Monday’s fatal shooting of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero at the hands of an ICE agent in Biddeford, Maine, is a national story, with The New York Times, NPR, CNN and others all offering plenty of coverage. And as I wrote on Tuesday, the Maine-based media are following this closely as well, especially the Portland Press Herald and the Bangor Daily News.
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Today I want to focus on The Boston Globe, which occupies sort of a middle ground — not national, not regional in terms of covering Maine, but nevertheless close enough that Biddeford could be considered an exurb of Boston.
The Globe has been publishing excellent coverage since ICE gunned down Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian national who was working in the U.S. legally and who wasn’t even the immigrant that ICE was looking for when he was shot in his vehicle. Guerrero’s wife and 3-year-old daughter were at the scene; his daughter was reportedly wearing Bluey pajamas.
Like the Press Herald (except for a few stories and its liveblog) and the Daily News, the Globe requires a subscription if you want to read its coverage. But since I’m local and have a subscription, I spent some time this morning looking over the latest.
I was especially impressed with Sam Brodey and Tal Kopan’s story on Sen. Susan Collins’ role. Collins, as we all know, is Maine’s embattled Republican senator — a supposed moderate who nevertheless rarely shies way from an opportunity to make Donald Trump happy. Collins’ re-election campaign got a lot more challenging when her scandal-plagued Democratic opponent, Graham Platner, dropped out of the race, although the last-minute scramble to find a new Democratic candidate could wind up helping her.
The shooting, though, has put Collins in an awkward position given that she’s voted to keep funding ICE. As Brodey and Kopan observe, Collins has tried to position herself as a liaison between her state and the White House, taking credit for an ICE stand-down earlier this year and claiming to have intervened with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to end non-urgent traffic stops, at least temporarily. Brodey and Kopan write:
As chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Collins has considerable influence over funding for ICE and other agencies. Earlier this year, after ICE officers killed two civilians in Minnesota, Democrats pushed for new restrictions on the agency’s operations in exchange for any continued funding.
The resulting standoff with Republicans led to a months-long shutdown of DHS, which ended when the GOP pushed through a $70 billion package to fund the agency for three years with no new conditions. Collins joined all other Republicans in voting for the legislation.
The senator touted her efforts to secure $20 million in the bill for body cameras for federal immigration officers, along with $2 million in de-escalation training. Speaking on Tuesday, Collins blamed Democrats for delaying that funding, suggesting it was a reason why the agents involved in the Maine shooting did not have body cameras. Federal law does not require immigration enforcement to use them; Democrats pushed for them to be mandated as a condition of ICE funding.
In other words, Collins is playing politics by telling less than the whole truth about Democrats and body cams while a spokesperson for her campaign issues a statement calling it “unfortunate” that Democrats are — yes — playing politics by criticizing her. Also: How can anyone not be political when the choice is between an official who supports ICE and opponents who might be in a position to defund it?
Also on the homepage, at least when I started writing this item (it’s already changed):
- Political analysis by James Pindell.
- A five-byline story rounding up Democratic criticism of Collins, including this, from New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “Senator Collins wrote the blank check to allow these officers to conduct themselves in the way that they have in Maine in the first place.”
- An opinion piece by staff columnist Marcela García, just back from her Nieman Fellowship, headlined “Shootings in Maine and Texas make clear: The new ICE surge is here.”
Overall, it’s an impressive package. And though news organizations in Maine have done a good job, you have to wonder if Globe executives — who already have bureaus in Rhode Island and New Hampshire — might consider making their next move into Maine.
More: This cycled off the Globe’s homepage on Tuesday, but I’ll note that columnist Kevin Cullen wrote this: “It’s hard to distinguish ICE agents from gangsters.”
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Maine is such a strange and interesting place. I’ve worked there, vacationed there, skied and sailed there and always look forward to visiting. The swirl since Platner began his campaign has been fascinating. I’m very hopeful that, in the end, Mainers will pull themselves together and retire Susan Collins. She is not an evil person herself but she has enabled evil acts in others with murderous consequences.
Isn’t the Globe already moving in on Vermont? They have had several front page VT stories in the last month. I’m sure Maine is in their sights.
The Globe has a northern New England reporter named Paul Heintz who is a veteran of Vermont journalism. But the paper has bureaus and newsletters for Rhode Island and New Hampshire.