'41 Days of Chaos': Langworthy Pairs Shutdown Blame with Immigration Fear in a Single-Day Messaging Blitz

Government Funding / Immigration Source: Facebook Posts, Paid Facebook Ad MISLEADING

Why This Matters for NY-23

NY-23 has a significant veteran population, TSA screeners at Buffalo Niagara International Airport working without pay, and local governments navigating ICE cooperation decisions — including in Steuben County, where Langworthy has previously pushed ICE cooperation framing. On March 27-28, Langworthy published at least three immigration-related Facebook posts and ran a paid ad about ICE deportations — all within roughly 24 hours. The posts pair two separate narratives — blaming Democrats for the DHS shutdown and highlighting murders by undocumented immigrants — to create a single emotional frame. Each component contains claims worth examining independently, and the packaging itself is a rhetorical choice worth documenting.

The Statements

Source 1: Facebook post (~March 27, 2026):

“41 Days of chaos and cruelty–for NOTHING. Senate Democrats, led by Senator Schumer, should hold their heads in shame for inflicting this pain on our nation for the THIRD time in the last year. Meanwhile, 2 New Yorkers–a veteran and college student–were murdered by illegals in the last 2 weeks. Democrats have chosen a side, and it sure as hell isn’t the American people.”

Langworthy Facebook post claiming 41 days of chaos from DHS shutdown, blaming Senate Democrats, and referencing two New Yorkers murdered by undocumented immigrants

Facebook post, approximately March 27, 2026

Source 2: Facebook post (~March 27, 2026), sharing NY Post article:

“Another bright young woman with her whole life in front of her brutally murdered by an illegal immigrant who was allowed to be released into our country under Biden. Sheridan Gorman was a New Yorker studying at Loyola University in Chicago and shot in cold blood while walking along the river. My deepest condolences are with her family and loved ones. This should infuriate every American.”

Langworthy Facebook post about Sheridan Gorman, an 18-year-old Loyola University student from New York who was killed in Chicago, sharing a New York Post article

Facebook post, approximately March 27, 2026

Source 3: Paid Facebook ad (date unclear, screenshotted March 28):

“Local officials who refuse to work with ICE to remove dangerous criminals from our community are putting families at risk. Take my survey today!”

The ad features an image of hands gripping prison bars and a poll: “SHOULD LOCAL GOVERNMENTS SUPPORT ICE DEPORTATIONS?” with YES/NO buttons. The ad disclosure reads: “Paid for by The Office of Rep. Nick Langworthy.”

Langworthy paid Facebook ad asking whether local governments should support ICE deportations, with prison imagery

Paid Facebook ad, Office of Rep. Nick Langworthy

Claim 1: “41 Days of Chaos and Cruelty — for NOTHING”

Verdict: MOSTLY TRUE — the 41 days are real; “for nothing” omits the Democratic demand and what resolved it

The current DHS-only funding lapse began on February 14, 2026. Langworthy says “41 Days.” CBS News labeled March 27 as Day 42 and March 26 as Day 41 — the discrepancy depends on whether February 14 itself is counted. The figure is in the right range; the claim is not inflated.

What Langworthy omits

The two DHS-specific shutdowns (January 30 and February 14 onward) were triggered by Democratic demands for ICE accountability following the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by federal agents in Minneapolis — Renee Good (killed January 7, 2026) and Alex Pretti (February). These killings and the accountability demands that followed are entirely absent from Langworthy’s framing of why Democrats are blocking DHS funding.

See: Minneapolis Shooting: Renee Good

“For NOTHING”

Verdict: MISLEADING

Langworthy says Democrats held out “for NOTHING.” In fact, on March 27 — the day after this post — both chambers acted, but in conflicting directions:

  • The Senate passed a bill funding most of DHS but excluding immigration enforcement agencies (ICE/CBP funding)
  • The House rejected the Senate bill, then passed its own stopgap funding DHS through May 22
  • President Trump signed a directive to pay TSA employees, effective as early as March 31

Both chambers then left Washington for a two-week recess with no resolution. The characterization of “for NOTHING” omits that Democratic leverage produced a Senate-passed bill and a presidential order to pay TSA — partial results, not “nothing.”

Langworthy himself told WBEN on March 28 that the situation was “such a mess” and “a great example of how people are doing things spitefully for the sake of their own politics” — language that could describe either party’s position.

