Immigration have we found a good reason to spend our limited Immigration Enforcement resources on dreamers. The premise of daca was and continues to be that we need permanent comprehensive Immigration Reform. But until then, dreamers, who contribute to our society, should be allowed to come out of the shadows and lead healthy, productive lives. Rather than pursuing these young americans, our Immigration Enforcement resources should focus on practical measures that make us safe, not wasteful and symbolic projects like a border wall. We share apprehensions of more illegal entrants. We should incentivize Legal Immigration and make it feasible for people to come here and pursue better opportunities. And im eager to work with my colleagues to craft a tough but fair and comprehensive Immigration Reform package that incorporates good ideas from both sides of the aisle. Until then, however, we accomplish nothing by forcing hundreds of thousands of families who live in fear and regret ever trusting our country enough to register for daca in the first place. Too much of this debate is driven by President Trumps apparent refusal to accept basic truths about who this actually affects and what his decision means for our country. His administrations rhetoric suggests that deporting dreamers will make us safer and somehow restore the rule of law and order. But these arent the facts of the matter. First, today, unauthorized immigration continues to climb as it has every year since its peak in 2007. Second, and not without controversy, president Obamas Administration deported a record five million undocumented immigrants, particularly violent felons. These were important steps. But weve learned that enforcement alone doesnt solve practical problems for people like dreamers and their families and their employers. Moreover, deporting dreamers does nothing to make us safer. Dreamers qualify for daca precisely because they havent committed a serious crime. And putting them with criminals shows they are prone to criminality when the evidence shows the opposite is true. Research from the conservative Cato Institute have concluded that immigrants tend to commit fewer crimes than people born in the United States. And u. S. Census data shows that among adult males, immigrants are onehalf to onefifth as likely to be incarcerated here. Just as insidious as this persistent myth that dreamers are somehow harming our economy or taking jobs from american citizens, we can and should debate what kind of Immigration Reform will best support our economy. But there is no credible support for the griewment argument that dreamers harm our economy or. According to the center for american progress, ending daca would result in an estimated loss of over 460 billion in our g. D. P. Over the next decade, including an annual loss of over 60 million a year in my home state of rhode island. We know from experience that deporting employed immigrants doesnt raise wages. In fact, many jobs lost tend to go unfulfilled. Because of President Trumps actions, families of dreamers will sit at their Kitchen Table in the coming months and struggle needlessly with questions of how to feed their children and keep a roof over their heads now that the administration has forced mom or dad out of work or out of the country. These are american families, and doing this to them is the opposite of putting america first. Mr. President , it is our responsibility to protect our country from economic harm and to uphold our ideals and commitments, and that means keeping faith with dreamers and their families. We should put ourselves in their shoes and remember how each of our families came to this nation and worked to achieve the American Dream for themselves and their children and their childrens children. I applaud senators graham and durbin for introducing the bipartisan dream act of 2017. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this important legislation on our way to a meaningful debate on comprehensive Immigration Reform. I hope that we can find the will to come together and swiftly pass this legislation to strengthen our nation, keep our economy growing, and keep faith with our best ideals. With that, mr. President , i would yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call a senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from rhode island. Mr. Whitehouse mr. President , i would request that any pending quorum call be vitiated. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Whitehouse mr. President , i am here to speak about President Trumps decision to shut down the daca program, socalled dream program, that allows children who were brought here by their parents, often very young, and who grew up here, and are now as far as they know full americans this is their home to not be thrown out of their adopted country and sent home to a place that they do not know. All because of what their parents did when they were still children. You dont even hold children accountable for contracts that they enter into. You have to be an adult to be held accountable for a contract that you enter into and yet apparently this president is willing to take these children nchts children, break up their families, send them to a country they do not know, all because of a decision that was made by their parents, in some cases, when these kids were infants. I have spoken to these kids, they are generally called dreamers, who have no memory of living any place but this country. I dont know about the presiding officer, but it is hard for me to scroll back and have any concrete memory of when i was 1, 2, 3 years old. Here are kids growing up in american families, schools, and playing American Sports and growing up as a part of our culture and now, for reasons that really defy humane explanation, he wants to cast a cloud over about 800,000 children, now kurnd into now turned into adults in many cases, and those who were looking forward to what they could do when they came of age to get into the daca program. We have over 100,000 approved in the daca program in rhode island. Were pretty proud of them. They have served in the military and had jobs around in the country. 