Nancy Pelosi is filibustering on the House floor over the fate of DREAMers in an immigration bill

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday launched a filibuster on the House floor over the young undocumented immigrants known as DREAMers. At 10:04 a.m. ET, Pelosi began to recount the stories of various DREAMers, who were brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents and are protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

"Why are we here, if not to protect the patriotic young people who are determined to contribute and to strengthen America?" Pelosi asked. During her speech, she demanded that House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) allow a vote on a bill that would protect the DREAMers; she had announced earlier Wednesday that she would not support a Republican-authored spending bill unless it included a path to citizenship.

The Washington Post's Paul Kane noted that Pelosi is one of only three House leaders — the speaker, the majority leader, and the minority leader — who have the right to speak for an unlimited amount of time. HuffPost's Matt Fuller observed that Pelosi asked for water an hour into her speech and predicted: "We could be here awhile."

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Kelly O'Meara Morales is a staff writer at The Week. He graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and studied Middle Eastern history and nonfiction writing amongst other esoteric subjects. When not compulsively checking Twitter, he writes and records music, subsists on tacos, and watches basketball.