If President Trump or daca. Is it he said it would be a disaster if President Trump thank you for joining this very important conversation. Today, i have the honor of introducing to you that only a congressman, but a leader in our community but not only a congressman, but a leader in our community. We need to work immediately. Thank you very much for joining us. We are going to have this conversation about two very important issues in our community. Number one of course is daca. Tomorrow is the fifth anniversary of this Extraordinary Program that is impacting the lives of so many Young Leaders. We want to have a conversation with you about that. They second one is the second one is cps. Majority of recipients are right here in the washington d c area washington, d. C. Area. They want to have a conversation with you about that. We want to hear from you, what you think about how we can work together. Please join me and welcome congressman steny hoyer. [applause] rep. Hoyer thank you very much. Its metadata at us, we are in a lot of trouble gets mad at us, we are in a lot of trouble. I want to thank all the staff who does such extraordinary work and in such a extraordinary way in our region, not just Prince George county, but washington, d. C. , the region. Some people said they were living in virginia. That is fine because we are obviously a community in the washington metropolitan area. Here, we had i was a rally out front and a lot of people there, talking about treating people fairly. Treating people in the best interest of our country. Not just of their best interest, but of our country. I want to get your viewpoint, your story, what the impact of steps in washington would be to you and your families and to. Our employers claudia is particularly focused on these issues. I want to thank who does such an extraordinary job and all the volunteers. I want to thank the volunteers as well or maybe some of you are volunteers and you stay you are you say you are on the staff. When my staff leave and go to another job, almost always making more money, i say you can go off the payroll, you cannot go off the staff. I consider it always sort of permanent. Been critical to providing support to families facing being split apart. The services you talked about, education, health care, social services, housing, all of those things confront all of us. Some of us know who to call. So many of us do not know who to for themthey call casa and their families and the response you give is critically important to their welfare and the welfare of our community, so thank you very much for several million undocumented young people who were brought here as. Inors they may speak the language. For all intents and purposes, they are americans. To say to them you are no longer ,elcome here is morally individually, as well as hopefully legally, unacceptable policy for us to have. Casas advocacy is critical and timely. Several states attorneys general are demanding that president obama and end the 5. A program on september you mean President Trump. Rep. Hoyer what did i say . President obama put it in place for the best interest of america. It is in the best interest of those of you who are beneficiaries of the Doctor Program of the daca program. It is also for the best interest of america. He were to repeal this program, it would be a humanitarian disaster and a breach of our nations most fundamental values. Democrats will not sit idly by. There are republicans who will not sit idly by, hopefully enough to make a difference. Leadertell you that pelosi, myself, the chairman of our Democratic Caucus who represents one of the most diverse districts in america, in new york. We have all said that we will do whatever we can to ensure that daca children are protected, daca young adults are protected and daca families are protected. We have conveyed that to the administration. If the administration pursues a policy of deportation and humiliation of immigrants who simply wish to build a better life here, escape poverty and , i was the chairman of the committee on cooperation with europe and i used to travel to the soviet union and say to them, allow families to be reunited. Allow people to come out of the soviet union and be with their wife or their father or their mother or their brother or sister. Went to the soviet union and other countries to ask for that, can i expect less of my own country . The answer to that is a emphatic no. We need to pass a comprehensive Immigration Reform bill. The United StatesSenate Passed a comprehensive immigration bill. It had you provided security for the border. If you talk to anyone from the hispanic or Asian American caucus, they would say that security at our borders is critically important. We understand that. In a age of terrorism, we just saw the other day, domestic but terrorist terrorism nonetheless. We need to make sure we know who is coming into our country. We have always been a country that lifted its lamp beside a golden door, offering hope and sanctuary, escaping from violence, sanctuary from for people. Unfortunately, we do not seem to be carrying that roll out role out as it should be by people in our country for people who want to build a better life here and escape the violence that threatens their lives and their families. Here in maryland, dreamers add over half 1 billion annually to our states economy. Dreamers add to our gross state product. Loseountrys economy would 460 billion over the next 10 years were dreamers to be reported deported. That is 46 billion a year. Let us how much value dreamers ,dd to america, to our economy to our culture and society, every year. That is why i will continue to push for comprehensive Immigration Reform that creates a pathway to citizenship. That is