At a New York rally, the parents of Sheridan Gorman made a raw, public appeal for stricter immigration enforcement after their 18-year-old daughter was killed in Chicago. They stood with President Donald Trump and blamed sanctuary policies and enforcement failures for allowing a dangerous individual to remain free.
The Gormans traveled to Rockland Community College in Suffern to press their case with Republican leaders and voters watching. Jessica Gorman said her daughter’s life was “stolen” by someone who should have never been in the United States. She offered a sharp, personal indictment of a system that she says failed at every turn.
“At every step the system had a chance to stop him. At every step, it failed. And my daughter paid for those failures with her life,” she said. “No mother should ever have to wonder if her child called out for her in her final moments. No mother should ever have to imagine her baby left alone and bleeding on the cold pavement, and no family should ever have to bury a child because public officials failed to put innocent American lives first.”
Sheridan Gorman was an 18-year-old Loyola University Chicago freshman who was shot and killed on March 19 while walking along a lakefront pier at Tobey Prinz Beach with friends. Authorities arrested Jose Medina, 25, an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela, the day after the killing and charged him with first-degree murder. Medina has pleaded not guilty as the criminal case proceeds.
Officials at the Department of Homeland Security confirmed the suspect had been released from custody twice despite an active detainer from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. DHS said the suspect was apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol in 2023 before being released, and that he was later arrested and freed after a shoplifting incident the same year. Those details have become a central point for critics who want clearer accountability and faster action on detainers.
“This is what failed policies have done to our family,” Tom Gorman said about his daughter’s death. “No family should have to become experts in immigration failures, release policies, warrants, sanctuary laws, and enforcement breakdowns because their daughter was killed by someone who should not have been here and should not be free.” His words framed the event as more than a personal tragedy, but a policy debate about priorities and responsibility.
Chicago’s political choices have added fuel to the fire for the family and conservative advocates who demand tougher measures. Days after Sheridan’s death, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson unveiled a snowplow labeled “Abolish ICE,” a move that enraged the Gormans and others who view it as tone deaf. “When they’re naming trucks and laughing and joking several days after our daughter was murdered, we’re waiting in Chicago to claim her body,” Jessica Gorman told “The Story” at the time. “It was more than infuriating. I don’t have—the vitriol that I felt was overwhelming.”
At the rally, Tom Gorman thanked President Trump and urged leaders across the aisle to put safety ahead of politics. “But I do not understand why this is a fight that belongs to only one party,” he said. “Protecting our people is not politics. It is the first responsibility of government,” he added, underscoring the Republican argument that enforcement is basic governance, not partisan theater.
The tragedy has been deeply personal and politically sharp, but it also offered the family a brief moment of relief amid the grief. “I have to say you are just so funny,” Madelon Gorman said of Trump. “My family has laughed more, smiled more in the past hour than we have since March 19th,” she said, showing how political rallies can sometimes provide emotional support as well as policy platforms.
Graduate Student, wife, engaged political and legal writer.