock walls with his uncle in Waialua. He didn't have a car to get to work. He woke up at 4 a.m. every day to catch a bus to Pearl City, where he switched buses for the ride to Waialua.
After working in the hot Sun all day, Mahe would have to take a 2- hour bus ride home to get to bed at 10 p.m. before starting his routine over again the next morning.

Since I got DACA, life has changed a lot. I applied for my first job and got it. I worked really hard and made supervisor. They gave me a company car and a company phone.

It was really, really nice just to know that with hard work and effort you can get places.

Eliminating DACA would erase the meaningful economic and social contributions Dreamers like Gabriella and Mahe have made to Hawaii and our country. Multiply their stories thousands of times, and you get a sense of how many lives are being shattered by a President who wouldn't help the young people he claims to ``love,'' even as he was ordering their probable deportation.

According to a report from the Cato Institute, rescinding DACA would cost the State of Hawaii $577.5 million in the coming decade from unrealized economic growth and lost taxes. That is from 600 DACA participants. There are 800,000 of them throughout the country. Just the economic loss alone would be tremendous.
Of course, the contributions Dreamers make to our country cannot and should not be reduced only to a dollar figure. Standing up for them and their American dream is a moral imperative. It is why leaders from across Hawaii are speaking about DACA and protecting Dreamers.

In an email to students, faculty, and staff yesterday, the president of the University of Hawaii, David Lassner, reaffirmed the university's ``commitment to serve all members of our community, regardless of citizenship status,'' stating:

Well over four years ago the UH Board of Regents adopted a policy to extend eligibility for resident tuition rates to undocumented students, including but not limited to those who have filed for DACA.
I remain on record, with hundreds of my fellow college and university presidents, in public support of DACA. Over the next months we will strengthen our urging of Congress to extend the DACA program and protect the dreamers of our State and our nation.

He goes on:

Our undocumented students are an integral part of our community and will continue to be extended all the rights, privileges, and services available to our students, from application through graduation.
As our state's only higher public education system we have a deep responsibility to provide high-quality affordable education to advance all our people, our communities and our islands. That mission requires that we support and celebrate diversity, respect and caring.
We must overcome hate and intolerance even as we support free speech and free expression. It is clear that UH, like universities around the country, is entering uncharted territory.
Our clear and firm adherence to our values in challenging times is more essential than ever.

So stated the president of the University of Hawaii.

In another very recent development, Hawaii's attorney general, Doug Chin, joined 15 attorneys general from across the country filing suit against the Trump administration to prevent it from eliminating the DACA Program. They filed the lawsuit on equal protection grounds. I strongly support efforts in the courts to prevent the President from rescinding DACA and putting 800,000 young lives at risk for deportation.

Since the President has kicked the ball to Congress to save DACA, something he could and should have done himself, Congress must step up and do just that. Congress must step up because we cannot count on the President to do the right thing by exerting consistent, comprehensive, or moral leadership. Although it was completely within the President's power to keep DACA in place, Congress can provide the certainty these Dreamers deserve by passing the Dream Act, a bill that enjoys bipartisan support.

I also want to send a clear message to the President and his hardline supporters in Congress. I will join with my colleagues to resist any effort to hold Dreamers hostage to pay for the President's vanity wall, in exchange for sharp reductions in legal immigration or for any other dog whistles to his base. I will do everything I can to fight against this administration's continued efforts to marginalize minority communities or to pit immigrant communities against one another. As an immigrant and minority myself, I certainly know what these communities are experiencing. This is precisely what the President continues to do in an effort to play to White supremacists in his base. Sadly, this is not surprising. It is up to each of us to fight back, and we will.

I yield the floor.

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