Tom Homan says ICE officer in fatal Maine shooting ‘should have never cleared vetting’, and the vetting process is under review

Tom Homan, the Trump administration’s “border czar,” said that he does not believe the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer involved in a fatal shooting in Maine should have passed the agency’s vetting process. He made the comments during an interview on CNN’s State of the Union.

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

Homan also said an ongoing investigation into the shooting is examining how the vetting process may have failed, according to The Guardian. The shooting, which took place on July 13, resulted in the death of Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero.

Investigation to examine whether vetting process missed red flags

ICE puts new hires through a vetting process that reviews their background before they are hired, Homan said, and that process is now part of what investigators are examining. “When they hire somebody, they put them through a vetting process and look at all that stuff. So I know, based on that information, that’s part of the ongoing investigation,” Homan said.

He raised several questions he said the investigation would need to answer, including whether the alleged information about the officer’s past was available to the agency at the time of hiring. “How … did the vetting process fail? Was that information not available? Did they not know?” Homan said. He added that a separate administrative investigation is looking into what happened, including whether the agency had the information at the time of hiring.

The officer involved in the shooting has been identified by news outlets as David Brouillette. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, has not publicly confirmed his identity.

Since the shooting, two women who have identified themselves as Brouillette’s ex-wives have made public statements alleging abuse during their relationships with him. One of them, Lucinda Brouillette, alleged that her ex-husband engaged in a “persistent pattern of abuse, intimidation, manipulation, fear and control.” In a statement to NPR, she said, “If you were to ask me whether I believe David Brouillette is capable of this level of violence, my answer is unequivocally yes.”

Homan declined to comment directly on the specifics of this case, calling it “a rare instance.” However, he said that if an officer had a documented history of the type alleged, it should have been flagged during the vetting process. 

“If this person had that type of history, it would have been a vetting issue, and it should have been brought to the attention of those who make those decisions,” Homan said. He added, “We will see. It’s all being reviewed. We will see where it lies.”

The shooting has led to renewed scrutiny of ICE’s hiring and vetting practices from Democratic lawmakers. Mississippi congressman Bennie Thompson, the top Democrat on the House homeland security committee, said the allegations against Brouillette “directly call into question the supposed vetting and training ICE does of its recruits.”

Neither the Maine shooting nor a separate shooting involving an ICE officer in Texas earlier in July produced body camera footage. Homan blamed Democrats for blocking funding for the lack of cameras when he was asked about the issue, and he said this led the agency to announce that officers will now be required to wear body cameras during vehicle stops.

In the Texas case, which resulted in the death of Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Harris County district attorney Sean Teare said in a statement that lab results on a white substance found in a van connected to the case tested negative for narcotics or illicit drugs. The district attorney has disputed the FBI’s drug claims after a search warrant application had stated that a bag containing the substance was consistent with methamphetamine.

Salgado’s family has said the substance was a salt mixture that he and his construction crew colleagues used as electrolytes to stay hydrated during extremely hot temperatures, according to statements attributed to the family.