{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://gutierrez.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/122-people-lose-daca-every-so-congress-cannot-wait-pass-dream-act", "122 People Lose DACA Every Day, So Congress Cannot Wait To Pass The DREAM Act", "2017-12-13", "2017", "2017-12", "Democrat", "House", "IL", "Luis Guti\u00e9rrez", "G000535", "gutierrez.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Washington, DC \u2013 Rep. Luis V. Guti\u00e9rrez (D-IL) delivered a speech on the House floor this morning calling for a vote on the DREAM Act (HR 3440), which would allow immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children to apply for permanent legal status.\u00a0 His speech focused on the 122 DACA recipients (those with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) who lose their status every day \u2013 and will continue to lose their status until the program shuts down completely in March.\u00a0 To emphasize his point, the Congressman had a poster with the message \u201c122 #DREAMACTNOW\u201d and the Congressman, like many DREAM Act supporters in Congress, is wearing a matching orange button.\u00a0 However, he was asked to remove the button before his remarks began.\n[The Congressman was also briefly misidentified by the Presiding Officer, who incorrectly recognized \u201cthe gentleman from Alabama\u201d to speak.\u00a0 To which, the Congressman retorted, \u201cToday, I\u2019d like to be from Alabama today, but I\u2019m not.]\nIn his speech, the Rep. Guti\u00e9rrez stressed the urgency of the moment, saying:\n \n\tWe cannot wait until March.\u00a0 The DREAM Act and the protections of the DACA program are not light switches we can turn on and off.\u00a0 Every day we delay passage of the DREAM Act, another 122 DACA recipients lose their status.\u00a0 They go from being documented to being undocumented, and their worlds are turned upside down.\u00a0 And it is not just their lives, but also the lives of American citizens who love them, who employ them, who rely on them.\n \nAnd he noted that \u201cAs of today, more than 12,000 have lost their DACA status.\u201d\nHe then told the story of Mayron, Saul and Brittany, three DACA recipients whose DACA status has already expired or will expire by the end of next week when the Congress is slated to adjourn for the holidays.\u00a0 Mayron from Washington State is an entrepreneur, Saul in California wants to be a teacher, and Brittany is a child care provider to a family with a special needs child who lost her status last week.\n \n\tMost Americans don\u2019t understand why taking legal status away from a childcare provider who is employed and cherished by her employers will create law and order.\u00a0 How does creating more undocumented immigrants help?\u00a0 It does not make America great.\u00a0 It does not strengthen security or the economy.\u00a0 I don\u2019t even think it benefits the Republican Party politically to send this young American woman away.\u00a0 But it is up to Republicans and Democrats to stand up for Brittany, Saul, and Mayron.\n \nThe Congressman concluded:\n \n\tDemocrats must be clear that we value the contributions of these young people and will not allow their stories to be ignored.\u00a0 And Republicans\u2014even the brave ones who have said they are for solving the plight of the DACA kids\u2014must do more than write a letter or whisper quietly in the halls that they hope something happens.\u00a0 It is up to us, right now.\u00a0 And I am not leaving and I am not shutting up until we do.\n \nCongressman Gutierrez is among those who have indicated that he will not support short-term spending measures or other \u201cmust-pass\u201d legislation this year unless there is a clear path forward towards adoption of the DREAM Act.\nA video of the Congressman\u2019s speech is here: https://youtu.be/xDzIApgTTck\nRep. Luis V. Guti\u00e9rrez is a Member of the Judiciary Committee and the Chair of the Immigration Task Force of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.\u00a0\u00a0\nREMARKS (As Prepared for Delivery)\nDecember 13, 2017\n \n\tEvery day, 122 people with DACA lose their protection from deportation.\u00a0 They lose their government-issued identification that allowed them to stay in this country and work legally.\n\tDACA is the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that the President ended in September and which will completely expire in March, but let\u2019s be clear \u2013 people do not have until March.\u00a0 People are already losing their DACA coverage on a daily basis.