Senator Durbin first introduced the Dream Act in 2001, which is bipartisan legislation that would give young immigrants who grew up in this country a path to citizenship. Senator Durbin has gone to the Floor of the U.S. Senate more than 150 times to tell the stories of Dreamers, who are the future doctors, engineers, teachers, and soldiers who will make this country stronger. 

In 2010, Senator Durbin and a Republican colleague were the first members of Congress to call for the establishment of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) to protect Dreamers from deportation. In 2011, Senator Durbin led 22 Senators in urging then-President Obama to suspend the deportations of Dreamers. On June 15, 2012, then-President Obama announced the creation of DACA. DACA has unleashed the potential of Dreamers, who are contributing to our country as engineers, public school teachers, health care professionals, small business owners, and civil rights advocates.

In December 2025, twenty-five years after he first introduced the Dream Act, Senator Durbin introduced the Dream Act for his final time as a U.S. Senator with Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).

Senator Durbin was a member of the “Gang of Eight”—four Democrats and four Republicans—who authored comprehensive immigration reform legislation that passed the Senate on a strong bipartisan vote of 68-32 in 2013. This bill would have strengthened border security, provided a path to citizenship for Dreamers and other undocumented immigrants with deep roots in this country, established new protections for American workers, and cleared the backlog of legal immigrants who have been waiting years for green cards.