June 16, 2026 - Washington, D.C. – On Monday, U.S. Senator Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) celebrated 14 years of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. On the Senate floor, she praised the benefits of this program for the United States, condemned the Trump administration’s intentional delaying of DACA renewals, and once again called for passage of the Dream Act.

Below are her remarks as prepared for delivery:

M. President, I’m joining my colleagues on the Senate floor because today marks the 14th anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA.

When it was created by President Obama back in 2012, the purpose of this program was to protect people who came to the United States as children. But President Obama made clear that legislation was also needed – Congress needed to pass a path to citizenship for Dreamers.

There was bipartisan support for it, but petty politics kept getting in the way.

In the meantime, DACA has become a lifeline for hardworking, inspiring young people who have only ever known this country as their home.

But make no mistake, DACA is not given out freely. Applicants undergo intense background checks. And every two years, they have to renew their status and go through another scrutinizing background check.

For the past 14 years, DACA has worked as intended. It has allowed thousands of young people to obtain work permits and critical protections from deportation as they get their education and build careers and lives in the U.S.

It has been an overwhelming benefit to our nation.

99% of the DACA recipients who started the program in 2012 completed high school and got their diplomas. Almost every single one! That’s the kind of dedication you find in Dreamers.

Additionally, more than 90% of DACA recipients over the age of 25 are participating in our workforce. They’re building families, they’re working hard, and they’re paying more than $2 billion in state and local taxes. They love this country, and they feel as American as every member of this chamber.

Yet over the past fourteen years, they’ve endured attack after attack and been made into pawns by far too many politicians. Even still, through it all, they’re thriving and building their American Dream. 

But right now, our country is breaking its promise to them.

I’ve stood right here on the Senate floor multiple times now over the course of the last several months to talk about this. This administration is intentionally delaying DACA renewals so DACA recipients go unprotected.

DACA recipients have been applying months ahead of their two-year deadlines, but for many, that’s still not enough time before their status expires.

This is all part of the Trump administration’s plan to attack and undermine immigrants.

Now, I want to be clear about something: We all agree that we need strong border security and that criminals need to face justice. There’s no question about it.

But instead of focusing on the “worst of the worst” like President Trump promised to do, he and Stephen Miller are directing federal immigration enforcement to go after DACA recipients – mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers with absolutely no criminal record.

Why? Because they had the audacity to be brought here as children? Because they’ve only ever called this country home?

Why, instead of going after actual criminals, is this administration focused on young men and women who are woven into the fabric of their communities?

I think we know why. It’s because DACA recipients look a little different or sound a little different from what the Trump administration has decided “real Americans” look and sound like. It’s because DACA recipients’ shining successes prove that immigrants are actually a benefit to the United States, not a detriment as this administration would have us believe.

The actions of the Trump administration to delay DACA renewals are about as un-American as you can get.

I’ve been hearing and sharing stories of DACA recipients who have struggled with these delays. But I don’t think people really understand the toll this is taking on thousands of families across the country.

When someone’s DACA status expires, they lose their work permit. Some workers are placed on leave until their status gets renewed, but some permanently lose their jobs.

That means a source of income a family relies on is now gone.

If they have U.S. citizen children, critical support for them is now gone. If they had employer-sponsored health care, that’s now gone – and if they didn’t, then health care is even harder to afford.

It’s now more difficult for them to take care of disabled, elderly, or sick relatives. Not to mention, there’s now the constant threat of being sent away from their family to a country they’ve never known hanging over their heads.

That’s all piled on top of the enormously high cost of groceries, gas, electricity, and health care all Americans are experiencing under this administration.

Imagine being a DACA recipient who has lived your whole life in this country, except for a few years when you were a baby. For over a decade, your government has told you that if you play by the rules and contribute, you’ll be able to work and be protected from deportation.

You go to school, you get a job, you meet someone, you settle down and start a family like any American would. And then your government, the same one you support with your hard-earned tax dollars, turns on you.

I don’t know about you, but that is just unacceptable to me.

DACA recipients are not the only ones being punished – these delays are hurting our businesses and our communities, too. A police chief in California was here in Washington last month to talk about how delays in DACA renewals are hurting his police department. One of his officers was recently unable to work for a whole month while he waited for his renewal application to process. Local law enforcement is stretched thin as it is. Now, this administration is making it worse.

Small businesses, retailers, and construction companies are also losing the employees they depend on.

Approximately 37,000 health care workers are DACA recipients – the damage that could be done to our hospitals if their work permits aren’t renewed is unimaginable.

Hurting DACA recipients is hurting our country. And it’s being done to further the President’s and Stephen Miller’s goal of attacking immigrants.

It’s more important than ever that we recognize that fact in light of the upcoming celebrations for America’s 250th birthday.

Our 250th anniversary is a critical reminder that our great nation only exists because of immigrants.

To lose sight of that is to spit on everything our country stands for. The Declaration of Independence was written because a bunch of immigrants, and sons of immigrants, and grandsons of immigrants came together to escape tyranny and live their lives freely.

DACA recipients are asking for the same freedoms and opportunities the Founding Fathers envisioned for this country 250 years ago.

That’s why my Democratic colleagues and I will never stop fighting to pass the bipartisan Dream Act. This legislation to give these men and women the path to citizenship they deserve should have passed years ago. Until we get it done, we’re going to keep pushing for it.

And, we will never stop reminding this president that the United States of America is and has always been a nation of immigrants.

Source:  Senator Catherine Cortez Masto