\n\tSo when reporters and politicians say that Congress can stall until March to enact the DREAM Act, they are flat wrong.\n\tWe cannot wait until March.\u00a0 The DREAM Act and the protections of the DACA program are not light switches we can turn on and off.\u00a0 Every day we delay passage of the DREAM Act, another 122 DACA recipients lose their status.\u00a0 They go from being documented to being undocumented, and their worlds are turned upside down.\u00a0 And it is not just their lives, but also the lives of American citizens who love them, who employ them, who rely on them.\n\tYoung DREAMers came forward and reported to the Department of Homeland Security and paid their own money for a criminal background check by the FBI.\u00a0 In fact, many of them have successfully submitted their paperwork and biometrics three times.\u00a0 They paid all of this processing\u2014the paperwork, the background checks, the fingerprints\u2014with their own money.\n\tBy definition they arrived in the United States as children, and by definition, they all arrived at least 10 years ago because to be eligible for DACA, you had to have been in the country a full year and a half before President Obama took office.\n\tAnd there are 800,000 of them.\u00a0 800,000 young Americans who have been playing by the rules, doing everything their government asked them to do, and who have been living productive lives in communities in every state for years.\n\tAs of today, more than 12,000 have lost their DACA status.\n\tLet me tell you about just a few of them.\n\tMayron owns three businesses.\u00a0 He lives in Washington State and has lived in the U.S. since he was 11 years old.\u00a0 His DACA expires on December 22, the day that the CR is set to expire and the day we are all supposed to return to our families for the Christmas holiday and New Year\u2019s.\n\tHe submitted his DACA renewal well before the application deadline that was arbitrarily set in October.\u00a0 But he made a mistake.\u00a0 His check was for $465, not $495, and so he will be deportable as of December 22.\u00a0 His entire life is in the United States, and yet, if Republicans and the President have their way, he will be sent to Honduras. And his three businesses?\u00a0 Who knows what will happen to them.\n\tAnother DACA recipient named Saul is from California and thanks to the security and stability provided by DACA, he has pursued a career in education.\u00a0\n\tI was a teacher and I know that the monetary rewards are few, but the rewards for your soul are many \u2013 and the rewards to our society of having dedicated teachers are priceless.\u00a0\n\tBut without DACA and without the DREAM Act, Saul has no future in teaching and we may squander the passion he would bring to a classroom.\u00a0 His DACA expires on December 29 and this is anything but a Merry Christmas for him as Congress drags its feet.\u00a0\n\tAnd finally, there is Brittany in New York.\u00a0 She is a child care provider who works with infant twins \u2013 one of whom has a severe health condition.\u00a0 Her employers are now scrambling because Brittany\u2019s DACA expired last Thursday and she has no clear legal path forward.\u00a0 The family said \u201cwe are devastated at the thought that she may not be able to work in this country and know we won\u2019t find another care giver who is as reliable, nurturing, and unshakable as Brittany.\u201d\n\tMost Americans don\u2019t understand why taking legal status away from a childcare provider who is employed and cherished by her employers will create law and order.\u00a0 How does creating more undocumented immigrants help?\u00a0 It does not make America great.\u00a0 It does not strengthen security or the economy.\u00a0 I don\u2019t even think it benefits the Republican Party politically to send this young American woman away.\n\tBut it is up to Republicans and Democrats to stand up for Brittany, Saul, and Mayron.\u00a0\n\tDemocrats must be clear that we value the contributions of these young people and will not allow their stories to be ignored.\u00a0\n\tAnd Republicans\u2014even the brave ones who have said they are for solving the plight of the DACA kids\u2014must do more than write a letter or whisper quietly in the halls that they hope something happens.\n\tIt is up to us, right now.\u00a0 And I am not leaving and I am not shutting up until we do.\n \n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://gutierrez.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/122-people-lose-daca-every-so-congress-cannot-wait-pass-dream-act"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7851379923522472, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}