Person dies in ICE-related shooting in Maine; officials to investigate

By Steph en Dinan THE WASHINGTON TIMES

A person was killed Monday morning in an ICE-involved shooting in Maine, marking the second slaying this month tied to the deportation agency.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said ICE was watching a home associated with a deportation target when they saw a man emerge and get into a vehicle. ICE officers tried to perform a stop.

“The vehicle attempted to flee the scene and fearing for public safety an officer discharged his weapon,” the agency said.

The man was killed. Maine Gov. Janet Mills called the situation “alarming and frightening.” She vowed to have state authorities be part of the investigation.

The Portland Press Herald, citing a neighbor, identified the man as Joan Sebastian Guerrero, who left behind a wife and young daughter. Immigrant-rights groups said he was 26 years old, and from Colombia.

Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey’s office said it is investigating, alongside other state and local offices.

“Initial statements indicate an Enforcement Removal Operations Officer was conducting an enforcement operation related to a final order of removal when the subject attempted to flee in a vehicle in the direction of the officer and was fatally shot,” the office said.

Mr. Frey’s office said the ICE officer has been placed on leave by the agency, per “standard protocol.”

Images of the scene showed a white SUV pushed up against a white Kia sedan, with a body lying on the ground feet away from the sedan’s driver’s door. The SUV has a spotlight over the driver’s side view mirror, as is common with law enforcement vehicles.

The shooting quickly became an issue in the race for Maine’s other Senate seat, occupied by Sen. Susan M. Collins, a Republican who has backed President Trump’s call for more funding for ICE.

The shooting follows one last week in Houston, where DHS said ICE tried to conduct a stop on a van, the driver tried to evade and eventually “weaponized” his vehicle to try to run over an officer. The officer opened fire, killing Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican immigrant.

The pair of deaths in such a short time is reminiscent of Minneapolis in January, when DHS personnel carrying out Mr. Trump’s deportation surge killed two U.S. citizens in a span of days.

Those slayings remain under investigation with no word on when federal authorities will complete them.

The family of Salgado Araujo, killed in Houston, is also disputing ICE’s account of that shooting. Congressional Democrats are also questioning ICE’s account.

In a letter to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, they said the department’s initial sketchy claims about the two Minneapolis shootings raise skepticism about the department’s version of events in Houston.

“Passengers in the vehicle assert that Mr. Salgado Araujo never attempted to ram officers with his vehicle,” wrote the Democrats, led by Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, the ranking lawmaker on the House Homeland Security Committee.

The Democrats also said ICE seems to be pushing others who were in the van with Salgado Araujo to quickly self-deport, potentially removing witnesses.

Houston Public Media reported that none of the officers involved were wearing body cameras. DHS blamed the partial government shutdown earlier this spring for a lack of funding for the cameras.

Sen. Angus King, Maine independent, said Monday that there were no body cameras in that shooting either.

He said he had been told they are being distributed nationwide, but hadn’t reached the officers involved in the incident.

ICE surged into Maine for a deportation operation earlier this year but ended it early, amid pressure from Ms. Collins, the Republican senator running for reelection.

After Monday’s shooting, she released a statement calling for “a full and impartial investigation of what happened.”

Protesters flocked to her office to demand she oppose ICE.

The new shootings have put Mr. Mullin under scrutiny and sparked a new round of demands to constrain ICE.