The parents of Sheridan Gorman, an 18-year-old Loyola University student fatally shot allegedly by an illegal immigrant, criticized Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) after she told them Congress “has other things to do,” calling her “sorry but” remark “just disrespectful.”
“Just disrespectful, we were there telling Sheridan’s story, my wife poured her heart out, and just to hear that, it just shows you that they don’t want this to change. We need bipartisan effort, we do need change, and when we heard, ‘Sorry but,’ it’s just disrespectful,” Thomas Gorman said during an interview with Fox and Friends on Thursday.
The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity and Security held a hearing on Tuesday to focus on sanctuary cities and the perspectives of victims and discuss how sanctuary policies, specifically in Illinois and California, endanger communities by prioritizing the interests of criminal illegal immigrants ahead of the interests of Americans.
Although Jayapal offered her condolences to the victims’ families, she noted that this was the fourth hearing the committee held and suggested that there were more pressing issues for Congress to focus on.
“We actually thought we were going to speak about the human consequences of these sanctuary city policies. I was really there to speak for my daughter, my beautiful daughter who was murdered. I wanted to tell her story,” said Gorman’s mother, Jessica Gorman.“The love she had for people was extravagant. That’s what I was there for, I was not there to rebut anyone.”
Gorman’s mother pointed out that as the committee was giving the opening, she noticed a Democratic representative was napping. “He was napping, napping, while they were giving the opening remarks, and when the other angel father was giving his testimony,” she said.
“The indignities of sitting there and knowing that not only do they not care, but they’re literally disrespecting us. There was an angel mother behind me, weeping openly and crying, just crying, and something inside me snapped,” she said.
JAYAPAL TELLS MURDER VICTIMS’ PARENTS CONGRESS HAS OTHER THINGS TO DO
“I’m trying to find beautiful things in life, little things to celebrate and to be thankful for, it’s the only way you get through these things, I think. This crossed my mind a hundred times. I’m so thankful that she was only shot in the back of the head,” Gorman’s mother said.
After reflecting on the tragedy, Gorman’s mother described the painful perspective her daughter’s loss had given her saying, “I’m praying and thankful that my daughter was not dismembered and raped and put in the trash basket like some of these other angel family mothers that honestly I had never heard about, to be thankful for such a thing that my daughter was only murdered by being shot. It’s such a messed-up thing.”