The White House Just Did Something for Sheridan Gorman That Has JB Pritzker Cornered

Laken Riley was going for a morning jog when a Venezuelan illegal alien Biden released into America hunted her down and beat her to death.

Now Chicago has its own Laken Riley – and the White House just made sure JB Pritzker can't look away.

What the Trump administration said about Sheridan Gorman this week puts Illinois' governor in a position he cannot talk his way out of.

Chicago Handed a Killer Two Get-Out-of-Jail Cards

The White House called it a "preventable tragedy." That's the most charitable thing you could say.

Medina-Medina is a 25-year-old Venezuelan national. Border Patrol picked him up at the southern border in May 2023 and, under Biden's catch and release, put him back on the street. He made his way to Chicago.

Six weeks later, he walked into the State Street Macy's and shoplifted. Chicago police arrested him and let him go. Nobody called ICE. The Illinois TRUST Act – which bars local law enforcement from honoring federal immigration detainers – made sure of that.

He then skipped his court date. A warrant was issued. Nobody cared.

That warrant was still outstanding the night he hid behind a lighthouse at Tobey Prinz Beach and opened fire on a group of college students.

Sheridan Gorman was 18 years old – a Loyola University freshman out on the pier with friends to catch a glimpse of the Northern Lights. She told her friends she saw someone lurking behind the lighthouse. She ran. He fired once. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Pritzker Chose Sanctuary. Sheridan Gorman Paid for It.

The Department of Homeland Security didn't mince words.

"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," DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said.

ICE Director Todd Lyons had already sent a letter to Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul in December 2025 demanding the state honor ICE detainers on more than 4,000 criminal illegal aliens in Illinois custody – including murderers, sexual predators, and weapons offenders. Raoul ignored it.

Pritzker's office responded to Gorman's murder by blasting the White House for "politicizing heinous tragedies."

He called it politicizing. The Gorman family called it permanent.

"When systems fail – whether through release decisions, lack of coordination, or unwillingness to act – the consequences are not abstract," Gorman's family said. "They are real. And in our case, they are permanent."

Pritzker didn't build the TRUST Act alone. He expanded it. In 2021, he signed legislation making Illinois the second state in the nation to require local officials to completely end partnerships with ICE. He called it a model for the nation.

Sheridan Gorman is what that model produces.

This Is What Sanctuary Cities Actually Do

Here's the mechanism. It's not complicated.

A criminal illegal alien gets arrested. Local police, by state law, cannot contact ICE. The alien is released. He reoffends. Someone's daughter dies.

This is not a hypothetical. It happened to Laken Riley in Athens, Georgia. It happened to Kate Steinle in San Francisco. It happened to Sheridan Gorman in Chicago.

The pattern is always the same: prior criminal contact, ignored ICE detainer, preventable murder.

Investigators found the .40 caliber handgun in Medina-Medina's apartment. The shell casings matched. His own mother identified him as the gunman. He was arrested one block from the pier where he shot Sheridan Gorman, and he is currently hospitalized – being treated for tuberculosis – while awaiting trial on first-degree murder charges.

The Trump administration responded by filing a lawsuit against Chicago, Cook County, and the State of Illinois, targeting the TRUST Act and Chicago's Welcoming City Ordinance. That case is working through the courts.

In the meantime, JB Pritzker is still the governor. Brandon Johnson is still the mayor. The sanctuary policies are still in place.

And the Gorman family is burying their 18-year-old daughter – a business student at Loyola who participated in Bible study, who was, in the words of a faculty member who knew her, the first person to hug you when you walked into a room and the last person to let go.

She didn't die because crime is random. She died because Illinois politicians decided, deliberately and repeatedly, that protecting illegal aliens from federal law enforcement was worth more than protecting American citizens from illegal aliens who commit crimes.

They made that choice. Sheridan Gorman paid for it.

Sources:

• John Binder, "White House Honors Sheridan Gorman: Sanctuary City Policies Cause Another 'Preventable Tragedy,'" Breitbart, March 26, 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.
• "Man Charged with Murder in Death of Loyola Student Sheridan Gorman," Fox 32 Chicago, March 22, 2026.
• "Case of Sheridan Gorman: Suspect Jose Medina's Alleged Immigration Status Creates New Friction Point," ABC7 Chicago, March 24, 2026.
• "Man Charged with Killing Loyola University Freshman Sheridan Gorman Misses First Court Date with Tuberculosis," CBS Chicago, March 24, 2026.