WASHINGTON — President Trump’s border czar said that the vetting of an immigration officer involved in the deadly shooting of a Colombian native in Maine is under internal review after relatives revealed to the Associated Press that he had a history of serious mental health struggles and violent behavior.
Tom Homan said Sunday that if the allegations against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer are true, “I don’t think he should ever have cleared vetting.”
“There’s several things under review,” Homan said on CNN about the officer, Army veteran David Brouillette. “The training is under review. I know this specific case, as far as the vetting, is under review by the internal affairs section.”
Questions about the Department of Homeland Security’s rush to hire, train and deploy thousands of new ICE officers to carry out Trump’s immigration crackdown have come into stark focus after back-to-back fatal shootings of immigrants in Maine and Houston.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin ordered a pause in vehicle stops after the fatal Maine shooting, but Trump almost immediately reversed courseand insisted the stops resume as a necessary tool in his campaign to round up and deport immigrants who are in the U.S. without current legal status.
Homeland Security did not immediately respond Sunday to a request for comment about the internal review.
Homan said that “changes have been made” and that acting ICE director David Venturella has issued a new directive that body-worn cameras must be in use if officers make a vehicle stop.
“Right now, on all vehicle stops, there’s at least one body camera on site to record the entire event,” he said.
He said Venturella “sent an instruction out that he wants at least one body camera on those vehicle stops, so we have everything on video.”
It’s unclear if the steps that the department is taking will be enough to quell the concerns coming from certain lawmakers in Congress over Homeland Security’s training and tactics as tries to reach Trump’s mass deportation goals.
The Trump administration has failed to meet its goal of deporting 1 million people a year, despite an intense immigration enforcement crackdown that has resulted in violent scenes in cities nationwide.
At least 10 people have died in encounters with immigration officers since the start of Trump’s mass deportation campaign.
The ICE officer shot 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a Colombian national who was killed in his car near his home in the Maine coastal city of Biddeford.
In Houston, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was killed July 7 when ICE officers chased his white work van through the streets, then shot him through the window in front of his work crew, including his brother.
Earlier this year, two Americans protesting ICE actions in Minneapolis, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse, were killed, sparking a backlash nationwide.
Mascaro writes for the Associated Press.
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