President Donald Trump&#8217;s mass deportation campaign has come for a former Chicago-area teacher accused of helping Tren de Aragua gang members orchestrate a mass shooting.
Venezuelan illegal immigrant Giovanna Mercedes Moreno Occhipinti, 32, allegedly drove two shooters who opened fire during a December 2024 house party in Chicago and helped them evade law enforcement, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Three people were killed in the shooting and several others were wounded.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Bye bye 👋 <a href="https://t.co/GgbpY9vDG2">https://t.co/GgbpY9vDG2</a> <a href="https://t.co/ruozQIqnXB">pic.twitter.com/ruozQIqnXB</a>
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) <a href="https://x.com/DHSgov/status/2080418067884961827?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 23, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
On Friday, DHS posted a photo of Moreno Occhipinti standing on a tarmac with the caption: &#8220;Bye bye.&#8221; In the photo, the ex-educator was holding a plastic bag and wearing a sweatsuit with a smirk on her face.
Immediately after the shooting, police found multiple weapons inside Moreno Occhipinti&#8217;s car and arrested her on charges of unlawful use of weapons and weapon offense.
The Cook County State&#8217;s Attorney&#8217;s Office, however, declined to proceed with prosecuting the accused, forcing federal authorities to take matters into their own hands.
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents nabbed Moreno Occhipinti on May 13.
Matthew Scarpino, Homeland Security Investigations Chicago Special Agent in Charge, called Moreno Occhipinti’s crimes &#8220;calculated and deliberate.&#8221;
Moreno Occhipinti entered the United States in October 2021 under a visa waiver program that allowed her to stay in the country until January 2, 2022, according to DHS. The ex-teacher never left.
The alleged shooters, Ricardo Granadillo Padilla and Edward Martinez Cermeno, were previously deported from the United States, DHS said.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has deported roughly 706,000 illegal immigrants since President Donald Trump returned to the White House, and officials have said the pace of the effort is only picking up steam, according to new data DHS provided to The Daily Wire.
“Bed space and detention centers had to be rebuilt and 10,000 agents hired and Congress wouldn’t pass the big beautiful budget bill for the first six months. Everything is finally in place now so I’m optimistic the numbers will only climb higher from here,” Todd Bensman, who left his role as senior adviser to the ICE Office of the Director last month, recently told The Daily Wire.
In recent days, ICE sources have said they&#8217;re facing renewed pressure to increase arrest numbers.
“It’s wearing everyone out,” said one agency source.
“And at the same time, they want big arrests … but those take time to sit and find and wait. No vehicle stops too, which is harder. So they want big arrests and numbers at the same time. It’s hard to do both, not enough time or days to do it,” the source said.

Untitled design – 2026-07-24T082508.005

Trump Deports Illegal Immigrant School Teacher Over Ties To Tren de Aragua Mass Shooting

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An elderly Chicago woman has been identified 50 years after her dead body was found stuffed in a box in Indiana.
The DNA Doe Project helped identify the woman as Jane Hart, who was found in a cardboard box in rural Indiana in 1976. She was 69 years old at the time of her murder.
The breakthrough brings closure to this decades-long mystery that started on October 8, 1976. That day, a farmer tending to his field near Otterbein, Indiana, found a box about 15 yards from a nearby road, according to DNA Doe Project. When the farmer looked in the box, he found Hart’s body stuffed inside. She had been shot in the back of the head. Local authorities reported at the time that the box had only been in the field for about 12 hours, but estimated the woman had been killed about one week before her body was discovered.
&#8220;Everybody knew everybody, so it was a big deal, you know, finding a dead body in a box,&#8221; Curtis Skoog, who was 16 at the time his dad found the box, told <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/chicago-woman-murdered-in-indiana-identified/">CBS</a>. &#8220;I can&#8217;t explain to you how awful I felt.&#8221;
It wasn&#8217;t until 2021 that DNA Doe Project got involved after the Benton County Coroner’s Office brought the case to the organization.
After Hart’s DNA profile was generated, the team was able to determine that the unidentified woman was of Croatian descent. Though that was quickly identified, Hart’s DNA had just a 1.6% match to other DNAs in the databases available.
&#8220;We could tell that our Jane Doe had Croatian ancestry, which posed a challenge,&#8221; said team co-leader Harmony Vollmer. &#8220;Without more people of Eastern European descent uploading to the GEDmatch.com, FamilyTreeDNA.com and DNAJustice.org databases we have access to, cases like this will remain tricky to solve.&#8221;
The team made a breakthrough in 2024 when research led them to a Croatian woman who immigrated to the US in 1905 and gave birth to a daughter the next year.
The daughter was brought to an orphanage, and the DNA Doe Project was able to find census records showing that the same woman later moved from Ohio to Chicago as an adult. Lo and behold, her name was Jane Hart, and in the 1970s, she appeared to vanish from the public records.
&#8220;We uncovered further documentation from institutions that Jane had lived in, as well as probate records linking her to her family,” said Traci Onders, director of case management of the DNA Doe Project. “This research revealed genetic and genealogical connections that enabled us to identify her as a candidate.&#8221;
The key was that Hart’s surviving family members were able to identify her. After the family took DNA tests, the results confirmed that the Jane Doe from Benton County, Indiana, was their relative.
Skoog, who had spent his entire life wondering about the woman his dad found in the box, was thankful for the closure.
&#8220;It’s been a long road,” he said.

