- Click to share on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
- Click to share on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
- Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in a new window)
- Click to email a friend (Opens in a new window)
How Do Dreamers Benefit From Court Judgment? 1:11
Editor's Note: Dick Durbin, Democrat, is an American Senator from Illinois. The opinions expressed in this comment are yours. See more opinion at CNNe.com/opinion.
(CNN) - Dr. Manuel Bernal's parents brought him to the United States when he was only two years old. He grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. He graduated among the best of his class in high school and was the leader of several honor societies.
Manuel continued his education at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where he graduated summa cum laude with a minor in Biology and Chemistry. During college, Manuel worked as a medical scribe for the doctors in the emergency room of a small community hospital in Chattanooga. After this experience, he decided that he wanted to become an emergency room doctor himself.
Manuel chose to study Medicine at the Chicago Stritch School of Medicine at Loyola University. He was one of dozens of beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program at Stritch, the first medical school to admit DACA students.
Today, Manuel is a resident of the emergency room at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Chicago, one of the busiest hospitals on the south side of Chicago. He has been especially busy during the public health pandemic.
As Manuel risks his life caring for countless coronavirus-ill Illinoisans, his future is at stake: for nearly three years, President Donald Trump has pushed his fight to repeal DACA all the way to the Supreme Court.
Fortunately, last week the Supreme Court brought a smile as well as a sigh of relief to both Manuel and some 650,000 young people like him in the United States.
- READ: The US Supreme Court blocks Trump's attempt to end DACA
Manuel can continue working and living in the United States without fear of being deported ... at least for now.
The fight continues to give these DACA recipients, commonly known as "dreamers," a future in the only country they know as their home. Although this landmark Supreme Court ruling is a step in the right direction, it does not solidify the future of these young immigrants.
Almost 20 years ago, I introduced the bipartisan Dream Act with then-Republican Utah Senator Orrin Hatch. This bill gives "dreamers" a path to citizenship.
The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives approved the instrument in 2010, but it failed by only a few votes in the Senate. It was then passed by the Senate in 2013 as part of the comprehensive immigration reform bill that the Republican-controlled House of Representatives never brought to plenary for voting.
- READ: These are the people benefited by the decision of the US Supreme Court on DACA
Unfortunately, for decades "dreamers" like Manuel have lived in immigration purgatory due to the inability of Congress to muster the courage to solve this problem. The president's hateful rhetoric, failure to protect dreamers, and the inclination to use immigration to divide us have only worsened the political climate to solve the DACA problem once and for all.
Hypothetically speaking, Trump could try to repeal DACA again tomorrow if he so wishes. In fact, last week, Trump tweeted: "We will shortly be sending improved documents to properly comply with the ruling and yesterday's request from the Supreme Court."
As President Trump considers what to do next, you should know that more than 200,000 dreamers are essential employees and more than 40,000 are health workers, like Manuel. It would be an American tragedy, facing this national emergency, to lose these brave and talented young men. They are saving lives every day and risking theirs to do so.
- LOOK: The impact of the DACA ruling on Trump
It is up to Congress to ensure that Manuel and tens of thousands of others in our core workforce are not forced to stop working, while his services are needed now more than ever.
The bipartisan American Dream and Promise Act has been pending in the Senate at the hands of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for more than a year. He could bring this bill up for debate and vote, and thus give hundreds of thousands of "dreamers" a real chance to get out of limbo and become citizens of this great country. Last Monday, the entire Senate Group of Democratic Legislators asked him to do exactly that.
As long as I am a United States senator, I will continue to advocate for Manuel and other dreamers like him who simply want the opportunity to prove themselves and earn their way to a future in the United States. These young immigrants are what America is, and this fight is worth it regardless of the odds.
At a time when a pandemic threatens our public health and our economy in unimaginable ways, these dreamers have stepped forward in times of great need. It is high time that we do the same for them.
Dreamers Immigration United States