“For the THIRD time in the last year”

Verdict: TRUE

Three government funding lapses have occurred in FY2026:

ShutdownDatesDuration
Government-wideOctober 1 – November 12, 202543 days
Partial (DHS + ~half of federal departments)January 31 – February 3, 2026~4 days
DHS-only (ongoing)February 14, 2026 – present42+ days

All three occurred under unified Republican government (House, Senate, and White House). Langworthy attributes blame exclusively to Senate Democrats, who have used procedural tools to block DHS funding bills. His framing omits the demand that motivated Democratic obstruction.

Claim 2: “2 New Yorkers — a Veteran and College Student — Were Murdered by Illegals in the Last 2 Weeks”

Verdict: TRUE on facts — both cases are documented and real. MISLEADING in context — pairing them with the DHS shutdown implies a causal connection that does not exist.

Sheridan Gorman (the college student)

Gorman’s case is extensively documented by multiple Chicago and national news outlets:

  • Victim: Sheridan Gorman, 18, a freshman at Loyola University Chicago, originally from Yorktown, New York. She was a member of the campus Christian organization Cru and was studying business.
  • What happened: On the morning of March 19, 2026, Gorman and five friends left a Loyola dorm around midnight and walked to nearby Tobey Prinz Beach on the Rogers Park lakefront to view the city skyline. The suspect, Jose Medina, 25, was hiding behind a lighthouse. He fired once, striking Gorman in the upper left back. He then fired at other fleeing students.
  • Suspect: Jose Medina, 25, originally from Venezuela. Multiple police and city sources confirmed he entered the U.S. illegally. He was charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder, and aggravated discharge of a firearm. Judge D’Anthony Thedford ordered him detained pending trial.
  • Additional context: Governor Pritzker called Gorman’s killing the result of “real failures.” Medina’s defense attorney stated he has a disability from a prior gunshot wound to the head.

What Langworthy gets right: Gorman was a New Yorker. She was a college student. The suspect is an undocumented immigrant. These facts are accurate.

What Langworthy gets wrong or frames misleadingly:

  • He says Gorman was “walking along the river.” She was at Tobey Prinz Beach on the Lake Michigan lakefront in Rogers Park — not a river. This is a minor geographic error but reflects a retelling rather than close attention to the facts.
  • Prosecutors say Medina was hiding behind a lighthouse and fired at a group of students who walked toward his location — not a random encounter on a path, as “walking along the river” implies.
  • Langworthy claims Medina “was allowed to be released into our country under Biden.” DHS records confirm Medina was apprehended by Border Patrol on May 9, 2023, and subsequently released. The claim is accurate on the facts, though the framing implies a deliberate policy choice rather than the processing decisions that occur under any administration.

Richard Williams (the veteran)

The veteran Langworthy references is Richard Williams:

  • Victim: Richard Williams, 83, an Air Force veteran, grandfather, and cancer survivor from New York City.
  • What happened: On March 8, 2026, Williams was shoved onto the subway tracks at the Lexington Avenue-63rd Street station in Manhattan. Another victim, Jhon Pena (30), was also shoved onto the tracks moments earlier. Pena helped pull Williams back onto the platform before a train arrived. Williams died from his injuries on March 17, 2026.
  • Suspect: Bairon Alexander Posada-Hernandez, 34. According to DHS, he first entered the U.S. illegally in early 2008 and has been deported four times, most recently in 2020. He has 15 prior charges including aggravated assault, domestic violence, and drug possession. Charges were upgraded to second-degree murder following Williams’ death.

What Langworthy gets right: Williams was a veteran. He was a New Yorker. The suspect is an undocumented immigrant with a documented criminal history. These facts are accurate.

What makes this case significant for the immigration debate: Unlike the Gorman case, the Williams case involves a suspect with four prior deportations and 15 prior charges — a documented enforcement failure spanning nearly two decades and multiple administrations (Bush, Obama, Trump, Biden, Trump). Langworthy attributes the failure exclusively to Democrats.

The Rhetorical Framing

Both cases involve real victims and real tragedies. The facts Langworthy cites are accurate. The question this entry addresses is not whether these crimes occurred, but how they are positioned rhetorically.

