Senators Markey, Warren Demand Answers from Burlington ICE Field Office Following Fatal Shooting in Maine

Letter Text (PDF)

Washington (July 16, 2026) - Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) today wrote to David Wesling, Acting Field Office Director for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Boston Field Office, following an ICE agent's killing of Joan Sebastian Guerrero, a 26-year-old man, in Biddeford, Maine earlier this week. This is the second fatal shooting by ICE in less than a week-the other being the July 7 fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Texas-and it follows a string of other tragic and preventable deaths at the hands of ICE agents in recent months. Given the Burlington Field Office's direct jurisdiction over enforcement operations in Maine and New England, the senators demand a full, transparent, and independent accounting of this killing.

In the letter, the senators wrote, "The killings of both Mr. Guerrero and Mr. Araujo reflect a disturbing pattern: warrantless, aggressive, and indiscriminate ICE enforcement operations ending in the loss of life. In the last few days, ICE has sharply escalated enforcement activity nationwide. Over a five-day span in late June, ICE agents made more than 10,000 arrests nationwide, roughly 2,000 per day, following the White House's request for increased arrests. In Massachusetts, this surge has hit hard: ICE has been detaining people at ICE check-ins and biometrics appointments, in the street and at traffic stops, triggering alarm from immigrant advocates who report increased detentions of individuals, including many without criminal history. Meanwhile, in Maine, ICE activity has continued even after the January enforcement surge which ICE dubbed 'Operation Catch of the Day.' The incursion of ICE into our cities and the drastic uptick in enforcement have heightened the risk of volatile and harmful encounters, making our communities less safe."

In both Mr. Araujo and Mr. Guerrero's cases, DHS confirmed that the victims were not the target of ICE's operations and that agents were not wearing body cameras. These cases, taken together, illustrate that the Biddeford shooting was not an aberration but part of a broader, escalating pattern of force that demands immediate scrutiny and reform.

The senators requested answers by July 30, 2026, to questions including:

• What was the Burlington Field Office's specific role in planning, overseeing, or authorizing the Biddeford operation?
• Why were the ICE officers in the Biddeford operation not equipped with body-worn cameras?
• Has the ICE officer who shot Mr. Guerrero been involved in any prior use-of-force incidents?
• What are the current use-of-force policies for vehicle stops? Were these policies followed in the Biddeford shooting?
• Did the ICE officers involved in the Biddeford shooting receive any training with respect to vehicle stops?
• What reforms does the Burlington Field Office plan to implement to prevent fatal shootings by its ICE officers?
• What communications occurred between the Boston Field Office and DHS headquarters regarding the pace and intensity of enforcement operations in New England in the weeks before the shooting, given the reported nationwide arrest surge?

Senator Markey is leading efforts to hold ICE and DHS accountable for their violations of Americans' First Amendment rights, including their weaponization of surveillance technologies against peaceful protestors, immigrants, and American citizens.

• On July 1, Senator Markey and Rep. Max Frost (FL-10) wrote to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin and David Venturella, Senior Official Performing Duties of the Director for ICE, renewing their calls for a clear answer on whether ICE has created a database to track protesters. In responses to separate letters that Senator Markey and Rep. Frost sent to DHS and ICE in February, the agency evaded the lawmakers' questions about whether ICE maintains a database of protesters.
• In May, Senator Markey and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) led their colleagues in a letter to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin demanding the agency abandon its dangerous proposal, included in DHS's proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2027, to develop "smart glasses" for its immigration officers.
• In February, Senator Markey, along with Senator Merkley, Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Representative Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), introduced the ICE Out of Our Faces Act, bicameral legislation that would ban ICE and CBP from acquiring and using facial recognition technology (FRT) and other biometric identification systems.
• Also in February, Senator Markey wrote to ICE's Acting Director Todd Lyons demanding that Lyons immediately confirm or deny reports that the agency is maintaining a so-called "domestic terrorists" database to track individuals protesting ICE activities.
• In January, Senator Markey wrote to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Boston Acting Field Office Director David Wesling, demanding answers about conditions at the ICE field office in Burlington, Massachusetts, and the conduct of ICE agents in the Commonwealth. This letter followed Senator Markey's previous December letter to Acting Director Wesling, raising concerns about the cruel conditions at the Burlington field office.
• In November 2025, Senator Markey wrote to CBP Commissioner Rodney S. Scott, urging the agency to immediately cease using a system of license plate readers (LPRs) and predictive algorithms to monitor the movements of individual Americans. CBP is reportedly using the system to "identify and detain people whose travel patterns it deems suspicious."
• Also in November, Senator Markey led his colleagues in requesting that ICE cease the use of their biometric phone application known as Mobile Fortify following a previous unanswered request.
• In September 2025, Senators Markey and Merkley wrote to ICE's Acting Director Todd Lyons, demanding that ICE cease use of Mobile Fortify and requesting detailed information about its policies and practices surrounding the use of biometric technology.
• In July 2025, Senator Markey, along with Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Schiff (D-Calif.), sent a letter to then-Secretary of DHS Kristi Noem on the DHS's usage of Predator drones and aerial surveillance against peaceful protesters in Los Angeles. In the letter, the senators raised concerns about the threat to the protesters' privacy and their constitutional rights that are guaranteed by the First Amendment.

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