1. United States
2. N.H.
3. Letter

I am writing in response to the fatal shooting of 26-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero by a federal immigration officer in Biddeford, Maine. Durán Guerrero was not the person ICE agents had gone to the neighborhood to arrest. DHS initially provided Senator Angus King with materially incorrect information indicating that Durán Guerrero was the target of the immigration warrant. Publicly available video and witness accounts raise serious questions about the circumstances of the shooting and whether the vehicle presented an imminent threat when the officer fired. I recognize that the investigation is continuing and that the complete evidentiary record has not yet been released. I am not asking Congress to prejudge criminal liability. I am asking Congress to recognize that investigation without enforceable institutional reform is no longer sufficient. Durán Guerrero’s death followed the fatal shooting six days earlier of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during another ICE vehicle operation in Houston. Salgado Araujo also was not the intended target. In both cases, federal officials relied upon allegations that the men’s vehicles presented a threat or had been “weaponized.” These incidents are part of a broader credibility and accountability problem. Federal immigration agencies have repeatedly issued accounts tending to justify officers before independent evidence was reviewed. Some of those accounts have later shifted or been challenged by witnesses and video. In Houston, state and local officials reported that federal agencies retained control of central evidence while denying local investigators meaningful access. In a separate Minneapolis case, ICE and the Department of Justice opened a criminal investigation after video evidence indicated that two immigration officers may have made untruthful sworn statements. The criminal charges based upon those allegations were dismissed with prejudice. The executive branch cannot be the sole narrator, custodian of evidence, investigator, prosecutor and judge of its own lethal conduct. I therefore ask you to support and publicly demand the following: (1) Independent investigations. Deaths and serious injuries caused by federal immigration officers must be investigated through a process that is institutionally independent of ICE and the officers’ chain of command. (2) State and local access to evidence. Federal agencies must be required to provide timely access to relevant evidence to state and local investigators, subject only to narrowly defined and judicially reviewable legal restrictions. (3) Mandatory functioning body cameras. Officers must not be deployed on field-enforcement or vehicle-interdiction operations without functioning body-worn cameras and must be trained and required to activate them. Agency and individual noncompliance should carry meaningful consequences. (4) Enforceable vehicle-stop standards. ICE vehicle stops and interdiction tactics must be governed by national legal, tactical, training and supervisory standards. (5) Restrictions on shooting at vehicles. Officers must be prohibited from firing at moving vehicles unless officers have objectively reasonable grounds to believe that the vehicle presents an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury and no reasonable alternative is available. (6) Evidence preservation and disclosure. Congress must require immediate preservation of video, radio communications, vehicle data, ballistics evidence, use-of-force reports and other records following any death or serious injury. (7) Public accountability. DHS must be required to disclose the factual basis for every immigration-enforcement shooting, whether the person was the intended target, whether body-camera footage exists, the result of the investigation, and any resulting discipline or referral for prosecution. (8) Congressional hearings and subpoenas. Congress must compel testimony and records when DHS supplies incomplete, inaccurate or shifting accounts to lawmakers or the public. (9) Protection of lawful speech and observation. Congress must reaffirm that criticism of immigration agencies, peaceful observation and recording of enforcement operations, and distribution of accurate know-your-rights information are protected activities and must not be treated as obstruction or used to justify retaliation or force. (10) Appropriations conditions. Congress must prohibit the use of federal funds for vehicle-interdiction and other high-risk field operations unless enforceable requirements governing functioning body cameras, deadly force, operational training, independent investigation, evidence sharing, and public reporting are implemented and subject to continuing oversight. Following the Houston and Biddeford shootings, ICE briefly suspended most vehicle stops so that its procedures could be reviewed. President Trump reversed that pause the following day. Congress must not allow these operations to continue under the same conditions while investigations remain incomplete and necessary safeguards have not been established. Durán Guerrero was a husband, a father, a worker and a member of a New England community. He was not the person ICE was seeking. His death must not be treated as an unfortunate but acceptable cost of immigration enforcement. The constitutional protections against unreasonable seizure and excessive force do not depend upon citizenship or immigration status. Federal immigration officers remain bound by law. The need for congressional action became even more urgent when White House border adviser Tom Homan warned that there would be “more bloodshed” unless Democratic critics “shut their mouth” and allowed ICE to operate. Actual assault and obstruction may be prosecuted. Political criticism, lawful observation, and accurate know-your-rights education are protected speech. Public safety cannot be conditioned upon silence. Please tell me specifically what legislative, oversight, and appropriations actions you will take or support.