why i supported and cosponsored louise Luis Gutierrezs bill. To ensure that there is a pathway to citizenship. Bill willely, that not be brought to the floor by our republican friends. Had it been brought in the last congress, that bill would pass. I want to thank all of you for being here. I want to thank those of you who are going to give me your stories. Real Life Experiences are very compelling for our voters. If you talk in the abstract, sort of, yes ok, i think that is right that when he talked to and talkdividuals when you about individuals and the impact it has had on their families, that grabs people. You understand why steny hoyer care so much about this, why you care so much. Because it affects individuals, one at a time, then their families, their employer, or their employees and their community, then their nation. I am here to open up discussions with all of you and i will therefore stop talking and let you talk. Thank you very much, gustavo and thank you for being here. [applause] thank you very much for your work. It is my honor to introduce these extraordinary heroes. They are heroes because they have been fighting for justice, for comprehensive Immigration Reform, for their families and for themselves. She emigrated with her parents from chile when she was just a child. Thanks to daca, she is a successful manager of a state farm office. Worked in many different places. In the annets casa Arundel School board association. All that organizing, the youth and the community. The second person i want to ,ntroduce to you as my coworker fatiima fatima. She immigrated with her family when her siblings were young. She and her siblings are all what we call daca holders. She is studying Political Science at Montgomery College and she is an extraordinary organizer in casa. I want to welcome both of you and say thank you very much. [applause] thank you for having me, today and allowing me the space and time to share my story. At the congressman said, we have seen that is our stories that educate the rest of the community and population about what it truly means to go through life as a undocumented immigrant. As gustavo mentioned, i was brought here directly to maryland at the age of two and i will have my 20 Year Anniversary of living in the state in september of this year. My parents were both young. They had me when they were 18, so this was the land of opportunity and the reason they came here was to be able to provide myself a better opportunity than they were able to, in chile. I am thankful they made a courageous decision to leave everything behind and to come to a country that they dont know and they dont know the language and just for the close they had on the back and what the capac in their bags what they could pack in their bags. They taught us our morals and ethics, to work hard in school, to go and get a higher education, to treat others as you would want to be treated and to help those that need it. That is what has instilled in me to become the woman i am, today. I grew up in anne arundel county, where there are not many undocumented immigrants. I felt very alone. I did not know of other students who were going through the same situation and the same issues that i was facing. Someone who had to live their day thinking and wondering whether their parents were coming home. Thinking and wondering whether they were actually going to be able to achieve all their dreams because our School Teachers instilled in me that if you work hard enough and you tried hard enough, but you can reach anything. The reality is being an undocumented, especially back then, it was a faraway dream. If your parents did not have sufficient numbing sufficient money, there was no dream act, back then. That was not going to happen. I felt very alone. I found casa and started volunteering when i was in high school. Started to realize that there were other people in the community that were going through the same thing i was, and i used that fear and frustration to fuel the fight. I decided that i was not going to stay home and keep being frustrated and crying about what i could not achieve, that it was a time to make things change. It was time to stand up and let the u. S. Government no we are here, we want to contribute, we want to give back to the community. This is our home and we are just as american as every other student and neighbor. Thankfully, the maryland dream act passed and i attempted to go to college. I went to umb cn i was double majoring in biology and Political Science. Unfortunately, due to financial struggles, i was unable to keep attending. I did not let that stop me and i decided that up i could not start my career with education, i would start my career somewhere else. Event volunteering, i met my future employer. Thank god i met this wonderful gentleman. He was it he was a he was very supportive of the immigrant employee of the immigrant community. Said even if we have to fight them on getting everything set up, we will do this and we will get you working. He took it a step further and said we are going to make sure that we offer the same opportunities to other Daca Recipients. The students who have worked so hard and they finally get this chance to get employment and a chance to better themselves. We will open these doors for them. I want to thank everybody in the community who has done that. You have given us the opportunity and that is what we needed. Casa was an operative daca was an opportunity. Daca opened all these doors. We could reach for education, we could get employment and start a career and contribute to our community, which is the biggest thing that all of us really want. We want to show that we are true contributions to our community. Thankfully, that has kept me going. Unfortunately, we