In Case You Missed It: On Senate Floor, Booker Calls for Passage of the Bipartisan Dream Act

Booker: “It’s time for us to act”

WASHINGTON—Yesterday evening, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) joined U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and members of the Democratic Caucus on the Senate floor to call for the passage this year of the Dream Act, which would allow young immigrants who grew up in this country—known as Dreamers—to earn lawful permanent residence and to have access to a path towards citizenship.

“I have met these young Americans. I have seen their service. I know their sacrifice. They have worn our uniforms, from our military uniforms to the uniforms of first responders. They have taught our children…We have invested in them, and that investment is paying dividends. They are the American dream. They represent the best of who we are and who we aspire to be,” Booker said during his remarks.

“It is time for us to act as a body. It is time for us to recognize the full citizenship rights of those who have proven themselves already through the greatest actions one can do–service to another, service to our country, service to the ideals that we have,” Booker continued.

Senator Booker’s remarks can be viewed here.  

A transcript of Senator Booker’s remarks follows:

I want to thank all my colleagues who have spoken today. I really want to thank Senator Durbin, who has been a friend and a mentor of mine since I came to the Senate almost exactly 4 years ago. I thank him for his leadership right now–really leading us on both sides of the aisle, as a central focal point for the Dreamers–and for his words. I thank him for his leadership today and throughout this effort, making sure we don’t leave for the holidays, leaving thousands of children in our country who know no other country–young adults–in a purgatory where they are anxiously waiting to see if this body will act.

This is a time where we have seen incredible activism. I cannot tell you how many times I have been stopped by Dreamers who drove for over 24 hours–drove across this country to come to the Capitol to make their case known. They love this country. They serve this country. They only know this country. They were here before they could even speak. They and their fellow American allies have been struggling and toiling and fighting for recognition. It reminds me of generations of Americans in the past who were fighting and toiling and struggling for recognition as citizens when citizenship was denied them.

I know stories from my own family, African Americans, who, literally, like many of these Dreamers–900 of these Dreamers–have served in the military. I know these stories from my family–people who served in war, served in World War II, served in Korea, like my father, and came back to a country that did not recognize their citizenship rights.

Women, Jews, Irish–so much of the story of America is Americans struggling and toiling and fighting, often coming to the Capital of the United States of America, fighting for recognition of their citizenship rights. They are patriots.

The young people I have encountered in my home State and the young people I have encountered here in the Capitol are patriots. Patriotism is love of country. I am one of these folks who believe that love of country is better seen than heard. I am telling you right now, the Dreamers I have encountered, their service, their sacrifice, their contributions to this country should resonate.

We know the data. Billions of dollars of our economy is being fueled by Dreamers who are here serving in every imaginable capacity–there for their neighbors, there for their community, there for other children, there for America.

I sat across from Dreamers in New Jersey who now, because of the inaction here in Washington, because of the uncertainty, these folks–for whom we have collectively contributed to their education, contributed to their success, and are enjoying the fruits of their success–are now suddenly withdrawing from schools. They are feeling nervous that they are going to be ripped away from family members–younger siblings who are already recognized citizens–as they fight for their citizenship rights. I have seen the pain. I have seen the anxiety. I have shared the tears as they continue this fight, hoping this body will act.

There are folks like Liz. She is a Dreamer from Ridgefield, NJ. She literally created a startup business that employs over 800 people. She is a job creator, an entrepreneur, an innovator whom people rely on for their jobs, and we are going to turn around and say to Liz: You have to leave the United States of America, the only country you know.

What about people like Jesus Contreras? He was the paramedic from Houston who worked for 6 straight days, pulling all-nighter after all-nighter after Hurricane Harvey hit. Here is a guy who, when we faced a crisis and people’s lives were on the line, stepped up. That is patriotism. That is love of country. You can’t love your country unless you love your country men and women. The way you show you love your country men and women isn’t just through the songs you sing and the pledges you make, it is the actions you take.

In a crisis, he was there reaching out to American hands with his hand that is worthy.

Dreamers have been a gift to this Nation. They are hard-working patriots deserving of our respect. They come from a long tradition of people who have served this country, fought for this country, struggled for this country, who battled for respect from this country. They look up and say: I, too, am an American. Don’t judge me by a piece of paper that says so. Look at my deeds. Look at my actions. Look at my life.

This, our wealth; this, our natural resource; the genius created in the image of God; we are going to cast these folks out of our Nation, and for what?

I believe that the opposite of justice is not injustice; it is inaction. It is indifference. It is apathy. This body has not acted. It has not shown a level of compassion to patriots. It has rewarded the service of these Dreamers and the sacrifice of these Dreamers with nothing but silence and inaction.

As other days before it, today I am glad that I stand with colleagues who will not be silent. This tradition in our country of solid citizens, of patriots who fought, who loved, who contributed to this country, this tradition that runs deep in my family, that runs deep in the families of so many here–when they were told they were not citizens, did not have equal rights–from suffragettes to civil rights activists–this body finally got it right and finally responded.

This is the dream of America. These young people are called Dreamers. This is the dream of America.

There was a man who talked about being denied his citizenship rights and who wrote a powerful poem that is as appropriate today as it was when he wrote it. His name is Langston Hughes. As these Dreamers struggle to be recognized for what they are–citizens of this country–as they put forth a dream that is no more precious or no more worthy than the dreams of my family, of your family, may the words of Langston Hughes speak to our spirits and our souls and motivate us. Langston said:

There is a dream in the land

With its back against the wall

By muddled names and strange

Sometimes the dream is called.

There are those who claim

This dream for theirs alone–

A sin for which we know

They must atone.

Unless shared in common

Like sunlight and like air,

The dream will die for lack

Of substance anywhere.

The dream knows no frontier or tongue,

The dream, no class or race.

The dream cannot be kept secure

In any one locked place.

This dream today embattled,

With its back against the wall–

To save the dream for one

It must be saved for all.

Mr. President, I tell you this with all of my heart: I have met these young Americans. I have seen their service. I know their sacrifice. They have worn our uniforms, from our military uniforms to the uniforms of first responders. They have taught our children. They have benefited from our public schools–from our kindergartens, to our eighth grades, to our high schools, to our colleges, and to our universities. We have invested in them, and that investment is paying dividends. They are the American dream. They represent the best of who we are and who we aspire to be.

They collectively, with the other young people of this Nation, are our greatest hope for the future. If we cast them out, if we send them into the wildernesses of lands that are strange to them, to places where some of them don’t even speak the tongue, it will be a sad day, a tragic day for them but even more so for us.

What does it say about a nation that turns its children away for no other reason than they came here when they were 2 or 3 and weren’t born here? We are better than this. We are greater than this. Our Nation’s ideals are loftier than this.

So in the same spirit that this body was slow to move to grant full citizenship rights to enslaved people, in the same way that this body was slow to move to finally grant citizenship rights to every woman in our country, and in the same spirit that this body was slow to move to grant full citizenship rights and voting rights and civil rights to African Americans, I hope we may summon in this generation, in a cause that is noble, the courage to do the right thing and not be stuck in inaction.

It is time for us to act as a body. It is time for us to recognize the full citizenship rights of those who have proven themselves already through the greatest actions one can do–service to another, service to our country, service to the ideals that we have.