On the Senate Floor, Cortez Masto Sounds the Alarm About Dreamers Detained by ICE

FTP for TV stations of her remarks is available here.

Cortez Masto shared the stories of 10 young Dreamers who have been held by ICE or deported without due process

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) took to the Senate floor today to call attention to the horrors young Dreamers across the country have faced at the hands of President Trump's out-of-control federal immigration enforcement. Dreamers are the men and women who came to the United States as children, and instead of going after the "worst of the worst," this administration is targeting community members who have only ever known our country as their home.

Below are her remarks as prepared for delivery:

Mr. President, every day, Americans across this country are watching as federal immigration enforcement commit egregious abuses of power. They're watching as this administration encourages the brutalization of our communities.

While the focus has been on certain cities like Chicago, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles, the reality is, President Trump's out-of-control immigration enforcement is happening everywhere.

I've heard stories in my home state of Nevada, where immigration enforcement is following people home after church services. And where local police officers are being threatened to turn over their undocumented family members who are not violent criminals.

It's outrageous.

And the truth is, what we're seeing on TV and social media is only the tip of the iceberg.

I want to highlight a group of people we haven't been hearing enough about recently, and that's Dreamers.

Dreamers are men and women who came to the United States as children. They have only ever known this country as their home.

The Dreamers I know go to college, they've become part of our workforce, they pay billions of dollars in taxes, and they are woven into the fabric of every community in Nevada.

And many of them are protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program. DACA protects immigrants who came to the United States as children from deportation, and it authorizes them to work legally.

DACA status isn't obtained at random - applicants undergo intense scrutiny, and every two years when recipients apply to renew their status, they go through a new background check.

In my state, we have more than 10,000 Dreamers who are DACA recipients. Across the country, there are over 500,000 DACA recipients. They are nurses, small business owners, neighbors, and friends. They love this country, and they feel as American as U.S. citizens do.

But despite the fact that DACA recipients are supposed to be protected from deportation, this administration has chipped away at these protections.

They have encouraged DACA recipients to self-deport. Former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, who was just fired for her incompetence, admitted last month that they had deported more than 80 DACA recipients. We still don't have answers as to why this happened.

Dreamers have always had to live with uncertain futures. But now, that uncertainty is worse than ever. And unfortunately, DACA is currently under attack in the courts because Republican Attorneys General across the country want to tear down the program.

And for Dreamers who are too young to apply for DACA, they're on their own - and immigration enforcement is exploiting that.

The administration's immigration enforcement is out of control, and Dreamers are fearing for their safety and for the lives they have worked so hard to create here.

We're seeing countless examples of this across the country. I want to share some of these stories today.

Several of them are anonymous because we've seen far too often that this administration will engage in retribution against immigrant families who dare to speak out publicly.

• In Denver, Colorado, a college sophomore studying business and her younger sister who was about to graduate from high school were held in an immigration detention center for four months. Their stepfather is a veteran of the U.S. military, and neither sister has any criminal history, but they were detained all the same at their scheduled check-in appointment with ICE.

• Caroline is a 20-year-old nursing student who has lived in Utah since age 7. She was arrested without explanation and spent 15 traumatic days in a Colorado ICE detention center despite having a clean record, a valid work permit, and a driver's license.

• An aspiring engineer in college in the Chicago area was deported after passing through airport security on his way to visit his family for Thanksgiving. He came to the U.S. from El Salvador at age 10 to escape life-threatening violence, and now he's been torn away from his family and his future.

• There's Ximena, who has lived in Georgia since she was 4 years old and is currently studying business in college. During a routine traffic stop she was handed over to ICE and detained for more than two weeks before the charges against her were dismissed.

• A 19-year-old studying Business Administration in Alabama has been in immigration detention since January. She helps her family run their small business, she volunteers with her church, and she is an essential part of her community. But all that is now at risk as she awaits possible deportation.

• Any has a full scholarship to study business at Babson College, but while at the airport to surprise her family for Thanksgiving, federal authorities detained and then deported her to Honduras - directly defying a federal judge's emergency stay issued the night before. Even after this administration admitted this was a mistake, Any remains in Honduras trying to get back to her family.

• A music major at school in New York and his family were detained as they were leaving church services. He was moved across the country during his two-month detainment, and despite facing and fighting deportation, he is determined to finish his degree and become a music teacher.

• Marcelo, a high school student originally from Brazil, was detained by ICE while driving to volleyball practice. Over the course of six days, he reported being held with about 40 men, sleeping on concrete floors with thin blankets, and experiencing poor conditions, including limited showering.
• A student in New York studying education, who needed just one more class to graduate, was swept up during an immigration enforcement action on a public street and was detained for a month - even though she had a pending application for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status. Now, her education is on hold as she works to recover from her ordeal.

• Emerson fled gang violence in Honduras with his mother 12 years ago, and he was an honors student and star soccer player. That was until he was detained at a routine ICE check and deported to Honduras alone without explanation.

That's just 10 stories. And there are so many more across the country. These young men and women are not the "worst of the worst" President Trump promised he would go after. They're just the opposite - they're inspirational people who rose up despite the adversity they faced, and they love this country.

In return for their loyalty, for their hard work - this administration is punishing them. Trump and his henchmen are choosing to go after these Dreamers.

This is a choice.

What the Trump administration is doing to DACA recipients, to these Dreamers, and even to United States citizens goes against everything our nation was founded on.

We cannot allow it to go on any longer.

That's why we must pass the bipartisan Dream Act, to give these young people a path to citizenship that would put them out of harm's way and give them the full rights and responsibilities that they deserve in this country.

That's why we will not agree to give another dollar to ICE and CBP until we have some commonsense guardrails in place so this indiscriminate enforcement against our communities stops. Firing Kristi Noem doesn't cut it.

Americans want transparency, they want accountability, and they want a government that works for the people.

So my Democratic colleagues and I are going to keep up the fight - for Americans across this country, and for Dreamers like the ones whose stories I shared today who just want to feel at home in the only country they've ever called home.

Thank you.

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