New feature chronicles Senator Dick Durbin’s decades of advocacy and TheDream.US’s symbolic graduation calling on Congress to finally pass the Dream Act
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Washington, DC – In a new feature published Sunday, the Chicago Tribune chronicles the 25-year fight to pass the Dream Act, led by generations of Dreamers and Senator Dick Durbin.
The story features images and details from the symbolic graduation hosted by TheDream.US on Capitol Hill two weeks ago, which brought together Dreamer Scholars and Alumni, elected officials, advocates, families, and allies to honor Senator Durbin’s leadership and renew the call for Congress to finally pass the Dream Act in light of increased targeting of Dreamers.
Read the full Chicago Tribune story HERE, with key excerpts below:
“The mock-graduation ceremony celebrated those achievements and Durbin’s advocacy for the DREAM Act, legislation that would allow immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children to become citizens. Inspired by [Tereza] Lee, Durbin first introduced the measure in 2001, before the September terrorist attacks made talk of immigration reform toxic to many Republicans on Capitol Hill.
In the quarter century since, Durbin has repeatedly reintroduced the measure, recruited new GOP co-sponsors and sought novel strategies to get it signed into law. The DREAM Act has passed the Senate. It has passed the House. But it has not passed the House and Senate in the same year.
Still, it has won over most Americans, with a June Gallup poll finding 81% of respondents favored the idea. Durbin’s proposal has prompted more than a dozen states to offer in-state tuition to undocumented students, often through laws explicitly called ‘DREAM Acts.’ It’s also inspired nonprofit scholarship programs, spurred youth-led organizing campaigns, and given rise to the term ‘dreamer.’
Perhaps most importantly, the DREAM Act became a template for a 2012 program giving temporary reprieve from deportations to more than 800,000 young people, a mechanism still in place today.
… Durbin has been heartened by growing attention to immigration from the faith community, particularly Pope Leo XIV and the Roman Catholic Church, and he continues lobbying his GOP colleagues. He thinks he can count on four to six Senate Republicans who would support the measure now, and thinks more could be persuaded if it’s packaged with other immigration reforms. His last conversation with the late U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham was about passing the DREAM Act, he said.”
The Tribune feature traces the Dream Act’s origins to Tereza Lee, a gifted young pianist whose undocumented status threatened to put college out of reach. Her story inspired Senator Durbin to introduce the legislation in 2001. Lee joined the July ceremony and performed at the piano as Dreamers in caps and gowns reflected on how the fight for permanent legal status has shaped their lives.
The Tribune also details how the Dream Act helped build nationwide recognition and support for Dreamers, inspired state-level tuition policies and scholarship programs, and provided a framework for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. Yet after 25 years, Dreamers are still waiting for the certainty that only Congress can provide – and face a current climate of increased enforcement, DACA renewal delays, and rising anxiety that underscore the urgency for action.
At the symbolic graduation, TheDream.US President and CEO Gaby Pacheco reflected on the generations of Dreamers who have built their lives and contributed to the country while waiting for Congress to act:
“Dreamers already are part of this country. For twenty-five years, we have graduated. We have worked. We have paid taxes. We have started businesses. We have cared for our communities. We have loved this country—even when this country did not always love us back. We have spent 25 years proving we belong. Today, we ask America to finally do what we have already done—to choose us as we have always chosen this country. So let us finish what began twenty-five years ago. Let us choose hope. Let us choose each other. Let us pass the Dream Act.”
The event also featured the first public remarks from Annie Ramos, a military spouse and TheDream.US Scholar whose detention this spring drew national attention. Ramos called on lawmakers to ensure that future generations of Dreamers do not face the same uncertainty.
Watch TheDream.US’s highlight reel from the symbolic graduation ceremony HERE.
Watch a new video highlighting the ongoing fight for the Dream Act HERE.
Read the full Chicago Tribune feature HERE.