The fatal shooting of Loyola freshman Sheridan Gorman by a Venezuelan illegal immigrant has become a midterm flashpoint as Rep. Mike Lawler hammers Democrats over sanctuary policies that released the accused.
Eighteen-year-old Sheridan Gorman was walking with friends late at night near her Chicago campus when she was shot and killed. Prosecutors say the attack was random. The man charged in her murder is Jose Medina-Medina, a 25-year-old Venezuelan national who entered the country illegally and had already been freed once after a local arrest.
Fox News Digital reported that Gorman’s parents have taken their grief public, pressing candidates in New York’s 17th Congressional District and tying their daughter’s death to non-cooperation rules that keep local police from working with federal immigration officers.
Rep. Mike Lawler, the Republican incumbent fighting for a third term, has put the case at the center of his race against Democrat Cait Conley. The Gormans appeared with him. New campaign ads feature their words. The parents say a single call between local and federal law enforcement could have changed everything.
The Department of Homeland Security has said Jose Medina came to the United States illegally in May 2023 and was released by the prior administration. The next month he was arrested for shoplifting in Chicago. He was released again.
Breitbart reported additional charging detail from prosecutors: Medina was apprehended at the southern border on May 9, 2023, and released into the interior under catch-and-release practices. On June 19, 2023, he was arrested for shoplifting in Chicago and freed without being turned over to ICE because of sanctuary rules.
Prosecutors described the March 19 attack at a pier around 1:30 a.m. Gorman alerted friends that someone was hiding nearby. The group was chased. Assistant State’s Attorney Mike Pekara said Medina opened fire and shot Gorman in the back as she tried to run away. He was dressed mostly in black with a black face mask and fled to a nearby apartment.
Gorman’s mother later put it in starker terms in a campaign ad.
In the ad, Jessica Gorman said:
"He just shot her. Just shot her. Hunted her down. I thought I knew what sanctuary city policies are, I didn't."
Her father, Tom Gorman, went further on the policy link.
Tom Gorman said in the ad:
"The sanctuary policies being pushed by Kathy Hochul and Democrats killed our daughter. I couldn't protect her from these policies."
Jessica Gorman closed the spot with a direct appeal: “But Mike Lawler can.”
Earlier this week, Tom and Jessica Gorman addressed Lawler and Conley at an electoral debate. They focused on a New York law that bars local law enforcement from cooperating with ICE, and on Chicago and Illinois policies that work the same way.
The parents told the candidates:
"The man charged with her murder was here illegally and had previously been arrested for a crime and released under Chicago's sanctuary policies. A simple five-second phone call between local and federal law enforcement would have saved her life."
Lawler answered by drawing a bright line on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s law and on sanctuary jurisdictions nationwide.
Lawler said at the debate:
"She does support [Kathy Hochul's new law], and she would not support federal legislation to end sanctuary policies. Let me be very clear: I stand with you. I am against Kathy Hochul's disastrous new law, and I support any legislation that will end sanctuary jurisdictions in this country."
Conley offered condolences and said government failed Sheridan. She also defended a narrower view of enforcement.
Conley said:
"My heart absolutely breaks, and what happened to Sheridan is inexcusable. Government failed her. And for that, we have to make sure that that doesn't happen again."
She added that “Immigration enforcement is essential,” then argued the current administration is not focused on violent criminals and is instead “rolling up people like grandmas and nurses, people in our communities.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Conley’s campaign and the House Democrats’ elections arm. No response is recorded in the available reporting.
On Sept. 10, 2026, the Gorman family took the stage with Lawler at the Republican National Committee midterm convention at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. Madelon Gorman appeared with parents Tom and Jessica as Lawler introduced them.
Lawler told the crowd:
"The Gormans have more courage than any Democrat member of Congress who voted against protecting our citizens from criminal illegals. They are not running for office, but their story, Sheridan's story, is the direct result of bad policy. Policies we cannot afford to get back to every again."
On Wednesday, Lawler’s campaign released new ads built around the family’s account. The same day he sat for an interview and laid out both his enforcement priorities and his warning about a Democratic return to power.
Lawler told Fox News Digital:
"Look, I've been very clear there should be reforms of ICE. They should wear body cameras. They should not wear masks. They should wear uniforms. They shouldn't be going into places like the Home Depot parking lot. They should be very targeted in what they are doing. And states like New York should be cooperating with them to deport criminal illegal aliens. So look, I think the challenge here will be if Democrats win, they will do everything they can to return to the Biden-era of lax immigration policy, lax enforcement, and try to cut off the resources of ICE and [Border Patrol], and I, for one, just will not support that."
Days after the Dallas appearance, on Sept. 16, 2026, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg attended a rally for Conley in Tarrytown, N.Y. The contrast was plain: one side platformed the parents of a murdered student; the other brought national Democratic star power to the same suburban district.
Even the basic description of the accused became a fight. The Washington Examiner reported that The Loyola Phoenix, the student paper at Gorman’s own university, apologized for calling her alleged killer an “illegal immigrant.” The paper said it changed the wording because “no human’s existence is illegal, and we quickly changed our wording to reflect that. We acknowledge the harm such language can cause.”
National coverage showed a similar pattern. National Review noted that police arrested the 25-year-old illegal immigrant from Venezuela in connection with the fatal shooting, yet several headlines omitted his immigration status and leaned on vague local labels instead.
The underlying record did not change. Medina is accused of murder. DHS linked him to an illegal entry in 2023 and a quick release after a Chicago shoplifting arrest. Chicago’s sanctuary framework kept local officers from handing him to federal immigration authorities when they had him. Gorman is dead. Her parents say the policy chain is not abstract.
Lawler represents suburban New York, not Chicago. That is the point his campaign is making. New York’s own non-cooperation statute sits in the same family of policies the Gormans blame. Conley has not joined Lawler in backing federal legislation to end sanctuary jurisdictions. Lawler has.
Voters in a swing House district are now hearing a concrete sequence: illegal entry, release, local arrest, release again, then a student shot in the back while running for her life. Democrats answer with sorrow and a pivot to complaints about immigration tactics. Republicans answer with the parents on stage and a demand that local police be allowed to call ICE.
Sheridan Gorman was a Loyola University freshman who loved her family and her friends. She was 18. The man charged in her killing should never have been free on a Chicago street after federal and local systems had already touched his case. That failure is now on the ballot in New York’s 17th District, and it should be on the ballot everywhere sanctuary rules still block the phone call her parents described.
Open borders and sanctuary paperwork do not stay in someone else’s city. They follow lawful families until the cost lands in a morgue, then in a campaign ad, then in a race for Congress.
