VIDEO: Sheridan Gorman's mother delivers emotional testimony on Capitol Hill

WASHINGTON - The mother of slain Loyola student Sheridan Gorman delivered an emotional plea to lawmakers Tuesday, urging Congress to reconsider sanctuary polices and immigration enforcement.

"My name is Jessica Gorman. I'm the mother of Sheridan Grace Gorman," she told members of the U.S. House committee during a hearing on sanctuary policies and crime victims.

The backstory:

Sheridan Gorman, 18, was a freshman at Loyola University Chicago when she was killed on March 19 near Tobey Prinz Beach in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood.

According to prosecutors, Gorman and three friends had gone to the lakefront hoping to catch a glimpse of the northern lights. The group walked onto a pier near a lighthouse when authorities say 25-year-old Jose Medina emerged from behind the structure wearing dark clothing, a mask and carrying a handgun.

As the teenagers ran toward shore, prosecutors say Medina fired a shot that struck Gorman in the back. She was found bleeding and unresponsive near the lighthouse and later died at a hospital.

Medina, a Venezuelan citizen who authorities say was in the United States without legal status, has pleaded not guilty to more than a dozen felony charges, including first-degree murder, attempted murder and weapons offenses.

Sheridan Gorman remembered by mother 

What they're saying:

But during Tuesday's hearing, Gorman's mother said her focus was not on the man accused of killing her daughter.

"But this story, it's not about him. This story is about my Sheridan," she testified. "It's about how failed border policies, sanctuary city laws, and twisted leaders refused to cooperate with ICE. They sent her to her grave."

Gorman described her daughter as energetic, compassionate and relentlessly kind.

"She was beautiful. She was funny, faithful, loving, full of plans to build something with her life," she said.

According to her mother, Sheridan appointed herself the protector of that bench.

"Every day at recess, instead of heading straight to the swings or joining in a game of kickball, my daughter hung back and hovered by the nearby tree, just watching that bench, just waiting, just in case someone might need her."

"Kids didn't even have a chance to fully sit down on the bench before Sheridan was rushing over to take them, you know, to take their hand, pull them away."

"If the child looked lonely, Sheridan went over. If someone had no one to play with, Sheridan was there. If someone felt invisible, Sheridan saw them."

Her mother returned to that image repeatedly throughout her testimony.

"And in what world does the child who spent her life making sure no one was lonely die terrified and alone on a pier in Chicago?" Gorman asked lawmakers. "In what world did the girl who saw everyone become invisible to the people in power responsible for protecting her?"

At one point, Gorman proposed placing a buddy bench inside Congress itself.

"I think Congress needs one," she said.

"I challenge you all to sit down with me, take my hand, look me in the eye, and then explain to me, because I just don't understand."

"Explain why people here illegally matter more than your American citizens. Explain why sanctuary policies matter more than my Sheridan's life. Explain why cooperation with ICE was too much to ask for. But asking our American parents to bury our children is somehow acceptable."