Eighteen-year-old Sheridan Gorman went to a pier to watch the Northern Lights and never came home.
Six days later, her mayor held a press conference to celebrate a snowplow.
Brandon Johnson stood in front of Chicago's salt dome on Wednesday and unveiled the city's newest snowplow – named "Abolish ICE" – while Gorman's family was planning her funeral service in Yorktown Heights, New York.
The Man Who Killed Sheridan Gorman Was Released Twice
Jose Medina, 25, is a Venezuelan national who entered the United States illegally on May 9, 2023.
Border Patrol caught him at the border and released him under Biden's open-door policy.
Within weeks he was in Chicago – living in a city-funded migrant shelter in Rogers Park, less than a mile from where he would later shoot Sheridan Gorman in the back.
In June 2023, Chicago police arrested Medina for shoplifting $132 worth of merchandise from a downtown Macy's.
He was released.
He failed to appear for his court date.
A warrant was issued.
That warrant sat unexecuted for nearly three years.
On the morning of March 19, Gorman and a group of friends walked to the pier at Tobey Prinz Beach.
Medina was hiding behind a lighthouse, wearing a mask, carrying a .40-caliber handgun.
When Gorman tried to run, he shot her in the back.
Friends who had taken cover in a grassy area of the beach found her on the ground.
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DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said it plainly: 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."
Johnson's Answer Was a Press Conference
When asked Wednesday whether he had considered rescheduling the snowplow celebration given the timing, Johnson said this was "a terrible tragedy" that would "challenge us all to double down on our efforts."
Double down.
That is the mayor of Chicago's response to an 18-year-old girl shot in the back by a man his city shielded, released, and protected from federal law enforcement.
Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez – a Democrat – called Gorman's death "100% avoidable."
The Chicago City Council had its chance last year to change course.
The council voted 39-11 to reject a proposal that would have allowed Chicago police to cooperate with federal immigration agents in specific circumstances involving dangerous offenders.
Johnson pushed that vote.
He got it.
And now he's named a snowplow after the agency that could have deported Gorman's killer before she ever walked to that pier.
Illinois isn't alone in this pattern.
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DHS ICE Director Todd Lyons has documented that Illinois jurisdictions refused to honor ICE detainers on more than 1,768 criminal illegal aliens since January 2025 – including individuals convicted of homicide, sexual predatory offenses, and weapons crimes.
Illinois released a convicted child abductor despite an active ICE detainer.
Illinois released a man convicted of attempted murder with intent to kill.
Each one of those releases was a choice.
The same kind of choice Brandon Johnson celebrated on Wednesday.
The System Worked Exactly as Johnson Designed It
Gorman's family retained an attorney who put it in terms no politician can spin away.
"When systems fail – whether through release decisions, lack of coordination, or unwillingness to act – the consequences are not abstract. They are real. And in our case, they are permanent."
That word – permanent – is what separates this from a policy debate.
Brandon Johnson can redesign his city's sanctuary policies tomorrow.
He can hold another press conference.
He can name another snowplow.
Sheridan Gorman cannot come back.
Alderman Lopez said what every Chicagoan who isn't a politician already knows: "The culmination of the choices made here in the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois to protect noncitizens even when they choose to engage in dangerous criminal behavior – that mindset has to stop."
Johnson's answer, delivered Wednesday in front of a baby blue salt truck, was to keep going.
Sources:
- Louis Casiano, "Chicago Mayor Johnson unveils 'Abolish ICE' snowplow days after student allegedly murdered by illegal migrant," Fox News, March 25, 2026.
- "ICE Asks Governor Pritzker and Chicago Sanctuary Politicians to Not Release Criminal Illegal Alien Accused of Killing 18-Year-Old Loyola College Student," U.S. Department of Homeland Security, March 22, 2026.
- "Governor Pritzker's Sanctuary Illinois Released More than 1,700 Criminal Illegal Aliens Including Murderers, Pedophiles, and Kidnappers," U.S. Department of Homeland Security, December 8, 2025.
- "Chicago alderman blasts sanctuary policies after death of Loyola student Sheridan Gorman," NewsNation, March 23, 2026.
- Jason Meisner and Caroline Kubzansky, "Tragedy of Loyola student's alleged killing by migrant marked by his clouded history, political reaction," Chicago Tribune, March 23, 2026.
- "Sheridan Gorman's Murder – and Chicago's Silence," RealClearPolitics, March 24, 2026.