Jessica Gorman presents memorial bench to Congress at RNC

Jessica Gorman presented a handcrafted memorial bench to Congress during the Republican National Convention in Dallas to honor her daughter, Sheridan Gorman. Sheridan, a 21-year-old Loyola University Chicago student, was killed in March 2026 by an undocumented immigrant, Jose Medina, near a pier in Chicago.

The memorial, constructed by a law enforcement officer in North Carolina, is intended as a permanent reminder of the impact of border and sanctuary city policies. During the presentation, Representative Mike Lawler became the first person to sit on the bench.

A new documentary, ‘Preventable: How the System Failed Sheridan Gorman’, details the circumstances of the killing. The film highlights how Medina, a Venezuelan national, was transported to Chicago as part of sanctuary city protocols and was released twice without appearing in court prior to the fatal shooting. The Gorman family and advocates from the Heritage Foundation use the case to argue for stricter immigration enforcement and to criticize policies that limit communication between local law enforcement and federal immigration agents.