Sens. Lindsey Graham and Dick Durbin on Tuesday called on Congress to pass the DREAM Act this month after President Donald Trump gave legislators six months to find a permanent solution before the DACA program ends.
"The only thing that stands between you and certainty in your life is the Congress," Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said at a news conference with Durbin, an Illinois Democrat. "That cannot be that reassuring.
"The Congress is going to have to up its game."
Graham and Durbin were members of the bipartisan "Gang of Eight" senators who sponsored a comprehensive immigration bill that passed the chamber in 2013.
House Republicans refused to act on the legislation.
Former President Barack Obama created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in 2010 by executive order.
"He was right to terminate DACA," Graham said of Trump. "I believe from day one, it was an unconstitutional overreach by President Obama."
Durbin told reporters "the clock is ticking."
"We are now in a countdown toward deportation for 780,000 protected by DACA.
"For those young men and women across America, I can tell you, this is a moment of great concern, great fear, and great anxiety about what's going to happen to their lives," Durbin said.
"We need to do our job right here in the United States Senate," he added. "We need to pass, in this month of September, a DREAM Act, a permanent law in this country, that says that these young people will have their chance to become part of America's future."
In 2010, the House of Representatives, which was controlled by Democrats, passed a Dream Act, but it died in the Senate.
Republicans retook control of the House later that year, taking an increasingly harder line on immigration.
Two years after the Gang of Eight bill passed the Senate, a GOP border security bill languished because of objections from conservatives.
"The president did the country a service by going back to constitutional order in a way that allows a six-month opportunity for the Congress to take care of these kids," Graham later added.
"The president was right on the law, but he was also right to give us six months to figure out a solution to this."
Graham said the DREAM Act should be part of broader immigration reform that includes stronger borders and other measures — and he called on President Trump to help Congress find a solution to the Dreamer issue.
"Help us," he said. "Help us in the House. Help us in the Senate.
"I think you're a good man. Get involved, personally.
"Work the phones," Graham said. "Try find a consensus here."
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