Doe Project

A Woman Was Found In A Cardboard Box. 50 Years Later, We Finally Know Who She Is.

Indiana

News

That's So Criminal

WASHINGTON — Authorities have arrested yet another man for his involvement in the planned attack on the UFC Freedom 250 event at the White House.
Twenty-year-old Alexander Iniguez Mercado of Chicago is charged with obstruction of justice related to his involvement in planning the attack. He served as the administrator of Signal chats where individuals communicated about planning the June 14 UFC attack, according to an indictment returned Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Authorities arrested him on Thursday and he is scheduled to appear in court on Friday at 3 p.m., according to the <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/chicago-man-arrested-connection-planned-violent-attack-ultimate-fighting-championship-event">Justice Department</a>.
Mercado is one of eight individuals who have been charged in connection to the attack, which authorities discovered ahead of time and put a stop to. His charge of obstruction of justice is punishable with up to 20 years in prison.
The attempted attackers planned to use explosive drones to cause panic at the UFC event and drive attendees out of specific entrances where snipers would then open fire. Authorities discovered the plot after 19-year-old Tycen Proper&#8217;s mother called about her son&#8217;s recent firearms purchases and his communications with concerning individuals online.
Proper was planning the attack with a group of nearly two dozen others, according to a criminal complaint, many of whom have not yet been arrested. His parents told law enforcement that their son had recently quit his job and appeared to have become radicalized online.
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<div id="attachment_1124081" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/another-man-indicted-for-planning-ufc-250-drone-attack/ufc-freedom-250-topuria-v-gaethje-4" rel="attachment wp-att-1124081"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1124081" class="wp-image-1124081 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/GettyImages-2281609535-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/GettyImages-2281609535-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/GettyImages-2281609535-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/GettyImages-2281609535-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/GettyImages-2281609535.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>(Photo by Cooper Neill/Zuffa LLC)</div>
One day before the UFC event, according to the DOJ, a special agent from the FBI spoke with Mercado on the telephone and said he was calling to &#8220;discuss online threats regarding the UFC event,&#8221; asking whether Mercado was planning to go to D.C. to help with the attack.
Mercado denied that he was planning to go to D.C. and said he wouldn&#8217;t meet with the agent, then uninstalled the Signal app on his phone, deleting the data that would include his Signal messages, according to the indictment.
“Obstructing justice in a law enforcement investigation into a planned violent domestic attack is a profoundly serious offense,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros said on Friday.
“The investigation in this case involved serious threats to public safety, including the safety of President Donald J. Trump, the 45th and 47th President of the United States of America, other members of government, as well as the many attendees and athletes who attended the event at the White House,&#8221; he added. &#8220;Any obstructive conduct to interfere with this investigation undermines the integrity of the justice system as well as the rule of law.&#8221;
The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/illegal-immigrant-masterminded-ufc-white-house-drone-attack-plot-dhs-says">reported last week</a> that the mastermind of the attack, Abraham Alvarez, who was “responsible for planning, organizing, and directing the planned attack,” was an illegal immigrant who had overstayed his visa after being brought into the United States as a child.
“This illegal alien from Mexico should never have been allowed in our country,” DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said earlier this month. “He was the ringleader of a failed terror attack targeting UFC Freedom 250 at the White House.

