Washington, D.C. — Rep. Robert Garcia, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Senator Richard Blumenthal, Ranking Member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, demanded answers from the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC) regarding the vetting and training of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in the wake of the killing of Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero on July 13, 2026, in Biddeford, Maine. According to reports, the ICE Officer who killed Mr. Durán Guerrero has a history of domestic violence and was recently hired during the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s surge hiring and training program.
“ICE is out of control. Violent, untrained officers are being deployed on the streets of American cities. The killing of Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero by an ICE officer is only the latest example of a dangerous trend. Oversight Democrats will investigate every failure that led to this tragedy and hold those responsible accountable,” said Ranking Member Robert Garcia.
“ICE’s lax ‘vetting’ and ‘training’ of officers and agents it rapidly hired has borne rancid fruit—most recently resulting in the killing of a man in Maine at the hands of an officer who never should have been hired or armed in the first place. Accountability is desperately needed for all responsible in the Trump Administration’s efforts to systematically weaken vetting and training, and oversight is warranted to correct this injustice and prevent future tragedies,” said Senator Blumenthal.
In February 2026, an ICE whistleblower provided testimony before the House Oversight Committee and the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations about the dangerous cuts made to the FLETC’s basic training for newly hired ICE personnel.
In the letter to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers, Ranking Member Robert Garcia and Ranking Member Richard Blumenthal wrote, “The ICE whistleblower testified to our committees that ‘[d]eficient training can and will get people killed.’ It was only a matter of time before this country saw his prediction come true, and now a three-year-old child is without her father. The dangers inherent in the deployment of untrained and unqualified officers and agents to the streets demand oversight, accountability, and reform. We request that you immediately provide the staff of our committees with a briefing on the current status of the training programs. The killing of innocent people by DHS personnel is a horrific tragedy and a disaster. The killings of Mr. Durán Guerrero, Mr. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Mr. Alex Jeffrey Pretti, Ms. Renée Nicole Good, Mr. Keith Porter Jr., Mr. Silverio Villegas-González, and Mr. Ruben Ray Martinez have all occurred within the context of the Trump Administration’s efforts to systematically weaken training, safeguards, oversight, and accountability mechanisms. These efforts, which stemmed from the highest level of the Trump Administration, have sent a clear message to DHS officers and agents: that they are free to operate with impunity. There must be accountability for all those responsible.”
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