Wild New Details Emerge on ICE Agent Involved in Fatal Maine Shooting
https://newrepublic.com/post/213081/new-details-ice-agent-fatal-maine-shooting
Wild New Details Emerge on ICE Agent Involved in Fatal Maine Shooting
The agent shot Joan Sebastian Guerrero dead during a vehicle stop.
The ICE agent who shot and killed a 26-year-old Colombian immigrant in Biddeford, Maine, Monday morning had been with the agency for just a few short months.
The agent who killed Joan Sebastián Guerrero, the father of a three-year-old daughter, has not yet been identified, but a senior administration official who spoke with The Atlantic Tuesday on the condition of anonymity said that the agent was hired this year. The agent had previously been employed by the Department of Veterans Affairs Police, and had worked within the fold of federal law enforcement since 2017.
It was the second such shooting within the span of a week. Last week, another ICE agent killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo—a 52-year-old Mexican father of three and a local small-business owner—during a traffic stop in Houston. DHS officials have claimed that Salgado Araujo attempted to hit the federal agents with the front of his van, but eyewitnesses have directly contradicted that narrative. Bystanders who spoke with Representative Sylvia Garcia said that the agent fired his gun through the front passenger side window, and that federal agents were never in front of the vehicle.
The offending officer in the Houston shooting has not yet been publicly identified, either.
The two deaths prompted ICE to suspend all vehicle stops “effective immediately,” according to an email notice issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement official Liana Castano to ICE supervisors around the country. The directive came from Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin with support from ICE acting Director David Venturella, reported The Atlantic.
There have now been 11 fatal shootings by ICE agents since Donald Trump returned to office and made mass deportations a cornerstone of his second-term agenda.
In January, federal agents shot and killed 37-year-old mother Renee Nicole Good and, days later, ICU nurse Alex Pretti. Both were U.S. citizens. Their deaths sparked national outrage and further incensed the local pandemonium in Minneapolis that started weeks prior with Trump’s sudden decision to occupy the city with federal agents.
It’s been over six months since their deaths, but still virtually nothing has come of the federal investigation into the extrajudicial killings. Instead, Washington has reportedly utilized its heft to stow critical evidence—such as Good’s vehicle—away from the local and private detectives attempting to hold their killers accountable.
Bodycam Footage Reveals GOP Governor Pressuring Cop to Let Him Go
Republican Governor Joe Lombardo used his name to get out of a traffic ticket.
Bodycam footage obtained by the Associated Press shows Nevada Republican Governor Joe Lombardo using his name to successfully get out of a traffic ticket.
Lombardo was pulled over in May by a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officer.
“Hello, how are you doing, sir?” the officer asked Lombardo in the video while approaching the passenger seat of Lombardo’s white truck, where his wife was sitting. “The reason I’m stopping you is for the—”
“I’m Joe Lombardo,” the governor replied plainly, putting his index finger in the air.
“I’m aware. [I’m stopping you for] the red light violation back there. Your right turn onto Giles here.”
“Come on, man,” Lombardo protested.
“You’re good to go,” the officer said, conceding. “Have a good day.”
The clip was met with immediate criticism of the special privilege that Lombardo was wielding. He received no citation, even though virtually any other Nevadan in that situation would have. Lombardo himself was a member of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department before entering politics.
“RULES FOR THEE, BUT NOT FOR ME: Police body cam footage catches Joe Lombardo demanding special treatment after breaking the law,” the Nevada Democratic Party posted on X.
“Two months ago, Governor Lombardo and his wife were briefly pulled over on their way to the airport by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department over a question about whether Governor Lombardo had come to a complete stop while turning. Governor Lombardo spoke with the officer, fully complied with all instructions, and was promptly on his way,” a statement from Lombardo’s office read. “He remains grateful for the professionalism of the officer involved and for the service of law enforcement officers across Nevada.”
Mahmoud Khalil Sues Senior Trump Officials Under the KKK Act
Khalil is also suing some of the biggest conservative groups targeting pro-Palestinian activists.
Mahmoud Khalil, who was detained for helping lead pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University and still faces deportation threats, is suing the Trump administration under the KKK Act of 1871.
