November 14, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 182 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Page H8837]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            SUPPORT DACA AND JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM REFORM

  (Ms. JACKSON LEE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, let me speak to a young man in my 
office who is studying at St. Edwards College in Austin, Texas. He is a 
person who is able to fulfill his dreams because of DACA.
  Yesterday, the Supreme Court heard the case about all of these young 
people, 800,000 who are working as paramedics, in medical school, in 
law school, going into rural communities and being servants of the 
people, some wanting to go into the United States military. Here is a 
program that was working well, and this administration imploded it 
because of wrongheaded decisions about immigrants.
  This is a nation of laws and of immigrants. We want to comply with 
the law. That is what DACA was allowing these young people to do.
  We need to restore DACA, work together so that young people all over, 
no matter what walk of life they come from, can have opportunity.
  At the same time, I am looking to reform the juvenile justice system. 
Most people don't know that when you go into a juvenile detention 
center, there is no sentence, and there is no bail. The bail process is 
complicated.
  We are looking to provide what we call an omnibus bill to deal with 
how we treat juveniles to ensure that we don't throw away lives; that 
if you have a mistake at the age of 12 or 14, your life is in front of 
you; and that we help parents with wraparound services.
  What I hear most of all is a parent saying: ``Help me. I don't know 
where to go. I don't have the resources.''
  A nation as great as America can invest in her children, whether it 
is the DACA status of our young children attempting to be part of this 
Nation or whether or not, in fact, it is those young people who made a 
slight wrong turn and are thrown away for years in detention centers 
that are like jails. We are a nation that can do better.
  And, yes, God bless our veterans.

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