Parents of an 18-year-old shot dead by an illegal immigrant pressed Democrat Cait Conley on ending sanctuary laws, and she would not back federal legislation to scrap them.
Tom and Jessica Gorman appeared on a video call during a one-hour News 12 debate Monday night and put the question straight to the candidates for New York’s 17th House district: would they support federal legislation to undo state sanctuary laws?
Their daughter, Sheridan Gorman, an 18-year-old Loyola University freshman, was shot while walking with friends along Lake Michigan on March 19. Jose Medina, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, is the defendant. He had prior run-ins with law enforcement and was set free before the killing.
NY Post reporting captured the clash in the lower Hudson Valley race between Republican Rep. Mike Lawler and Democratic challenger Cait Conley, a West Point graduate and Army veteran who worked at the Department of Homeland Security in the Biden years and won a five-way primary in her first run for office.
Jessica Gorman choked back tears on the call. The parents wanted a clear answer on sanctuary policy, the kind of answer that matches the loss they are living with.
They did not get one from Conley.
Conley labeled Sheridan’s killing inexcusable. She offered sympathy and a broad promise.
She told viewers:
"Government failed her and for that we have to make sure that that doesn’t happen again,"
And she added:
"The safety and security of our families is something I will be unwavering in,"
She still refused to say she would scrap New York’s sanctuary law. That law, enacted earlier this year by Gov. Kathy Hochul and Albany Democrats, bars local law enforcement from cooperating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on the detention of migrants living in New York illegally.
Her campaign website goes further in the other direction. It supports revoking so-called 287(g) agreements, the pacts that let local cops assist ICE. In the debate she also complained that ICE under President Trump is rounding up “people like grandmas and nurses and people in our communities” instead of focusing on criminal aliens.
Soft words about safety do not repeal a statute that blocks cooperation with federal immigration officers. The Gormans asked about undoing sanctuary rules. Conley answered with process talk and a promise to be “unwavering.”
Rep. Mike Lawler, a former state assemblyman seeking a third term, did not let the dodge pass. He spoke directly to the Gormans and drew the contrast.
Lawler said:
"Well, Jess and Tom, what you didn’t hear from Cait was an answer to your question. She does support Kathy Hochul’s new law,"
He continued:
"She would not support federal legislation to end sanctuary policies. Let me be very clear, I stand with you. I am against Kathy Hochul’s disastrous new law and I support any legislation that will end sanctuary jurisdictions in this country."
That is the core divide in plain English. One candidate backs federal tools to end sanctuary jurisdictions. The other will not commit to scrap New York’s barrier to ICE cooperation and favors ending local assist agreements with the agency.
Lawler’s district covers Rockland, Putnam, and parts of Westchester and Dutchess counties. Voters there heard a national policy fight land in a local living room, through parents who buried a daughter after a shooting in Chicago.
The policy at issue is not abstract. New York’s law stops local agencies from helping hold illegal immigrants for ICE. Medina had already drawn law-enforcement attention and was free before Sheridan Gorman was killed.
Parents who lost an 18-year-old do not need a seminar on federalism. They need officials who will not shield removable offenders from the agency charged with immigration enforcement. Hochul and Albany Democrats wrote the opposite rule. Conley will not take it on.
Lawler said he will. He tied his stand to the Gormans’ question and to opposition to the governor’s statute.
The sanctuary exchange was the sharpest moment. The rest of the debate covered familiar Hudson Valley ground.
Lawler asked Conley if she would denounce Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Conley fired back, asking if Lawler would denounce Donald Trump “for the harm he’s caused to families in the Hudson Valley.”
Both candidates said they want the $9 congestion toll into Manhattan’s business district scrapped. Conley broke with Hochul on that point. Lawler touted work to lift the federal cap on state and local tax deductions. He backed reviving the Indian Point nuclear plant and allowing gas extraction. He opposed Hochul’s one-year moratorium on AI data centers; Conley endorsed the pause.
Conley called Trump’s tariffs “reckless” and repeatedly branded Lawler a “lifelong political operative.” She also pledged help for Haitian migrants after Trump revoked their temporary protected status in July. Lawler pledged support on that TPS file as well.
About 20% of the district’s voters are Jewish. Cannabis law, Social Security payroll taxes on Americans making more than $400,000, and renewable energy also came up. None of those side fights matched the force of two parents asking whether Washington would override state sanctuary policy after their daughter’s death.
Tom and Jessica Gorman did not call in to score debate points. They asked whether the people seeking a House seat would support federal legislation to unwind state sanctuary laws.
Conley spoke of government failure and unwavering safety. She would not join a push to end the sanctuary framework Hochul signed, and her campaign line on 287(g) runs against deeper local-federal cooperation.
Lawler said the quiet part out loud: she supports the governor’s law, she would not back federal legislation to end sanctuary policies, and he will.
Sheridan Gorman was 18, a college freshman, walking with friends by the water. The man charged in her killing had already been through the system and was out. New York’s rule book still limits how much local police can help ICE lock that pipeline down.
Parents showed up on live television and asked for a repeal fight. One candidate stood with them. The other offered condolences and kept the sanctuary wall in place.
When grieving parents ask for the law that failed their child to be torn down, “unwavering” should mean a yes, not a dodge dressed up as compassion.
