WASHINGTON — Democratic members of Congress are demanding a full accounting from the Department of Homeland Security over how it screens and trains immigration enforcement officers, following a report that an ICE agent involved in a deadly Maine shooting has a troubling history of mental illness and violent conduct.
The Associated Press revealed that David Brouillette — the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shot and killed a Colombian man earlier this week in Maine — is an Army veteran whose close relatives say he has struggled with serious mental health issues since early childhood.
The top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, said Brouillette’s background raises serious red flags about the agency’s recruitment process. “This senseless tragedy must be investigated and the officer responsible should be taken off our streets and face justice for his actions,” Thompson said in a statement to the AP.
Thompson added that Brouillette’s history of violence and mental health struggles, combined with the fatal shooting, “directly call into question the supposed vetting and training ICE does of its recruits.”
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer — who led a government shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security earlier this year as Democrats sought to place limits on immigration enforcement — said the failure to establish proper oversight is now costing lives. “The Trump administration rushed 12,000 agents onto our streets without ensuring they were fit to carry a badge and a gun — and Republicans gave this rogue agency vast power and no accountability,” Schumer said. “They empowered ICE. Now they must work with us to prevent more killings.”
The shooting occurred Monday when Brouillette shot and killed 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a Colombian national, while Guerrero was sitting in his car near his home in the coastal Maine city of Biddeford. At least 10 people have died in encounters with immigration agents since the current administration launched its enforcement crackdown.
The revelations about Brouillette’s past come as the Department of Homeland Security has been rapidly expanding its workforce, backed by large amounts of funding from Republicans in Congress to support the administration’s mass deportation efforts. Critics say the pace of hiring raises serious questions about whether recruits are being properly screened before being sent into communities.
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the Republican chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, pointed back to a statement she had already issued, saying “an impartial investigation into the shooting in Biddeford needs to proceed, as the details surrounding this tragedy are important.” Collins had previously called it “extremely unfortunate” that the agent was not wearing a body camera at the time of the shooting.
Collins noted that she had secured $20 million for expanded body camera use and $2 million for de-escalation training as part of the Homeland Security funding bill Republicans passed to end the department shutdown. “The Democratic government shutdown delayed enactment and implementation of these important safety measures,” she said.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut called the AP’s findings alarming. “This bombshell is absolutely appalling — exactly the intolerable danger that we feared as a result of arrest quotas and inadequate training,” he said. “This agent clearly should never have had a gun — let alone one provided to him by the United States government. And now a man is dead. I’m going to continue demanding answers and accountability.”
Sen. Alex Padilla of California said the Trump administration has “encouraged ICE and CBP to enter and terrorize our communities, even if those agents are untrained, improperly vetted, or lack experience,” referring to Customs and Border Protection. “The killing of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero was horrifying,” Padilla said, “and there must be a credible, independent, and transparent investigation so that those responsible are held accountable.”
