Michael Bennet: “tonight I rise to address another issue-- the Trump administration's decision to end the program known as DACA. DACA…”

“tonight I rise to address another issue-- the Trump administration's decision to end the program known as DACA. DACA provided deportation relief to nearly 800,000 undocumented immigrants who came to this country as children. Those kids grew up in America alongside America's children, playing on our Little League teams, running for student government, marching in the school band. Just like America's kids, they showed up to class, they did their homework, and they pushed forward with every expectation of building a future for themselves and for their communities. The only difference between them is that the kids covered by DACA came to America as undocumented immigrants. Many of these kids didn't even know they didn't have legal status. I know this firsthand because I used to be the Superintendent of the Denver Public Schools. It was about ninth grade that children would realize--children who had no country other than the United States as their home--that they didn't have legal status because they had come here through no fault of their own without documented status. A lot of these kids found out the hard way, applying for jobs that asked for papers they didn't have, applying for financial aid they were ineligible to receive, and coping with the possibility of being ripped away from friends and family at any time. DACA ended that. It stopped it.…”