Maine shooting video sparks calls to reform ICE and review killing

The shooting happened Monday morning, July 13, when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were conducting targeted surveillance on the last known address of a person with a final order of removal. The Department of Homeland Security said agents encountered Durán Guerrero, a Colombian national. Immigrant-rights groups identified him as 25 or 26 years old and a married father of a 3-year-old child. DHS said he allegedly tried to flee in his vehicle and that an officer fired after fearing for public safety. Local and federal officials said he was not the intended target.

The Maine Attorney General’s Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General are investigating the shooting. Maine’s congressional delegation has asked for a comprehensive, transparent, expedited independent review of the sequence of events, ICE use-of-force policies, and available audio, dashcam, or body-camera evidence. In a July 15 letter to the delegation, Mills said Congress should act now to require ICE to respect the rule of law and that the agency must be fundamentally reformed, or abolished. She planned to meet local officials in Biddeford the same day.

Protests and emergency rallies have taken place in Biddeford and Portland, where immigrant-rights groups and community members expressed shock and anger. The Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, Presente! Maine and the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project have been among the groups pressing for answers, while the Colombian Embassy in Washington, D.C., said it regretted the death and was providing consular assistance to the family.