How many tragic deaths, like that of 18-year-old Sheridan Gorman, are we willing to tolerate before enough is enough? How does this keep happening?
Gorman, a freshman at Loyola University Chicago, was fatally shot on March 19th while walking with friends near the school’s Lake Shore campus by an illegal alien criminal from Venezuela. The group was walking to see the northern lights when a masked gunman emerged from the shadows and opened fire.
The suspect, Jose Medina-Medina, a 25-year-old Venezuelan national, has been charged with first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder.
Why does such a heinous tragedy happen?
The Department of Homeland Security put it bluntly: Sheridan Gorman “was failed by open border policies and sanctuary politicians who released this illegal alien twice before he went on to commit this heinous murder.”
While most cities and states are working to undo the disastrous policies of the Biden administration that allowed tens of millions of illegal aliens into the country, certain blue cities are vehemently resisting anything the Trump administration does. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson are spearheading this “resistance” — and actively making life not only worse for their constituents, but dangerous.
Here are a few of the ways Chicago created the perfect storm that ultimately led to Gorman’s death.
On a municipal level, Johnson and his cadre of progressives enacted the Welcoming City Ordinance — Chicago’s primary sanctuary law, which was expanded in 2021 to remove previous “carve-outs” that had allowed police to cooperate with ICE in cases involving individuals with felony convictions or those in the gang database. Essentially, police are barred from assisting ICE during operations, ICE agents aren’t permitted in local jails, and officers are prohibited from asking about a person’s immigration status during routine interactions.
To make matters worse for citizens — and better for criminals — Mayor Johnson issued an order preventing ICE from using city-owned parking lots, garages, or any other city property for enforcement work.
On a state level, the TRUST Act prohibits state and local law enforcement from detaining any individual based on a federal immigration detainer or administrative warrant. In other words, it’s nearly impossible for ICE to do their job.
Then there’s the Illinois Way Forward Act (2021), which significantly expanded the TRUST Act by prohibiting state and local government from contracting the federal government to house or detain illegal immigrants, banning local police from transferring individuals into ICE custody without a judicial warrant, and restricting the flow of information to ICE officers about individuals in local custody.
And of course, they signed the Keep Illinois Families Together Act, which restricts ICE from entering schools, health centers, libraries, courthouses, polling locations (strange, considering the leftist claim that noncitizens aren’t voting), and more.
Those are policies carved out specifically for illegal aliens. But to understand exactly how a criminal, an illegal Venezuelan national, ended up murdering a young American girl, you only need to look at Medina’s timeline.
Medina entered the U.S. illegally in May of 2023 under Biden. He was apprehended and released into the interior of the country without asylum claims. Just one month later, he was arrested in Chicago for shoplifting — and released from local custody shortly after, because of the very policies listed above.
In September of that same year, he failed to appear for his court date. A warrant was issued but never served. He claims he missed the hearing due to a hospital stay — which means he was receiving free healthcare as an illegal criminal.
And then, not even three years later, he murdered Sheridan Gorman in cold blood.
Medina was a symptom, not an anomaly. Since January 20, 2025 alone, Governor Pritzker’s sanctuary state of Illinois has released 1,768 criminal illegal aliens with active ICE detainers — including individuals charged or convicted of murder, sexual offenses, and weapons crimes. Another 4,015 criminal non-citizens remain in Illinois custody with detainers that local officials refuse to — or aren’t allowed to — honor.
If you’re wondering how in the heck this could continue to go on? It will — because these Democrat leaders are tone deaf and are willing to trade their constituents’ and our fellow citizens’ safety for the comfort and protection of criminal illegal aliens. Even after Sheridan’s blood was spilled, Mayor Brandon Johnson doubled down. Just days after the murder, he proudly unveiled a new city snowplow named ‘Abolish ICE’ — while the city was still mourning an 18-year-old Loyola freshman gunned down by a man his policies had shielded.
Don’t let them tell you that sanctuary city policies aren’t dangerous or destructive. Because again and again, we’re being reminded — they are.