President Trump Hosts UFC Freedom 250 Fight Topuria v Gaethje At The White House

Another Man Indicted For Planning UFC 250 Drone Attack

Donald Trump

UFC Freedom 250

This piece is part of MI x DW, a collaboration that brings Daily Wire readers exclusive commentary and research from the Manhattan Institute’s world-class team of scholars. Today, Manhattan Institute Director of Research Judge Glock explains why a tidal wave of tax hikes are coming to blue cities, and warns lawmakers to prepare for the fight.
***
Chicago homeowners have long faced high property taxes, but even by the city’s standards recent tax increases are shocking.
According to a <a href="https://www.cookcountytreasurer.com/newsarticle.aspx?articleid=2158" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from the Cook County Treasurer, the median residential tax bill increased 17% last year, the largest increase in 30 years. In some poor areas of the city, homeowners’ taxes doubled, increasing by around $2,000. The Treasurer said the main reason for these hikes is a “dramatic” decline in commercial property values and taxes in Chicago’s downtown, the Loop.
Chicago is not alone. For decades, America’s central cities have relied on a cornucopia of tax dollars from downtown office buildings to subsidize generous services. But the work-from-home revolution devastated the downtown office market. While some have worried the office decline will cause an urban “doom loop” of ever-more stretched budgets, it appears cities are just shifting the tax burden onto homeowners. Cities should consider how much more their residents can take.
In the largest American cities, commercial property taxes <a href="https://taxpolicycenter.org/sites/default/files/publication/165853/the-future-of-commercial-real-estate_2024-05-01.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">constitute</a> about a third of all property taxes, which overall remain the largest source of city revenue. In some places, like Boston, commercial property can bring in about half of all property taxes.
Unfortunately, commercial property tax assessments have been dropping fast, most especially for downtown office buildings. In Minneapolis, assessed commercial values are down <a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/news/2026/03/24/minneapolis-assessor-2026-commercial-properties.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">nearly</a> $1 billion since last year. The drop was driven by downtown offices, whose assessments are now 45% <a href="https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/downtown-minneapolis-building-values-dropping-homeowners-could-pay-the-price/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lower</a> than before the pandemic. Washington, D.C.’s total commercial assessments, in which downtown offices are particularly prominent, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/commercial/the-office-markets-budding-recovery-is-leaving-most-cities-behind-ef648ff6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dropped</a> by $8 billion, or about 8%, last year.
City tax assessments are probably lagging the real decline in office values. Tax assessors tend to smooth values year-to-year to prevent sudden jumps or drops, but they are especially slow to <a href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w33238/w33238.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adjust</a> to drops in value. Sometimes assessors <a href="https://www.aptcnet.com/property-tax-resources/dc-in-denial-on-office-property-valuations" target="_blank" rel="noopener">exclude</a> “distressed” or foreclosure sales when trying to measure comparable properties. After the pandemic, these distressed sales have become far more common. In some places tax reassessments only occur every 3 years. As late as 2022, most <a href="https://taxpolicycenter.org/sites/default/files/publication/165853/the-future-of-commercial-real-estate_2024-05-01.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cities</a>’ assessors claimed that commercial property values were increasing.
Some argue that office vacancy rates don’t show such a bad situation for downtown offices, but vacancy is a lagging indicator too. Office vacancy, meaning available office space that is not leased, <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/04/02/office-vacancies-moodys-real-estate" target="_blank" rel="noopener">was</a> 17% before the coronavirus pandemic and since then has only ticked up to 21%. But many technically leased offices are ghostly silent. The keycard company Kastle finds the proportion of workers actually in the office is <a href="https://www.kastle.com/the-data-science-behind-theback-to-work-barometer/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">about</a> 55% the rate before the pandemic. When more leases come due, companies will shrink their footprint and vacancies will rise.
Market sales of downtown offices show clear evidence of distress. Some downtown buildings are <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2025/08/portlands-downtown-real-estate-fire-sales-will-hasten-millions-in-property-tax-losses.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">selling</a> for a tenth of their pre-pandemic level, while others sell for as little as a <a href="https://www.startribune.com/lumber-exchange-building-sold-downtown-minneapolis-varde-partners-space-unlimited-kickernick/601588537" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dollar</a>. A recent American Economic Review paper estimated that the pandemic and the work-from-home trend destroyed <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20231619" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more</a> than $550 billion in office value just up to 2023. For perspective, the whole U.S. office market is only worth about $1.8 trillion.
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Once assessed values, vacancies, and tax rates fully reflect changes in the office market, the effects on urban homeowners could be disastrous. Boston’s rates for a typical single-family home <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/10/metro/boston-city-council-property-tax-rates-2026/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">went</a> up 13% this year, or $780, after a 10% <a href="https://www.boston.gov/news/mayor-michelle-wu-refiles-residential-tax-relief-legislation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">increase</a> the previous year. The Boston Policy Institute <a href="https://bostonpolicyinstitute.org/projects/fiscal-fallout/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">expects</a> a $1.7 billion property tax shortfall that would likely shift to residents over five years. In Minneapolis, commercial property taxes have already <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-owu0x7Rqc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dropped</a> from 30% of taxes in 2023 to 25% this year, with homeowners bearing almost all the difference.
While property tax revolts are generally associated with red states and conservative voters, the coming tax hit to left-leaning cities could inspire its own revolt.
America saw a comparable urban tax revolt after a shift in the tax burden from commercial properties to homeowners in the 1960s and ‘70s. In those years, many states and cities began tax “modernization” campaigns, which tried to make tax assessments match the market value of different types of property. It turned out that homeowners had been getting breaks from their assessors. After modernization, their rates exploded, leading to a wave of tax resistance.
Most <a href="https://go.lincolninst.edu/Chernick_WP25HC2.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">research</a> indicates that cities’ budgets can survive a big drop in downtown property values. If cities engaged in a reasonable amount of spending restraint, they could come out of the work-from-home revolution in a stronger fiscal position than before. But it appears cities just want to shift ever more of the tax burden onto their residents. They should instead consider whether homeowners can survive that shift, and for how long they will put up with it.
Judge Glock is the director of research at the Manhattan Institute and the author of &#8220;The Dead Pledge: The Origins of the Mortgage Market and Federal Bailouts, 1913-1939.&#8221;

