The fatal shooting of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero requires a credible investigation, public accountability, and concrete measures to prevent similar incidents.
The Maine Immigrants' Rights Coalition has published a set of policy demands addressed to local, state, and federal officials, together with the strategies communities can use to press for them. They are reproduced here in full.
The demands are grouped by influence, and the strategies outline the action and the ask.
LOCAL
Local Policy Demands
Municipalities and counties: preserve the record, protect local resources, report what is asked of them.
Local Policy Demands
Municipalities and counties: preserve the record, protect local resources, report what is asked of them.
01Preserve evidence and document local involvement
Records should be released when legally permissible. When a record is withheld, the agency should identify the applicable legal exemption and provide a redacted version whenever possible.
Every municipal agency must:
- Preserve dispatch records, video, photographs, communications, witness statements, and other relevant material
- Provide that material promptly to the Maine Attorney General
- Identify which municipal personnel, vehicles, facilities, databases, or other resources participated in or supported the federal operation
- Publish an after-action summary of the municipality's involvement once doing so will no longer compromise the investigation
02Adopt comprehensive municipal protections
Municipalities should adopt enforceable ordinances extending protections across the entire municipal government. Each municipality should:
- Apply the protections to all municipal employees, departments, contractors, facilities, equipment, funds, and nonpublic data
- Prohibit voluntary assistance with federal civil immigration enforcement except when required by law or supported by appropriate judicial authority
- Adopt written procedures and provide recurring staff training
- Designate an official responsible for implementation and compliance
- Document and publicly report federal immigration-enforcement requests and municipal responses without disclosing personal information
- Review the ordinance periodically and strengthen it when state or federal policy changes create new risks
03Report federal immigration-enforcement requests
Municipalities should publish annual, non-personally identifying reports describing:
- The number and type of requests received from ICE or other immigration authorities
- The municipal agency that received each type of request
- Whether assistance was provided or denied
- The personnel, equipment, facilities, or funds used
- The legal authority relied upon when assistance was provided
STATE
State Policy Demands
The Attorney General, the Deadly Force Review Panel, and the Legislature.
State Policy Demands
The Attorney General, the Deadly Force Review Panel, and the Legislature.
01Complete a credible investigation with outside expertise
The Attorney General should:
- Retain an outside use-of-force expert and an independent forensic-reconstruction expert with no connection to ICE or the participating Maine agencies
- Publish the investigation's scope, methodology, and anticipated timetable
- Provide Guerrero's family with a designated liaison and regular updates
- Examine the officer's location, line of fire, decision-making, training, personnel history, supervision, and compliance with vehicle-related use-of-force rules
- Obtain all federal body-camera footage, operational plans, communications, personnel records, and after-action materials
- Release video and other evidence on a rolling basis when disclosure will not compromise the investigation, using redaction rather than blanket withholding
- Issue a detailed written report explaining the factual findings and legal analysis
- Refer or pursue criminal charges only if supported by the evidence and applicable law
02Strengthen independent deadly-force review
After the AG completes its investigation, Maine's Deadly Force Review Panel should promptly review the incident and publish its findings. For future cases, the Legislature should amend Maine law to:
- Allow the panel to evaluate the legal justification for deadly force, rather than restricting it to practices, training, and policy
- Ensure that a majority of voting members are independent of active law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies
- Require outside use-of-force and civil-rights expertise
- Require agencies to respond publicly to panel recommendations
- Establish enforceable deadlines for final reports and evidence disclosure
- Require independent review whenever law-enforcement force causes death or serious bodily injury
03Fully implement and expand protections for local resources
The state should publish an annual, aggregate report on federal immigration-enforcement requests and governmental responses.
Maine should implement Public Law 2025, Chapter 517 through guidance, policies, and training, taking effect July 29, 2026. The Legislature should expand protections beyond law enforcement to cover:
- Jails and prisons
- Shelters and service providers
- Courts and municipal offices
- Benefits, licensing, and public-data systems
- State contractors operating public programs
Across those settings, state and local personnel, facilities, equipment, data, and funds should not be used for federal civil immigration enforcement without appropriate judicial authority.
04Fund community-based rapid response
The Legislature should establish a recurring grant program administered by the Maine Office of New Americans. Eligible activities should include:
- LighthouseME: Immigrant Defense Hub, including Hotline operations and referral system
- Know-your-rights education
- Legal-observer and incident-documentation training
- Interpretation and multilingual public information
- Emergency transportation and family coordination
- Regional resource navigation
- Referral to qualified immigration legal services
FED
Federal Policy Demands
The Department of Justice, the FBI, and Congress.
Federal Policy Demands
The Department of Justice, the FBI, and Congress.
01Conduct a separate federal civil-rights investigation
The Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and FBI should determine whether the shooting involved excessive force, deprivation of constitutional rights, obstruction, false statements, or other federal offenses.
