[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 209 (Thursday, December 21, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Page S8244]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO ANGELA McQUEEN

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I would like to take a moment to 
acknowledge the remarkable courage of a woman from my home State of 
Illinois.
  Her name is Angela McQueen--``Angie'' to her friends and family.
  Ms. McQueen teaches math and physical education at Mattoon High 
School in central Illinois.
  In late September, she was in the high school cafeteria when she saw 
a student pull a semiautomatic handgun from his backpack and start 
spraying the cafeteria with gunfire.
  Ms. McQueen and other teachers at the high school had recently been 
trained on what to do when faced with the threat of gun violence at 
school.
  It is sad and distressing to think that teachers need such training 
today, but that is, sadly, the reality. Thank goodness Angie McQueen 
had that training.
  The instant she saw the gun, she lunged and pushed the young man's 
hand towards the ceiling so he couldn't shoot others.
  She said she had only one thought in her head as she acted, as she 
put it, ``You're not going to do this to my kids.''
  Hundreds of students were in the cafeteria at the time. One student 
was shot and hospitalized briefly, and another student suffered minor 
injuries when he was apparently grazed by gunfire.
  School and law enforcement officials say that Ms. McQueen's selfless 
actions likely saved students' lives.
  One student who witnessed the incident told a reporter for a local 
newspaper, ``Ms. McQueen is like Chuck Norris, basically. She's a 
hero.''
  Angela McQueen is the daughter of two retired teachers. In her 
biography on the school's website, she was asked to describe why she 
became a teacher. The first reason she gave: ``I wanted to make the 
world a better place.''
  She has certainly done that.
  Ms. McQueen is modest. She doesn't like being in the spotlight, but 
she recently allowed the city and families of Mattoon to thank her 
publicly at a reception at the school.
  Mattoon School superintendent Larry Lilly undoubtedly spoke for many 
when he said, ``We are forever grateful to Angela for her courageous 
actions that saved the lives of our kids. She was a ray of light in our 
darkest hour.''
  ``You're not going to do this to my kids.'' That was what Angela 
McQueen vowed before she risked her life to disarm a young man with a 
semiautomatic handgun.
  I hope that all Members of Congress will take those words to heart as 
we debate gun safety and what we can do as a society to protect our 
children and all Americans from gun violence.
  Mr LEAHY Mr. President, we are a Nation of immigrants. That should be 
an obvious point, but it bears repeating at a time when our President 
sees political advantage in trafficking in xenophobic scapegoating. 
Unless you are Native American, you come from a line of people who come 
from somewhere else. Indeed, that simple fact is an integral part of 
the American story.
  We are also a nation that believes that anything is possible. Our 
ancestors and relatives journeyed here because, in America, where you 
come from does not determine what you can accomplish. In this great 
country, as long as you work hard and play by the rules, you can 
achieve your dreams. That itself is the American Dream.
  No single group of people embodies these ideals more than our 
Nation's Dreamers. Dreamers grew up in this country; they were brought 
here as children. They seek only the opportunity to contribute to our 
Nation and to be legally recognized as the Americans that they are. 
Dreamers are our neighbors, our teachers, and our first responders.
  Nearly a thousand Dreamers serve in our Armed Forces, risking their 
lives to defend the only country they have ever known as home. We 
cannot in good faith claim to care about the American Dream if we 
neglect to protect the very people who are living it.
  Take, for example, Dr. Juan Conde, a DACA recipient and a resident of 
Vermont. Dr. Conde was born in Mexico and brought to the United States 
as a child by his mother. In 2007, his mother was tragically taken by 
cancer. Showing remarkable courage and determination for a young man, 
this tragedy inspired Dr. Conde to find a way to help cancer patients 
like his mother; yet he was unable to become an oncologist due to his 
immigration status. So instead, he decided to obtain a Ph.D. in cancer 
research from the University of Texas.
  Dr. Conde wanted to treat cancer patients, not just study the 
disease. After receiving DACA status in 2012, he was empowered to 
pursue his medical degree. He is currently a medical student at 
University of Vermont's Lanier College of Medicine.
  Dr. Conde hopes to spend his life in the United States treating 
cancer patients and helping to find a cure for the disease. My hope is 
that we can make that happen, not just for Dr. Conde but for every 
other Dreamer. There are almost 800,000 Dreamers like Dr. Conde, all of 
whom have just as much potential to make our communities and our 
country truly great. To deny them these opportunities because they were 
brought here as children is as senseless as it is cruel.
  Yet that is the decision the president made. He could have worked 
with Congress to find a permanent solution for Dreamers while leaving 
DACA protections in place. Instead, he cast them aside. His 
administration has made absurd, nonfactual, and offensive arguments in 
support of that decision ever since. When Attorney General Sessions 
announced that DACA was being terminated, he argued that the program 
was an example of the Obama administration's repeated failure to 
enforce our immigration laws. He argued that such failure caused crime, 
violence, and even terrorism. During Senate Judiciary Committee 
hearings, I pressed both the Attorney General and his Department on 
this point, to name just one Dreamer who was involved in terrorist 
activity. Of course, they could not, but apparently, fear-mongering is 
more effective than acknowledging simple truths.
  By definition, Dreamers are law-abiding. They seek nothing more than 
to contribute to our country. If the President refuses to stand with 
Dreamers, then Congress must. We have done it before in the Senate. 
Four years ago, 68 Senators, Democrats and Republicans, voted for 
comprehensive immigration reform legislation that I managed on the 
Senate floor. That legislation included key protections for Dreamers, 
including an expedited pathway to citizenship. It is time for the 
Senate to act again now and for the House to follow suit. The future of 
Dreamers and the fate of the American Dream itself lies in our hands.

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