New York Knicks Championship Parade & Ceremony

Tax Hikes Are Coming To Left-Leaning Cities

American Cities

New York City

Remote Work

Taxes

How This American City Was Reduced To A Total Humiliating Clown Show

Barack Obama

Brandon Johnson

Democrats

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The Left

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A former Illinois teacher illegally living in the United States was arrested for her alleged involvement in the Tren de Aragua mass shooting that killed three people, officials said on Monday, June 22.
Giovanna Mercedes Moreno Occhipinti, a 32 year old illegal immigrant originally from Venezuela, has been in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since May 13, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Occhipinti came to the in the United States October 2021 and later overstayed her visa, which expired in January of 2021.
Occhipinti allegedly drove the two shooters, Ricardo Granadillo Padilla and Edward Martinez Cermeno, to a Chicago house party on December 2, 2024, where the crime took place. That night, five people were injured and three were killed. 
“Giovanna Mercedes Moreno Occhipinti’s actions were calculated and deliberate, leading to the loss of three lives,” said the HSI Chicago Special Agent in Charge Matthew Scarpino. Authorities found multiple weapons in Occhipinti’s car after the shooting, and they believe she helped Granadillo Padilla and Martinez Cermeno evade law enforcement until the two were eventually deported in 2025.
On December 5, 2024, the Chicago Police Department arrested and charged Occhipinti for unlawful use of weapons and other weapon offenses, but she was later released under Chicago&#8217;s sanctuary policies. These policies protect illegal immigrants from federal immigration authorities by preventing local law enforcement from notifying ICE when an illegal alien criminal has been taken into custody.
Occhipinti is currently being held in Leitchfield, Kentucky, at the Grayson County Detention Center. 
“Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, DHS is doing the job that sanctuary politicians in Illinois refuse to do: putting the American people first and removing these dangerous criminals from our communities,” said the DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis. 
Occhipinti taught at a school in Elgin, a Chicago suburb, but officials refuse to disclose the institution’s name, DHS told Fox News.
“I’m thankful that the victims and their families finally get the justice they deserve,” <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/four-illegal-alien-tren-de-aragua-members-plead-guilty-double-murder-2024">said</a> the DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin. “Tren de Aragua is one of the most vicious gangs on planet earth. They rape, maim, and murder for sport. Under President Trump’s leadership, we are targeting and removing gang members from our communities and ensuring those that committed crimes in our country face justice.”
Members of Tren de Aragua, a prison gang from Venezuela, entered the United States in droves during former President Joe Biden&#8217;s administration, when federal authorities were instructed to release illegal border crossers into the nation&#8217;s interior en masse. The gang proceeded to create footholds across the country, setting up sex trafficking rings, carrying out apartment takeovers, and committing murders.
Jose Ibarra, a member of the violent gang, was convicted of the high-profile murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley.

Immigration Advocates Demonstrate And Clash With Officers Outside Delaney Hall Detention Facility In Newark

Illegal Alien Teacher Arrested In Connection To Deadly Tren De Aragua Shooting

Illegal Immigation

Tren De Aragua

Former President Barack Obama said Thursday that America’s Founding Fathers “fell terribly short” when they adopted the Declaration of Independence in 1776 because they did not immediately abolish slavery. 
Obama made the remarks ahead of the official opening of his sprawling presidential library in Chicago, flanked by other former presidents, including Bill Clinton, George Bush, and Joe Biden. The library, which kicked off its opening day with a land acknowledgment, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/obama-museum-sets-records-including-how-much-itll-cost-you-to-get-in">cost</a> $850 million to construct and opened 3,437 days after Obama left office. 
&#8220;In forming our union, the founders fell terribly short of the Declaration&#8217;s promise, leaving slavery intact, allowing states to restrict the franchise to white men who owned property,” Obama said of the document&#8217;s proclamation that &#8220;all men are created equal&#8221; and are &#8220;endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.&#8221;
“But in drafting a Constitution and a Bill of rights, they did have the foresight, the genius, to provide us with a framework that allows each generation to make our union more perfect,” Obama added. 
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“Over more than two centuries, through petitions and protests, marches and strikes, moral appeals from the pulpit and conversations at the family dinner table, men and women from all walks of life, of every color, every faith, every region took up the cause of democracy and made it their own. Until we the People came to include not just some of us, but all of us,” Obama added later.
The Obama family has been infamously critical of America’s past, with former first lady Michelle Obama once claiming that the first time she was ever proud of the United States as an adult was during her husband’s first presidential campaign. 
&#8220;For the first time in my adult life I am proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback,” she said on the campaign trail in 2008. 
Obama’s comments come as the nation prepares to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration.
In recognition of that milestone, President Donald Trump has promised to have the “largest fireworks show in history” to celebrate Independence Day. 
Trump said that the festivities will kick off on June 24 with music performed by the Army and Marine Corps military bands and Lee Greenwood. He said that Air Force fighter jets and stealth bombers would fly over for the ceremony taking place on the National Mall.

