Political Quotes

“I rise again today to discuss an issue that I have been working on for more than 20 years: the ongoing uncertainty and plight facing America's Dreamers. It was a little over 20 years ago when my office in Chicago got a telephone call. There was a girl graduating from high school in Chicago, and she had a problem. The good news was she was a musical prodigy; she played the piano, and she was extraordinary. The bad news was she was undocumented. She had been brought to the United States at the age of 2. Her parents had brought her originally from Korea through Brazil to Chicago. Her father's goal in life was to become a minister of a church and preach the gospel, and she used to travel with him to these churches and pound away at the piano while he was practicing his sermons. Over the years, she enlisted in a program called the Merit music program and developed her piano skills to an extraordinary level. All of her teachers said to her--Tereza Lee was her name--you have got to go to music school. Juilliard, Manhattan Conservatory--you qualify for all of them. So she sat down to fill out the application and came to the space that said her nationality and citizenship. She didn't know what to put there, so one of her friends called our office, figuring Senator Durbin would know the answer. Well, we found the answer, and it was terrible.…”