see these attacks now and we are fearful, again. We see our families being deported, our neighbors. I have to check in with my mother and let her know i did not get pulled over on my way home, i am just running a little late. Im going through the daca renewal process and we dont if anyone who did not renew and time, oh well. We need to come up with a solution, whether it be that we keep daca as it is and get a ahead, orurther whether we use this pressure and these attacks to make sure we get a permanent solution for our Daca Recipients and families. We cannot forget about our families. We Daca Recipients are very vocal and we are kind of the poster boy of the immigrant movement. The courageoust decisions our parents made to leave everything behind. Thank you for letting me share my story and my sentiment and views of daca. Thank you very much. [applause] rep. Hoyer you mentioned the dream act passed by the Maryland Legislature and as you know, that was also voted upon by the people and the people of maryland, the majority said yes, that is what we want to do. The people have spoken on this issue. Thank you very much. I want to start by thanking you for being such a great champion in introducing the hope act. Rep. Hoyer you can tell she is a Political Science major. [laughter] thank you very much. The legislation is giving us hope. I migrated to the United States in 2007. Schoolated maryland high and became involved in the movement in 2012. That was when i was facing a deadend. I did not know what to do. I did not know what were my options. Higher education was not an option for me. Wasund out that casa working in this campaign that was called the maryland dream act and that was when i became involved with casa and the work casa was doing at that time. Thanks to the maryland dream act, i was able to continue with school. I was able to go to Community College and continue with my education. In my house, my siblings and i, all three of us have daca. They are younger. Daca is what is allowing us to continue to work and contribute to this country and because of that, we are able to help my. Arents pay rent thank you very much. I know we have some additional dreamers and i just want to know if you want to make any comments before we move. Go ahead. You were 13 when you came here . You are going to montgomery juniorcollege now. Is it brothers, sisters . My sister is in college at the moment. Rep. Hoyer she is a little younger than you are. You have a you have another sibling. A brother. Rep. Hoyer is he in high school . He graduated. Rep. Hoyer all of you are protected right now by daca. Right. Rep. Hoyer thank you. Anybody else . Any of you dreamers want to make a comment . Please go ahead. I i graduated from Prince Georges county out public schools. I am finishing up my last year at the university of Maryland University college. Pursues allowed me to and further myself, my education to obtain a job in a field that i can actually give back and help those like myself that came and the potential to do great things in this community. With a lot of the youth i work with, currently and it is a great reward, just seeing the impact we are doing and i remember imagining my whole life that i was going to be working with youth. It has taught me a lot about myself and has helped me grow as a professional and as a person. Toa is what has allowed me experience many opportunities to further my education and i hope that i am not going to be done with just a bachelors. I actually want to continue helping others. I think that is my purpose in life, to help others like myself and see what we can do to better our communities. That is what we are here for. 0 word rep. Hoyer were you working before daca . Workobtained my first daca permit as soon as i graduated high school. Becausejust in time after high school, i mightve taken one or two courses at a Community College if i had the financial support, but even with daca, there have been so many challenges because education is expensive. Many Daca Recipients know that we have to work twice as hard. There are very limited options for us like scholarships. We have to find that one that will allow us in. It is twice as hard, but i know the reward is much bigger for us because we have to work twice as of thed at the end tunnel, there is going to be like. Thank you very much. Tell us your name, again. I am with the latin American Youth center. Amateur believer in that telling your story is a way to get to peoples hearts. I can definitely relate to your fears. It is suchow, a scary situation where anything could happen. I remember thinking that daca was keeping me safe but at this point, it is not a security, anymore. When i survey college, i was still undocumented at the time. Daca was nothing to be heard of. Rep. Hoyer when did you start . I started in the spring of 2010. I was working in a job, about 50 hours a week but only earning about 350 a week and i needed whenpport my family, so daca came in, my biggest excitement was having a drivers license. I could finally have such a not being able to not have an id was a big deal for me, even applying for colleges, i could not do it online because i did not have a Social Security number. I had to apply on paper and then exploit explain my entire story and having to put down the evenity was really hard , it was really hard to get documented because at one point, i remember driving through the diversity parking lot and having police behind me and thinking oh my gosh, i am going to get pulled over and the making away, i have a drivers license. It was so internalized to be a documented for me that it was hard to get over it to be undocumented for me, that it was hard to get over it. I would love to talk to you because that is how