Right-wing activist Gary Bauer opened his daily email newsletter Tuesday afternoon with the headline, “Democrats Hate Police.” That inflammatory framing was followed by a lot of false information about the killing of a 26-year-old father by ICE agents in Biddeford, Maine, on Monday:
Yesterday morning, federal immigration police attempted to enforce an existing deportation order for 26-year-old Joan Sebastian Guerrero, an illegal alien in Biddeford, Maine. The Colombian national tried to escape in his car. He refused orders to stop and then tried to run over a federal agent. The officer opened fire in self-defense, killing Guerrero.
Bauer’s description of the widespread community outrage at the killing was equally propagandistic: “Of course, the increasingly Marxist Left immediately exploited the shooting.”
Long before Bauer’s misinformation missive was sent to his followers, it had been established that Guerrero was not the actual target ICE officers were looking for. In fact, by Monday night, the Department of Homeland Security had abandoned earlier claims that Guerrero was the target and had tried to use his vehicle as a weapon.
A Monday evening social media post from DHS did not support the claims Bauer made a full day later. The DHS post did not say that Guerrero had tried to run over an agent or that the agent had shot him in self-defense, but that the agent fired because he feared “for public safety” when Guerrero allegedly tried to flee the scene.
According to the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, Guerrero, a native of Colombia with a three-year-old daughter, was authorized to work in the U.S. and had been issued a social security number.
Last week an ICE agent in Houston shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who like Guerrero was not the intended target of the operation. Agents involved in both killings were not wearing body cameras.
Bauer seemed unconcerned about deadly ICE violence against immigrants, writing, “Democrats are constantly demanding a level of due process for illegal aliens that has never been followed in our nation’s history. Due process means different things based on the issue. It does not automatically mean a full court hearing with attorneys.”