On the recordMarch 14, 2018
I stand on this floor to speak about our Dreamers. Again, I must ask very simply: What happened? For months, Washington refused to pass a budget. We had many continuing resolutions. Again, one of the issues was Dreamers. After spending caps were raised for both military and nonmilitary expenditures, we got a budget and both Democrats and Republicans voted for that budget. Yet, still, no action for the Dreamers. Eighty percent of the public wants a fix. We recognize that Dreamers are soldiers, teachers, police officers. They are our friends. They are our neighbors. The President has said he wants also a fix to the Dreamer issue, yet here we are again, one more time, and, again, the Dreamers face a very uncertain future. Mr. Speaker, it is time to stop using Dreamers as pawns in a bigger political chess game. At the State of the Union Address here on this floor, my guest was a Dreamer, a young lady studying chemistry at one of my local universities. She wants to be a scientist, and I know she is going to be a very good scientist. That is what chemistry majors do. You know, America is the land of immigrants, and we have many, many hardworking immigrants. That is what Dreamers are. They work hard. They study hard. They pay taxes. They follow the law. They have been fully vetted. Yet, today, again, we ask: What happened to the Dreamers? I ask my colleagues, let's give Dreamers the opportunity to earn the American Dream.…
