Floor Statements

I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Coons), the Senator from Illinois (Ms. Duckworth), the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Heinrich), the Senator

from New Jersey (Mr. Menendez), the Senator from Florida (Mr. Nelson), and the Senator from New Hampshire (Mrs. Shaheen) are necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from Illinois (Ms. Duckworth) and the Senator from New Hampshire (Ms. Hassan) are necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from Illinois (Ms. Duckworth) and the Senator from Hampshire (Ms. Hassan) are necessarily absent.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business.

Mr. President, it was about 5 or 6 weeks ago that I accepted an invitation and an opportunity to visit Caracas, Venezuela. I had never been to that country before and spent 4 days. It turns out that not many Members of Congress go to this country and very few are given permission if they ask, but for some reason, I was given permission and went down there to meet with the leaders of the government and to take stock of what was happening in Venezuela.

Sadly, I have to report that Venezuela--that proud nation--is teetering on collapse. I met with President Maduro, members of his government, opposition leaders, civic and humanitarian leaders, medical experts, victims of the regime's political repression, and an American who is currently jailed on political charges in Caracas.

What I found there and recounted on the floor a few weeks ago was a heartbreaking set of overlapping crises--humanitarian, economic, and political. While these three inexcusable crises of the government's making continue, the people of this poor nation are increasingly suffering and leaving in desperation. It is one of the most desperate situations I have ever seen in a country that is not in the midst of a war. In my discussion with President Maduro, I urged him to help get his country out of the international isolation that it currently faces and put an end to the human suffering by starting with a clean election.

Last Sunday, there was an election. It was a farce. I asked him to release political opponents so they could run for office. I asked him to authorize parties to field candidates. I asked him to

create enough time in the election cycle so there could be a real campaign. I told him, if he didn't and went through with his election campaign, it would not be a credible result. We know the Maduro regime was using food, among its starving people, to manipulate votes. The regime had, unfortunately, no credible election monitors before or during the vote, and, of course, it rushed the election to get the result it was looking for.

I recently joined with Senator Menendez of New Jersey. We said, quite simply, that Maduro should have the courage to have an open election, a democratic process. As we arrived at the airport, we noticed the great hero of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez. Hugo Chavez won his first election in a democratic manner, and I urged President Maduro to now do the same.

I was also direct in saying to him that he had to release the American, Josh Holt, who is being held in prison, in Caracas, on political charges. Why is he being held? It is that he traveled to Venezuela to be with and to marry the woman he loved and to bring her and her two daughters back to his home State of Utah? He crossed the Maduro regime, and in that process, he was arrested on charges that are outrageous. He has been held now for almost 2 years without having had a meaningful trial or a resolution of the dispute.

As the events of the last few weeks have shown, the obvious path forward for Venezuela has been rejected by the Maduro regime. Instead, it went ahead with last Sunday's widely discredited election in which his regime jailed or disqualified any meaningful opponent. It was a farce. It will only result in the further isolation and suffering of the Venezuelan people. I know President Maduro is blaming Yankee imperialists for the problems his country is facing or the opposition to his leadership. He need only look to neighboring nations in Central and South America to see that they also reject what he has done politically.

Despite stirring video pleas from the prison in which Josh Holt, the American, is being held, Maduro's regime wouldn't even meet with our top diplomat in Caracas. Todd Robinson is the Charge d'Affaires who represents the United States since we are not allowed to have an ambassador in that country. He went to the Foreign Ministry on behalf of Josh Holt when he heard about the prison riot and the danger to this American prisoner who is being held on political charges. Obviously, he got under President Maduro's skin, and he has now expelled him.

The Trump administration has been unequivocal in claiming that the Venezuelan election was a sham and also in imposing new economic sanctions in order to put pressure on the leaders in the Venezuelan Government to change. As I told President Maduro and members of his government, both parties in America may have their squabbles and differences, but when it comes to Venezuela, we stand together. Republicans and Democrats agree that things need to change dramatically in Venezuela if it wants to enter the family of civilized nations around the world.

