Sheridan Gorman's parents say protecting children from failed immigration policies isn't a one-party fight

The parents of Sheridan Gorman, the college freshman who was killed in Chicago earlier this year, appeared Friday at a New York rally hosted by President Donald Trump, where they demanded that leaders oppose sanctuary policies, saying the fight to protect children shouldn't belong "to only one party."

Trump was at Rockland Community College in Suffern, New York, when he introduced Gorman's family. Jessica Gorman said her daughter's life was "stolen" by someone who should have never been in the United States.

"At every step the system had a chance to stop him. At every step, it failed. And my daughter paid for those failures with her life," she said. "No mother should ever have to wonder if her child called out for her in her final moments. No mother should ever have to imagine her baby left alone and bleeding on the cold pavement, and no family should ever have to bury a child because public officials failed to put innocent American lives first."

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Gorman, an 18-year-old Loyola University Chicago student, was shot and killed on March 19. She was walking along a lakefront pier at Tobey Prinz Beach with a group of friends when they encountered a masked man hiding behind a lighthouse structure.

Jose Medina, 25, an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela, was arrested the following day and charged with first-degree murder. He has pleaded not guilty.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Medina was released from custody months earlier despite an active Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer. DHS released a statement confirming that Medina was released from custody twice. In 2023, the U.S. Border Patrol apprehended the suspect before releasing him, according to DHS. Later that year, he was arrested and released again following a shoplifting arrest.

"This is what failed policies have done to our family," Tom Gorman said about his daughter's death. "No family should have to become experts in immigration failures, release policies, warrants, sanctuary laws, and enforcement breakdowns because their daughter was killed by someone who should not have been here and should not be free."

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Days after Gorman was killed, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a vocal Trump critic, unveiled a snowplow named "Abolish ICE," infuriating the Gorman family.

"When they're naming trucks and laughing and joking several days after our daughter was murdered, we're waiting in Chicago to claim her body," Jessica Gorman told "The Story" at the time. "It was more than infuriating. I don't have—the vitriol that I felt was overwhelming."

At Friday's rally, Gorman's father, Tom Gorman, thanked Trump and criticized leaders who oppose immigration enforcement.

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"But I do not understand why this is a fight that belongs to only one party," he said. "Protecting our people is not politics. It is the first responsibility of government."

Many Democrats have expressed opposition to Trump's deportation policies and targeting of undocumented immigrants, despite many suspects having been accused of or convicted of committing violent crimes while in the U.S.

Gorman's death has taken a tool on her family, but Friday's rally comforted her sister, Madelon Gorman.

"I have to say you are just so funny," she said of Trump. "My family has laughed more, smiled more in the past hour than we have since March 19th," she said.