we shared you. Rces thank thank you very much for sharing. [applause]. Nybody else who wants to share wants to share . [unintelligible] rep. Hoyer youre a new yorker and we let you come down here . I am a new yorker, myself. [laughter] [unintelligible] to make it at this level, we are on the top 10 , in the nation. Top 10 . Topave 18,000 agents in the 10 top 10 in my office. [applause] now we want to share with you about to extraordinary Young Leaders two extraordinary Young Leaders. Two weeks ago, they were deported. I think that is important that you know who were those extraordinary and talented leaders in our community and i was to invite heather, who the teacher and she is going to describe more about this. Please go ahead. You fort to thank inviting me to represent my students and i would rather my students be here to represent themselves and it is the unfortunate circumstance that they cant. I would like to thank casa for jumping to their aid very quickly. I see people from the river road church supporting them and the Community Outreach has been incredible. The community has been deeply impacted. I could describe the communitys position as nothing more than despairing. Came to the United States in 2009, had children, they were fleeing violence and instability in el salvador. Both children were under the age of 15. Boys, i met them at the high school in gaithersburg, maryland. You would quickly know who they were because they were always in iscer uniforms and it uncommon that they join the school team because they are overwhelmed by that idea. They quickly adapted to their community and established a wide circle of friends. Thesethink about are boys who popped on buses after school and were going to with young people that were different from them. I think that is sort of exemplary other character that these were young men who came here and were sort they sought out sought out their dreams very quickly. They were just shy of eligibility for daca, so they had no route of relief. They did all that ice asked of them. Was awarded a scholarship based from his performance in soccer to a university in North Carolina. That is what motivated the father to take them to the last check in because they wanted to change the address. His brother wanted to support him through that change of moving states and places. It was at that time of the boys were detained that the boys were detained and expeditiously deported. That was a shock at the local level and the state level because there was an extreme amount of pushback and we are shocked and startled that they would of done this to these boys in particular and that our voices were utterly ignored. If i had to describe him in one word, it would be committed. Excuse me. Diego would often show up in his soccer gear whether it was for the Bethesda Club or the school team. Howould come in and tell us the team was doing as a way of engaging other english speakers. When he was not in his soccer andorm, he would come in his typical outfit was a buttondown polo with nice khaki slacks and he was a gentleman. He was focused and hardworking. He had a positive relationship with the administration and with the community, teachers and his friends. He was a member of a Student Group iran and a contributor to literary magazine, but responsibilityal and extremely serious and he only has positive things for our community and country. I believe is most of you can tell, these brothers exemplify everything we look for a new americans, the tenacity to overcome great difficulty, their work ethic, the commitment and a propulsion toward the american dream. As the boys were being detained prior to deportation, they were begging to please just let my brother live the american dream. Appreciate your continued support of both pieces dreamislation, the 2017 act and the American Health act. American hope act. [applause] rep. Hoyer thank you very much, everybody who spoke. I am sure that there were a lot of tears that have beens have been shed and are going to be shed if we dont have a policy that is consistent. I want to remind people that the United StatesSenate Passed legislation that said were going to work with those people who are in the United States but are not authorized to be here to make sure that there is a pathway to citizenship and there were some conditions. First of all, it was not amnesty as some people say. You had to pay a fine. There was a penalty. Someone whoot be has done wrong. Criminal offenses or something else. Serious criminal offenses. You had to have a substantial period of time to achieve this pathway. Were consistent with that piece of legislation. It is not as if president obama acted unilaterally. He acted consistent with the bipartisan bill that 14 republicans voted for, that said we are going to have a pathway to assimilate those who have come to this country and our positive members of our society. If you come here and commit a crime, fine on you. Arguing to not deal with those who commit crimes in our country, but what we are arguing and will continue to argue and we will try to make sure that we continue the policy that the United States senate ied and in my opinion am the width in the house of representatives, which means i count votes. That is my job. My judgment is when the Senate Passed its bill, had we put it on the floor, it wouldve had a majority of the votes in the house of representatives. Ors is not just my opinion Luis Gutierrezs opinion or the hispanic caucus. The unitedpinion of states senate, a overwhelming majority and in my opinion, the opinion and in my opinion, of the house of representatives. We will work to continue a rational continuation of daca that is so important to all of our communities and important to all of you. [applause] we