HOUSTON – Friday, protesters stormed outside Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn’s Houston office at 5300 Memorial Drive, calling for support for the DREAM Act.
“We are urging for Senator Cornyn to support a DREAM Act now, not tomorrow, not by March. Now, and for him to either vote yes for DREAM Act or No to the CR spending bill if it doesn’t have a Dream Act attached,” said DACA recipient Franklin Enriques.
Immigration advocates hope that Congress will act soon in passing the DREAM Act, and might include it in the spending bill that needs to be passed by Friday, January 19, 2018.
A statement from Senator Cornyn’s office says he’s “introduced a bill to protect DACA recipients called the SECURE Act, which includes the bipartisan BRIDGE Act that was cosponsored by Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Chuck Schumer (D-NY), among others. The legislation protects the status of DACA recipients for 3 years.”
Enriques, also said he wants “Senator John Cornyn to know that I’m here to stay, here to fight for my community, here to contribute. That’s what we’re here for. It’s not just that, it’s the moral obligation of a human being to help others who need help.”
At a press conference in Austin earlier in the week, Senator Cornyn’s said, “I do believe it’s important for us to find a solution for these young men and women who now find themselves trapped by the fact they were brought here underage by their own parents but they don’t have an opportunity to fully join productive society. I support a solution for the DACA young adults, kids.”
Cornyn also stated that he’s “pretty encouraged that, on a bipartisan basis, we want to restore our reputation as a country that believes in the rule of law and enforcing our immigration laws, but also demonstrating the kind of compassion that’s always characterized immigration in America: the one consistent with the rule of law.”
