Dick Durbin: “let me first thank the minority leader, Senator Reid, for his kind words about the DREAM Act, which I introduced 15…”

“let me first thank the minority leader, Senator Reid, for his kind words about the DREAM Act, which I introduced 15 years ago. This was a piece of legislation that came about because a mother called my office in Chicago. Here was her family story. She brought her two kids to America from Brazil. They actually started off in Korea, but they came through Brazil and came to Chicago--mother, father, and two kids. The father had the ambition of starting a church. There are a lot of Korean churches around Chicago and around the country, and his dream was to start a Korean-American Church. His dream never came true. He continued to pray and read the Bible, but he didn't work much. It was up to mom to go to work. She went to work in a dry-cleaning establishment in Chicago. If you have been around the great city I am honored to represent and go into a dry cleaners, most of the time Korean families are running them. They are working around-the-clock, and are the hardest working people imaginable. Mom went to work in the dry cleaners and the kids struggled because there wasn't much money coming in. One of their girls, Tereza, heard about a program in Chicago called the MERIT Music Program. It is a program that is available for low-income families of kids in public schools. The lady who left the money for it said to give them instruction in musical instruments and help them buy the instruments.…”