As California’s senior Senator, Dianne Feinstein has built a reputation as an independent voice, working hard to find commonsense solutions to problems facing California and the nation.
Since her election to the Senate in 1992, Senator Feinstein has built a significant record of legislative achievements across a wide range of issues.
Senator Feinstein led a bipartisan group of senators in passing legislation to drastically increase the fuel efficiency of cars. She was a leading voice in the effort to legalize gay marriage and ensure rights for LGBT Americans. She’s a champion for the preservation of the Mojave Desert, Lake Tahoe and California’s forests. She helped create the nationwide AMBER Alert network, passed bills to criminalize border drug tunnels and has long focused on improving California’s water infrastructure and reducing the threat of wildfires. She also continues to advocate for commonsense gun laws.
On September 5, 2017, Donald Trump’s Justice Department terminated the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA.
Since this announcement, Senator Feinstein and her Democratic colleagues have prioritized protecting these young people, known as Dreamers, from deportation.
Statements
“I’ve supported passage of the Dream Act for more than a decade. I’ve been a vocal supporter of young people protected by DACA since President Obama created the program in 2012. I’ve been an advocate for CHIP, which insures millions of children, for two decades. I’m not new to these issues, and my positions haven’t changed.”
“I voted against Kristjen Nielsen as Department of Homeland Security Secretary because I believe she would continue to prioritize deporting immigrant families rather than criminals. We also don’t yet have a commitment from Republican leadership that the DREAM Act will be passed by the end of the year, which places hundreds of thousands of young people in line for DHS deportation.”
“On DACA, you recommended in September that the program be terminated. And I think we believe these young people have placed their trust in the government. They have come out of the shadows. They have provided all of their information to authorities. They seek the opportunity to “get right with the law.” And I think most of us believe these DREAMers embody the American spirit and have made positive contributions to the country. So we should stand by them.”
“The Trump administration created a crisis by terminating the DACA program. Now it’s demanding draconian changes to our immigration system in exchange for fixing that crisis. It’s wrong to play with people’s lives and DACA recipients shouldn’t be a political football. The administration has now clearly stated that it doesn’t want to work in a bipartisan fashion, and that’s unfortunate. In response, Congress should quickly work to pass the bipartisan DREAM Act before Christmas.”
“I voted against the nomination of Francis Cissna as director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services because he refused to commit to the DACA program or protecting the hundreds of thousands of young people it currently safeguards. The Trump administration’s decision to end DACA without a permanent, legislative solution is cruel and irresponsible. I cannot support nominations for immigration positions in the administration until DACA youth are protected.”
“I strongly support Attorney General Becerra’s decision to take legal action to preserve the DACA program and protect more than 232,000 Californians from deportation. While I’m confident that DACA would be upheld, this action by Attorney General Becerra is no substitute for congressional action. Dreamers need a permanent, legislative solution that provides a path to citizenship. We should pass the DREAM Act as soon as possible.”
“Failure to protect young people who have come out of the shadows would constitute an abject moral failure. DACA recipients registered with the government, had background checks and paid taxes. They provided extensive documentation about their lives and put their trust in the government. We can’t respond by penalizing them.”
Op-eds
“I intend to join that effort to protect the more than 350,000 law-abiding young people who are living, working and being educated in the state of California. We have a moral obligation to do all we can to shield them from deportation and keep their families together.”
Remarks
“These young people study, they work, they pay their taxes. They’re patriotic. They’re American in every way that counts, and to leave them in such uncertainty is nothing less than cruel.”
“No family in America should be forced to face this fear and uncertainty at the hands of their own government. So I hope my colleagues will join me in supporting Senators Graham and Durbin in passing the DREAM Act. These youth should not be political footballs, they shouldn’t be asked to choose between their future and their families, and they should have the certainty of permanent immigration status.”
Congressional hearings
Letters
Legislation
Votes