Khalil filed the lawsuit against senior administration officials in addition to right-wing Zionist organizations in federal court Tuesday, alleging that the administration conspired with these groups in a campaign of intimidation, arrests, and deportations against pro-Palestine activists, including himself.
The 131-page lawsuit names multiple administration officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, and Mullin’s predecessor, Kristi Noem. It also names the Heritage Foundation, Canary Mission, and Betar, among other right-wing and Zionist groups.
“Collectively, the conspirators’ actions, motivated by their shared unlawful purpose and animus, sought to terrorize and make an example of Mr. Khalil and other noncitizen Palestinians or supporters of Palestinians in order to intimidate and silence the growing movement for Palestinian rights and political freedom, in a manner the KKK Act was designed to proscribe when enacted during Reconstruction,” the lawsuit states.
Last year, Khalil filed a Freedom of Information Act request with multiple federal agencies to “document and expose the reported collaboration between federal officials and private, anti-Palestinian organizations who have identified, doxxed, and reported him and others for purposes of securing the deportation of student activists advocating on behalf of Palestinian human rights.”
Khalil’s attorneys alleged at the time that his March 2025 arrest and the threat of his deportation, as well as that of other pro-Palestine activists, was part of a pattern of government officials working with far-right and pro-Israel organizations to target them. The Revisionist Zionist organization Betar was openly recommending foreign students and teachers who protested against Israel for deportation to the Trump administration as early as January 2025, and would take credit if one of the people they recommended was arrested.
Last year, a separate trial revealed that the pro-Israel Canary Mission, which anonymously doxxes critics of Israel online, handed Department of Homeland Security officials a list of foreign citizens in the U.S. who attended pro-Palestine protests. In some cases, the federal government followed up and arrested some of those people. The Heritage Foundation was named in the lawsuit because of Project Esther, an addendum to its Project 2025 manifesto, which outlined plans to target pro-Palestine noncitizens for deportation.
Khalil, 31, is married to a U.S. citizen and is a legal U.S. permanent resident. He was arrested at his New York apartment in March 2025, spent 100 days in federal detention, missed the birth of his first child, and continues to be threatened with deportation. At a press conference Tuesday, he said, “This lawsuit is about accountability and justice.”
“No matter where I am, I will not stop fighting until everyone who willingly contributed to my missing the birth of my son and to taking 104 days of my life from me answers for what they’ve done,” Khalil said.
Trump Gives Away the Game on Why He Wants Todd Blanche as A.G.
Donald Trump made his case for appointing his former personal attorney as attorney general.
Donald Trump has resorted to begging the Senate to confirm acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to officially run the Justice Department.
In a lengthy Truth Social post Tuesday, the president claimed that Blanche was responsible for the lowest murder rates in 125 years but that arrests for violent crime were simultaneously “UP 100” percent.
“This is what happens when you unleash LAW AND ORDER on our streets, instead of protecting vicious Criminal Thugs, and releasing dangerous Illegal Aliens into our Communities like the Dumocrats did for four disastrous years under Sleepy Joe Biden,” Trump wrote.
The president also claimed that Blanche had protected an array of MAGA priorities, including railing against transgender people in women’s sports, protecting free speech, strengthening the nation’s election integrity, ending the “weaponization” of America’s justice system, and going “to all-out-WAR against Fraud like nobody in the History of the Department of Justice.”
But the main reason Trump wants Blanche for the job came at the end of the post. The president lauded Blanche—who prior to his stint in the Justice Department served as Trump’s personal attorney—for representing him throughout several criminal trials. Blanche defended Trump in his New York hush-money case, his classified documents case, the federal 2020 presidential election interference case, as well as the Fulton County, Georgia, RICO case.
As an apparent reward for Blanche’s ongoing loyalty, Trump gave him a plum position with the Justice Department. Since then, Blanche has utilized his office to enact Trump’s retribution campaign against his perceived enemies, attempted to force through the president’s $1.8 billion taxpayer-funded slush fund, worked to squash the Epstein files, and has even arrested local officials—such as Newark Mayor Ras Baraka—for attempting to conduct oversight of ICE’s regional detention facilities.
“He is a great lawyer, always very fair, and every Republican Senator should vote to CONFIRM Todd Blanche, ASAP!” Trump concluded.
