The Right is Using A Chicago Tragedy To Attack Sanctuary Policy

This is a message from the Illinois Signal Collective. We’re not going to be in your inbox every day — but when something is moving fast enough that waiting for a weekly dispatch means missing the window, we'll send something.

Sheridan Gorman was an 18 year old Loyola freshman from a small town in Westchester County, New York. On Thursday she went out with her friends at one in the morning to walk to the beach and try to see the Northern Lights, and a man in a mask shot her on the pier. This is an unequivocal tragedy. Sheridan Gorman deserved to be safe on a walk with her friends. 

Right now, the Trump administration and right-wing media is executing a coordinated campaign to turn the murder of 18-year-old Loyola student Sheridan Gorman into a political weapon against sanctuary protections and immigrant communities—and it’s working, picking up traction in national outlets like Fox News. 

We cannot allow this death to become the justification for making every immigrant family in the city less safe, less visible, and less free.

We are sending this message to help groups in Chicago counter the right wing attempts to take advantage of this tragedy to move their own agenda. 

When Laken Riley was killed on the University of Georgia campus in February 2024, the right used her name to create a piece of legislation and brand name for federal enforcement operations that had nothing to do with how she died, launching "Operation Angel's Honor" in Riley's name — a two-week national enforcement sweep that arrested over 1,000 people. 

"Operation Midway Blitz," that tore through Chicago last fall, was branded after another victim, Katie Abraham, a 20-year-old killed by a drunk driver in Urbana. Four months in, DHS was still putting Katie Abraham's name on press releases every time they arrested someone.

Congressional Republicans are moving quickly to make this tragedy a political statement. Right-wing outlets are already resurfacing Pritzker's 2025 lakefront safety video alongside coverage of the murder. Anti-immigrant policy groups are publishing pieces calling the killing "Laken Riley 2.0" — as a template for expanding federal enforcement law and dismantling sanctuary protections nationwide.

Track what your alderman, your state rep, and your county officials say this week. Already Ald. Ray Lopez went on national television calling the killing "100% avoidable" and announced he would attend Medina-Medina's pretrial detention hearing. Electeds that are hedging on sanctuary protections, need to be called out -- and it’s worth monitoring attacks on electeds by the right-wing machine, like this piece about Alder Hadden in the New York Post.

Call Out the Right Wing Media Play.The power of this operation depends on it looking organic — like the country is spontaneously outraged. It is not spontaneous. Every procedural development, every court date, every statement from the family will be a new news cycle and a new opportunity for the right-wing machine to escalate.

ICE Will Not Make This Better. Medina-Medina is charged with first-degree murder. Anyone calling for ICE to intervene before trial is calling for the murder case to be compromised. 

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There is a difference between "this is a tragedy and we need to understand what failed" and "this tragedy proves that sanctuary cities are killing your children and the only solution is to give ICE more power and less oversight."

We will be tracking this case and sending updates as it develops. If your organization is getting press inquiries, facing pressure from constituents, or seeing local officials waver, let us know.

This briefing was prepared by the Illinois Signal Collective for movement organizations. For questions or to share how your organization is responding, respond to this email.