91 are employed, pay taxes and contribute to Social Security. When we had the immigration debate, thats what we said we wanted people to do pay your taxes, get a job, pay into Social Security, support yourself and support the system around you. Well, theyve done that. But because of a decision that they did not even make, a decision that under american law they would be incapable of making because they are not adults, this shadow of punishment and family disruption has been put over them by perhaps the least humane person ever to hold the office of president of the United States. And if this doesnt prove that proposition, theres plenty more that does. I understand that our leader has urged speaker ryan and majority leader mcconnell to get senator durbins and senator grahams dream act up for a vote. I think it will pass. I think it will pass with more than 60 votes. I think we, at least the decent members of the senate, can lift that cloud of fear, threat, and anxiety. I think we should. I think we should do it soon. And if majority leader mcconnell is not interested in bringing this to the floor, i understand that senator schumer has made it pretty clear he will attach this bill to some other measure as we move forward this year. And i completely support that. This president said that he loves these kids and wanted to approach this issue with a big heart. The white house, which last i heard the president of the United States runs, put out talking points telling these kids to get ready to depart. Get ready for departure from this country. Really . Thats the big heart, to threaten these kids who played by the rules and have ton what the and have done what the United States government has asked them to do, to get ready to depart because why . Because of some crime they committed . No because their parents brought them here no. Because their parents brought them here as kids. Gene came here from peru. He was brought to the United States by his parents when he was months old. Hes 23 now fvment he were now. If he were to go back to peru, he would have to go back to a village that he has never lived, that is not in a safe area that he does not know because he has been here for 22 years 22 and change if he is 23 now. Rodman came here at 10 months old. Rhode island has a vibrant his family came here to start a better life, start a Small Business and succeed. Rodrigez doesnt remember portugal. He has a computer degree a College Computer science degree. He says the u. S. Is his home. What is the gain for our country in telling rodrig go, with his Computer Science degree from college, he has to go back to portugal because at 10 months old his parents brought him here in search of a better life. Where the heck is the justice or decency in that . These are all rhode island kids that im talking about. There are hundreds of thousands of stories around the country llesdin salazar from guatemala was brought here by her parents at age 7. Were going to break up that family and send her back to guatemala because why . Because at 7 she didnt successfully talk her parents out of bringing her here . Maybe she should have left her parents then. Boy, that would be illegal to go to the United States without the proper paperwork. I cant be a part of that. Im staying in guatemala, you go. Is that the expectation that we have have that we have for a 7yearold that we would now punish her with deportation and with breaking up her family . Thats the big thats the big heart of this president . Ill tell you what one of her memories is. She doesnt remember much of guatemala, but she does remember sitting in her living room with her parents watching president obama announce the daca program. She says that her family cried tears of joy when that happened. At last a path forward from this problem that was not of her own making. She does not understand why the United States is giving so many children an education here and then sending them back to other countries, breaking up their families, and i dont either. It makes no sense. Chris rivera came to rhode island from el salvador. She came when she was 8. So maybes that old so maybe thats old enough that she should have talked her parents out of coming here. She lived first in maryland. Interestingly she went to the same school that the president s son now attends. She came to rhode island, graduated from college. She is currently at medical school at Brown University. She is obviously somebody we want to get out of our country. She is scared. She feels exposed. Id like to know id like to have one person come to the senate floor and tell me what chrisa rivera did at age 8 that was so wrong that we are willing to take somebody who will have a Brown University medical School Degree and throw them out of our country for no other reason. Explain that to me. Ill tell you. Theres a lot thats embarrassing about the way our president behaves, but this is pretty bad particularly in the wake of the way he behaved after nazi flags were paraded through charlottesville, virginia, the city of Thomas