But Blanche is nonetheless expected to have a long day ahead of him. The 51-year-old attorney will enter the Senate on Wednesday at 10 a.m. E.T. to begin his confirmation hearing, where several wayward and outbound Republicans—including Senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis—have already indicated their intention to grill him. Both senators currently owe nothing to the Trump administration as they ride out the remainder of their respective terms.
Speaking with HuffPost’s Jennifer Bendery Tuesday, Tillis said he’s “looking forward to it.”
ICE Tries to Lower Its Profile After Two Fatal Shootings in a Week
ICE is temporarily changing its policy on vehicle stops.
After the latest fatal ICE shooting, Immigration and Customs Enforcement will temporarily halt vehicle stops in its enforcement operations, according to several reports.
The change was first reported Tuesday by the conservative site The Daily Wire and has since been corroborated by numerous other outlets.
It comes after ICE, in separate incidents over the span of less than a week, shot and killed two men during vehicle stops. Most recently, an ICE agent fatally shot 26-year-old Joan Sebastian Guerrero, a father who was reportedly authorized to work in the U.S., in Biddeford, Maine.
During Donald Trump’s second term, there have now been at least 11 fatal shootings by immigration officials, multiple of which have taken place during vehicle stops.
According to The Daily Wire, Department of Homeland Security agents were told, “No more vehicle stops for now.” But the move is neither permanent nor all-encompassing. The new policy does not apply “in cases involving serious criminal targets,” CBS News reports, and it is “a temporary pause” while officers in the Enforcement and Removal Operations division of ICE “receive additional training on vehicle-stop tactics.”
The news has chagrined some anti-immigration hardliners who are, apparently, unmoved by the bloodshed. One source in the Department of Homeland Security, for instance, complained to The Daily Wire: “Numbers are going down, we can’t do sh*t.”
Meanwhile, many who have spoken up against ICE’s killings see the change as too little, too late.
“They’re just trying to cover for the fact that what they are doing shouldn’t be allowable in the first place,” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told The Independent’s Eric Michael Garcia.
“It shouldn’t have taken the killing of two innocent people for ICE to cease this reckless and deadly enforcement tactic,” posted the House Homeland Security Committee Democrats on X.
Other observers pointed out that several victims, such as Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, were killed by ICE in situations other than vehicle stops.
Boosie BadAzz’s Lawsuit Over Failed Trump Pardon Bid Gets Stranger
The rapper has named other MAGA individuals allegedly involved in the failed effort to get him a Trump pardon.
Rapper and Trump supporter Boosie Badazz is naming more names after he was allegedly scammed out of $600,000 for a presidential pardon that never came.
“LAURA LOOMER, MIKE CERNOVICH, JACK POSOBIEC, ERIKA KIRK, MIKE JOHNSON, NANCY MASE, ANDY BIGGS,” wrote Badazz—whose legal name is Torrence Hatch—naming a slew of right-wing politicians and commentators who may have been involved. “CAN THE NAMES ABOVE PLEASE MAKE A TRUTHFUL STATEMENT ABOUT HAVING CONTACT R NO CONTACT WITH BURKMAN N WHOL ABOUT MY PARDON PROCESS. 600k WAS TAKEN FROM ME WITH YOUR NAMES MENTIONED N EMAILS BY THESE PEOPLE.”
Hatch made a $600,000 payment to Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman of JM Burkman & Associates last year in the hopes of expediting a pardon request from Trump. Hatch was seeking the pardon after pleading guilty to possessing a loaded weapon in a 2023 music video.
Hatch alleges that Wohl and Burkman, both far-right conspiracy theorists and convicted felons, told his lawyer that this list of people had endorsed Hatch for a pardon. Hatch also claimed that the two men called his lawyer on New Year’s Day to say that Trump had signed a pardon for him and would announce it soon. No such thing ever happened, and he is now demanding they repay half of his initial payment. The White House told NOTUS they never received said pardon request, and Burkman and Wohl said they wouldn’t be paying Hatch back.
“Hey Lil Boosie, I don’t privately advocate for pardons nor accept money to do so. I do promote pardons publicly, with full transparency,” wrote Mike Cernovich, one of the commentators that Hatch named. “Nothing against you, but never recommended a pardon for you nor even knew you wanted one.”