President Maduro has responded not by reaching out to the opposition and not by showing any true reform but by rejecting every overture. He refuses to release Josh Holt and his Venezuelan wife and daughters to allow them to come to the United States. He still keeps Leopoldo Lopez, a political leader in Venezuela, under house arrest. I spoke to Mr. Lopez by phone and met personally with his wife. It is shameful what they are doing to him.

By restoring the power of a legitimate national assembly, President Maduro would show he is willing to move toward the Constitution which guided his country, but he refuses. He refuses to start a meaningful dialogue with the Lima Group--other nations in the region--that want to work with him toward moving Venezuela to a better day. He refuses to work with neighbors and humanitarian groups that truly want to address the suffering in that country.

It was not until the public health briefing I had in Venezuela and a personal visit to a local hospital that it really hit me and hit me hard how bad things are. This is a country--one of the few on Earth-- that is not at war but that is currently facing epidemics of measles, diphtheria, and malaria. When you go to Caracas city hospitals--not to remote, rural hospitals--and ask them what they need, they tell you vaccines, antibiotics, cancer drugs--the basics. They don't have them in that country.

You can just see on the streets of Caracas that the people are starving. They are starving. They don't have enough food to eat in that country. The inflation is so out of control that people stand in line for an hour a day to get the maximum withdrawals on their credit cards, in hard currency, because the withdrawals are worth the 60 cents they need for round trip bus fare to their places of work. At 11 o'clock at night, in the darkness, you will see people standing by ATM machines to withdraw wads of currency worth 60 cents so they can board the buses the next morning.

The expulsion of our Charge d'Affaires, Todd Robinson, was really disgraceful. He was accused of conspiring against the Venezuelan Government. What did he do? He stood up for the American prisoner, Josh Holt. That is all. Todd Robinson is one of the Nation's highly respected diplomats who carries the rank of Ambassador and has served with distinction in some of the most challenging countries in the world. I spoke with him on the phone yesterday. He is disappointed. He knows there is much work to be done in Venezuela to protect innocent people and to make sure the Americans have a strong presence in order to protect them as well, and now he is being expelled.

During my visit to Caracas a few weeks ago, I watched him try to establish a dialogue with the Maduro regime. It was next to impossible. A dialogue requires someone on the other side who will listen and respond in good faith. That was not the case. When I spoke to him--our Charge d'Affaires, Mr. Robinson--he was packing up and helping the Embassy staff prepare for his departure. He will be back in the Washington area over the weekend. I thanked him for his service in Venezuela and for his team that continues to soldier on under some of the most difficult circumstances in the world.

Until the Maduro regime stops dismantling its country's democracy and starts to address the true humanitarian crisis which exists in its country, I will continue to support U.S. and regional measures to put pressure on the Maduro regime to change. I know of no other way to do this that will not bring more suffering and death to the innocent people of Venezuela. This once great nation will not be great again until its leadership understands that the current approach--denying democracy, denying the electoral process, refusing to have an open dialogue with democratic nations around the world--will only sink them further into the abyss.

I yield the floor.

I announce that the Senator from Illinois (Ms. Duckworth), the Senator from New Hampshire (Ms. Hassan), and the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), are necessarily absent.

Mr. President, last month, during Workers' Memorial Day, we honored and remembered those killed or injured on the job. It is a day we reaffirm our commitment to workers and their families to do all we can to prevent these tragedies.

Forty-seven years ago, when the Occupational Safety and Health Administration was established, an estimated 14,000 workers were killed on the job. By 2016, the number was reduced to nearly 5,200. We have come a long way in worker safety, but when more than 14 people die on the job every day--and only 2.9 million work-related injuries are reported annually even though the real number could be as much as 7.4 to 11.1 million--more work needs to be done. Clearly, the workplace remains too dangerous. We owe it to America's working men and women to ensure their safety, but too often, we are reminded of our failure to do so.

I want to talk about Pamela Knight, from Dixon, in my home State of Illinois. An employee of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, Pamela was asked last September to check on the welfare of a child. When Pamela arrived, sensing a dangerous environment, she decided to remove the 2-year-old boy from the home and place him in protective custody. That is when the child's father knocked her to the floor, kicked her in the head, and continued beating Pamela's fractured skull. After this horrific incident, she was airlifted to a hospital in nearby Rockford, IL, where she underwent two surgeries, but it was too late. Pamela suffered permanent brain damage and passed away about four months after the attack. Pamela Knight was 59 years old.

