Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by First Lady Jill Biden at an Event Marking the 12th Anniversary of DACA

The East Room

Who knows the possibility of a dream better than those who traveled miles just to find it?

I’ve seen it over and over in my community college students – immigrants and refugees, first generation Americans who take nothing for granted. They show up. They don’t complain. And they only ask for one thing in return: the chance to work hard and build a good life for themselves and their families.

That’s the promise of America. That’s the promise that drew Joe’s and my ancestors to the United States: That we are a nation defined not by language or ethnicity, by race or religion – that America is and has always been defined by us: We, the people. 

So, today, I want to tell you an American story.

You came to this country over a decade ago to work, to study, to find a future. You made a plan. And then you fell in love.

So, you built a life – a home. One filled with big smiles on little faces, with laughter and skinned knees, with PTA meetings and soccer practice.

You go to the school of your dreams and start a business and tutor kids in math after school.

And all you want is to give your child all the possibility of the world. 

But hanging over you is a shadow: a missing piece of paper – the possibility that your family may not be able to stay together.

It’s a story that too many families all across this country live every day.

Since Joe took office, we’ve heard from those mothers and daughters, those fathers and sons about the agony of that shadow.

So, Joe is doing what he always does – leading the way with compassion and experience – taking the action our nation needs to thrive. Today, Joe is helping our country continue reaching for the dream of America.

With our different backgrounds and beliefs, each of us makes our nation and remakes it – in big ways and small ones. We are millions of individuals that add up to something so much bigger than any one of us.

That’s why what Joe is doing today is for all of us: for the communities that are stronger because of the immigrants who call them home. For the thousands of families who have added their bright and beautiful threads to our American tapestry. For those mothers and husbands and dreamers who have waited so long, worked so hard, given so much.

For people like Javier, who was able to pursue his dream of being a nurse thanks to DACA, who saves lives every day, whose family needs him, and who shouldn’t have to live in fear.

Please help me welcome, Javier Quiroz Castro.

###