АНУ-ын Цагаачлал, гаалийн албаны (ICE) ажилтны үйлдсэн гэх хүн амины хэргийн дараа тус байгууллагын ажилтнуудын арын шалгалтын үйл явц болон хурдавчилсан элсэлтийн бодлого ноцтой асуултын тэмдэг дор орлоо.
Мэйн мужид өнгөрсөн долоо хоногт Колумбийн иргэн Йохан Себастьян Дуран Геррерог буудан хөнөөсөн ICE-ийн ажилтан Дэвид Бруиллеттийн хуучин эхнэрүүд түүнийг хүчирхийллийн зан авиртай, зэвсэгт хүчинд ажиллахад тохиромжгүй хүн байсныг мэдэгдэж байна. Тэдний хэлснээр, холбооны байгууллагууд түүнийг ажилд авахын өмнө гэр бүлийн болон хувийн түүхийг нь сайтар шалгаагүй нь энэхүү эмгэнэлт явдлыг урьдчилан сэргийлэх боломжгүй болгосон аж. Дэвид Бруиллетт нь өмнө нь сэтгэцийн эрүүл мэндийн асуудалтай байсан гэх мэдээлэл байгаа ч ICE-ийн зүгээс ажилтны хувийн мэдээлэл болон хэргийн талаар дэлгэрэнгүй тайлбар өгөхөөс татгалзлаа.
АНУ-ын Ерөнхийлөгч Дональд Трамп албан тушаалдаа эргэн орсны дараа тус улсын хил дээрх хяналтыг чангатгах зорилгоор ICE-ийн бие бүрэлдэхүүнийг богино хугацаанд хоёр дахин нэмэгдүүлсэн билээ. Энэхүү хурдавчилсан элсэлтийн хүрээнд насны болон боловсролын шаардлагыг зөөлрүүлж, олон мянган хүнийг шинээр ажилд авсан нь арын шалгалтын үйл явцыг сулруулсан гэж шинжээчид үзэж байна. Associated Press агентлагийн мөрдөн шалгалтаар эдгээр шинэ ажилтнуудын дунд гэмт хэргийн бүртгэлтэй эсвэл өмнөх ажлын байрандаа ёс зүйн зөрчил гаргаж байсан хүмүүс багтсан нь илэрчээ.
Дэвид Бруиллеттийн хувьд ямар нэгэн гэмт хэргийн бүртгэлгүй байсан ч түүний хувийн түүхэнд хүчирхийлэл, заналхийлэл, сэтгэцийн тогтворгүй байдалтай холбоотой ноцтой баримтууд байгааг шүүхийн бичиг баримтууд гэрчилж байна. Хэрэг гарсан өдөр ICE-ийн зүгээс ажилтныг аюулгүй байдлыг хамгаалах үүднээс галт зэвсэг хэрэглэсэн хэмээн өмгөөлж байгаа бол олон нийтийн зүгээс ажилтнуудын мэргэжлийн ур чадвар болон хяналтын тогтолцоонд эргэлзэх болжээ.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
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An ex-wife of the ICE agent accused of fatally shooting a Colombian immigrant in Maine this past week — who was in the U.S. legally, according to his family — believes the tragedy could have been avoided entirely if the federal officials tasked with vetting new hires had simply contacted her before issuing the 37-year-old rookie a badge and a gun.
Ashley Brouillette said ICE’s background investigators never got in touch while considering her ex-husband and high school sweetheart David Brouillette, who joined ICE late last year, for the job.
When she heard that he had been named as the agent behind the deadly encounter, Ashley said she “was shocked, but I wasn’t shocked.”
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“For years, I told people he was going to hurt somebody,” she told The Independent. “I told everyone that if I ever ended up dead, that David would be the one to look at. We’ve been divorced for 17 years and he still calls me and leaves threatening messages and stuff.”
Yet, the nation’s immigration enforcement agency never bothered to ask the first of David Brouillette’s three wives whether or not she thought he had the temperament to work in law enforcement.
“They didn’t reach out at all,” she said. “When David told me back in November that he accepted a job with ICE, and that he wasn’t going to start for a couple of months, I thought, honest to God, he was bullsh***ing me. I’m used to him saying wacky things when he calls me drunk.”
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She said she didn’t think anything more of it, until the morning of July 14, when she woke up to a call from CNN inquiring about reports that her ex had shot and killed 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero a day earlier during an ICE traffic stop in Biddeford, Maine.
Durán Guerrero, who reportedly had permission to work in the U.S. and had been issued a Social Security number, was not the “intended target” of the ICE operation
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Had ICE done more robust due diligence, Durán might still be alive, according to Brouillette.
“This could have been 100 percent preventable,” she said.
She isn’t his only former partner speaking out.
On Saturday, David Brouillette’s second wife Lucinda Brouillette sent a message to reporters recounting what she described as her ex’s history of violent behavior.