The federal investigation should:
- Cooperate fully with the Maine Attorney General
- Preserve and produce all evidence
- Interview witnesses independently
- Examine the officer's hiring, suitability review, training, supervision, and prior conduct
- Publish findings to the extent permitted by law
- Refer charges where supported by admissible evidence
02Establish enforceable ICE use-of-force standards
Congress should condition ICE enforcement funding on:
- Universal body-camera use during public-facing enforcement operations
- Timely preservation and review of recordings
- Timely publication of data
- Clear vehicle agency markings and clear officer identification
- Narrow, documented exceptions to masking and identification requirements
- Strict limitations on firing at or from moving vehicles
- Recurring de-escalation and use-of-force training
- Comprehensive pre-employment background investigations
- Recurring suitability reviews for armed personnel
- Independent investigation of deaths, serious injuries, and firearm discharges
- Documented supervisory review of every other use of force
- Mandatory discipline and decertification referrals for sustained violations
- Penalize or terminate contracts for repeated violations
- Protection against retaliation for lawful observation, recording, or reporting
03Fund a functional immigration system
Congress should redirect funds toward:
- Immigration judges and court personnel
- Asylum and refugee officers
- Interpreters and language access
- USCIS adjudicators and support personnel
- Legal-orientation and access-to-counsel programs
- Community-based case-management services for individuals who do not present a public-safety risk
- Refugee reception and integration
- Workforce, language-learning, and civic-navigation grants
04Restore functional humanitarian pathways
The federal government should:
- Restore stable refugee-resettlement capacity
- Preserve Temporary Protected Status when country conditions warrant it
- Remove unnecessary asylum fees and procedural barriers
- Increase asylum adjudication capacity
- Establish timely, accessible lawful pathways responding to humanitarian, family, and workforce needs
- Base humanitarian decisions on statute, evidence, and documented country conditions
- Provide sufficient language access and understandable application procedures
Local — Town Councils
Local residents send unique emails requesting constituent meetings with Town Councilors to share personal experience and propose comprehensive municipal protections to the City Council, as explained in Local Demands item #2.
Local — Police Chiefs
Residents send unique emails requesting constituent meetings with the Police Chief, requesting the Police Department support the Town Council in enforcing comprehensive municipal protections, as explained in Local Demands item #2.
Local — County Commissions
County residents send unique emails requesting constituent meetings with County Commissioners to share personal experience and demand the adoption of comprehensive county protections, as explained in Local Demands item #2.
State — Maine Legislature
Maine residents send 1,000 unique emails to their State Senator and/or State House Representative requesting a one-on-one constituent meeting to share their personal experience related to immigration and ICE, and to demand: an amendment to Maine law to strengthen an independent deadly-force review panel, full implementation and expansion of protections for local resources, and funding for community-based rapid response.
Maine residents make 1,000 unique calls to their State Senator and/or State House Representative:
- expressing concern that "the AG's office has not deemed a police shooting legally unjustified since it assumed this responsibility in 1990"
- reminding them that when the AG is up for election, the Legislature should ask questions regarding the transparency and accountability of its investigations into deadly use-of-force situations, to ensure the AG-elect reflects the needs of the people.
State — Maine Attorney General
Maine residents share and sign on to the ActionNetwork letter demanding a full and transparent investigation.
Federal — What Maine's delegation has already done
- All four members asked the DHS Office of Inspector General for a comprehensive, transparent, and expedited investigation, including review of the sequence of events, use-of-force protocols, recordings, evidence preservation, and cooperation with Maine authorities.
- Senators Angus King and Susan Collins also asked the Department of Justice and FBI to cooperate with state and local law enforcement.
- Senator King led a Senate letter asking DHS to deploy body-worn cameras, strengthen officer identification, review enforcement and traffic-stop protocols, and work with Congress to codify reforms.
- Senator Collins called for a halt to non-urgent vehicle stops and highlighted enacted funding for body-worn cameras, DHS Inspector General oversight, and de-escalation training.
- Representative Pingree sent detailed follow-up questions about the operation, available recordings, officer vetting, and training, and requested a written response and briefing from DHS.
- Representative Golden supported an independent investigation and called on DHS to prioritize body-camera deployment.
Federal — Pressure power holders
Contact both U.S. Senators and your U.S. Representative. Biddeford and York County residents are in Maine's 1st District and should contact Representative Pingree. Maine 2nd District residents should contact Representative Golden. Use the House lookup tool if you are unsure. Maine's Senators represent the state as a whole.
When contacting federal offices, identify yourself as a constituent. Include your town and ZIP code, explain why this issue matters to you, make one to three specific asks, and request a written response.
Maine residents make 1,000 phone calls or emails to our congressional delegation to thank them for action already taken, then ask for these next steps:
- Codify ICE safeguards. Require activated body-worn cameras during enforcement; clearly visible ICE identification; de-escalation and use-of-force standards; restrictions on dangerous vehicle stops and pursuits; consistent evidence-preservation rules; independent review; and public reporting after deadly force.
- Use the power of the purse. Condition DHS and ICE funding on compliance with safeguards, training, oversight, and reporting. Do not expand enforcement funding without enforceable accountability and due-process protections.
- Fund a functional immigration system. Increase capacity for timely and fair adjudication at USCIS and the immigration courts, improve notice and access to counsel, and reduce backlogs rather than relying on enforcement alone.
- Restore functional humanitarian pathways. Support legislation and funding that protect access to asylum, refugee resettlement, family reunification, humanitarian parole, and Temporary Protected Status when conditions warrant.
Maine congressional delegation contact information
| Official | Who should contact | Call | Online |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sen. Angus King | All Maine residents | Biddeford: (207) 352-5216 Washington: (202) 224-5344 |
Email ↗ Request a meeting ↗ |
| Sen. Susan Collins | All Maine residents | Biddeford: (207) 283-1101 Washington: (202) 224-2523 |
Email ↗ Request a meeting ↗ |
| Rep. Chellie Pingree | ME-01, including Biddeford and York County | Portland: (207) 774-5019 Washington: (202) 225-6116 |
Email ↗ Request a meeting ↗ |
| Rep. Jared Golden | ME-02 residents | Lewiston: (207) 241-6767 Washington: (202) 225-6306 |
Email ↗ Request a meeting ↗ |
Source and related
These demands and strategies were published by the Maine Immigrants' Rights Coalition and are reproduced here in full.