Sen. Dick Durbin honors memory of Sen. Lindsey Graham and his support of the DREAM Act

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) issued a statement honoring the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), who died this weekend.

Among other things, Durbin credited Graham for supporting the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, or DREAM Act, would provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as minors. The act would grant them temporary conditional residency and, if they are able to satisfy further qualifications, permanent residency and eventually the ability to gain full citizenship.

Durbin has been trying to pass the DREAM Act since 2001, and credited Graham for crossing party lines to cosponsor it.

"I was with Lindsey last week at the NATO Summit in Türkiye. At a private dinner at the Ambassador's residence, he was working every Senator on a strategy to end the war in Ukraine. Typical Lindsey.

 "Lindsey was part of every important policy issue and an indispensable player in every Senate 'gang'. He was a fierce Republican partisan one day and a key bipartisan ally the next.

 "When I was Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he was the Ranking Republican. His word was good — no cheap shots.

 "He knew the Dream Act was my most important bill. He was the only Republican who would cosponsor it for years. I will never forget it.

 "Loretta and I send our condolences to Lindsey's family and legion of friends in South Carolina and around the world."

Graham's office said I a statement that he died Saturday evening of a "brief and sudden illness."

No further detail on Graham's death was immediately available, but a recording of an emergency phone call on Saturday evening responding to a residence belonging to the senator mentions a dispatch for cardiac arrest. Graham was scheduled to appear on NBC News' "Meet the Press" on Sunday, according to the broadcaster.

President Trump paid tribute to Graham, calling him "one of the greatest people and Senators I have ever known," in a Truth Social post.