Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I rise today as chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, as a father of these two beautiful daughters, Sky and Sage, to call on the Senate to act now for Dreamers. This October, the Fifth Circuit Court ruled that the DACA program is unlawful and set the stage for this incredibly successful and popular program to be struck down by the conservative courts in Texas. If Congress does not act by the end of this year, the future of thousands of Dreamers will be on the line. Dreamers like Juan Vasquez from my district--in fact, from Mecca-- who, as a senior in high school, was detained by ICE while working in the fields as a farmworker with his parents to help them pay the bills. After taking him under my wing, as a pre-med student Juan graduated top of his class from UC Berkeley and finished top of his class at UC San Francisco School of Medicine. Now he saves lives. He saves American lives. He saves fathers, mothers, children, daughters, sons, and grandparents every day as an emergency medicine resident in New York City. I think I had some influence, being an emergency physician myself and mentoring him in that path. If DACA ends, Juan and hundreds of thousands of others will lose their jobs--impacting labor market sectors already experiencing shortages, such as healthcare, education, service industries, food production, and more. If DACA ends, our economy would lose more than a quarter of a trillion in lost GDP over the next decade.…”