The Girl Who Should Be Alive: Scalise Just Said What Democrats Won’t

Let’s start with her name.

Sheridan Gorman. Not “the victim.” Not “the college student.” Not a statistic to be used in a floor speech and forgotten by the next news cycle. Sheridan Gorman. Eighteen years old. A freshman at Loyola University. A young woman who had her whole life in front of her—the kind of life that should have included spring breaks and study abroad and late-night study sessions and eventually a career and maybe a family and definitely the chance to become whoever she was going to become.

That life ended on a sidewalk. A bullet. A Venezuelan national named Jose Medina. Charged with first-degree murder. And now Sheridan’s parents are planning a funeral instead of a summer vacation. They’re picking out a casket instead of helping her move out of the dorm. They’re learning what it means to bury a child while the politicians who made this possible are still in office, still collecting their paychecks, still delivering floor speeches about how the real problem is something else entirely.

Steve Scalise stood on the House floor and said what everyone in that chamber knew but no one on the other side would admit. He didn’t speak in code. He didn’t use the careful language of people who are afraid to offend. He said it plain:

“Hakeem Jeffries, the Democrat leader, can’t even say he would have wanted him deported after he committed more crimes here illegally before he murdered her.”

That’s the question. That’s the test. That’s the line that separates the people who care about American lives from the people who care about something else. A man entered the country illegally. He committed crimes. He was released. He committed more crimes. He was released again. And then he murdered an eighteen-year-old girl.

And the leader of the Democratic Party cannot bring himself to say that man should have been deported.

The Path That Led to a Sidewalk

Let’s trace the path. Because the path is the indictment.

Jose Medina crossed the border in 2023. He was caught. Under the policies of the Biden administration—the policies that Democrats have defended for years—he was released into the country. Not detained. Not deported. Released. Told to show up for a court date that everyone knew he would never attend.

He ended up in Chicago. Sanctuary Chicago. The city that has made it official policy to protect illegal immigrants from federal enforcement. The city that tells its police not to cooperate with ICE. The city that has created a safe haven for people who have no legal right to be in the country.

In Chicago, Medina was arrested for shoplifting. A crime. A crime that should have triggered a detainer. A crime that should have brought ICE to the jail to pick him up. A crime that should have started the deportation process that would have removed him from the country before he could do anything worse.

Instead, he was released. Again. Because Chicago doesn’t honor detainers. Because sanctuary policies protect criminals from federal enforcement. Because the same Democrats who give speeches about “justice” and “safety” have built a system that prioritizes the rights of illegal immigrants over the safety of American citizens.

And then Jose Medina found Sheridan Gorman. And he shot her. And she died. And now she will never turn twenty. Never graduate. Never have children. Never do any of the things that eighteen-year-olds are supposed to do.

The path is clear. The border. The release. The sanctuary city. The arrest. The release. The murder. Every step of that path was created by policies that Democrats have championed. Every step was defended by the people who now say they grieve for Sheridan Gorman. Every step was made possible by a party that has decided, deliberately and consciously, that enforcing immigration laws is less important than protecting the people who broke them.

The Question Jeffries Won’t Answer

Scalise didn’t ask a complicated question. He didn’t ask about asylum law. He didn’t ask about due process. He didn’t ask about the finer points of immigration policy. He asked a simple question that any human being with a conscience should be able to answer:

Should Jose Medina have been deported?

Not after he murdered Sheridan. Before. After he crossed the border illegally. After he committed the first crime. After any of the multiple points at which the system had a chance to remove him from the country and failed.

Hakeem Jeffries couldn’t say yes. The leader of the Democratic Party, the man who speaks for his caucus, the man who will be the face of his party in the next Congress—could not bring himself to say that a man who entered the country illegally, committed crimes, and then murdered an American girl should have been deported before he had the chance to kill her.

Why? Why is that question so hard? Why is it impossible for the leader of the Democratic Party to say that a criminal illegal immigrant should have been removed from the country? What is it about the politics of immigration that makes it easier to protect the killer than to stand with the victim?

The answer is ugly. The answer is that the Democratic Party has built its electoral strategy on the backs of illegal immigrants. They need the votes. They need the constituencies. They need the political power that comes from being the party of “open borders” and “sanctuary cities.” And they cannot bring themselves to say that any illegal immigrant—even a criminal, even a killer—should have been deported, because saying that would be admitting that their policies failed. That their priorities are wrong. That the system they built led directly to a dead girl on a sidewalk.

Jeffries couldn’t say it. Scalise made him show the whole country that he couldn’t say it. And now the question hangs in the air, unanswered, indicting everyone who refuses to answer it.

The Shutdown That Says Everything

While Scalise was speaking, the government was still shut down. The Department of Homeland Security. The agency responsible for border security, for immigration enforcement, for protecting the country from threats. Shut down. Because Democrats refuse to fund it. Because they would rather let the government grind to a halt than agree to policies that would actually secure the border.

One hundred thousand federal workers showing up without pay. Four hundred and fifty TSA officers have already quit. Airport lines stretching three hours or more. Thousands of flights canceled. Spring break travelers sleeping in parking garages. The country’s transportation system grinding to a halt because Democrats have decided that a political fight is more important than keeping the country running.