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“If you were to ask me whether I believe David Brouillette is capable of this level of extreme violence, my answer is unequivocally yes,” she wrote.
“Throughout our marriage and in the years that followed, I have feared for a long time that his anger, aggression, and escalating behavior would eventually result in severe, life threatening violence, and I often believed I would be the one on the receiving end of it,” she said.
In court this week, she sought a protective order against him and for temporary sole custody of their 11-year-old daughter.
She had previously accused her ex-husband of kicking down her door and alleging that he routinely and falsely accused her of having substance-use issues to undermine her credibility in court, according to court records obtained by the Portland Press Herald.
Lucinda Brouillette, who was married to David while he was in the military, has also claimed that her ex sent videos of her in intimate settings to other people and was verbally and physically abusive to his daughters, according to the newspaper.
“Throughout the years, I brought my concerns to law enforcement, the courts, and the Department of Health and Human Services,” she wrote Saturday. “I tried to explain what I believed was a long-standing pattern of abuse, intimidation, manipulation, and controlling behavior because I genuinely feared where those behaviors could lead. From my perspective, those warnings did not receive the attention I believed they deserved.”
Ashley shared a voicemail with The Independent that David left her after she took out a restraining order against him in late 2025, in which he said he wanted her to die and that she and others in her “bloodline” should have their “f****** throats cut.”
In an email, an ICE spokesperson declined to address the shooting, Brouillette specifically, or his hiring.
“We will never confirm or deny attempts to dox our law enforcement officers,” a spokesperson said. “Doxxing our officers put their lives and their families in serious danger. Our law enforcement officers are on the frontlines arresting terrorists, gang members, murderers, pedophiles, and rapists. Now, thanks to the malicious rhetoric of sanctuary politicians, they are under constant threat from violent agitators.”
David and Ashley Brouillette dated throughout high school, which Ashley described as “really great.”
“You couldn’t ask for a better boyfriend,” she told The Independent.
They married in 2007, and the problems began soon after he joined the Maine Army National Guard that same year, Ashley said.
David Brouillette served in the Maine National Guard from 2007 to 2010 and the Army from 2010 to 2015. He was deployed to Afghanistan from May 2012 to February 2013, leaving with the rank of sergeant.
In 2009, Ashley filed for divorce. She now lives in Michigan, more than 1,000 miles away.
When President Donald Trump retook office in January 2025, he pledged to add thousands of new agents to ICE’s roster, as quickly as possible, to help carry out his campaign promise of deporting 1 million people a year.
ICE then brought on more than 12,000 fresh hires by dropping its standards — lowering a minimum age from 21 to 18 and no long requiring a college degree, among others — and accelerating the hiring process, more than doubling its workforce.
Generous signing bonuses and other financial incentives drew a deluge of applications, many from military veterans and recruits who had already worked as cops, correctional officers or security guards. But weeding out the otherwise unqualified applicants has proven challenging amid such a rapid onboarding process, an Associated Press investigation found in April.
The new ICE recruits with purportedly checkered pasts included a onetime Georgia police officer who had twice declared bankruptcy — a red flag for potential susceptibility to bribery — and had held six different law enforcement jobs over six years; a former deputy sheriff in Kansas who joined ICE after leaving his previous job amid allegations he framed an innocent woman by lying in a police report; and a police academy washout from Colorado who was eventually allowed to graduate, then turned in his shield three weeks later and never worked as a cop again, according to the AP.
David Brouillette had cycled through jobs as a Department of Veterans Affairs police officer, a correctional officer, and trained to become a firefighter but was forced to drop out after a steel beam struck him in the head and left him with vertigo, light sensitivity, and cognitive defects, the AP reported and Ashley confirmed. He has also worked as a truck driver, delivered food for DoorDash, and earned a real estate sales license last year.
As a child, David Brouillette was diagnosed with severe bipolar disorder, among other things, and attempted suicide twice when he was 12, an immediate family member told the AP, describing their relative as “extremely mentally ill.” The family member broke off contact years ago for fear David would harm their family, the AP reported.
David Brouillette does not have a criminal record, but family court documents in Maine reviewed by the AP include allegations of stalking, physical abuse and cruelty directed at his second wife and teenage daughter.
On July 13, David Brouillette opened fire into a car during a stop in Biddeford, Maine, killing Durán, who lived in the area with his wife and their young child.
ICE defended Brouillette’s actions, saying that the “vehicle attempted to flee the scene and, fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon.”
In the aftermath, Brouillette, according to reports, told at least three people, including Ashley, that the shooting had been justified.
Ashley told The Independent that David seemed “unusually calm” about it all, and pleaded with her to say positive things about him in public.
“It was really scary, in a way,” she said.
“I just want people to know, I tried to speak out about this years ago, but I wish that I had pushed harder,” she emphasized on Friday. “Don’t just let people silence you the way I did. Speak up, because it could save somebody’s life.”
Additional reporting by Alex Woodward
