Fetterman: Sheridan Gorman Would Still Be Alive Had We Enforced Immigration Law

That sound you just heard? That was the gauntlet that John Fetterman threw down with his caucus. And more importantly, with the radical, open-borders, woke Left. 

This story begins in Chicago with the senseless murder of 19-year-old Sheridan Gorman. The young woman had been walking along the beach last week with friends when an assailant shot her to death for no reason. Late yesterday, police revealed the identity of the murderer, and more importantly, his status in the US:

An illegal Venezuelan migrant who entered the US under the Biden administration was charged with murdering a Loyola University Chicago freshman from New York during a walk at the Windy City’s lakefront Thursday morning.

Jose Medina, 25, allegedly gunned down 18-year-old Sheridan Gorman while she was strolling along the pier at Chicago’s Tobey Prinz Beach on Thursday morning. …

Medina allegedly approached Gorman and her friends while wearing a mask around 1:30 a.m. Thursday, cops said. He allegedly shot her in the head while she was attempting to flee before he hid in a nearby apartment building.

Medina got released at least two times in the past three years. Fox News reporter Bill Melugin provides the details from DHS, which issued a public statement expressing outrage over the handling of Medina by both the Biden administration and the city of Chicago:

BREAKING: DHS confirms that the suspect in custody for murdering Loyola University student Sheridan Gorman in Chicago is a Venezuelan illegal alien who was caught & released at the border by the Biden administration in May 2023. DHS says he was also released from local custody after a shoplifting arrest in the sanctuary city of Chicago on June 19, 2023. …

“Sheridan Gorman had her whole life ahead of her before this cold-blooded killer decided to end her life. She was failed by open border policies and sanctuary politicians who RELEASED this illegal alien TWICE before he went on to commit this heinous murder,” said Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis. “We are calling on Governor Pritzker and Chicago’s sanctuary politicians to commit to not releasing this criminal illegal alien from jail back into American neighborhoods.”

If this sounds familiar, it should. A very similar set of circumstances surrounded the murder of Laken Riley, killed two years ago while jogging on the University of Georgia campus, by Jose Antonio Ibarra. Like Gorman’s murder, Ibarra chose his victim randomly. Like Medina, Ibarra entered the US illegally from Venezuela and released by the Biden administration in its efforts to keep borders open. Republicans responded by introducing the Laken Riley Act in 2024, but could not get it passed until last year. Even then, the bill – which imposes financial penalties for releasing illegal aliens that go on to commit crimes, as well as expanded federal authority to keep illegals detained – only got support from twelve Democrats in the Senate. 

One of those twelve took the moment to blast fellow Democrats and the open-borders lobby:

As a father, I grieve for Sheridan’s parents for this unspeakable tragedy.

This was a failure of not holding criminal migrants accountable and not protecting the public—and another tragic reason why I was the Dem lead on the Laken Riley law. https://t.co/1PnSjcPT4M

— U.S. Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) March 23, 2026

This is why ICE agents have tried rounding up the illegal aliens released by both the Biden administration and sanctuary-city governments in Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Washington DC. Sheridan Gorman is yet another sacrifice to Democrats’ pandering to open-borders extremists, and another American victimized by sanctuary cities and states. Had Chicago cooperated with ICE when Medina was in custody, Gorman would still be alive, and ICE wouldn’t need to track these criminals down in cities determined to protect the Ibarras, Medinas, and other criminals at the expense of American citizens and legal residents. 

Editor’s Note: Democrat politicians and their radical supporters will do everything they can to interfere with and threaten ICE agents enforcing our immigration laws.

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