The job of our investigators and first responders, like Pamela, at the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services is not easy. They are on the frontlines to those in crisis, but we can all agree, it should never be fatal. My heart goes out to Pamela's family, friends, colleagues, and all our public service workers protecting and serving the most vulnerable in our communities.

The theme of this year's Workers' Memorial Day was ``Safe Jobs. Every Worker's Right.'' While the administration attempts to walk back many vital protections and existing safeguards for our workers, let's recommit ourselves in Congress to live up to those words and provide the right every worker deserves: a safe job. In doing so, we can honor the legacy of courageous Americans, like Pamela Knight, who simply did her job.

I urge all my colleagues to join me in fighting for secure workplaces everywhere and once and for all, live up to the promise of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's mission to assure the dignity of a safe and healthy working condition for all Americans. With the right commitment, we can protect, strengthen, and advance the gains we have made over the last half century and make the safety of all workers a reality.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

I announce that the Senator from Illinois (Ms. Duckworth) is necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from Illinois (Ms. Duckworth) is necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from Illinois (Ms. Duckworth) is necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from Illinois (Ms. Duckworth) and the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders) are necessarily absent.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business.

Mr. President, on September 5, 2017, President Trump announced the repeal of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program, known as DACA. As a result of that, hundreds of thousands of immigrants who came to the United States as children and are known as Dreamers have faced losing their work permits and face deportation to countries they barely remember.

DACA provided temporary legal status to Dreamers only if they registered with the government, paid a fee of almost $500, and passed a thorough criminal background check. This DACA Program has been a success. More than 800,000 Dreamers have come forward and received DACA protection, which has allowed them to become a part of the only country they have ever called home.

Many of these Dreamers were brought here as infants and toddlers, raised in this country, pledging allegiance to that flag. They believed they were part of America, and usually at some point when they became teenagers, their parents gave them the terrible news that they were undocumented.

When President Trump decided 8 months ago to repeal DACA, he set March 5 as the deadline for the final expiration of the DACA Program. However, two Federal courts have stepped in and issued orders blocking the President's repeal of this DACA executive order. This means that Dreamers who have DACA can continue to apply to renew their status for now.

I urge every DACA recipient to file their renewal application immediately. The Trump administration is doing everything in its power to fight this court protection, and that court protection could be lifted any day. This means there is a need for Congress to do something.

Again, I urge the Republicans who control Congress to immediately pass the Dream Act--bipartisan legislation I first introduced 17 years ago that would finally give these Dreamers a path to becoming citizens of the United States.

The reality is that tens of thousands of Dreamers are already at risk of losing their work permits and being deported. The Department of Homeland Security Secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, has promised me that her Department will not deport any DACA recipient with a pending DACA application, even if their status expires. I am going to hold her to that commitment because lives hang in the balance.

However, for DACA recipients whose status has expired, the Department will not authorize them to work unless and until their DACA is renewed. This means that tens of thousands of DACA-eligible individuals could be forced to leave their jobs while their applications are pending and before the renewals are approved.

Then consider the fate of Dreamers who are eligible for DACA but never quite reached that status. They can no longer apply for protection because of President Trump's decision to prohibit new DACA applications after September 5, 2017. For example, a child turning 15-- the youngest age at which you can apply for DACA--is now blocked from applying. The nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute estimates that in addition to 800,000 DACA recipients, there are an additional 1 million Dreamers who are eligible. Thanks to President Trump's harsh decision to end DACA, 1.8 million Dreamers are at risk of deportation and cannot work to support themselves or contribute to the country they love.

On September 5, Trump called on Congress to ``legalize DACA.'' But since then, he has rejected six bipartisan proposals to achieve that. He has even rejected a $25 billion bipartisan offer to build his border wall. Mexico, of course, was supposed to pay for that wall.

We provided the money in a bill that also provided protection for the Dreamers. The President rejected it. Instead, he has tried to put the entire hard-line immigration agenda on the backs of the Dreamers. President Trump has said that he will support legalization for Dreamers only if Congress passes his plan, which would, among other things, cut legal immigration to the United States by more than 40 percent.

