Source: United States Senator for New Jersey Bob Menendez
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), a leading voice in Congress for bold, humane, and inclusive immigration reform, today joined Congressional colleagues, immigrant youth, and activists in celebrating the 10th year anniversary since the Obama Administration created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The senator also urged the Biden Administration to use its executive authority to strengthen protections for DREAMers, TPS holders, farm workers, and hardworking immigrant families currently living in the United States.
“The ten-year anniversary of DACA is a reminder that movements matter – that the work all you are doing today still matters. Your work and your advocacy has not only changed thousands of lives across our country, it’s changed the very way that Congress views undocumented family members,” said Sen. Menendez. “We are calling on the Biden Administration to use its executive authority to protect as many undocumented immigrants as possible. We are asking them to expand DACA eligibility and not be afraid to defend that position in court…[W]e are asking them to use their parole authority to shield DACA recipients from deportation in the event that the courts rule the wrong way and that they lose their status this summer. The Administration [used] executive authorities to protect Ukrainians, which it should. We expect the same commitment to protecting as many undocumented immigrants as possible.”
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Sen. Menendez has been a life-long advocate for Latinos and immigrant families in New Jersey and across the nation. Earlier this Congress, he introduced the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021– the Biden Administration’s bold, humane, and inclusive framework for immigration reform that would fundamentally transform the nation’s immigration system by providing 11 million undocumented immigrants with a pathway to citizenship, growing our economy, addressing roots causes of migration, and effectively managing our borders.
Sen. Menendez has long led efforts to reverse inhumane Trump-era immigration policies, such as Title 42 and Remain in Mexico – urging the Biden Administration to end failed border security policies designed by Stephen Miller to evade the nation’s domestic and international legal obligations to asylum seekers and to create chaos at the border.
Sen. Menendez was also a member of the so-called “Gang of Six” that crafted a bipartisan DACA bill to provide Dreamers with a pathway to citizenship that garnered 54 votes but fell short in the Senate after former President Trump refused to support it. In 2013, Sen. Menendez was a member of the so-called “Gang of Eight” that passed bipartisan immigration reform in 2013 by an overwhelming majority in the U.S. Senate, only to be blocked by Republican leaders from ever coming to a vote in the House of Representatives.
Below are Sen. Menendez’s remarks as delivered:
Thank you y buenos días.
We are here for two reasons.
One is to celebrate ten years since President Obama established the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. It was a victory of tireless advocacy from people like all of you, immigrant youth from around the country, and many in Congress who pushed the Obama Administration to do the right thing.
It’s been ten years since hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants were given the opportunity to go to school and work in the only country they have ever called home.
I say about DREAMers all the time. The only flag they pledge allegiance to is that of the United States. The only national anthem they know is the Star Spangled Banner. The only country they have ever called or felt is home is the United States of America.
And so two, we want to say, unequivocally and unapologetically, that the progress and gains and triumphs of the past 10 years are here to stay.
Today we say with one voice, no vamos para atrás. We are not going back.
We are only going hacia adelante. We are going forward as we look to build on the success that began as DACA.
The ten-year anniversary of DACA is a reminder that movements matter – that the work all you are doing today still matters.
Your work and your advocacy has not only changed thousands of lives across our country, it’s changed the very way that Congress views undocumented family members.
I remember in 2012 when I was sitting at the White House in front of President Obama with our former colleague Congressman Gutierrez and other members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus at the time.
We said to President Obama you have the power to issue executive authorities that in fact can protect these people. He said, ‘No, I don’t believe I have that power.’
We went back and forth. To make a long story short, we are here celebrating because of the work that was all done and how we convinced President Obama then to use these executive powers.
Ten years later, we are calling on the Biden Administration to use its executive authority to protect as many undocumented immigrants as possible. We are asking them to expand DACA eligibility and not be afraid to defend that position in court.
And we are asking them to use their parole authority to shield DACA recipients from deportation in the event that the courts rule the wrong way and that they lose their status this summer.
The Administration [used] executive authorities to protect Ukrainians, which it should. We expect the same commitment to protecting as many undocumented immigrants as possible.
And while we are pushing the Biden Administration to act, we are not giving up here in Congress. That’s why, regardless of what the 5th Circuit does, I want to see votes taken on commonsense propositions that the House has passed and I don’t want to divide one group against another.
I don’t want to protect just some DREAMers, I want to protect all DREAMers and I want to protect their families. And God willing with your help, that’s exactly what we’re going to do.
Thank you very much.
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