Pattern of Aggressive ICE Vehicle Stops in Maine Under Scrutiny After Fatal Biddeford Shooting

By Maine News Now Staff

A shooting in Biddeford that left a man dead at the hands of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent has cast a harsh light on the agency's evolving tactics in Maine, particularly its approach to vehicle stops that have left community members shaken and legal experts raising concerns.

On July 13, ICE agent David Brouillette shot and killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero during a vehicle stop in Biddeford. The Department of Homeland Security has not publicly confirmed that Brouillette fired the fatal shot, though his ex-wife has identified him as the agent involved. No video footage of the encounter has emerged. Agents involved in the stop were reportedly wearing body cameras that could not be activated, and ICE has stated only that its agents attempted a vehicle stop and that the car attempted to flee, without providing evidence supporting that account.

The circumstances leading to the shooting remain unclear.

A Preceding Stop

More than a month before the fatal incident, Brouillette was involved in another vehicle stop in Androscoggin County that followed a similar pattern. In both cases, ICE officers surveilled a residence looking for the registered owner of a vehicle. When a car left the address, the driver turned out to be someone other than the target, a man from Latin America who was neither the owner of the car nor the subject of the operation. The agents made their move anyway.

In the Androscoggin County case, the man was taken into custody without violence. Immigration attorney Shaan Chatterjee's firm represented the man and reported that Brouillette played a supporting role during the apprehension. "Brouillette had an ancillary role in the apprehension of my client," Chatterjee said. "My client and I are grateful for that, in retrospect." The man has since been released on bond.

Chatterjee said his client's account of the arrest differs from what ICE documented. According to a document reviewed by the Portland Press Herald, ICE reported that agents verified the driver's identity before taking him into custody. His client said agents ordered him out of the car and restrained him before checking any paperwork. Like Guerrero, the man is a father with no criminal record.

Another February Arrest

The tactics under scrutiny extend beyond Brouillette's cases. On Feb. 27, Karl Goma was sitting in his car outside the four-unit building where he lived in Biddeford, just around the corner from where Guerrero would later be killed. ICE agents pulled up beside him and told him to get out.

A neighbor identified only as Sierra recorded part of the interaction on her phone. The video, which the Portland Press Herald reviewed, shows three agents in vests at the car window. One agent, speaking calmly, warned, "I'm going to have to break the window, and I'm going to have to pull you out," before repeating the demand that Goma step out of the vehicle.

Sierra stopped filming to call Biddeford Police. She said she later heard Goma's daughters screaming, "Don't take my dad," and watched as the agents smashed the car window and dragged Goma out.

"He was wiggling around, not giving them the easiest of time, but he wasn't resisting," she said.

Ashanti Blok, Goma's property manager, described the window-smashing as "unnecessary" and said it was "traumatic" for Goma's wife and daughters to witness. While in custody, Goma and his family made the decision to leave the United States.

Chatterjee, whose Massachusetts-based firm regularly handles cases of people detained in Maine, said he had never seen ICE agents break car windows before President Donald Trump returned to office. Based on cases his firm has handled, he believes ICE tactics have grown more aggressive, particularly since a January surge operation in Maine.

"It used to be more isolated incidents, but now I'd say it's a pattern," he said.

Chatterjee noted that immigrants reporting such treatment typically have clean records. "They weren't trying to avoid detection by immigration and most of them had work permits," he said.

Not every encounter has been confrontational. Attorneys at Haven Immigration Law in Portland said their clients have been taken into custody without incident, though the firm has successfully argued in court that many of those clients should not have been detained at all.

Federal Response and Policy Changes

The shooting intensified attention on ICE's practices to such a degree that Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin reportedly attempted to pause vehicle stops shortly afterward, only to be overruled by President Trump.

Speaking on CNN, border czar Tom Homan announced a new policy requiring that at least one body camera record every vehicle stop. It remains unclear when the policy will take effect. ICE has said it would take 60 days to deploy cameras to field offices that lack them. Homan also said "journeymen" agents would be assigned to vehicle stops going forward.

Experts Question the Tactics

Law enforcement experts interviewed by the Press Herald raised pointed concerns about ICE's approach to vehicle stops.

Marc Brown, academic director of the Excellence in Policing and Public Safety Program at the University of South Carolina and a former police officer who worked at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers where ICE agents are trained, described the tactic as a "vehicle takedown," distinct from a routine traffic stop. He said other agencies that take down suspects in cars typically engage in extensive coordination and planning.

In his view, waiting until a subject exits a vehicle before engaging is safer for agents, the subject, and bystanders alike. Smashing a window, he argued, creates additional hazards without providing officers a meaningful advantage.

"Smashing the window, to me, creates more danger, because now you're dealing with broken glass and potential for your suspect and the officer to be cut," Brown said. Afterward, you still have to open the door.

Even when pursuing a violent criminal, Brown said, officers typically try to get the person out of the car a different way. He noted that during his law enforcement career, even serving an arrest warrant might begin with a phone call asking the person to turn themselves in.

Deborah Ramirez, a former federal prosecutor who worked with the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, echoed those concerns. Federal agents, she said, are trained not to shoot at moving cars, and officers are expected to identify themselves, explain the reason for the stop, and check identification.

"They have to have probable cause to stop someone, and use only the amount of force that's necessary," said Ramirez, now a law professor at Northeastern University. "Everyday the FBI arrests people. Do they arrest people like this? No."

Regarding cases in which ICE has broken windows, pulled people from cars, and detained individuals who were not the targets, Ramirez was blunt: "That's not the way you stop a car, especially if you're in an unmarked car. Tactics matter."

"The way they're policing is dangerous to the community," she added. She is currently leading an effort to help cities and states pursue accountability in such incidents.

Brown questioned whether ICE's current operational model matches its original mission. "I don't think they were designed to do this, so it's not too surprising that they're having some of the challenges that they're having," he said.

Unanswered Questions

Most immigrants detained by ICE in Maine this year have faced civil immigration offenses, not criminal charges, and judges have ordered dozens of them released on bond. Brown and Ramirez both suggested that judicial warrants signed by a judge would be more effective, though they acknowledged such an approach would add administrative burden and potentially slow the administration's mass deportation goals.

Brown framed the concern in stark terms. "If you're not trying to ensure public safety," he said, "then what are you doing?"

The July 13 vigil in Biddeford, where community members gathered at Mechanics Park to light candles and leave notes for Guerrero, underscored how deeply the shooting has resonated. As investigations continue and policy revisions are announced, the case has become a flashpoint in a broader national debate over how immigration enforcement is carried out on American streets.