want to make sure the temporary protected status for those who obtain that status are not threatened by adverse actions. Again, as all of us expect, to be treated fairly if we follow the laws of our country, of our community, of our state, of our local municipalities. It is so important for us not to have people like these two brothers came here from el be one ofjudged to the most dangerous countries in the world. I have three daughters. I have three grandchildren and i have four great grandchildren. If i lived in the most dangerous place in the world and they were at risk if they went out the door. We saw 17yearold just died as the result of a bullet that was not meant for her, simply because it was dangerous in the community. Danger a small amount of when you compare it with some of the countries from which people come. I talked about refuge, i talked about the lamp being lifted beside a golden door. When the president was were going he said to have all of them leave the country. If all of them left the country, it would make a very substantial adverse effect on the economy of our country. Not to mention the humanitarian disaster. Pursuing a very vigorous deportation policy. Were in the shortest period of time that the lawyer had seen. We did not give consideration. It meant it was just a formula. You havent done this, have not done that, out. Here is a young man getting a scholarship to the university of North Carolina. Maybe could not get into the university of maryland. Excellent educational institution. He gets a scholarship to play soccer. Would not of gotten a scholarship if he was not academically qualified. Summarilyis brother to ad out of the country, country how old were they when they came to this country . And theyere under 15 are 19 and 22. They came in they went to high school and they assimilated. That is why the university of North Carolina gave one of them a scholarship. Ms. Bradley speaks to their character and to their conduct. I want all of you to know that to hear Luis Gutierrez speak, i dont know that there is anybody that space with more passion and knowledge than he does. I graduated from high school before any of you were born, probably. 1957, here in Prince Georges county and i went to the university of maryland. That was the Civil Rights Movement in our country. We had a tragic confrontation in charlottesville over the last 96 hours. Our president did not respond toectively or appropriately , people who sympathize and hold a swastika up, showing support of nothing policies were the most support of nazi policies that were the most horrific in my lifetime. Not the only, but certainly the most terrific. This idea that we must hate one another as of some difference. Martinup in a time when luther king said it was the context of character, not the content of character, not the color of skin, but the character. Miss bradley, you speak to the character of this young man and his brother. You spoke eloquently about wanting to help people and help your country. You came at the age of two. You know no other country. Im sure you speak spanish, and fluently, the fact of the matter is, this is your country. I wanted to know i want you to know, as your representative. Fighting to make sure we follow a policy that is good for america, good for america and good for all the people for whom you advocate. I know other people are going to have some questions before you leave. I want to open up the floor because i know you have some questions. We are going to start with nora. I work for Prince Georges county public schools. We are supporters of all of our students including our immigrants and undocumented students, following federal law. We just want to make sure you will continue to protect civil rights, laws and legislation as they stand. We are very concerned about any retaliation taken against Public Institutions for following federal law and policies and i was just wondering if you had any thoughts on that. Rep. Hoyer i think the proposals we have seen, largely around sanctuary cities or other organizations that are churches, we see churches saying we are going to be a sanctuary for those who are at risk and need help. Policiesvery negative and frankly, i think that those policies will not be enacted into law because there are enough members who oppose those policies, including some republicans. It is not just democrats, who believe those are negative policies and when we talk about sanctuary cities, we passed the violence against women act and one of the provisions extended it to undocumenteds so that everybody was included in the protections. When the bill came to the floor, it did not include those protections and i opposed it and many others opposed it and finally, we got protections for everybody. Why would you want to have protections for everybody . Because the person he was abused , who is afraid to come forward means that the abuser will not be held to answer your question, we are going to be very vigorous in trying to assure we dont penalize cities, states, school forems, other organizations protecting people we believe are in need of protection. Any additional questions . I want to make sure every one of you get the point of the example i gave. The protection is to the person who was abused. More importantly, the reason law it, its sois for people will be willing to come complaint. Logic lodge a complaint. People wont have to hide under a rug. We dont want people to have to do that. Lady, youant a young talked about driving down and seeing the police car. We all get a little nervous when the police car is in back of us. I have a license. Frankly, when people are nervous, they are not to, they do things we dont want them to do. It is it. I do have a question. Asks tough questions