Langworthy’s “41 Days” post connects two separate issues in a single statement:

  1. The DHS shutdown (a congressional funding dispute)
  2. Murders by undocumented immigrants (criminal cases)

The rhetorical effect is to imply causation — that Democratic obstruction of DHS funding is responsible for, or at least connected to, individual violent crimes. However:

  • Gorman’s murder occurred in Chicago on March 19. Jose Medina entered the country during the Biden administration — before the current DHS shutdown began on February 14, 2026. The shutdown did not cause or contribute to his presence in the country.
  • Williams’ attack occurred on March 8. Posada-Hernandez first entered the U.S. in 2008 and was deported four times across multiple administrations. His presence is a failure of enforcement spanning 18 years — not attributable to a 41-day DHS funding lapse.
  • ICE and CBP are fully funded and operational. Unlike TSA, which has been working without pay, ICE and CBP received multi-year funding through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (~$75 billion for ICE over four years). The DHS shutdown has not affected immigration enforcement operations in any way — ICE agents are being paid and deportation operations have continued uninterrupted.
  • Congress left for two-week recess on March 28 with the shutdown unresolved, after the House and Senate passed conflicting DHS funding bills on March 27. Both chambers bear responsibility for the impasse.

The two stories are being presented alongside the shutdown for emotional impact, not because of a documented causal link between the funding lapse and these specific crimes.

The Leading Survey

The paid Facebook ad — “SHOULD LOCAL GOVERNMENTS SUPPORT ICE DEPORTATIONS?” — is structured as advocacy, not genuine opinion research. (In technical polling terminology, a “push poll” refers specifically to phone-based campaigns; Langworthy’s ad is more accurately described as a leading survey or message-testing ad. The effect is similar.)

Its structure reveals the purpose:

  • The premise is loaded: “Local officials who refuse to work with ICE… are putting families at risk”
  • The question is binary (YES/NO) with no option for nuance
  • The imagery (prison bars, handcuffs) presumes criminality
  • It is taxpayer-funded (“Paid for by The Office of Rep. Nick Langworthy”)

Leading surveys of this kind are generally understood to shape opinion rather than measure it — in this case, by framing local government decisions about ICE cooperation as a public safety threat rather than a policy choice with trade-offs.

For prior coverage of Langworthy’s ICE cooperation framing, see: Steuben County ICE Cooperation

The Pattern

This messaging blitz follows a documented pattern in Langworthy’s communications:

Create the Problem, Blame Someone Else: Three shutdowns in six months under unified Republican government, attributed entirely to Democrats.

Pair Policy with Fear: A congressional funding dispute (shutdown) is presented alongside violent crime stories (murders) to create an emotional package that discourages scrutiny of the policy details.

Leading Surveys as Constituent Engagement: Taxpayer-funded advertising that frames a policy question as having only one acceptable answer.

This is the same rhetorical approach documented in prior entries (see Related Fact-Checks below) and closely parallels the March 8-9 messaging cluster that chained together loosely related security incidents and assigned collective blame to the DHS shutdown.

Questions This Raises

  1. ICE received multi-year funding through the OBBBA and has continued full enforcement operations throughout the DHS shutdown — agents are being paid and deportation operations are uninterrupted. What specific enforcement capability does Langworthy claim has been degraded by the shutdown that would have prevented either the Gorman murder in Chicago or the Williams attack in New York?

  2. The Williams case involves a suspect deported four times across the Bush, Obama, Trump (first term), and Biden administrations. Langworthy blames Democrats. Which administration’s enforcement failure does he hold responsible — and does he acknowledge the Trump-era deportation in 2020 that also failed to keep Posada-Hernandez out?

  3. The ICE push poll is paid for by the Office of Rep. Nick Langworthy — taxpayer funds. How much has been spent on this ad campaign, and how are “survey” responses used?

  4. Congress left for a two-week recess on March 28 with the DHS shutdown unresolved. Langworthy called the situation “such a mess.” Has he called on House leadership to cancel recess and negotiate with the Senate?

  5. Jose Medina entered the country during the Biden administration. Bairon Posada-Hernandez entered in 2008 and was deported four times. What specific policy — beyond the general demand for stricter enforcement — does Langworthy propose that would have prevented both entries?

Sources

Langworthy Statements:

Sheridan Gorman Case:

Richard Williams Case:

DHS Shutdown:

Note: This entry documents publicly available information from the representative’s own social media posts, paid advertising, and referenced news articles. The Gorman case involves a real victim and a real tragedy. This entry does not question the facts of that case — it examines how the case is being used in a broader rhetorical context. Readers may draw their own conclusions.

Last updated: March 28, 2026