Democrats Demand Records on ICE Officer Who Killed a Colombian Man in Maine, Citing a Four-Week Online Course

Two senior Democrats formally demanded records Friday on the background and training of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who fatally shot a 25-year-old Colombian immigrant in Maine this month, arguing the case exposes how quickly the agency has pushed new hires into the field.

Rep. Robert Garcia of California and Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut sent the request to the Department of Homeland Security seeking documents on officer David Brouillette, who shot Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero on July 13 in Biddeford. Reporting cited by the lawmakers indicates Brouillette had what was described as a long history of abusive and violent behavior before he was hired.

The central question in the letter is training. Garcia and Blumenthal want to know whether Brouillette completed only a condensed four-week online course before being deployed to make arrests. That abbreviated onboarding path was created as part of the Trump administration's push to expand ICE's enforcement ranks rapidly, and the administration itself scrapped the accelerated process in June — a reversal the lawmakers say suggests officials recognized the risk.

"Dangers inherent in untrained and unqualified officers demand oversight and reform," Garcia and Blumenthal wrote. Their letter asks DHS to produce Brouillette's vetting file, the full curriculum of whatever training he received, and records showing how many officers hired under the accelerated program remain on duty.

The Department of Homeland Security pushed back through official channels, saying it "diligently applies proper personnel vetting regulations." The agency has not addressed the specific question of Brouillette's training path, and it has not said whether he remains employed or has been placed on administrative leave.

The Biddeford shooting is one of several in recent months in which ICE officers killed people the agency later conceded were not the intended targets of an operation. Those cases have driven a broader fight in Congress over how the agency staffed up, what standards it applied, and who reviews the shootings afterward. Democrats have repeatedly pointed to the compressed hiring pipeline as the common thread; the administration has argued that enforcement surges require faster recruitment and that individual incidents should not indict the program.

Durán Guerrero's death drew immediate protest in Maine, a state with a small but growing population of Colombian and other South American arrivals concentrated in Portland and surrounding towns. Local officials at the time said they had not been notified in advance of the operation that led to the shooting.

Garcia is the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee and Blumenthal sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, giving both a formal channel to compel testimony if DHS does not respond. Neither lawmaker set a public deadline in the letter, but both have said they intend to seek a hearing if the department declines to turn over the records. Camilo Montoya-Galvez reported the letter for CBS News.