Tom Homan, the Trump administration's border czar, said Sunday that an ICE officer involved in a fatal shooting in Maine should never have cleared the agency's vetting process, given allegations of domestic abuse from two ex-wives.
Speaking on CNN's State of the Union, Homan was asked whether someone with a history of abuse accusations should serve as an ICE agent. "No, if those are facts, I don't think he should ever have cleared vetting," he said.
The officer, identified by news outlets as David Brouillette, shot and killed Joan Sebastian Duran Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian national, on July 13 in Biddeford, Maine. The Department of Homeland Security has not publicly confirmed Brouillette's identity.
Since the shooting, two of Brouillette's ex-wives have gone public with allegations of abuse. One described a "persistent pattern of abuse, intimidation, manipulation, fear and control." She told NPR she had no doubt he was capable of the violence that resulted in Duran Guerrero's death.
Homan said the vetting failure was now part of a separate administrative investigation. "How did the vetting process fail? Was that information not available? Did they not know?" he asked. He suggested that if the abuse allegations were factual, "he would have an almost impossible time to pass vetting."
The case has intensified scrutiny of ICE's hiring practices. House Democrats, including Mississippi congressman Bennie Thompson, the top Democrat on the homeland security committee, have called for reviews of the agency's vetting and training procedures.
The July shooting in Maine was one of two ICE-involved killings last month that lacked body camera footage. Neither Brouillette nor the officer involved in the shooting of Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas had recorded video of their encounters.
In response to the missing footage, Homan announced that ICE would require officers to wear body cameras during vehicle stops.
The Texas case added another complication. A white substance found in a van tested negative for narcotics or illicit drugs, according to Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare. An FBI search warrant application had claimed the substance was consistent with methamphetamine. Salgado's family said it was a salt mixture used by construction workers to stay hydrated in extreme heat.
Author James Rodriguez: "If abuse allegations slip past ICE's vetting, the agency's entire screening process needs an overhaul."
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