WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA) is beyond outraged by the murder of Johan Sebastián Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian husband and father who was killed in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation in Biddeford, Maine. This unnecessary act of reckless violence marks the eleventh murder by federal agents since the Trump administration returned to office, and comes days after ICE’s murder of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston.
While ICE agents continue to publicly prey on our neighbors without consequence, they’ve taken the lives of dozens of others behind intentionally closed doors. Since Trump returned to office, more than 52 people have died in ICE detention. Currently, the mortality rate of deaths in ICE custody is at its highest level in over a decade, surpassing in-detention mortality rates experienced during the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. Urgent human rights intervention is needed to stop ICE’s use of life-ending cruelty as a means of civil law enforcement.
Said Nicole Melaku, NPNA executive director, “An untrained, violent agency—flush with billions of our dollars—meets criticism with lies, operates without accountability, and robs communities of their breadwinners and neighbors. As a direct result, in Maine, we mourn the loss of Johan Sebastián Guerrero—gunned down by ICE while driving through town with his wife and 3-year-old daughter. Alongside Trump’s secret police, ICE’s sprawling detention camps are killing more people than ever before. ICE does not protect our neighborhoods; it racially profiles and terrorizes them. ICE operations have made us less safe, and they will keep doing so until Congress intervenes and divests from a nationwide machine of cruelty.”
Said Mufalo Chitam, Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition (MIRC) executive director, “Our communities are hurting… A 25-year-old member of our community is dead following an incident involving ICE. We are grieving, we are furious, and we will not allow his death to be treated as routine or inevitable. How much more harm must our communities endure before those with the power to act acknowledge that this has gone too far? ICE must not be allowed to investigate itself or control the public narrative surrounding a death in which its personnel or operations were involved. We also call on our elected officials to invest in a fair, functional, and humane immigration system, not further expansion of immigration enforcement, and to strengthen protections that prevent local resources from being diverted toward federal immigration enforcement.”
The Maine People’s Resource Center stated, “We are deeply disturbed, angry, and saddened by the murder of a community member in Biddeford today. We demand justice and accountability for the senseless killing today at the hands of an ICE agent, as well as a full and transparent accounting of what happened. No one—regardless of who they are, where they come from, or their immigration status—deserves to be killed. We shouldn’t even have to say that, but this fascist regime has made it so we are no longer safe in our communities.
“We are taking to the streets because enough is enough. We are committed to continuing to fight for the freedom and safety of all Mainers. It is beyond time for ICE to leave our state and to be defunded by Congress. Masked militia do not belong in our communities, let alone armed and willing to commit murder. We want to be very clear: ICE is not welcome in Maine.”
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The National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA) is a multi-ethnic, multiracial coalition of over 76 of the nation’s largest immigrant and refugee rights organizations with reach across over 40 states. Together with our members, we advance immigrant and refugee equity and inclusion, build and expand immigration legal services and integration programming capacity, and drive campaigns that strengthen democracy through increased civic participation. See our website for more information at npna-staging.mystagingwebsite.com.