U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin on Tuesday called for quick approval of legislation this month to protect immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

The Illinois Democrat spoke hours after President Donald Trump announced his administration was phasing out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Durbin echoed a chorus of Illinois Democrats at many levels who pushed back against the decision.

Durbin appeared at a news conference with Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, calling for legislation known as the DREAM Act to pass the Senate during September.

Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the GOP-led chamber, addressed the young immigrants protected from deportation under DACA.

“Do not give up hope,” he said. “If you are one of those Dreamers … you need to be part of America and its future.”

“So let’s stand together, let’s take heart and stand together and make sure that we do the right thing for the Dreamers this month of September.”

The fast response came as other Illinois Democrats in Congress reacted angrily to Trump’s phaseout of the 2012 program that protected from deportation about 800,000 people who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children. In Illinois, 42,376 people have been granted DACA protections between when the program began and March 31, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Under DACA, these young people were allowed to work, get an education and student aid and enter the armed services if they passed a federal background check.

Comments from U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, a Chicago Democrat and longtime advocate on immigration issues, were among the most pointed.

“America is a better country than its president, and most Americans do not want to see documented immigrants converted into undocumented immigrants,” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez accused the Trump administration of being on a “very dangerous trajectory towards the full-throated endorsement of white supremacy — the likes of which we haven’t seen in the open from a sitting president for a century.”

Rep. Danny Davis, a Chicago Democrat, opposed Trump’s phaseout and said it was “questionable” whether Congress could enact a legislative fix in six months. Davis backs comprehensive immigration reform.

Rep. Robin Kelly, a Matteson Democrat, referenced Trump’s late mother, who immigrated to the U.S. from Scotland, posting to Twitter that the president “should remember Mary Anne MacLeod’s story.”

Meanwhile, Republican U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Channahon said Tuesday that he cast a 2015 vote to support DACA. The vote was against a Republican-sponsored bid to defund the program, his spokeswoman Maura Gillespie said.

President Barack Obama bypassed Congress in enacting it through an executive order. Kinzinger said that while it’s the job of Congress to pass legislation, Obama “offered a pathway for these individuals to get right with the law.”

He added: “… These children, who only know America to be their home, deserve an opportunity to be here legally.”

Rep. Peter Roskam, a Republican from Wheaton, did not respond directly to a Tribune question about whether he supported Trump’s decision to wind down DACA.

In a statement, Roskam said: “Our immigration system is clearly broken, and it’s long past time to fix it. … We need immigration policies that make our country safer, stronger, and more economically prosperous.”

Republican Randy Hultgren of Plano did not immediately respond Tuesday to Tribune requests for comment.

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat from Schaumburg, said the issue was personal to him because he was brought to the U.S. by his parents as a child.

Krishnamoorthi was born in New Delhi, India, and came to the U.S. as a 3-month-old with his father, who was traveling on a student visa to attend graduate school, and his mother, said Wilson Baldwin, the lawmaker’s spokesman.

“The hope for a better a life which carried my parents here was no different from that of the parents of Dreamers, and generations of immigrants before,” Krishnamoorthi said.

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