Embattled Republican Senator Tries to Claim Credit for ICE Climbdown

Republican Sen. Susan Collins is claiming credit for a major ICE reform after a federal agent killed one of her constituents.

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Joan Sebastian Guerrero, a Colombian-born father, was killed by an ICE agent in Biddeford, Maine, on Monday. Guerrero, 26, was living in the U.S. legally and was not the target of the immigration operation, but was still shot dead through his windshield.

“While the investigation of the Biddeford shooting is not yet complete, it raises sufficient critical questions that I spoke with DHS Secretary Mullin last night and urged him to cease all non-urgent vehicle stops,” she wrote on X.

The reversal in tactics will affect agents in Enforcement and Removal Operations, the branch within the agency responsible for arrests and deportations, CNN reported. The new guidance will pause agents from initiating traffic stops.

Guerrero’s killing comes less than one week after a federal agent shot and killed a man through his car’s window in Texas. Like Guerrero, he was not the target of a deportation operation.

Agents were not wearing body cameras in either fatal shooting.

The sudden uptick in ICE shootings has renewed calls for reform and accountability at the agency, renewing pressure that emerged in January after the back-to-back fatal shootings of Minnesota residents Alex Pretti and Renee Good, who was also killed by a federal agent firing into her vehicle.

Collins has also called for a “full and impartial investigation” into the latest ICE shooting. The Maine Attorney General’s office has said it is investigating the incident along with local and federal authorities.

While Collins claims she is holding ICE’s feet to the fire now, she also just voted to fund the agency through 2029, for the remainder of Trump’s term.

Of the roughly $70 billion she approved for DHS, $38 billion is specifically for ICE to hire, pay, train, and equip its agents and officers over the next two and a half years. The funds have few stipulations on how they should actually be spent.

Collins’ office in Biddeford was swarmed with protestors in the hours after the shooting. Protesters carried signs reading “ICE Out Now” and “I Stand With Immigrants.” Some chanted, “Vote her out.”

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Collins has rejected protestors’ demands, telling Fox News after the fatal shooting that “there’s no doubt that ICE needs to improve its performance,” but that “those who are calling for ICE to be abolished are ignoring absolutely vital safety work that ICE does.”

One witness of the fatal shooting, Cecelia Humiston, 22, told the Portland Press Herald that Guerrero was killed in the presence of his young daughter.

Humiston said she was asleep when she heard a commotion nearby, and she went to check it out. She said she saw a person lying on the ground—then heard another woman yelling, “You took her dad, you took her dad!”

“They were with a little girl, she couldn’t have been older than three,” Humiston told the outlet. “She was still in her Bluey pajamas.”

In the wake of his killing, neighbors have described Guerrero as a “good person” and as “quiet and reserved.”

“He worked hard to provide for his wife and a 3-year-old daughter,” a neighbor told CNN. “We just ask for justice for his family. It was hard to see his wife sitting there just crying and screaming.”

In a statement made several hours after the shooting, DHS asserted the “vehicle attempted to flee the scene and, fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon,” adding that “the driver of the vehicle was struck.”

The agency has not explained how the officer feared for their safety.

An impromptu tribute popped up at the site where Guerrero was killed, where people left flowers and candles.

One sign read: “Immigrants make Biddeford great. Another said, “His name was Sebastian.”