Tom Homan, the Trump administration's “border czar,” said Sunday that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer involved in a fatal shooting in Maine should not have cleared the agency's vetting process.
Speaking on CNN's State of the Union, Homan was asked by host Dana Bash about the officer's eligibility after reports that two of his ex-wives had accused him of abuse. “No, if those … are facts … I don't think he should ever have cleared vetting,” Homan replied.
Investigation into the shooting and vetting failures
The comments come after the 13 July shooting death of Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian man in Biddeford, Maine. The officer involved has been identified by news outlets as David Brouillette, though the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has not publicly confirmed his identity.
Homan said part of the ongoing investigation is determining “how … did the vetting process fail.” He added: “Was that information not available? Did they not know?” A separate administrative investigation is examining whether the alleged abuse history was known at the time of hiring.
Since the shooting, two of Brouillette's ex-wives have described alleged abuse. Lucinda Brouillette alleged a “persistent pattern of abuse, intimidation, manipulation, fear and control.” She said, “If you were to ask me whether I believe David Brouillette is capable of this level of violence, my answer is unequivocally yes.”
Renewed scrutiny of ICE hiring practices
Homan declined to comment directly on the case, calling it “a rare instance,” but said if the history existed, “it would have been a vetting issue, and it should have been brought to the attention of those who make those decisions.” He stated, “We will see. It's all being reviewed.”
The shooting has prompted Democrats to call for reviews of ICE's vetting process. Mississippi congressman Bennie Thompson, the top Democrat on the US House homeland security committee, said the alleged abusive past “directly call[s] into question the supposed vetting and training ICE does of its recruits.”
Neither the Maine shooting nor another involving an ICE officer in Texas earlier in July yielded body camera footage. Homan subsequently announced that the agency would require officers to wear body cameras during vehicle stops. In the Texas case, which resulted in the killing of Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, lab results showed a white substance found in a van tested negative for narcotics, despite an FBI warrant suggesting it was consistent with methamphetamine.