Obama Presidential Library Dedication Ceremony

Obama Knocks Founders Before America’s 250th

Founding Fathers

Illinois

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Authorities found a knife on the illegal immigrant accused of killing Loyola University freshman Sheridan Gorman, while he was locked up in jail, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Jose Medina, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, allegedly fatally shot Gorman in the early morning hours of March 19 while she was walking with her friends in Chicago to search for the northern lights. Medina allegedly approached Gorman while dressed in all black with a mask over his face, before he fired one round as the college freshman tried to run.
Last week, the Cook County sheriff’s office said jail staff found Medina with a 6-inch shank, the Chicago Sun-Times <a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2026/06/01/sheridan-gorman-jose-medina-loyola-shooting-homicide-chicago-immigration" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
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Gorman&#8217;s family is now calling out the alleged killer&#8217;s defense to &#8220;stop pretending&#8221; their client was left with the brain development of a child after he was shot in the head during a robbery earlier in his life in Colombia, according to the outlet.
“Correctional officers recovered the sharpened metal weapon from him after receiving information that other inmates feared for their safety,” Gorman’s father, Thomas Gorman, said Monday.
“So let’s stop pretending this man is harmless and has the mentality of a child. He was a danger outside and he is apparently a danger inside,” he added.
Medina crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally in May 2023, when the Biden administration was releasing migrants en masse. At the time, Border Patrol agents noted in Medina&#8217;s immigration file that he was “likely to abscond,” citing that he had “close family ties or roots in this country,” according to federal documents previously released by the House Judiciary Committee.
The illegal immigrant then traveled to Chicago, where he allegedly shoplifted from a Macy&#8217;s store in June 2023, <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/03/21/loyola-chicago-shooting-suspect/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the Chicago Tribune. He never showed up for his hearing in the case, leading a judge to issue a warrant for his arrest.
Medina faces multiple charges, including first-degree murder, attempted murder in the first degree, three counts of aggravated assault with a firearm, and one count of aggravated unlawful possession of a weapon.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lodged a detainer in his latest case, asking that local authorities hand him over for eventual deportation. Because of sanctuary policies in Illinois, local authorities are not expected to comply with the request.
“Sheridan Gorman had her whole life ahead of her before this cold-blooded killer decided to end her life. She was failed by open border policies and sanctuary politicians who RELEASED this illegal alien TWICE before he went on to commit this heinous murder,” Acting Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Lauren Bis said in an earlier statement.
“We are calling on Governor J.B. Pritzker and Chicago’s sanctuary politicians to commit to not releasing this criminal illegal alien from jail back into American neighborhoods,” Bis added.

Untitled design – 2026-06-02T092557.060

The Jailhouse Discovery Linked To Illegal Alien Accused In Sheridan Gorman’s Murder

The Jailhouse Discovery Linked To Illegal Alien Accused In Sheridan Gorman's Murder

illegal immigrant

Illinois Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker stuck his foot in his mouth once again (somehow finding room) when he attacked President Donald Trump on Tuesday and was roundly mocked for doing so.
Trump addressed the situation in Chicago on Tuesday morning when he was asked by a reporter, “Mr. President, have you planned any thought into potentially endorsing someone to run against J.B. Pritzker, like Darren Bailey?”
“Well, I like Darren Bailey. J.B. Pritzker is a slob of a governor,” Trump replied. “You know, he could call me and I&#8217;d send the National Guard and Chicago would have no crime. Look at Washington, D.C. Did you see the crime stats? It&#8217;s down to like nothing. People go to restaurants now, new restaurants. &#8230; We have a beautiful city. We have very little crime, almost no crime. And we could have the same thing in Chicago. All he&#8217;d have to do is say, &#8216;President, I don&#8217;t want to have any crime in Chicago.&#8217; Can you help me out?’ Three months. Chicago would be a different place.”
Pritzker shot back on X, writing, &#8220;Keep Chicago out of your mouth.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Keep Chicago out of your mouth. <a href="https://t.co/thxBAzP0E6">https://t.co/thxBAzP0E6</a>
&mdash; JB Pritzker (@JBPritzker) <a href="https://twitter.com/JBPritzker/status/2056840629787779123?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 19, 2026</a></blockquote>
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That elicited numerous online jokes, as Pritzker — who recently took off significant weight — had previously gained fame as the real-life version of Jabba the Hutt or Baron Harkonnen.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Try keeping literally anything out of your mouth <a href="https://t.co/tVqrFeoOoh">https://t.co/tVqrFeoOoh</a>
&mdash; Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) <a href="https://twitter.com/mkhammer/status/2056877684139970679?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 19, 2026</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Keep fried foods out of yours.
It would be one thing if your policy agenda was even remotely likely to control crime in your state’s largest city, but you’ve made clear that you’re perfectly willing to subordinate the security of Chitown’s South and West Side residents to your…
&mdash; Rafael A. Mangual (@Rafa_Mangual) <a href="https://twitter.com/Rafa_Mangual/status/2056900073389191625?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 20, 2026</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Quiet, piggy.
&mdash; Chris Loesch 𝕏 (@ChrisLoesch) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChrisLoesch/status/2056906897014321315?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 20, 2026</a></blockquote>
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Last October, President Trump deployed 300 Illinois National Guard troops, prompting Pritzker to hyperventilate over “Trump’s Invasion.”
“We must now start calling this what it is: Trump’s Invasion,” Pritzker stated, according to the <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/05/president-trump-calling-up-300-illinois-national-guard-immediately-to-protect-ice-buildings-for-60-days/?lctg=B4845491D5F64499A4E4B513EB&amp;utm_email=B4845491D5F64499A4E4B513EB&amp;utm_source=listrak&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=https%3a%2f%2fwww.chicagotribune.com%2f2025%2f10%2f05%2fpresident-trump-calling-up-300-illinois-national-guard-immediately-to-protect-ice-buildings-for-60-days%2f&amp;utm_campaign=trib-chicago_tribune-breaking_news-nl&amp;utm_content=alert">Chicago Tribune</a>, which reported that War Secretary Pete Hegseth sent a memo instructing Illinois National Guard leadership to deploy the troops to the Chicago region for at least 60 days.
“It started with federal agents, it will soon include deploying federalized members of the Illinois National Guard against our wishes, and it will now involve sending in another state’s military troops,” Pritzker declared.
The White House said the National Guard troops would protect federal personnel and property — like ICE facilities — where violent demonstrations are either happening or expected. The memo called for protecting federal law enforcement officials who are “performing federal functions.”
The war between Trump and Pritzker has been going on for some time; in June 2024, while Trump was campaigning for the presidency, Trump targeted Pritzker, <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/112626680945709862">writing</a> on Truth Social:
<blockquote>
Sloppy J.B. Pritzker, the Rotund Governor from the once great State of Illinois, who makes Chris Christie look like a male model, and whose family wanted him out of the business because he was so pathetic at helping them run it, has presided over the destruction and disintegration of Illinois at levels never seen before in any State. Crime is rampant and people are, sadly, fleeing Illinois. Unless a change is made at the Governor&#8217;s level, Illinois can never be Great Again.
</blockquote>

