ICE tried to hold him.
Illinois said no.
Twice.
Jose Medina-Medina was caught at the U.S. border in May 2023 and released. He was arrested in Chicago in June 2023 — ICE issued a detainer. Governor J.B. Pritzker’s (D) Illinois Trust Act required Cook County to ignore it. He walked free again. In March 2026, he allegedly shot Sheridan Gorman — an 18-year-old Loyola University freshman — in a Chicago park. DHS named Pritzker by name in a March 22, 2026 press release.
She was a college freshman.
Sheridan Gorman was 18 years old. She was a freshman at Loyola University Chicago — at the beginning of her college experience, with her whole adult life ahead of her. She was not in a bad neighborhood by choice. She was in a Chicago park, doing what college freshmen do.
The man who allegedly shot her had been in U.S. federal custody twice. Both times, the system processed him and let him walk. The second time, ICE explicitly asked Illinois to hold him. Illinois refused — by law, by policy, by the deliberate decision of Governor J.B. Pritzker (D).
The system saw him. Illinois told the system to look away.
This is not a case where Jose Medina-Medina slipped through the cracks. He was caught — twice. Border Patrol had him in May 2023. Chicago police had him in June 2023. ICE issued a detainer the second time, explicitly requesting that he be held for removal proceedings.
Illinois declined both times. Not because of a clerical error or a bureaucratic gap — but because Governor Pritzker signed the Illinois Trust Act into law. The Trust Act prohibits local law enforcement from honoring ICE detainers. It is a deliberate policy choice. The state of Illinois told ICE: we will not hold this man for you. He walked free. Twice.
- →Apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol
- →Processed under Biden-era catch-and-release
- →Released with Notice to Appear
- →No deportation. No detention.
- →Arrested by Chicago Police Department
- →ICE issued a detainer — hold for removal
- →Cook County refused under Illinois Trust Act
- →Released. ICE never notified of release.
Between June 2023 and March 2026 — nearly three years — Medina-Medina remained in the United States. Free. In Chicago. With no lawful status, no removal order being enforced, and no accountability for the fact that ICE had specifically flagged him for deportation and been turned away by state law.
Three years. Every step preventable.
The Trust Act has a name. So does the governor who signed it.
Pritzker signed the Illinois Trust Act (P.A. 100-0463), which prohibits Illinois law enforcement from honoring ICE detainers or cooperating with civil immigration enforcement. The law directly prevented Cook County from holding Medina-Medina in June 2023 when ICE issued its detainer. DHS named Pritzker by name in its March 22, 2026 public statement following Gorman's shooting.
Johnson has presided over Chicago's sanctuary city policies and opposed expanded ICE cooperation. Chicago under Johnson (and his predecessor Lori Lightfoot) has maintained a firewall against federal immigration enforcement, consistent with the Illinois Trust Act framework.
Cook County operates under the Trust Act and declines to honor ICE civil detainers as a matter of policy. Medina-Medina's June 2023 arrest triggered an ICE detainer that Cook County declined under this framework.
“Governor Pritzker's sanctuary policies have made Illinois complicit in the crimes committed by illegal aliens who should have been deported. Sheridan Gorman is paying the price for his ideology.”
DHS Press Release — March 22, 2026 · Department of Homeland Security
Written by the legislature. Signed by the governor. Paid for by Sheridan.
The Illinois Trust Act (Public Act 100-0463) was signed into law in 2017. It prohibits Illinois state and local law enforcement from honoring ICE civil immigration detainers, from inquiring about immigration status, or from holding individuals solely for federal immigration enforcement purposes. It was designed to protect undocumented immigrants from deportation.
The law does not distinguish between undocumented immigrants with clean records and those with criminal histories or pending federal immigration holds. When Cook County received the ICE detainer for Jose Medina-Medina in June 2023, it was legally required by Illinois state law to decline it. Not permitted — required.
- →Prohibits Illinois law enforcement from honoring ICE civil detainers
- →Bars officers from inquiring about immigration status during routine stops
- →Prevents information-sharing with DHS about scheduled release dates
- →Applies to all Illinois law enforcement — state, county, and municipal
- →Covers individuals with criminal charges pending and active ICE orders
- →Signed by Governor Pritzker — explicitly extended and defended under his administration
DHS did not invent the connection between the Trust Act and the Gorman shooting. DHS documented it, then published it — with Pritzker’s name attached. The March 22, 2026 press release is a primary source document. The ICE detainer from June 2023 is a federal record. The Trust Act is Illinois public law. The chain of causation is not a theory — it is documented government paperwork.
DHS named him. By name. In writing.
On March 22, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security issued a public press release specifically identifying Governor J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) as responsible for the sanctuary policies that allowed Jose Medina-Medina to remain in Illinois after ICE had issued a detainer for his removal.
DHS had previously issued similar statements naming other governors and jurisdictions — Fairfax County, Cook County, Santa Clara County — as part of a documented campaign to hold sanctuary jurisdictions publicly accountable for specific cases where non-cooperation with ICE preceded violent crimes. The Gorman case is one entry in a long public record.