There are people within this administration and some within the Senate who really despise immigrants, and you can see it. They want to cut legal immigration to the United States. That would be the largest cut in immigration in almost 100 years.

Earlier this year, the Senate decided to vote on President Trump's plan--the one he supports. It failed; it failed badly when 39 Senators voted for it, and 60 voted against it. President Trump is holding Dreamers hostage to an immigration plan that is so extreme that many of his own party members do not support it.

Over the years, I have come to the floor of the Senate more than 100 times to tell the stories of Dreamers. I could give these speeches endlessly. I don't think they have the impact of coming to know the young people who are engaged and involved and at risk in this political debate.

This is Dalia Larios, the 114th Dreamer I have introduced on the floor of the Senate. She was brought to the United States from Mexico when she was 10 years old. She grew up in Mesa, AZ. She remembers celebrating the Fourth of July, going to school dances, and of course, watching the Super Bowl.

Her parents were hard workers who usually had two or three jobs. They taught her that although there were many things she could not control, she could control how long she studied and how much time she devoted to school. She did; Dalia graduated from high school in the top 1 percent of her class. She was named the most outstanding life science student in school. Not only did she excel academically, she completed over 150 hours of community service.

She is a remarkable young woman. She started an after-school dance program for at-risk children and was the first place State champion in both French and constitutional debate.

Dalia then attended Barrett, the Honors College at Arizona State University. She majored in biological sciences--specifically genetics, cell, and developmental biology. She continued her community service volunteering as an English and biology tutor at a number of health clinics. Dalia graduated with a perfect 4.0 GPA and received a number of awards, including the School of Life Sciences award for plant-based research on cervical and breast cancer vaccines.

Today, Dalia is a fourth year medical student at Harvard Medical School. She is researching lung cancer and lung transplants at Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

In 2016 she won the Robert Ebert Prize for Healthcare Delivery Research or Service for her work on designing a student-led health coaching program to improve health outcomes in complex diabetic patients, and what did she dream to be? A cardiothoracic surgeon.

Dalia wrote me a letter. She said:

For many, DACA may be a political bargain. For me, it is my

life. And [because of DACA,] for the first time ever, I have

been able to live a life that is not just rooted in dreams

but rather the realization of those dreams. It has been a

gateway to change, inclusion and meaningful integration into

the country I call home and desperately hope to serve.

At least 65 additional Dreamers were enrolled in medical school this last school year, but without DACA these Dreamers could be deported back to their countries, where they haven't lived since they were little kids. Will America be a stronger country if we ask Dalia to leave--this Harvard Medical School graduate, who wants to be a cardiothoracic surgeon? If we tell her, ``We don't need you; go to some another country,'' are we better off for that? Of course, not. We are stronger to have people like Dalia in the United States.

The Association of American Medical Colleges states that the Nation's doctor shortage is going to continue. Both the AMA and the Association of American Medical Colleges have warned that ending DACA could make it even harder to deal with the physician shortage in the United States. They caution that President Trump's reversal in policy ``could have severe consequences for many in the health care workforce, impacting patients and our nation's health care system.''

I personally think it would be a tragedy to deport someone like Dalia, who has so much to contribute to America.

President Trump created the DACA crisis. Instead of working toward a solution, he has sabotaged every effort we have made to support and save the Dreamers. Now it is up to the Republican majority in Congress to accept one of the six bipartisan solutions on the table to save these young people.

Congress should do its job and make the Dream Act the law of the land, or we are going to be responsible for the fate of wonderful young women like this. This amazing young woman could be saving lives in America as a surgeon, or we can deport her back to Mexico. What sense would that make?

Currently, the U.S. House of Representatives is debating when and if to return to the immigration debate. It is fortunate that 20 Republicans have had the courage to step up so far, and I hope more will join them to say: We have to do something. We can't just let this happen without an effort to pass a bill to solve the problem.

The same thing could be said of the Senate. That is why I am hoping that at the end of the day, we can put this kind of Dream Act and DACA bill back into active consideration on the floor of the Senate.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.