Ed Markey: “I join with the Senator from Illinois, and I thank him for his great leadership on this issue. He has been doing this…”

“I join with the Senator from Illinois, and I thank him for his great leadership on this issue. He has been doing this for a long time. His partnership with Senator Lindsey Graham is inspiring. I want to begin by thanking Senator Durbin and Senator Graham for leading this effort and making it bipartisan and making it possible for us to talk about an issue as Americans and not as Democrats and Republicans and having a discussion about who falls into the category of being an American who is entitled to the benefits of being in this country. For the last 5 years, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals--or DACA--Program has created security and opportunity for young immigrants across this country. Now, the futures of some 800,000 young people-- 7,900 of them in Massachusetts--have been needlessly put in jeopardy because President Donald Trump feels the need to keep an ill-considered campaign promise made to his base and to break another one made to the best and brightest of our young people by repealing DACA. And because the House of Representatives has refused to debate and hold a vote on comprehensive immigration reform legislation, our immigration system remains tragically broken. Yesterday, I met one of these Dreamers, Diana Ortiz. Her mother brought her to the United States nearly 20 years ago. Diana studied history at Pomona College in California, and she recently received a master's degree of divinity from the Harvard Divinity School.…”