LOYOLA STUDENT PAPER’S SHAMEFUL APOLOGY FOR CALLING SHERIDAN GORMAN’S KILLER AN ‘ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT’

And why is President Donald Trump the first in my lifetime who seems like he actually cares about Angel Families — the Americans who have lost loved ones to illegal immigrant crimes?

For instance, this Thursday, April 9, marks the one-year anniversary of the reopening of the Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement Office. Trump created VOICE in his first term to give Angel Families a voice in government. It’s intended to be a place where Angel Family members like me can turn to for help, guidance, and updates.

Former President Joe Biden shut it down. Trump re-opened it. That right there shows all you need to know about which elected leaders are looking out for Angel Families. 

My Angel Family story began last year, when authorities arrested Jose Luis Mendoza-Gonzalez, the criminal illegal immigrant connected to my daughter Megan’s death. He hid her body in his own backyard, in a garbage can filled with bleach for 51 days, and destroyed her phone and any evidence regarding her death. Due to sanctuary state laws in Illinois that shield illegal immigrants from true justice and the ridiculous pretrial release policies, he was allowed to walk out of court less than 24 hours after he was arrested in connection with my daughter’s death.

He was not given a monitor, received no consequences, and has provided no answers as to how my daughter died. There was no investigation to speak of, and he was able to return to his home, the scene of the crime, while he awaited trial for the charges. The judge would have detained him to await trial for this heinous crime, but one of Illinois’s many soft-on-crime laws, the “Pretrial Fairness Act” — found within the SAFE-T Act — took that discretion away from her. 

Neither Pritzker nor any pro-sanctuary elected official in Illinois contacted me. We were left helpless. So as my family began a lifetime of mourning, Mendoza-Gonzalez could resume his job, where he used an alias and false documentation to work. He created social media accounts and interacted with trusting people using fake names. The government of Illinois knew this. It didn’t care.

Thankfully, I found help at the federal level. Only after I personally sought out Trump, Department of Homeland Security officials (including those at VOICE), and members of Congress, was Mendoza-Gonzalez taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

But then state policy failed me again: Illinois refused to hold him pending trial. Due to Illinois’s TRUST Act, which prohibits local law enforcement from detaining any individual in cooperation with federal immigration proceedings, ICE was forced to detain him out of state, with the potential to be deported before justice could be served. Once again, I had to seek out help from Homeland Security officials to ensure there was a way for him to be returned to Illinois to stand trial. A victim’s family should not have to fight this hard.

The irony in the names given to these policies does not escape me. For example, the Safe-T Act makes us less safe by releasing dangerous criminals back into our communities. The Pretrial Fairness Act doesn’t demand fairness; it appeases the criminal. The TRUST Act ensures that illegal immigrants can most certainly trust Pritzker to protect them above all else. 

And sanctuary policies are supposed to be about compassion. It appears that “sanctuary” and “compassion” are only for illegal immigrants, not for the actual law-abiding citizens of America. 

And that brings us to the heart of the matter. Local, state, and federal agencies should work together to keep all Americans safe. Yet sanctuary states such as Illinois refuse to do so. As a result, criminal illegal immigrants like the one linked to my daughter’s death and decomposition flock here to find a safe haven and to wreak havoc on our streets. 

When states refuse to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, it leaves a huge gap through which Americans like Megan unnecessarily lose their lives. Illinois is not alone in this calamity. Americans see it repeatedly. Different cities. Different years. Same question: Why are states allowed to ignore federal law and replace it with an ideology that protects criminals and illegal immigrants, but not victims and law-abiding citizens?

Any time a government official identifies an illegal immigrant, they have a choice to make: Should they enforce or ignore immigration law? Their decision becomes a high-stakes gamble with public safety if he allows that illegal immigrant to stay.

If an innocent person dies as a result of accepting that risk, that tragedy must be recognized as a completely preventable death caused by the government’s failure. Meanwhile, my own governor continues to side with illegal immigrants.

Let’s be real. Power-hungry politicians championed an open border and are behind each of these sanctuary policies that make federal immigration enforcement nearly impossible. The reason has nothing to do with compassion.

Anyone with a heartbeat can be included in the census. The largest populations of illegal immigrants are found in Democrat-led sanctuary jurisdictions, substantially increasing census numbers. Large increases in census numbers create more congressional seats and draw down more federal dollars. So when Pritzker prioritizes illegal immigrants over citizens, Democrats in his state get more votes and more money. Real people are losing their lives in a self-serving, political power play. Pritzker has failed Illinois and America — and that failure has real-world consequences. 

Let me tell you what that failure looks like.

It looks like a mother writing an op-ed instead of planning her daughter’s future. It looks like an empty bedroom. It looks like orphaned children crying for their mom. It looks like silence where there should be laughter.

It looks like another name on the news. Another young woman dead. Another family shattered. Another mother asking the same question I have been asking for a year now: Why?  

MOTHER OF WOMAN KILLED BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SAYS LAKEN RILEY ACT IS NOT ENOUGH

Why hasn’t more been done? Why did my daughter have to be the one who paid for it? Why do these questions come up only after my daughter is gone?

After. We have to stop waiting until after. Because “after” is preventable. “After” is the devastating hell where families like mine are condemned to live.

Jennifer Bos is the mother of Megan Bos. On April 10, 2025, Megan’s body was found partially decomposed in a garbage can in Waukegan, Illinois. The illegal immigrant who hid her body there walked free after his court appearance until ICE arrested him three months later.