On its face, this seems like a bribe gone wrong, especially given the White House’s comment. Wohl and Burkman each have spotty records already, having been convicted of an illegal robocall campaign targeting Black voters in 2022.
This story has been updated.
Foreign Company at Center of Trade Dispute Paid Trump Millions
Donald Trump keeps finding new ways to make money off the presidency.
The main investor in a South Korean aluminum company facing an investigation by the Department of Commerce paid $2 million to President Trump’s holding company last year.
Trump included the payment from Base Group in his financial disclosure form in late June, The New York Times reports. The form stated that the payment was for a “nonrefundable development fee” and part of a “letter of intent,” but offered no further explanation. The Trump Organization told the Times in a statement that the payment is part of a golf course project that has yet to be announced.
“We have been in the golf, hospitality, and real estate business for decades and have entered into transactions with countless companies around the world,” Alan Garten, chief legal officer for the Trump Organization, said in the statement. “Any suggestion that this transaction was driven by anything other than legitimate business considerations is pure fiction.”
The Trump family has a longstanding relationship with Base Group, which exclusively sells Trump-branded wine in South Korea. The company hosted the president’s son Eric in February at its headquarters in Seoul for a meeting to increase trade between South Korea and the U.S.
The Commerce Department found in 2023 that Korea Aluminum, of which Base Group has a major stake, skirted trade duties on Chinese-made aluminum. Since then, the company has significantly cut its exports to the U.S.
The Times has not found any evidence that the president or his family members have tried to advocate for Base Group or Korea Aluminum with government officials. But the payment raises questions about conflicts of interest concerning the president and his family with government operations. Trump has close to 30 different ventures with foreign businesses around the world, according to the Times, creating issues that were unheard of in any previous presidential administration.
Trump has made a whopping $2.2 billion in his second term as president from cryptocurrency, foreign real estate, stock trading, and other ventures. Being president isn’t supposed to be a business move to increase one’s personal fortune, but Trump has used the office to make himself wealthier, ignoring the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution with the Supreme Court’s assent.
We only have the Trump Organization’s word that this South Korea payment didn’t come with any government favors. Who knows whether that is true, or if Trump has taken money in other cases from businesses in exchange for favorable policies.
Trump Threw Missing GOP Representative Under the Bus While He Was Out
Representative Tom Kean Jr., who is running for reelection in November, was greeted by an unpleasant Department of Homeland Security decision.
Representative Thomas Kean Jr.’s grand return to Capitol Hill has come fully loaded with a no-win dilemma.
The New Jersey Republican inexplicably disappeared for several months, only to reemerge on the House floor late last month, claiming that he had struggled with depression and was therefore unable to vote on behalf of his constituents.
But Kean has since been forced between a rock and a hard place by the Trump administration after the Department of Homeland Security renewed a bid to resurrect a detention facility proposal in northern New Jersey, despite unified local opposition to the effort.
The conundrum has put Kean in an impossible position, requiring him to either infuriate voters in his district or publicly break with the White House, mere weeks out from a contentious midterm election that has him pitted against well-funded Democrat Rebecca Bennett for New Jersey’s 7th congressional district. As of Monday afternoon, Kean had not taken a firm position for or against the facility.
“I have remained actively engaged on this issue from the beginning, and I will continue to bring together multiple levels of government to find a responsible, workable solution,” Kean said in a statement to Politico. “My priority is ensuring the residents of Roxbury are respected, heard, and represented every step of the way.”
Conservative strategists warned that the fallout for Kean could be just as bad on the right-wing side of politics if he decides to support the detention center’s construction.
“There are going to be conservative voters who are concerned about this development going in their backyard, which they very much don’t want, and it will affect their votes in November,” Carlos Cruz, a Republican consultant, told Politico.
Locals have already taken notice of Kean’s indecision.
“Even the Republican-led Roxbury Township Council has called out Congressman Kean Jr. for refusing to advocate on behalf of their community,” a spokesperson for Kean’s Democratic opponent, Bennett, told Politico. “His job title is representative, but he consistently fails to show up and fight for the people of New Jersey.”
