Norma Torres: “We have waited too long to protect the DREAMers. This is unacceptable to me and to the vast majority of Americans. My…”

“We have waited too long to protect the DREAMers. This is unacceptable to me and to the vast majority of Americans. My Republican colleagues say that we have until March to fix this issue, but that is simply not true. 16,287 DREAMers have lost their protection since September. For those DREAMers, the deadline has already passed. This is not a partisan issue. I would like to remind my colleagues that the Dream Act is a bipartisan bill. Unfortunately, the Republican leadership and the White House have not acted in good faith. They have politicized this issue. They have backed themselves to the wall. They are holding the fate of DREAMers hostage. They say that they want to help DREAMers, but then they say they will only help DREAMers in exchange for border security, demanding that we give up on our commitment to keeping families together, ending the Diversity Visa program, knowing that these are poison pills. If Republicans truly want to help DREAMers, Democrats stand ready. If Republicans want to compromise on a comprehensive immigration reform bill, we are ready to do that, too. We can talk about all of the changes to our immigration system that Republicans want at the same time that we talk about how we bring 11 million people, undocumented people, out of the shadows and on a pathway to citizenship. But the issue of DREAMers and comprehensive immigration reform should simply be kept separate. Show some leadership.…”