WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last week, United States Sen. Alex Padilla, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, took to the Senate floor to defend Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients from the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) statement that “illegal aliens who claim to be recipients of DACA are not automatically protected from deportations.”
“Colleagues, it feels like every single day the [President Donald] Trump administration finds new ways to defy the rule of law,” said Padilla during his remarks on the Senate floor. “Nowhere has this been clearer than in their cruelty towards immigrants.”
Padilla slammed the Trump administration’s push for DACA recipients to “self-deport,” emphasizing that these long-term residents, who were brought to the country as children, have been working, studying and living legally in the U.S. since 2012 and are vital members of American communities.
“The whole point of DACA is protection from deportation because these are not criminals or some danger to society. These are young people who have lived in the United States for as long as they can remember,” Padilla exclaimed. “For God’s sake, they’re part of our communities, and they’re young adults who have now grown up to be lawyers, to be doctors, to be teachers, and who have more love for everything that this country stands for than anyone threatening them in Trump’s Department of Homeland Security.”
He highlighted the story of Javier Diaz Santana, a deaf 32-year-old DACA recipient who was arrested while at the Los Angeles car wash where he has worked hard six days a week for the last five years. Masked immigration officials carrying weapons raided the Temple City car wash, confiscated his ID and handcuffed him, preventing him from communicating. Despite having no criminal record and living in the U.S. since he was 5 years old, Santana was taken to El Paso, Texas, where he faced the risk of deportation.
“As tragic and as heartbreaking as Javier’s story is, he’s not alone. There have been more and more stories of DACA recipients being arrested and detained, and the fear is just growing across communities,” said Padilla.
“Don’t tell me the Trump administration is following the law when we hear cases like this, and don’t tell me that the administration is only targeting dangerous, violent criminals because the data proves otherwise,” he noted. “The vast majority of those that have been arrested and detained and many of those deported, many without due process before being deported, are not convicted criminals.
As the Trump administration indiscriminately targets all immigrants, rather than focusing on violent criminals, including arresting lawful permanent residents and those here with legal protections, Padilla pushed for Republicans to come together to protect DACA recipients by passing the Dream Act – which he emphasized Republicans continue to voice support for behind closed doors.
He also blasted the administration for scapegoating hardworking immigrants and using cruel immigration enforcement as spectacles to distract from their failing policy agenda.
“Make no mistake, Americans will not soon forget what this administration is doing to their neighbors, to their co-workers, to their friends,” said Padilla. “But we will not rest until we enact real and permanent protections for DACA recipients who contribute so much to our country.”