Trump Administration Declares Shooting Wrong Immigrant A Precision Success
Officials celebrated a fatal ICE operation in Maine as a breakthrough in precision-adjacent immigration enforcement after determining that agents shot the wrong immigrant while pursuing another immigrant who apparently was not removable. Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian national, was killed by an ICE officer near his Biddeford home on July 13. Sen. Angus King said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem acknowledged Guerrero was not the person agents had gone there to apprehend, an operational detail the department classified as technically relevant but insufficiently patriotic.
Rep. Chellie Pingree later said the intended target, Guerrero’s roommate, was not subject to a final removal order despite ICE’s original assertion that agents were surveilling someone who was. Administration officials described the discovery as proof that federal immigration enforcement can be wrong about both the person confronted and the legal basis for confronting anyone at all without allowing paperwork to erode confidence. The agency said the operation achieved its primary objective of demonstrating activity near an address.
“This is precision like nobody has ever seen, because we got the wrong man and then found out the supposedly right man was also wrong,” President Donald Trump said. “That is two separate wrongs, which in government arithmetic gives you 200 percent accuracy and frankly a very successful operation.” Noem defended the approach, arguing that requiring agents to identify the correct person before using force would impose an accuracy mandate never authorized by Congress and could encourage the public to expect similar care from other federal agencies.
DHS is now incorporating the operation into its “Close Enough for Government Work” enforcement model, under which officers begin with a location, confront whichever immigrant is available and determine afterward whether the person or the mission matched the paperwork. ICE is also reviewing whether final removal orders remain necessary or merely obstruct the more efficient practice of acting first and discovering the government’s rationale later. By shooting someone who was not the target while targeting someone who was not removable, ICE completed the nation’s first immigration operation with no correct participant.
* None of the quotes in this article were spoken by an actual person. More info.