And why? What are they fighting for? What policy is so important that they’re willing to shut down the government, to force federal workers to work without pay, to create chaos at airports across the country?

They’re fighting to protect the system that let Jose Medina into the country. That released him after he crossed illegally. That protected him in sanctuary Chicago. That let him walk free after he committed crimes. That allowed him to be on the street the day he found Sheridan Gorman.

They are shutting down the government to protect the policies that killed an eighteen-year-old girl. They are willing to let the country suffer—to let workers go without pay, to let travelers miss their flights, to let the economy take a hit—to preserve a system that prioritizes illegal immigrants over American citizens.

That’s the calculation. That’s the choice. And Scalise stood on the House floor and made sure everyone saw it.

The 450 Who Walked

Four hundred and fifty TSA officers have quit. Not retired. Not transferred. Quit. Walked away from federal jobs that they spent years training for, that they built their lives around, that they believed in enough to show up every day and do work that most Americans take for granted.

They quit because they can’t afford to work for free. They quit because they have families to feed, mortgages to pay, children who need school supplies. They quit because the government they work for has decided that a political fight is more important than paying the people who keep the country safe.

And what happens when TSA officers quit? The lines get longer. The wait times get worse. The stress builds. People miss flights. People miss connections. People get stranded in airports that used to be the envy of the world but are now monuments to political dysfunction.

This is not an accident. This is the direct result of a Democratic Party that has chosen to shut down the government rather than accept any limits on immigration. They are willing to let the country’s transportation system collapse. They are willing to let workers go unpaid. They are willing to let travelers suffer. All to protect the policies that let Jose Medina into the country.

And still they stand on the floor and talk about “justice.” Still they speak of “compassion.” Still they act as if the only people who matter are the people who broke the law to get here, while the American citizens who pay their salaries, who rely on their government, who are supposed to be their first priority are left to fend for themselves.

The Blood on Their Hands

Scalise didn’t use the phrase “blood on their hands.” He didn’t have to. He let the facts speak for themselves.

Jose Medina entered the country illegally under policies Democrats created and defended. He was released into the country under policies Democrats created and defended. He was protected from deportation by sanctuary city policies Democrats created and defended. He was released after committing a crime under policies Democrats created and defended. And then he killed Sheridan Gorman.

There is a direct line from the policies Democrats have championed to the death of that eighteen-year-old girl. Not a metaphor. Not a rhetorical flourish. A direct, causal, undeniable line. If the border had been secure, Medina would not have entered. If the laws had been enforced, he would have been deported. If sanctuary cities did not exist, he would have been taken into custody. If the system worked the way it was supposed to work, Sheridan Gorman would be alive.

The Democrats who created those policies, who defended them, who are now shutting down the government to protect them—they are not innocent bystanders. They are not well-meaning people whose policies had unfortunate consequences. They built a system that prioritizes illegal immigrants over American citizens. They knew what the consequences would be. They were told what the consequences would be. And they chose to keep the system exactly as it was.

Sheridan Gorman is dead because of those choices. Her blood is on the hands of everyone who voted for those policies, who defended them, who refused to change them, who is right now shutting down the government to keep them in place.

The November Verdict

Scalise ended where everyone who watches American politics knows every speech ends: November. The election. The verdict. The moment when the American people get to decide who was right and who was wrong.

The question in November will not be complicated. It will not be about tax rates or trade policy or foreign alliances. It will be about the most basic duty of any government: protecting its citizens. And the American people will have to choose between a party that stands with victims and a party that shields killers. Between a party that wants to secure the border and a party that shuts down the government to keep it open. Between a party that thinks American lives come first and a party that thinks illegal immigrants deserve more protection than American citizens.

That is the choice. That is the verdict. And the American people, Scalise said, will deliver it.

Sheridan Gorman should be alive. She should be studying for finals, texting her friends, making plans for the summer. She should be arguing with her parents about curfews and majors and whether she’s eating enough vegetables. She should be doing all the things that eighteen-year-olds do when they have their whole lives ahead of them.

Instead, she’s dead. Killed by a man who should never have been in this country. Killed by a system that was designed to fail. Killed by policies that Democrats created and defended and are now shutting down the government to protect.

Her name is Sheridan Gorman. She was eighteen years old. She was a freshman at Loyola. She was someone’s daughter. Someone’s friend. Someone’s future.

And she is dead because the Democratic Party chose to protect Jose Medina over her. Because they chose to keep the border open, to release criminal aliens, to create sanctuary cities, to shut down the government rather than change any of it. Because they made a choice. And the choice was him. Not her.

In November, the American people will get to make their own choice. And if they choose the party that stands with victims, that secures the border, that puts American lives first—then maybe, just maybe, the next Sheridan Gorman will get to live the life that this one was denied.

That’s the verdict. That’s the hope. That’s the only thing that can make any of this mean something.

Because right now, all it means is an eighteen-year-old girl in a grave. And the people who put her there are still in power, still making the same choices, still protecting the same system.

November can change that. November has to change that. For Sheridan. For the next girl. For everyone who deserves a country that will protect them instead of the people who came here to kill them.

That’s the choice. That’s the verdict. And it cannot come soon enough.