Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On President Biden’s Executive Action To Keep American Families Together

Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on President Biden’s announcement of an executive action on expanding legal protections for the spouses of American citizens to keep families together. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Twelve years ago this week, President Obama announced the creation of DACA, one of the most important programs in our country’s history on immigration. It changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of young people for the better, people who came to this country when they were very little and who, for all intents and purposes, knew America as their only home.

Today, President Biden is announcing the most significant relief program for immigrants since DACA, expanding protections for hundreds of thousands of undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens. They are not documented, but they are married to a U.S. citizen.

I applaud President Biden for today’s truly significant announcement. It’s going to help keep hundreds of thousands of families together. That’s what it does: bring families together, keep them together, and it will provide peace of mind and dignity and, most of all, opportunity to contribute, so that these people can contribute to this country even more.

This announcement will help make our economy stronger, as these spouses will be eligible for work permits – at a time when there is a shortage of workers in so many different professions – and give them a long-term path to stability.

This announcement is an affirmation of what America is truly about at its core: a land built by immigrants, a land of opportunity for people who want to contribute to this country, who know our way of life is the best way if you work hard to get ahead and provide a better life for your children. The vast majority of those who will benefit from today’s announcement have been in this country for decades, an average of 23 years they’ve been here, but in a state of limbo, according to the White House. To them America is home. America is where they built families. America is where they gained skills, worked hard, contributed to our economy and earned a living and had children, who will often go on and do better things than them.

That’s the American dream, that’s the American story, and that’s been true for generation after generation until a MAGA group of Republicans decided that they were anti-immigrant. Let's not forget, President Reagan, President H.W. Bush, President W. Bush, they were all pro-immigration, until this 180-degree reversal by the Republican party to be anti-immigrant, which hurts America. Of course we need to secure our borders. Of course, no one denies that. But to just bash immigrants is bad for America, bad for America.

Fighting for Dreamers and pushing for comprehensive immigration reform is one of the issues that has burned strongest inside me since I joined the Senate. I was proud of leading the Gang of 8, bipartisan, with John McCain over ten years ago to pass comprehensive immigration reform – which passed the Senate, with strong bipartisan support, I think it got 68 or 69 votes, before House Republicans killed the bill – House Republicans poisoned by the thinking of MAGA Republicans in their midst.

I celebrate today’s announcement, but Congress must do its part. Republicans must stop getting in the way of meaningful, comprehensive immigration reform and getting in the way of border security. They wouldn’t even support our tough border bill put together with a bipartisan vote. We're going to keep working until we get the job done, both in securing the border and in making America welcome to many immigrants who will work hard and become American citizens eventually.

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