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White House border czar Tom Homan on Sunday said he did not “know specifically” the status of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers involved in two recent fatal shootings in Texas and Maine.
“I don’t know specifically,” Homan said on “State of the Union” to CNN’s Dana Bash. “I haven’t been involved in the investigations, but it’d be policy that they’d be put on administrative leave during the shooting investigation.”
After Bash pressed him on it, Homan said he has not “specifically tracked these cases, but I can tell you, per policy, they’re usually put on administrative leave, pending the investigation, pending, you know, sworn statements, internal affairs interviews, and you know, the entire investigation.”
“They’re usually not put back on duty until the entire investigation is over and either been cleared or if they got problems, then they may not go back at all,” he added.
Earlier this month, ICE officers stopped a van in Houston driven by 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national, just before 7 a.m. local time. A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson previously told The Hill that Salgado Araujo allegedly attempted to evade authorities.
The spokesperson also alleged that he rammed the officers’ SUV and “weaponized his vehicle.” An officer shot Salgado Araujo in the stomach “in self-defense.” Salgado Araujo later died at the hospital.
Homan was asked about an ICE officer involved in the Biddeford, Maine, shooting, where a 26-year-old Colombian citizen who was authorized to work in the U.S. and had a Social Security number was shot and killed after a traffic stop while leaving his home.
Bash cited court documents that showed one officer “was accused of abuse by two ex-wives.” One ex-wife told CNN’s Erin Burnett that she was subjected to domestic violence “and that he always displayed violent behavior.” A judge later ordered the officer to relinquish any firearms in his possession, Bash added before asking if the officer should be an active ICE employee.
“No, if those are facts,” Homan said, adding that such information should be part of the vetting process and is part of the investigation into the shooting.
DHS stated that the officer in Maine shot the man out of fear for “public safety.”
Maine Sens. Susan Collins (R) and Angus King (I) have since called for an impartial investigation into the shooting. Collins later said DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin told her the Boston office of the department’s inspector general took over the probe into the shooting “in cooperation with” the FBI.
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