Tom Homan, the Trump administration’s so-called “border czar,” stated on Sunday, July 26th, 2026, that he did not believe the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer involved in a recent fatal shooting in Maine should have ever cleared the agency’s vetting process. The officer is at the center of the July 13th shooting death of Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero.

Speaking on CNN’s State of the Union with host Dana Bash, Homan was asked about the officer’s eligibility to serve following reports that two of his ex-wives had accused him of abuse. When Bash asked, “Should someone with those issues be an ICE agent?” Homan replied, “No, if those … are facts … I don’t think he should ever have cleared vetting.”

Homan also noted that part of the ongoing investigation into the shooting is focused on determining how the vetting process failed, questioning whether relevant information was unavailable or unknown to decision-makers. Although he described the case as “a rare instance,” he emphasized that any history of abuse should have been a vetting issue brought to the attention of those responsible for hiring.

The officer in question, David Brouillette, has been described by a source in a statement to NPR as capable of violence at this level. Mississippi Congressman Bennie Thompson, the top Democrat on the US House Homeland Security Committee, criticized the vetting and training procedures of ICE recruits in light of Brouillette’s alleged abusive past.

Separately, in a related case in Texas involving the killing of Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare stated that lab results of a white substance found in a van tested negative for narcotics or illicit drugs, contradicting an FBI search warrant application that claimed the substance was consistent with methamphetamine.

The investigation into the Maine shooting and the vetting failures remains ongoing.

Sources