Amidst a hectic midterm election campaign, congresswoman Karen Handel visited Roswell High School’s Congressional youth council to speak about her life as a woman in federal government as well as answer a few questions. After the 62

million dollar campaign for a special election, Republican Handel was elected back in 2017. Since then she has served in Congress, passing several bills and serving on both the education and workforce committee.

While some of her views such as education reform, gun reform and economic growth are very clear, other topics, such as LGBTQ+ rights, were strongly avoided. Her evasiveness in answering several audience questions sparked not only hesitation of others who were inquisitive on those topics, but also set a hostile tone in the room. Pertaining to her actions affecting Roswell High School, new school safety reforms are continuously being passed and put into effect. New cameras placed in the halls of Roswell will connect directly to the police station, allowing for easy and efficient access of pertinent information in the case of an emergency. Mental health awareness and support is also being advertised as more readily available for students, in addition to granting more federal funding in an attempt to support young minds.

While Ms. Handel put much emphasis on the local policy, the issue of immigration was brought to the forefront of the meeting. Holding a large Hispanic community in the Roswell district, questions on DACA and legal immigration reforms from the Texas-Mexico border became another sensitive issue to Handel, who stated that she believes Congress has set in place a “fair and compassionate long term fix for DACA holders.” DACA recipients now have extended time since the issue became a topic of conversation back in fall of last year. Even though statistically DACA recipients aren’t provided with a long term solution as she claims, she did admit that “the [immigration] system is so broken.”

The Migration Policy Institute showed that “DACA holders are much less likely than young unauthorized immigrants who are ineligible for deferred action to work in construction jobs and are more likely to work in office support jobs,” further proving the large disadvantage for DACA card holders. Handel’s appearance at Roswell, while short-lived, allowed for a student connection to the inner workings of the federal government, no matter their political outlooks or experience.