1st ‘DREAMer’ pins hopes on Durbin
Piano prodigy sparked senator’s inspiration for immigration bill
WASHINGTON – When Sen. Dick Durbin first met Tereza Lee — an undocumented teenager living with an ever-present fear of deportation — the Illinois Democrat figured it would be easy to address her anguishing immigration status.
He called federal immigration officials and recounted the story of this budding piano prodigy from Chicago who wanted to go to college and live the American dream. Sorry, they said, Lee would have to be deported to Brazil — a country she’d left at the age of 2 with her parents — wait for 10 years, then petition for re-entry to the USA.
That was 17 years ago. Lee is known to some as the original “DREAMer.” The spark she lit in Durbin in 2001 has become a national fire that has mobilized activists and paralyzed Congress.
At the center of the blaze is the DREAM Act, which Durbin sponsored in 2001 to create a path to citizenship for young immigrants brought to the USA as children and living here illegally. Those who would benefit from the act were labeled “DREAMers.”
What started out as a bipartisan bill led to a polarizing executive order — issued by President Obama and rescinded by President Trump.
In recent weeks, Durbin has been the target of derogatory tweets from Trump and bitter complaints from disappointed DREAMers. As he tries to navigate an immigration standoff, Lee watches intently from the sidelines, hoping he doesn’t lose his will.
The fate of the DREAMers was at the heart of the recent government shutdown, and it remains the main sticking point as lawmakers negotiate an agreement that would keep the government open and prevent the DREAMers from being deported.
“He truly feels that this is his legacy,” said Lee, 34, an American citizen, immigration rights activist and pianist studying for her doctorate at the Manhattan School of Music. Lee became a citizen through marriage in 2010.
Lee said part of her believes Durbin will do whatever it takes to get the bill into law. Another part is burning mad that Durbin and other Democrats “caved in to the Republicans” and agreed to reopen the government without an agreement to protect the DREAMers. “They should be powerful enough and courageous enough not to do that,” she said.
Lee was 7 years old when she learned she was living in the USA illegally.
“My dad sat us down around the living room,” she recalled. “He said he had a very serious secret to tell us. We couldn’t say anything to anybody.”
Lee’s parents fled South Korea after the Korean War left them financially devastated. The couple moved to Brazil, then to the USA when Lee was 2. They arrived on tourist visas and stayed after those expired. Her mother worked in a dry cleaners, and her father served as a pastor on Chicago’s North Side.
It was at her father’s church that she discovered the piano. “My dad forced me to learn a hymn a week,” she said. “By the time I was 9, I had memorized the entire hymn book.”
Lee started playing in — and winning — competitions. In high school, she earned a scholarship to attend the Merit School of Music, a Chicago institution that provides musical training to lowincome children.
Durbin guessed there were others like her but didn’t realize how many — until he started talking publicly about her case.
Trump has given Congress until March 5 to address the status of the DREAMers.
Lee said Durbin will “keep his word and fight for the DREAM Act all the way until it’s passed.”
Others said that if anyone can get a deal, it’s Durbin. “He’s more passionate about this than anybody,” said Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., one of the key GOP players in the negotiations. And “he’s more experienced on it than anybody.”
Tereza Lee, known as the original DREAMer, said Sen. Dick Durbin will “keep his word and fight for the DREAM Act all the way until it’s passed.”