About two years into his presidency, John F. Kennedy was pressed by reporters to explain why much of his legislative program was stalled in Congress.
Kennedy, who had served six years in the House and eight in the Senate before entering the White House, explained, with more than a hint of frustration, that passing major legislation in Congress is extraordinarily difficult. He reminded his questioners that successful bills must clear both chambers in identical form, avoid or defeat a Senate filibuster, and then be signed into law by the president.
“It’s very easy to defeat a bill in the Congress,” Kennedy said tersely. “It’s much more difficult to pass one.”
Illinois U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin strongly agrees with Kennedy, a perspective that he has gained the hard way during his impressive 44-year congressional career.
Durbin recently told me that trying to pass consequential legislation almost inevitably triggers a “titanic struggle” and years of arduous effort.
Durbin’s quarter-century quest to pass comprehensive immigration reform and his narrower, but highly cherished, Dream Act has indeed been a titanic struggle in which the senator has not prevailed — at least not yet.
The Dream Act would allow immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children to eventually become citizens after meeting numerous requirements. Durbin first introduced the measure in 2001 and has offered it in every Congress since then.
As he prepares to leave the Senate early next year, Durbin is anguished that he has not been able to pass this legislation.
“The failure to pass the Dream Act is still pulling at me,” he said. “While I knew it was time to go, I still feel like I’m letting down the hundreds of thousands of Dreamers out there. But I will not forget them. I will keep talking about this issue as a concerned citizen, and I will do everything that I can to support this effort.”
Durbin draws inspiration from his mentor, Illinois U.S. Sen. Paul Douglas, who spent years in the legislative wilderness championing civil rights reform when many saw his efforts as futile. But Douglas never backed down. “Even if every battle was unsuccessful, constant but peaceful struggle would hasten the ultimate coming of needed reforms,” Douglas wrote in his memoir “In the Fullness of Time.”
Likewise, Durbin’s friend, U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, worked relentlessly for decades on healthcare reform before it came to fruition. Sadly, he did not live to see the legislation become law. It was signed by President Barack Obama six months after Kennedy’s death.
Durbin has a long-game strategy on immigration reform that draws from these earlier struggles. He has absorbed their key lessons and adapted them to the challenges he faces on immigration.
First, he continues to keep the issue and imperative of immigration reform alive, frequently discussing it in speeches, at news conferences and in interviews. In his address to the Illinois General Assembly in May, the senator devoted the first half of his speech to immigration. “I’m proud to be the son of an immigrant,” he said, telling the story of his mother’s move to the U.S. from Lithuania when she was only 2 years old. He then shifted to promoting his bill. “I’m still committed to the Dream Act, and I hope you will join me in that commitment. It was a bipartisan measure, and it should be a bipartisan measure.”
Durbin has advocated for the act hundreds of times on the Senate floor over the years, highlighting the individual stories of more than 150 so-called Dreamers whose lives have enriched our nation.
He sees storytelling as essential to his quest. “President Lyndon B. Johnson had an assistant, Jack Valenti, who said that an effective communications strategy can be reduced to six words: ‘Let me tell you a story.’ When I tell the remarkable stories of these Dreamers on the Senate floor, I see the interns and staff sit up and pay attention.”
Second, Durbin has carefully sought out Republican co-sponsors for the Dream Act, beginning in 2001 with Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, then Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and now Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
“This needs to be bipartisan,” he told me.
Former U.S. Senate Historian Betty Koed told me this about Durbin: “He has truly become a ‘Senate workhorse.’ On matters of immigration reform, he has developed bipartisan alliances and has built a foundation for legislative action. When the will to act surfaces, there will be legislative language to be used.”
Third, Durbin has encouraged the rising generation of Capitol Hill lawmakers to concentrate on the issue after he departs next year. Sens. Alex Padilla of California, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Chris Coons of Delaware, and Rep. Delia Ramirez of Illinois have agreed. “We will take support wherever we can get it. But I have consciously reached out to younger members of Congress who can pick up the mantle and work on this in their own way,” he said.
Fourth, Durbin has continued to champion broad immigration reform while also developing narrower bills to address specific aspects of this complex challenge. He constantly searches for opportunities for legislative success. This summer, he and New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand introduced a pair of immigration reform bills. One would provide a new and stronger layer of oversight to protect immigrant children in government custody. The other would decrease political influence in the immigration system by transforming the immigration court into an independent judiciary.
“One thing we learned from the civil rights legislative battle is that you should take whatever victory is at hand. Don’t miss an opportunity to make progress. Accept even partial success,” Durbin told me.
Finally, while frustrated by his years of struggle and especially the hurtful impact that this impasse has had on the lives of millions of Dreamers, Durbin projects confidence that this cause will prevail.
“I think that time is on the side of this issue because justice is on the side of this issue. We simply can’t give up,” he said.
John T. Shaw is a professor at Marquette University’s Les Aspin Center for Government in Washington, D.C. His most recent book is “The Education of a Statesman: How Global Leaders Can Repair a Fractured World.” More Top Picks Best Impact Resistant Work Gloves
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