{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.durbin.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/durbin-shares-153rd-dreamer-story-on-the-senate-floor", "Durbin Shares 153rd Dreamer Story On The Senate Floor", "2026-09-23", "2026", "2026-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "IL", "Richard J. Durbin", "D000563", "www.durbin.senate.gov", "durbin", "https://www.durbin.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases", "scraper", "Durbin: \u201cI may be leaving the Senate in a few months, but I am not leaving this fight [for Dreamers].\u201d\n\nWASHINGTON \u2013 In a speech on the Senate floor, U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, shared his 153rd Dreamer story. During his time in Congress, Durbin has continuously shared stories of Dreamers\u2014young people who have lived in America since they were children, built their lives here, and are American in every way except for their immigration status. Under current law, there is no pathway to citizenship for Dreamers.\n\n\u201cFor 25 years, I have come to the Senate floor with a simple request\u2014for Congress to protect children who know no other home than the United States of America. I first made this request after I heard from a constituent\u2014a young high school graduate in Chicago and a brilliant piano prodigy. She was brought to the United States when she was only two years old and didn\u2019t know how to fill out her college applications because of her undocumented status. I couldn\u2019t believe our nation had no path to citizenship for young people like her, so I introduced a bill to change that,\u201d said Durbin.\n\nDurbin has introduced the Dream Act every Congress since 2001. The Dream Act is bipartisan legislation that would allow noncitizens without lawful status who were brought to the United States as children and meet certain education, military service, or work requirements to earn lawful permanent residence. This Congress, Durbin introduced the bill with U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).\n\n\u201cI have pushed for this legislation to make them [Dreamers] legal in the eyes of the law\u2014to be included in bipartisan legislation like the 2013 \u2018Gang of Eight\u2019 immigration bill, which passed the Senate with 68 votes. Over the years, the Dream Act passed the Senate, and it has passed the House of Representatives, but never at the same time so that we could send it to the President\u2019s desk to be signed into law. As I near the end of my time in the Senate, Congress continues to fail these young people who are American in every sense of the word\u2014not just to me, but to the vast majority of the country\u2026 In fact, 81 percent of Americans support citizenship for Dreamers, including 56 percent of Republicans,\u201d Durbin continued.\n\nIn 2010, Durbin sent a letter, joined by the late Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN), asking then-President Obama to stop the deportation of Dreamers. Fourteen years ago, President Obama responded by announcing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. More than 830,000 Dreamers have since come forward and received DACA, which has allowed them to contribute more fully to their country as teachers, nurses, doctors, engineers, and small business owners.\n\nDurbin then spoke about Karen Montes Gaga\u2014the 153rd Dreamer story he has told on the Senate floor. Karen arrived in Seattle from Mexico when she was just three years old and has been part of the DACA program since 2012. She obtained her bachelor\u2019s degree in education. She also received her master\u2019s in education curriculum and instruction.\n\n\u201cKaren has now been a proud elementary school teacher for almost a decade. She serves on her school\u2019s leadership team and has been nominated twice for its Teacher of the Year award. As a DACA recipient, Karen is responsible for renewing her work permit every two years. But there is a problem. This year, she filed in a timely manner and expected her most recent renewal to be like every other one for the last 14 years. But this renewal process was different\u2014the Trump Administration failed to process her DACA renewal on time, even though she filed months in advance. As a result, Karen\u2019s work permit expired, and she was forced to leave behind her classroom and abandon her students in the middle of the academic year, for months at a time,\u201d said Durbin.\n\n\u201cIn a world of rising costs and inflation, losing a single paycheck could be the difference in keeping a roof over your head and food on the table. But you know what Karen was most worried about? Her 27 students that she had to leave behind,\u201d said Durbin. \u201cThat [her students] are who this Administration and Republicans are failing. A teacher who is committed to instilling strong values and work ethic into her students and whose heart was broken when she could not. To my Republican colleagues, I ask you: if you went out looking for the \u2018worst of the worst,\u2019 would you choose Karen? If you want to remove from the United States rapist, murders, terrorists, child predators, would you identify Karen as one of those people? Of course not.\u201d\n\nDurbin concluded, \u201cThere is still time to help Dreamers in the final months of the 119th Congress. To all my Republican colleagues, please join me and Senator Murkowski in standing up for these young people who epitomize the true meaning of the American Dream. Stand up for Karen; stand up for her students; stand up for what is right. I may be leaving the Senate in a few months, but I am not leaving this fight.\u201d\n\nVideo of Durbin\u2019s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.\n\nAudio of Durbin\u2019s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.\n\nFootage of Durbin\u2019s remarks on the Senate floor is available herefor TV Stations.\n\n-30-", 1, "2026-09-24T09:44:48Z", "2026-09-24T09:45:52Z"]], "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://www.durbin.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/durbin-shares-153rd-dreamer-story-on-the-senate-floor"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8472460322082043, "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"}