JeffersonsGreat University. He spent the next couple of days winking at white supremists nazi types, equating their behavior with the behavior of the protesters who came out. I would hope that if neonazis were walking through providence, i would go out and protest. Am i as wrong as the nazis . I dont think so but President Trump appears to think so. It was just two sides having an evenhanded dispute. I dont think so. When the president reacted to charlottesville the way he did, he was winking at the worst impulses in our society bigotry, hatred, discrimination of people based on color and religion, things that we have fought back against for generations. Fighting back against those evils is part of what makes us americans. Does President Trump fight back against those evils . Just a little no, just a little wink. Keep up it it up boys. I dont mind that much. No difference between you and people who come out outraged to see nazi flags flying in charlottesville, virginia. And now this. And now this. Who the hell President Trump talking to when he does this . Who gets the wink time that . This time . If this isnt another wink to bigotry and hatred and discrimination, i dont know what is because you cannot explain to me why an 8yearold who is such a good person that she will come to a new country and come all the way to Brown Universitys medical school is to be punished for not having broken up with her parents at age 8 when they brought her to this country. It makes no sense. So i see the distinguished senior senator from illinois here on the floor. The battle for the daca program and for the dream act has been a cause of his political life. There is no person in this chamber to whom more credit is due for this than senator durbin. So with great respect, as well as affection, i will yield to him the floor. Mr. Durbin mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from illinois. Mr. Durbin mr. President , i want to thank my colleague from rhode island, senator whitehouse for his kind words, and i come to the floor to join in with a dozen or more of my colleagues who were here earlier to talk about the situation that we now face. Senator whitehouse is correct. Is this an issue that is very personal to me. Its one that dates back to the year 2001, 16 years ago. It was a time when we received a call in my office in the city of chicago, and the person on the other end was with a program called the merit Music Program. And she said, ive got a problem with one of my students, and i need your help. Well, the merit Music Program is a special opportunity for young people in chicagos public schools, particularly from lowincome families, to be trained in a Musical Instrument. And it really does free of charge and Amazing Things happen. Every student who is part of the merit Music Program goes to college, every single one of them. They learn selfesteem. They learn a Musical Instrument and it shows. Their lives are transformed. Well, she told us the story of one of these students. Her name is teresa lee. Teresa lee was born in korea and brought to the United States by her mom and dad when she was 3 years old. They came through brazil before they came to chicago, but they settled in chicago, and her mom and dad raised her and her brother and sister. They were not well off at all. In fact, they were poor. Mom worked in a dry cleaners establishment, which is fairly common in chicago. Korean americans probably work there more than any other group. Her father was an aspieferring aspiring preacher who wanted to open a church for a korean population but it never seemed to materialize. Mom worked extra hard. The kids went to public schools. And at age 12 teresa lee heard about the merit Music Program, signed up for it, went in and fell in love with playing the piano. She turned out to be a prodigy. She was extraordinary. By the time she was ready to graduate high school, they said youve got to apply to a music school. Well, she wasnt sure. Nobody she knew had gone to college, but she started to fill out the application and ran into the question about her Social Security number. Turned to her mother and said what am i supposed to do about this . Her mother said i dont know. After we brought you to the United States at the age of 2, we didnt file any papers. What can we do . Well, they reached out to merit Music Program, and merit Music Program said lets call durbins office. So they called my office and contacted my case worker whose name is clara sahl dukay. She is now my chief of staff but was back then a case worker. The law is very clear. Teresa lee from korea is undocumented. Shes in the United States, although shes now 17 or 18 years old. She never filed the appropriate papers. And under the law of the United States of america, the recourse is for her to return to the last country she was in, brazil, to wait ten years and apply to come back to the United States. Ten years. I thought to myself and so did my case worker, why would you do this to this young girl . She did nothing wrong. In fact, shes a Pretty Amazing story of success from a poor family. So i sat down and said lets write a law to deal with it. And we wrote the dream act. My original cosponsor of the dream act was orrin hatch of utah. This goes back, as i said, 16 years ago. So when i stand here today and talk about this issue, its an issue that ive come to know in a lot of different ways. Most importantly, ive come to know the young people whose lives have been affected by our laws as they currently exist. Over the years an interesting thing has happened. When i wrote the dream act and would go around chicag