US-POLITICS-CRIME-TROOPS-CHICAGO

Democrat Tries Telling Trump What He Can Say And Can’t Say

Food

J.B. Pritzker

A growing wave of juvenile crime and “teen takeovers” in major Democrat-run cities is prompting renewed scrutiny of leftist policing policies, with critics warning that years of anti-law enforcement rhetoric have created an atmosphere of escalating disorder.
The phenomenon has erupted in cities including Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere in recent months, with incidents often coordinated through TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and other social media platforms.
Col. Frank Carpenter, chief of police in Chesterfield County, Virginia, told <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/03/30/us-news/teen-takeovers-turn-city-centers-into-scenes-from-the-purge-cops/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The New York Post</a> these scenes resemble “The Purge,” a dystopian horror film franchise depicting cities descending into lawlessness. Police sources say that massive groups of teenagers have increasingly overwhelmed officers, shut down public spaces, and engaged in assaults, robberies, vandalism, and shootings.
As with Virginia, these incidents are especially concentrated in Democrat-led cities. Chicago, in particular, has emerged as one of the most visible examples.
Last week, a silver sedan <a href="https://x.com/ChicagoContrar1/status/2053107479580479701?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rammed</a> a Chicago Police Department squad car during a downtown street takeover near Grant Park while crowds of teens surrounded the vehicle, cheering, filming officers on their phones, and pounding on the patrol car’s hood. Just two days later, on Friday, a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWl_IufDx1X/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">second takeover erupted</a> on the city’s South Side. In another incident earlier this spring, teens allegedly set vehicles ablaze by igniting fireworks inside them.
Similar incidents have recently unfolded in Los Angeles beach communities and <a href="https://x.com/WellsJorda89710/status/2043154989682511888?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Washington, D.C</a>., where viral videos show large crowds overwhelming police presence and turning public areas into chaotic scenes. Though no one was killed, in one Los Angeles-area takeover, gunfire broke out and struck four victims ranging from 17 to 22 years old.
In New York City, police arrested a 17-year-old suspect in the fatal stabbing of 39-year-old Leonides Baez near Times Square. According to investigators, the teen allegedly said he was inspired by a TikTok trend known as “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/08/nyregion/teenager-stabbing-times-square-nyc-tiktok.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">messing with crackheads</a>,” in which vulnerable or homeless individuals are harassed for entertainment and online attention.
Authorities say several teens approached Baez before he was stabbed to death outside of a restaurant.
Critics say the social media component is central to understanding this crime trend. The Wall Street Journal recently characterized many of the incidents as “performative crime,” that is, criminal acts committed for viral attention and social status online.
But some analysts argue the deeper causes run far beyond TikTok.
Heather Mac Donald, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and author of &#8220;The War on Cops,&#8221; said authorities are failing to confront the fact that these crimes are overwhelmingly being carried out by young African Americans and reflect long-term breakdowns in the black family structure.
“This is a long-standing problem, and nobody wants to talk about what the causes are,” Mac Donald said during an interview with <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/hosts/morning-wire?elementPosition=7&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Browse+by+Hosts&amp;rowType=Hosts+Carousel">Morning Wire</a>. “The criminal justice system is terrified, really, to do anything about it.”
The extreme nature of the takeovers is prompting Republican leaders to act though. On Friday, U.S. Attorney <a href="https://x.com/foxnews/status/2055326776549605474?s=43" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jeanine Pirro announced</a> a significant offensive against the parents of minors participating in these crimes. Pirro pledged to pursue criminal charges against parents who neglect their supervisory duties, warning that such failures could result in substantial financial penalties or incarceration.
“If the evidence shows the parent knew or should have known or permitted or failed to prevent participation, we are going to charge them,” Pirro stated, adding, “If you drop your kid off and you fail to supervise them, or you let them skip school to join the chaos, you are going to face fines, court ordered classes, and possible jail time.&#8221;
Another contributing factor Mac Donald pointed to is schools, which she said have historically been reluctant to discipline black students after years of pressure from leftist activists and federal officials who claimed disciplinary disparities were evidence of systemic racism.
“Teachers now have been told they can’t do that,” she said, referring to enforcing discipline and behavioral standards in classrooms. She also blamed the lingering effects of the anti-police movement that exploded after the 2014 Ferguson, Missouri, riots and intensified following the death of George Floyd in 2020.
“Policing obviously has been under one prolonged assault since the Ferguson riots,” Mac Donald said. “The pressure is on them not to intervene at all because they don’t want another George Floyd riot or Ferguson riot in their city.”
The debate has intensified as some blue-city leaders continue pushing policies that restrict law enforcement.
Last week, the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to curtail “pretextual” traffic stops by the LAPD. The stops are initiated for low-level violations such as broken taillights or expired tags that sometimes lead officers to uncover illegal weapons or narcotics. The city council&#8217;s vote is now set to be debated by the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners, which has the final say.
Meanwhile, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has previously described aggressive law enforcement approaches as a “sickness” in Chicago that he wanted to “eradicate.”
Mac Donald argued that years of political hostility toward proactive policing have worsened violent crime. “There’s nothing more important that the police can do to lower gun crime than these types of investigative stops,” she said.
Although officials in cities such as New York and Chicago often point to declining overall crime statistics, Mac Donald said those numbers can obscure broader public disorder. “Murders don’t lie. You can’t hide the bodies,” she said, noting homicide rates remain elevated compared to pre-2020 levels despite recent declines from their peak.
Police recruitment has also become increasingly difficult in major urban departments. Mac Donald said cities including Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago remain severely understaffed as officers retire early, leave for red states, or avoid entering the profession altogether.
“If current policies continue,” she warned, “people who can leave are going to leave.”

