On the recordDecember 1, 2016
I thank the gentlewoman from Nevada for sharing these personal stories of the people in her community who inspire her. It is these stories of courage that the gentlewoman just recounted and that I have been trying to share about the young DREAMers in my community of El Paso that were the impetus for our coming together this evening and sharing with our colleagues and the people of this country the truth about a group of very special young people who are too often misunderstood, if not outright maligned; so I am grateful to the gentlewoman for her efforts to improve our understanding of this very special group of people. When I am thinking about these courageous, young people whom I have been introducing you to tonight from the city of El Paso who happen to have come to this country, to my city, from another country at a very tender age--be it 3, be it 5, be it 7 years old--now, as they are in their teens and in their early twenties, we find them to be flourishing and inspiring us. I want to share a story that goes back a few generations as I introduce the next Member who will speak. That is the story of Mildred Parish Tutt, who in El Paso, Texas, in 1955, after having graduated from Douglass High School--a segregated, all-Black institution in my community of El Paso, Texas--had the audacity to apply for enrollment at Texas Western College, now known as the University of Texas at El Paso, and her application was rejected solely based on her race.…
