Freshman U.S. Rep. Colin Allred made his Richland College debut Jan. 27 at an afternoon student town hall meeting in the Chronicle TV studio with members of the Richland Student Government Association (SGA) and Student Media leaders. Allred, a Democrat, defeated longtime Republican congressman Pete Sessions for the U.S. House District 32 seat on Nov. 6, during the midterm election season.

Allred overwhelmingly beat Sessions in early voting, starting the “blue wave” in Dallas County. A civil rights attorney, Allred worked as Special Assistant to Secretary Julian Castro in The Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Obama Administration. He also played professional football for the Tennessee Titans in 2006.

The student panelists consisted of Richland SGA president Haya Qazi, vice president Edward Sesay, treasurer Thanh (T.C.) Cong Vu and the Chronicle’s Adrienne Aguilar, Editor-in-Chief, Trace Miller, assistant managing editor and online editor/SGA Senator Kaelyn Bradley.

Allred addressed several hot-button issues that affect us today including the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the military transgender ban, the border wall and domestic violence.

Qazi began the panel discussion and the rest of the Richland students chimed in.

One of the first issues on the agenda was the recent month-long government shutdown that delayed paychecks for a portion of the nearly 800,000 federal workers forced to work without pay.

“This was not a huge divide here. It was something, that the policy differences were fairly minor within the Congress. The issue here largely was with the White House and with the Senate. And so the House of Representatives, at least in my discussions with my colleagues, we were really not that far apart. I think that was surprising. It was also kind of disappointing when you find that a gap that small led to the longest shutdown in U.S. history.”

Allred went on to say he thought the era of “government shutdown as a policy lever is over.” He pointed out the unpopularity of the shutdown and hoped that opposition parties will find better ways to solve impasses.

Next, Allred tackled the subject of one of the nation’s hottest talking points right now, the border wall along the southern border between the United States and Mexico. He said the fencing that is currently in place was put in place with the bipartisan efforts under President Bush.

“I do think in some places physical barriers are sometimes appropriate because it allows you to funnel traffic into certain areas where you can have your responsible checks of what’s going on. But I don’t think that it should be the policy of the United States that what we’re going to do in terms of securing our borders is just use a piece of medieval technology. We are, in 2019, and we have technology to do a lot of amazing things and we can do things that are much more effective that the same technology we had in the first century,” Allred said.

Since the beginning of the Trump presidency, immigration and what to do about people who are in this country under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) has been the subject of serious debate. Allred expressed his support for DACA recipients and a path to citizenship.

“Absolutely, I think we should pass the DREAM Act. I said that during the campaign and I think it should be a clean DREAM Act and I don’t think it should be used as a piece of leverage for something I don’t think we need,” Allred said. He sees DACA as a separate issue from border security and thinks the promise of citizenship should be upheld.

“We have to have a comprehensive immigration reform that addresses the 11 million or so folks who are undocumented who are here who are not committing crimes, who are contributing to our economy, and who, I think, we need to find a way to give them a pathway to become citizens,” he said.

Allred said post-debate “I just cannot say enough good things about the Dallas County Community College system. It’s something I will be supporting in every way possible.”

Allred is scheduled to hold a public town hall meeting at Richland on Feb. 10.