US-NEWS-CHICAGO-SHOOTINGS-TB

Teen Takeovers Turn Blue Cities Into ‘Scenes From The Purge’

Police

Teenagers

Washington D.C.

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), never a group to shy away from radical posturing, has officially <a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/education/2026/03/12/chicago-teachers-union-plans-to-join-may-1-no-school-no-work-day-of-action-wants-classes-canceled?gad_source=1&amp;gad_campaignid=23559714611&amp;gbraid=0AAAAA9e-Tg6UY-KZu4aY-vqEU5Q5EQU0F&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjwntHPBhAaEiwA_Xp6Rne5i-_eFc1MaVw8HXTBnMkL6ujFJ6xP1F5YdsN8qKwMcpc80urKABoCOCQQAvD_BwE">declared its intent</a> to abandon the classroom on May 1. In a move that effectively amounts to a one-day strike, the union’s 730-member House of Delegates approved a resolution joining a national movement calling for a day of “no school, no work, and no shopping.”
The CTU isn&#8217;t just asking its members to walk out; it’s demanding that Mayor Brandon Johnson and the school board use state law to excuse students so they can participate in what the union calls “civic action.”
The choice of May 1 is no coincidence. While the date’s origins trace back to the 1886 Haymarket Affair in Chicago, it was quickly co-opted by the global far-Left. In 1889, the Second International—a collection of socialist and labor parties—designated it as a day of demonstration. By 1917, it became the premier state holiday of the Soviet Union, complete with Red Square parades featuring tanks and missiles intended to signal the &#8220;proletariat&#8217;s&#8221; triumph over capitalism.
While the United States spent decades trying to distance itself from these connotations—establishing &#8220;Loyalty Day&#8221; and &#8220;Law Day&#8221; on May 1 to counter communist influence—the CTU appears eager to revive the day’s most radical sentiments.
The CTU&#8217;s resolution reads less like an educational mandate and more like a manifesto from a bygone era of class warfare. The union’s demands are explicitly political and heavily flavored with the &#8220;tax the rich&#8221; rhetoric synonymous with communist agitation.
According to the resolution, the CTU intends to:
<ul>
<li data-path-to-node="10,0,0">Target the Wealthy: The union is demanding that the government “tax the rich to support our schools,” echoing the classic Marxist refrain of wealth redistribution.</li>
<li data-path-to-node="10,1,0">Abolish Enforcement: In a direct challenge to federal law, the union is calling for “ICE out of our cities,” referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.</li>
<li data-path-to-node="10,2,0">Attack &#8220;Authoritarianism&#8221;: The resolution rails against &#8220;MAGA politicians,&#8221; &#8220;billionaire donors,&#8221; and &#8220;corporate interests,&#8221; claiming these groups are &#8220;attempting to cement authoritarian power.&#8221;</li>
</ul>
CTU Vice President Jackson Potter stated, &#8220;Teaching our students what civic action looks like requires more than textbooks when the President sends federal agents to occupy our cities &#8230;&#8221; Meanwhile, CTU member Kevin Moore justified the walkout by claiming &#8220;public education is under attack,&#8221; asserting that taking children out of school to participate in political rallies is a way of &#8220;teaching our students how to use their voice.&#8221;
Instead of math and literacy, the CTU wants students to engage in &#8220;age-appropriate&#8221; civic education, which apparently includes &#8220;mass resistance training&#8221; and &#8220;political education,&#8221; according to the union&#8217;s <a href="https://www.ctulocal1.org/posts/mayday-resolution/?link_id=2&amp;can_id=17ebc6e1a278c81ea80307c4c5703485&amp;source=email-ctu-members-vote-to-join-may-1st-no-school-no-work-no-shopping-day-of-civic-action&amp;email_referrer=email_3140500&amp;email_subject=ctu-members-vote-to-join-may-1st-no-school-no-work-no-shopping-day-of-civic-action">resolution</a>. The union is also using the platform to weigh in on foreign policy, writing, &#8220;Trump has illegally declared war on Iran built on lies and deception.&#8221;
Mayor Johnson, a former CTU organizer himself, signaled support for the &#8220;direct action,&#8221; though he vaguely promised to ensure &#8220;no loss of instruction time&#8221;—a difficult feat when the union is actively calling for &#8220;No School.&#8221;
As the CTU pivots from education to overt political activism, it remains to be seen how Chicago parents will react to their children being used as pawns in a movement that shares more DNA with the Soviet Union’s &#8220;Workers&#8217; Day&#8221; than with the American classroom.

