đź“°BIDDEFORD | ICE SHOOTING | Resident Voices Frustration with City Leadership
- Jul 22
- 3 min read
"If we feel this issue is not being taken seriously, a recall election for a ward councilor can be triggered with roughly 300 to 370 valid signatures, depending on the ward. For our councilors at large and mayor, it is about 1,300 valid signatures."
July 22, 2026, At last night's city council meeting, residents of Biddeford and neighboring communities addressed Biddeford Mayor LaFountain and the Biddeford City Council following the ICE involved shooting that killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero.
Ward 7 Resident and Biddeford Charter Commission member Sam Pecor, addressed city leaders sharing the following remarks:
"By a show of hands, who among you was truly surprised that Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero was shot and killed by a federal immigration officer in this city last Monday?
I won’t pretend that your silence is an answer, but either answer raises a question this Council must confront. If you weren’t surprised, then the danger was known. If you were surprised, then the warnings this City had already documented weren’t taken seriously or followed with the urgency they required.
Two hundred fifty years ago this month, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
On Thursday, I took the same oath that binds each of you: to support the Constitutions of the United States and Maine, and faithfully discharge the duties of office.
Last week, Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero was deprived of his life and his liberty.
The oath you took does not give you command over ICE. But it requires more than reciting what municipal government cannot do. It requires you to identify and use every lawful power of your office to defend the constitutional rights of your constituents. That is where you failed him.
I do not fault this Council for lacking federal authority. I fault it for failing publicly to examine, debate, and exercise municipal authority.
By January, the City had already described and recognized the local harm. Across the country, we watched Americans killed by federal immigration officers. We watched people abducted from their homes, workplaces, and streets by masked agents in unmarked vehicles, sometimes without warrants, probable cause, or even lawful authority, and torn away from their families and the lives they had built. And here in Biddeford, the City admitted that the harm was real and happening here.
Yet the public response remained chiefly administrative. After January 28, the public record I reviewed goes quiet until Johan was killed. Your values were published; the safeguards were not.
The Mayor’s statements have been necessary, and tonight’s proclamation may properly honor Johan. But statements and ceremony will not make us safe. They do not answer the question before us: What do this Council and this Mayor intend to do?
When it comes to responsibility, I am not claiming that anyone seated here fired the weapon. Legal responsibility will be determined through investigation, but political responsibility includes what governing bodies do after recognizing a danger.
Limited power is not no power. You could not control ICE. You could govern Biddeford. It is your job to use every lawful municipal power to defend constitutional government within these borders.
The danger before us demands leadership and the full exercise of local authority. Publish the BPD policy. Order a public legal review of the City’s federal agreements and available municipal safeguards. Put binding action before this Council.
If you believe the City lacks that authority, publish the legal analysis. If you possess authority but refuse to use it, say so plainly.
Statements and proclamations tell us what you believe, but they do not make us safe.
If this Council chooses continued passivity, I will organize, petition, and work openly to replace those who chose it at the ballot box.
I say this to members of the public: we need not wait until November 2027.
If we feel this issue is not being taken seriously, a recall election for a ward councilor can be triggered with roughly 300 to 370 valid signatures, depending on the ward. For our councilors at large and mayor, it is about 1,300 valid signatures."
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“…the ICE involved shooting that killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero.” should read, “The murder of our neighbor Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero by the federal government agency known as ICE.”
A trained killer murdered him.