The federal immigration agent who fatally shot a man in Maine is facing allegations that are raising questions about the hiring standards at Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Two former wives’ allegations against ICE agent David Brouillette are fueling the public relations disaster surrounding yet another death in the Trump regime’s racist anti-immigrant crackdown. (The Associated Press, which extensively detailed the domestic abuse allegations, said Brouillette did not respond to its requests for comment.)
Brouillette fatally shot Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a Colombian national, during a traffic stop in Maine two weeks ago. The Department of Homeland Security’s official explanation for the shooting was that Guerrero tried to flee in his vehicle and that Brouillette shot him while “fearing for public safety.”
Amid public outcry — and recent polling showing that most Americans have little or no confidence in ICE — the Trump administration said it will investigate the matter. White House border czar Tom Homan told CNN on Sunday that the vetting process may have failed in this case and that the process is under review.
But the fact that people with disturbing backgrounds have been hired to work for ICE has been no secret whatsoever — and there have been heaps of evidence showing that the administration lowered ICE’s agency standards to aid Trump’s mass deportation push.
Last fall, NBC News reported that ICE’s hiring push led to some recruits being allowed to participate in training despite criminal backgrounds and having failed drug tests. In April, The Associated Press raised fresh concerns about ICE’s vetting practices, spotlighting various problematic hires. In response to the AP’s report, DHS told the outlet that vetting “is an ongoing process, not a one-time occurrence.”
One could argue that the inclusion of questionable — if not outright criminal — characters is a predictable result of the Trump regime making intimidation a centerpiece of its immigration crusade. When a regime peddles propaganda that effectively promotes violence and abuse toward immigrants, it’s reasonable to think such rhetoric will attract some people who are violent and abusive.
And organizations with such a mentality can run into PR problems, as the Ku Klux Klan discovered around a century ago.
Civil rights activists and a Reagan-appointed judge have compared ICE agents to the klan for their face coverings and predation of nonwhite people. Just as with ICE now, the KKK faced PR issues over violence in its ranks.
The best example of this is the case of D.C. Stephenson, an Indiana klan leader who was convicted of rape and murder in a 1925 trial that historians have said fueled the KKK’s downfall.
It just goes to show that mass hypnosis to the whims of those waging a bigoted campaign is not a foregone conclusion — and that the public can be awakened when exposed to the disturbing realities about the folks fueling efforts to demonize nonwhite people.
The post Tom Homan’s remarks on vetting reflect ICE’s growing PR crisis appeared first on MS NOW.
