This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.<\/p>\n
AMY<\/span> GOODMAN<\/span>:<\/strong> This is Democracy Now!<\/em>, democracynow.org. I\u2019m Amy Goodman, with Juan Gonz\u00e1lez, as we turn to Maine, where immigration agents fatally shot a 25-year-old Colombian man on Monday as he drove to work in the city of Biddeford. The man has been identified as Johan Sebasti\u00e1n Dur\u00e1n Guerrero, the father of a 3-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n One witness reported seeing agents dragging him from the car after the shooting, which was also visible in CCTV<\/span> footage. Another eyewitness told the Portland Press Herald<\/em>, quote, \u201cHe was bleeding profusely from the head. He was talking. He said, ‘I tried to stop.’\u201d At least four bullet holes were seen in the car\u2019s windshield.<\/p>\n After the shooting, another neighbor said she heard a woman screaming at immigration agents, \u201cYou took her dad, you took her dad!\u201d The woman was with a young girl dressed in blue pajamas, who\u2019s believed to be Guerrero\u2019s 3-year-old daughter. Another neighbor said, quote, \u201cI watched a wife fall to her knees looking at her husband\u2019s dead body on the ground. I watched a little girl crying with a little pink backpack on because she\u2019s never going to see her father again,\u201d unquote.<\/p>\n Maine Senator Angus King\u2019s office said the Department of Homeland Security had confirmed that Johan Sebasti\u00e1n Dur\u00e1n Guerrero was not the target of any warrant. The Maine Immigrants\u2019 Rights Coalition said he was authorized to work in the United States and had been issued a Social Security number.<\/p>\n His death prompted protests across Maine, including outside the offices of Republican Senator Susan Collins. Last term, she was the deciding vote in approving $70 billion more for ICE<\/span> and Customs and Border Protection.<\/p>\n PROTESTERS<\/span>:<\/strong> What do we want? ICE<\/span> out! When do we want it? Now! Vote her out! Vote her out! Vote her out! Vote her out! Vote her out! Vote her out! Vote her out!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n AMY<\/span> GOODMAN<\/span>:<\/strong> The killing of Johan Sebasti\u00e1n Dur\u00e1n Guerrero comes just a week after an ICE<\/span> agent in Houston fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo.<\/p>\n For more, we go to Maine, where we\u2019re joined by two guests. Eisha Khan is the wife of Biddeford\u2019s mayor, Liam LaFountain. She joins us there. And in Waterville, Maine, we\u2019re joining Nathan Bernard, a correspondent for Drop Site News<\/em>.<\/p>\n We welcome you both to Democracy Now!<\/em> Eisha Khan, let\u2019s begin with you. Talk about what\u2019s happening in Biddeford, what you understood happened yesterday morning. I understand, in looking at the video through the day, that there wasn\u2019t even a crime scene set up. If you can tell us what you understand and the protests that have taken place, and that are planned for today, as well, outside ICE<\/span> offices in Scarborough?<\/p>\n EISHA<\/span> KHAN<\/span>:<\/strong> The last 24 hours have been deeply painful and disturbing. Our community is hurting. A child lost her father, a woman lost her partner, and we have lost a neighbor of ours. And we are doing our best to find ways to heal and connect. Yesterday, throughout the day, there were various different gatherings, all folks from different backgrounds coming together peacefully, sharing their grief, their questions and their worries.<\/p>\n And knowing Maine, it\u2019s a small town. People are just disturbed and really shell-shocked to know that something like this can happen in our state, a very small state with a very small immigrant population. So, this has been a time of grieving, especially in Biddeford. We are a mill city, which was built on the backs of immigrants, whether it is Irish, Catholics, Armenians. So, I think just this hits home for a lot of our community members here in Biddeford.<\/p>\n JUAN<\/span> GONZ\u00c1LEZ:<\/strong> Yes, and can you talk some about that history, that immigrant history in Biddeford? I understand the Albanian Muslims established one of the first mosques in the United States there in 1915.<\/p>\n EISHA<\/span> KHAN<\/span>:<\/strong> That\u2019s correct. So, I grew up in Texas, and my introduction to Maine was actually just that, walking around Biddeford, learning about the immigrant community who has helped build and shape this community. As a Muslim myself, this was the last place to know, find out that the first mosque in the United States or in North America was here, just walking distance from where I live.<\/p>\n And I think another thing I\u2019ll just mention here, what was so moving, and I think just the irony is, less than about a hundred years ago, on the bridge we were all gathered yesterday and today again is the exact bridge where KKK<\/span> was coming from Saco, the neighboring town, into Biddeford, and it was the Biddeford community who stood side by side with their Catholic and Franco-Catholic neighbors fighting against the KKK<\/span> and the persecution. And that happened again last night and earlier yesterday, where communities from all backgrounds came together here in Biddeford, standing on that same bridge, asking and demanding justice for immigrants who are here today.<\/p>\n Biddeford is one of the youngest cities in Maine, and this has just been so devastated. There are so many beautiful kids who play in our neighborhoods. And just hearing from some of the kids who are going to summer school didn\u2019t even want to get off the bus, just fearing that they don\u2019t want to be shot in the face. So, this is deeply painful. It\u2019s an immigrant community, and has been for centuries. And as we gather, we\u2019re just finding ways to heal and ask for accountability on all accounts.<\/p>\n JUAN<\/span> GONZ\u00c1LEZ:<\/strong> Now, Maine\u2019s Democratic Governor Janet Mills and its Republican Senator Susan Collins are both calling for investigations. But what kind of actions did they take before this shooting in holding ICE<\/span> accountable?<\/p>\n EISHA<\/span> KHAN<\/span>:<\/strong> I think this is something that Maine has been grappling since the beginning of this year, where we have seen just the increase, surge in ICE<\/span> agents and ICE<\/span> presence throughout our community. And while I can\u2019t speak to what they\u2019re \u2014 you know, Senator Collins or Governor Mills are doing, I can say that what I have learned and I have seen is a lot of support from our community around this. Folks are gathering.<\/p>\n In fact, knowing Biddeford and our community, we are an aging \u2014\u00a0you know, Maine as a whole is an aging population, and a big chunk of our workforce relies on immigrants. And in January, when ICE<\/span> agents started surging, that began to surge, a vast majority of people didn\u2019t show up. And we were at a breaking point, where our hospitals were not able to operate. And it took Governor Mills, our elected officials to work together to find ways to make sure our community feels safe. And we were given the impression that ICE<\/span> is going away, but that was certainly and is certainly not the case. And yesterday was a strong reminder of what our elected officials need to do as we continue to move and for the survival of our state as we know it today.<\/p>\n AMY<\/span> GOODMAN<\/span>:<\/strong> Eisha Khan is the wife of the Biddeford mayor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License<\/a>. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.<\/p>\n\n