00:00Mr. President. Senator from California. Thank you, Mr. President. Colleagues, it
00:09feels like every single day the Trump administration finds new ways to defy
00:15the rule of law. They will tear families apart, decimate local businesses, and
00:24deceive the public in order to distract from their own failures and scandals.
00:32And nowhere has this been clearer than in their cruelty towards immigrants. Now as
00:40I've said time and again, this administration is not really just
00:45focused on cracking down on dangerous violent criminals. We hear that from them
00:49all the time, but in practice it's far from that. If it was just deportation
00:57operations focused on dangerous violent criminals, there would be no discussion,
01:01there would be no debate, there would be no disagreement. But that's not what this
01:06administration is doing. They are going after all immigrants. The vast majority of
01:15those that have been arrested and detained, and many of those deported, many
01:20without due process before being deported, are not convicted criminals. Don't just
01:26take my word for it. These are statistics and data coming out of ICE themselves, the
01:33Department of Homeland Security. But through their indiscriminate raids, this
01:39administration is arresting not just undocumented immigrants, but lawful permanent
01:48residents as well. There are United States citizens that have been arrested and
01:54detained, even veterans. Think about that. Individuals who have served our country,
02:02prepared to pay the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our nation and our democracy.
02:08Now being rounded up indiscriminately. And if you think I'm exaggerating with this concern,
02:21let the comments coming out of the Department of Homeland Security just yesterday leave no
02:27doubt. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson declared for the first time. Now I want to
02:35make sure I get this right. So I'm going to quote, quote, illegal aliens who claim to be recipients of
02:41DACA are not automatically protected from deportations, end quote. She went on to say that DACA
02:50recipients should now self-deport from the United States. Think about what that means. The Trump
03:00administration is saying that these young adults who were brought to the United States as children
03:07and who have lived here, who have studied here, and who have worked here legally. Let me emphasize that,
03:17worked here, studied here, lived here legally since the year 2012, thanks to the Deferred Action for Childhood
03:26Arrivals. This administration is saying now that they have no right to be here. That they could be deported or
03:35maybe should be deported at a moment's notice or worse. That they should choose to leave their families and
03:44their communities for countries that they've never known. Mr. President, the whole point of DACA
03:54is protection from deportation. Because these are not criminals or some danger to society. These are young
04:07people who have lived in the United States for as long as they can remember. These are young adults who,
04:15as kids, were on your Little League team or in your Girl Scout troop. For God's sake, they're part of our
04:26communities. And they're young adults who have now grown up to be lawyers, to be doctors, to be teachers,
04:35teachers, and who have more love for everything that this country stands for, than anyone threatening them
04:43in Trump's Department of Homeland Security. But this week, the Trump administration is now telling them
04:52that they should be arrested and thrown out of the only home they've ever known in an attempt to satisfy
05:01Donald Trump's quest for political points or an arbitrary quota. So to the Trump administration, let me say this,
05:13you cannot claim to love our country at the same time you're trying to destroy our future. Already,
05:21this administration has worked to cut health care for millions of Americans,
05:26including DACA recipients. They're cutting education benefits and opportunities for DACA recipients,
05:36but now they're threatening to arrest DACA participants as well. It's exactly what's been
05:44happening in my hometown of Los Angeles. Last month, when masked immigration officials,
05:50unidentified and masked immigration officials, carrying weapons, raided a car wash in Temple City.
06:00It was there that they confronted and arrested Javier Diaz Santana. Let me tell you about Javier,
06:08and I really, really hope you're listening, not just with your ears, but with your hearts.
06:11Javier Santana is 32 years old. He's a DACA recipient. He's deaf.
06:23And he's been working at a car wash six days a week for the last five years.
06:34Immigration officials confiscated his identification. They confiscated his cell phone.
06:47They proceeded to handcuff him, put his hands behind his back in handcuffs, leaving him no way of
06:56communicating. You need to be able to use your hands to communicate with sign language. They
07:04deprived him of his ability to communicate. This young man is a DACA recipient who has been in the
07:14United States since he was five years old. He has no criminal record. His immigration removal case has been closed,
07:28closed. And he was issued a work permit by USCIS. He is a son. He is a brother. He is a friend.
07:40Colleagues, he is a human being. Just one of many cases. So don't tell me the Trump administration is
07:53following the law when we hear cases like this. And don't tell me that the administration is only
07:58targeting dangerous, violent criminals because the data proves otherwise.
08:04And so his family was scrambling to find details about where he was, where he had been taken.
08:13DHS quickly whisked Javier out of Los Angeles all the way to El Paso, Texas.
08:23His family feared that he could be deported or he had been deported, not only to a country he doesn't know,
08:30but to a country whose language he doesn't speak.
08:39But for as tragic and as heartbreaking as Javier's story is, he's not alone.
08:45There have been more and more stories of DACA recipients being arrested and detained.
08:52And the fear is just growing across communities.
08:59One thing is certain. This mass detention and deportation operation will go down in our history
09:10as a stain, a dark chapter in our nation's history, an outrageous moral failure intentionally caused by
09:20this administration. Because for all the tough talk, this is not just politics as usual.
09:29In fact, when the Dream Act was first introduced over 20 years ago, it was bipartisan and it enjoyed
09:37bipartisan support for most of the last 20 years. And even today, polling shows an overwhelming majority
09:47of the American public support DACA recipients. Yes, both Republicans and Democrats across the country.
09:58Now, Democrats and Republicans in Congress have supported the Dream Act for most of the last 20 years.
10:07And I think in our private conversations, I sense that bipartisan support is still there.
10:11Let the public statements on both sides of the aisle, the political will
10:25on both sides of the aisle reflect what we are saying behind closed doors.
10:30Because the only thing that we're seeing publicly is the Trump administration going out of their way to enact a policy of cruelty.
10:44But it's exactly what we've come to expect six months into this administration, using immigrants as scapegoats
10:53for the administration's failures. The administration creating a spectacle in their attempt to distract and deflect.
11:05But make no mistake, Americans will not soon forget
11:10what this administration is doing to their neighbors, to their neighbors, to their co-workers, to their friends.
11:18Now, this story doesn't end the way you think it might. Because we will continue fighting not just to stop these outrageous arrests,
11:29but we will not rest until we enact real and permanent protections for DACA recipients who contribute so much to our country.
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