OPED-CHICAGO-TEACHERS-WALKOUT-EDITORIAL-TB

‘No School, No Work’ Teacher Strike Takes A Page From Communist May Day

Communism

Education

Teachers Unions

U.S.

Sheridan Gorman&#8217;s father is decrying the sanctuary policies that resulted in his daughter&#8217;s alleged killer being out on the streets.
Venezuelan national <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-steps-in-after-illegal-immigrant-accused-of-slaying-college-freshman">Jose Medina</a>, 25, allegedly gunned down the 18-year-old Loyola University freshman in Chicago last month. At the time, Gorman was walking with her friends around 1 a.m. to look for the northern lights near the Chicago lakefront.
Before that, Medina had crossed the border illegally in May of 2023 and was subsequently released into the country.
He was caught allegedly shoplifting from a Chicago Macy&#8217;s that June, according to the Chicago Tribune. When the illegal immigrant failed to appear for his hearing in the case, a warrant was sworn out for his arrest.
Sheridan&#8217;s father is now arguing that local authorities should have handed Medina over to federal authorities at the time due to his lack of immigration status.
&#8220;There needs to be some cooperation between state and local government and federal officials. When someone commits a crime and they&#8217;ve been here illegally, there needs to be cooperation,&#8221; Sheridan&#8217;s father, Thomas Gorman, told CBS News in an interview that aired Wednesday.
&#8220;He was arrested for, yes, a nonviolent crime, but he was also here illegally. In our mind, he should&#8217;ve been handed over to the feds at that point,&#8221; the grieving father added.
Sheridan&#8217;s mother said they were told their daughter likely saved her friends&#8217; lives the night of her murder.
&#8220;He, like, moved towards her threateningly,&#8221; Jessica Gorman, Sheridan&#8217;s mother, told CBS News of Medina&#8217;s actions that night. &#8220;She turned around and she warned her friends that there was a man with a gun, and you need to run. And they ran.&#8221;
Sheridan was able to run about 40 feet before she was shot in the back and neck, Thomas said.
&#8220;They say it was a senseless tragedy. It wasn&#8217;t. It was a murder. It was a preventable murder,&#8221; Jessica said.
Medina was charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder in the first degree, three counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm, and one count of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lodged a detainer with local authorities, but it is not likely to force any action due to sanctuary laws in Illinois.
Before he was released into the country after crossing the border, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-era-illegal-dubbed-likely-to-flee-now-accused-in-college-student-murder">Border Patrol agents</a> said that Medina was &#8220;likely to abscond,&#8221; according to federal documents that were recently obtained by House Judiciary Committee Republicans.
The agents also noted that Medina didn’t make any asylum claims, writing that he did not “fear harm or persecution” if returned to Venezuela.
Meanwhile, Medina&#8217;s defense has argued that the Venezuelan national is developmentally delayed and can&#8217;t read or write after being shot in the head during a 2018 robbery in Colombia, <a href="https://wgntv.com/news/wgn-investigates/what-we-know-about-loyola-murder-suspect-jose-medina/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to WGN.

Untitled design – 2026-04-22T090118.114

Parents Of Slain Student Say Her Murder Was ‘Preventable,’ Sanctuary Policies Released Her Killer

Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Sanctuary Cities

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