Months after President Donald Trump ended a pummeling deportation blitz in Chicago, the city and its “sanctuary” policies have been thrust back into the national spotlight following the fatal shooting of an 18-year-old college student.
As loved ones and fellow Loyola University Chicago students mourn freshman Sheridan Gorman, her death has become a rallying cry for politicians demanding stricter immigration enforcement. The alleged gunman, Jose G. Medina, is a Venezuelan immigrant.
Trump said Gorman’s killing was “devastating” and placed blame on the “open door policy” of his predecessor, Joe Biden. Other Republicans have directed their anger at Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson.
“JB Pritzker’s soft on crime policies must come to an end,” Darren Bailey, the Republican challenging the governor in the November election, said in a statement Tuesday calling on Trump and Pritzker to work together. “Illinois families deserve accountability.”
But Pritzker said the “failures” within the immigration system “extend beyond the borders of Illinois.”
“They’re national failures — a failure to have comprehensive immigration reform, a failure of the president to follow his own edict to go after the worst of the worst,” Pritzker said at a Tuesday news conference in Springfield. “And in my view, we have a lot of work that we need to continue to do.”
A tragic killing
Gorman’s family has said they’re “gravely disappointed by the policies and failures that allowed this individual to remain in a position to commit this crime.”
“When systems fail — whether through release decisions, lack of coordination, or unwillingness to act — the consequences are not abstract. They are real,” the family said in a statement.
Gorman was walking with friends along the lakefront early Thursday when she spotted a masked gunman hiding in the shadows, prosecutors said. He fired one shot as the group tried to run away, striking Gorman in the back and killing her.
Medina has been charged with first-d