The issue had almost resolved itself without Kean’s input. On June 29, DHS indicated in a legal filing that it no longer intended to convert the warehouse into a detention facility following a bipartisan lawsuit brought by Governor Mikie Sherrill’s administration and the Republican-run Roxbury Township.
But that same day, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin put his foot down, insisting that the agency would not let go of the site.
“DHS will NEVER back down. We will be keeping this site for a detention center,” Mullin wrote on X.
Days later, DHS followed Mullin’s lead, writing in another legal filing that the “agency intends to move forward with plans to consider the retrofitting of the Roxbury Township warehouse facility for use as a detention facility.”
Trump Pulls Abrupt 180 on Strait of Hormuz After Iran Humiliates Him
Donald Trump had proposed tolling the Strait of Hormuz, but 24 hours later, he was singing a different tune.
Rather than provide steady, articulate leadership and communication during his Iran war, the commander in chief has embraced bluster and erratic flip-flopping. The latest example of this came Tuesday, when President Donald Trump adopted a stance on the Strait of Hormuz diametrically opposed to the one he had announced the day before.
On Monday, Trump decided that the United States would seize control of the strait. “We’ll become the guardian of the strait,” he told Fox News. “Now we’re gonna guard it, and we’re gonna get paid for guarding it. A lot of money. But we just want to be reimbursed.” In a Truth Social post, he said a 20 percent toll would be imposed on “all cargo shipped” through the strait.
It was a stark reversal of the administration’s previous stance; Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance had stated unequivocally that no country would impose such a toll.
Then the sun set and rose again, and Trump had yet another 180-degree change of heart.
Tuesday, Trump declared that there would be no toll after all. Instead, he said vaguely in a Truth Social post that the U.S. would pursue “Trade and Investment Deals” with Gulf states. Shortly thereafter, he confirmed this new approach during a press conference. “I don’t think anybody should be able to charge a fee for the strait,” the president said, “or for any other strait relationship in terms of other sections of the world. I don’t think anybody should be really in that position.”
What spurred Trump’s whiplash-inducing reversal of an already-reversed course?
After he proposed the toll, Trump told a reporter Tuesday, he was allegedly contacted by “kings and emirs and all of the people that we all know and we all love … and they said, ‘We’d love to do it a different way.’”
Also, after Trump initially announced the tolls, Iran asserted its control of the strait. Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi answered Trump with a message on X: “POTUS is absolutely right. Whoever provides secure and safe passage of commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz should be compensated for this service. Iran has always been the GUARDIAN of the Strait and will remain so FOREVER. 20% is of course too much. We will be fair.”
Trump Dramatically Shrinks Two National Monuments
Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante are sacred to Native tribes.
President Trump on Monday significantly reduced the size of two national monuments in Utah, cutting the amount of protected land that they hold by about 1.5 million acres each.
Trump slashed protections for both Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante during his first term to free up two million acres for oil drilling and uranium mining. This led environmental groups and Native American tribes to sue, and former President Joe Biden reversed the measure. Now, with this most recent move, those same groups are preparing to take up legal arms against the Trump administration once again.
National lands and monuments, which often appear similar to national parks, have a different set of regulations around them as established by the Antiquities Act of 1906. Those opposed to Trump’s executive order argue that under this law, a president can only create national lands and monuments but not shrink or eliminate them. Those in favor of opening the land to oil drilling note that “any land reserved under the act must be limited to the smallest area compatible,” as argued by Supreme Chief Justice John Roberts in 2021.
“Today’s action makes it clear that Utah is the epicenter of Republican efforts to dismantle and obliterate America’s system of public lands,” Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance executive director Scott Braden said in a statement, vowing to challenge the executive order in court. “President Trump’s outrageous attack on Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monument was taken at the urging of Utah politicians—Senators Mike Lee and John Curtis, Governor Spencer Cox, and the others—who championed this action. These two landscapes deserve to be protected for current and future generations of Utahns and Americans, not opened to exploitation.”
“You have an administration that backs you up, and then you’re back to square one again,” Pueblo of Zuni councilman and Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition co-chair Anthony Sanchez Jr. told The New York Times on Monday. “Even now, with the boundaries not reduced, we still run into that trouble.”
Bears Ears is the ancestral homeland of the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, Ute Indian Tribe, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, and Pueblo of Zuni, and contains rock art that is culturally significant.
