For several hours, the spotlight shined on Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen during her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday January 16. Nielsen testified that she did not hear President Trump use a vulgarity in a meeting with lawmakers about immigration the prior week. “I did not hear that word used, no, sir” she responded when reminded by Senator Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) that she was testifying under oath. She was pressed again by Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) who was present at the same meeting with the President.

At the hearing, Sen. Durbin asked two of the so-called “dreamers” to stand and be recognized. One, Alejandra Duran, is a medical student in Chicago. Said Durbin, “Her future is in doubt. Without the protection of DACA, she does not have a legal permission to work in America. You cannot become a doctor without a residency. A residency is a job. If DACA is eliminated and her protection is eliminated and her right to work is eliminated, then her future as a doctor is in doubt.” The other who was asked to stand, John Magdaleno, “came from Venezuela at the age of 9. In high school he was the commander of Air Honor Society and Junior ROTC. He graduated from Georgia Tech, one of the best engineering schools in America with a degree in chemical and biomolecular engineering with the highest honors. He now works as a chemical engineer. His dream is to serve in the United States military. John, thanks for being here. That’s what this debate is all about. That’s what DACA is all about.”

Just outside the hearing room in the Senate Hart Office Building, hundreds of protesters from the the activist group “United We Dream” assembled in the building lobby to demand Congress pass the Dream Act before disbursing to personally lobby various Republican senators in their offices. Several were arrested by the Capitol Police. [The DREAM (acronym for Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) Act is a multi-phase process for qualifying alien minors in the United States that would first grant conditional residency and, upon meeting further qualifications, permanent residency. It was first proposed in 2001 by Senators Dick Durbin and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and has been introduced several times but has failed to pass.]

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) was a policy that allowed some individuals who entered the country as minors and had either entered or remained in the country illegally, to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and to be eligible for a work permit.  As of 2017, approximately 800,000 so called “Dreamers” were enrolled in the program created by DACA. The policy was established by the Obama Administration in June 2012 and rescinded by President Donald Trump in September 2017. If DACA is not renewed, many of these “Dreamers”, some of whom have lived in the U.S. virtually all of their lives, face loss of their education prospects, their livelihoods and risk deportation and permanent separation from their families.

The debate over the nation’s immigration policy has been caught up in the political maneuvering over funding the federal government and preventing a shutdown. Just before Christmas, Republicans put forward a short-term funding bill (known as a continuing resolution) that didn’t include a substitute for DACA. To the consternation of Congressional Democrats, Paul Ryan, the Speaker of the House, has proposed another continuing resolution that omits DACA again. Without action by Congress, DACA recipients will begin to lose their protections from deportation on March 5. If a deal does not pass Congress, the Goverment will shut down as early as this weekend.

View Jeff Malet’s photos from the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing and the protest at the Hart Senate Office Building by clicking on the photo icons below.