Good morning, and happy Veterans’ Day. I’m John Byrne, in for Thom Hartmann. Before the news, take a few seconds and tap the ❤️ and restack this newsletter. Those two clicks are what help us make sure the people who really need these stories will see them.
Today, America’s top Latino advocacy groups are calling on the incoming Democratic Congress to subpoena new White House chief of staff Stephen Miller over his work overseeing Donald Trump’s mass deportation machine. House Democrats are tearing into their 11 Democratic colleagues who missed last night’s vote to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, allowing Trump to claim victory. The president’s former FDA commissioner is accusing his former boss of being in the pocket of corporate special interests. And the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent who killed a man in Maine this summer is found to have expressed anti-immigrant hatred in the past.
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ICE Agent Who Killed Man in Maine Expressed Anti-Immigrant Hate
Every American needs to hear this story out of Maine.
In July, ICE agent David Brouillette shot and killed a 25-year-old Colombian man named Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero during a traffic stop in Biddeford. He was shot four times in the face and neck at point-blank range. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) insists Durán Guerrero tried to escape and Brouillette shot him “fearing for public safety.” But there’s so far no evidence to back up the government’s claim.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, DHS also claimed that Durán Guerrero was in the United States illegally, before quietly retracting that claim. His family’s attorney maintains Durán Guerrero had legal authorization to work in the U.S. and wasn’t even the subject of ICE’s original investigation in Biddeford.
Now, the New York Times has uncovered the ugly truth about who Brouillette really is.
In 2021, Brouillette sent his sister a series of furious emails about her longtime partner. That man was a Colombian living legally in the United States, and working on his Ph.D. Brouillette told his sister that her partner should take his “non-citizen ass” back to his own country. He also attacked the man’s “bloodline” and told his own sister, a licensed therapist, she was dead to him. She also insists her brother’s hatred of her partner was all about race.
But it’s not just Brouillette’s sister. The ICE agent’s own mother told the Times she believes her son is dangerous and shouldn’t have firearms. Both of his ex-wives also accused him of physically abusing them in court documents, which Brouillette denies. His mother said he had previously been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and was even hospitalized on multiple occasions. That kind of history would typically disqualify someone from holding down a job as a federal law enforcement officer. And that’s not all: Brouillette apparently made false statements in court multiple times, including claiming that he worked as a police officer in a town that never actually hired him. One former fire chief described Brouillette as a loose cannon.
So how did he end up getting a badge and a gun from DHS?
The answer is simple: Trump demanded that ICE double its current number of deportation officers. And in order to hit that goal, the agency lowered the bar for applicants. One whistleblower told the DHS’ Office of the Inspector General that recruits were getting job offers before they even passed basic fingerprint and background checks. Brouillette was one of those agents who got fast-tracked and was cleared to start working in the field in December of 2025. He skipped out on the full ICE training course in Georgia, and his background report sat unread in a backlog nobody bothered to read. The Times couldn’t track down a single employer or relative of Brouillette’s who had been contacted by the government until after he killed Durán Guerrero.
Despite all of this, he was on the streets of Maine with a firearm and a badge.
David Brouillette is what happens when you build a mass deportation machine for speed and quotas. The government is handing out guns to people who have no business wielding a weapon. And the result is somebody’s son getting shot to death on the side of the road.
Accountability could be on the way. Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey, who is a Democrat, is investigating the shooting and is expected to announce an official decision before he leaves office next month (the Democratic-controlled Maine legislature elects the attorney general via secret ballot). Both Maine state law and federal law prohibit officers from violating someone’s rights because of their race or national origin. Brouillette’s emails may very well be evidence down the road.
Tell the new Democratic Congress: Abolish ICE!
Latino Groups Demand Democrats Subpoena Stephen Miller
One key reason Democrats made huge gains in last week’s midterms is because of huge turnout from Latino voters. Now, they want accountability.
In a letter first shared by NBC News, 16 of the nation’s leading Latino advocacy organizations sent a letter to Democratic leaders in Congress, urging them to subpoena Stephen Miller the first day that the new majorities are sworn in.
Miller was promoted to be Trump’s new White House chief of staff and is the driving force behind his cruel mass deportation effort. Latino groups are also demanding subpoenas for border czar Tom Homan, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and acting ICE Director David Venturella. And they want Democrats to freeze all funding for ICE until the agency can fully account for what it’s spent so far.
The letter lays out “the next step to reining in ICE” as obtaining sworn testimony and records on immigrant deaths in federal custody. They’re also urging Democrats to get records on children in federal immigrant detention centers and details on the killings of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, along with that of Ruben Ray Martinez in Texas.
Vanessa Cárdenas of the group America’s Voice called Stephen Miller “the architect of the mass deportation machine” and said a Democratic House of Representatives plays a key role in holding the Trump administration accountable.
Last week’s midterms saw Latinos pivot hard from Republicans after being a major part of Trump’s 2024 coalition. NBC’s exit poll found roughly two-thirds of 2024 Trump voters who voted for Democratic U.S. Senate candidates in the midterms said Trump had gone too far on his immigration crackdown. In Texas, record Latino turnout helped turn the state blue, not only electing James Talarico to the Senate over Republican Ken Paxton, but Gina Hinojosa to be the first Latina governor of Texas over incumbent Greg Abbott.
Democrats Slam Colleagues Who Failed to Show Up for Hegseth Impeachment Vote
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth barely dodged impeachment by the House of Representatives last night in a vote that could have gone the other way had 11 absent Democrats showed up. Now, their colleagues are fuming.
Outgoing Republican Congressman Thomas Massie filed articles of impeachment this week accusing Trump’s Pentagon chief of high crimes and misdemeanors. That includs waging war with Iran without the approval of Congress, and for carrying out hundreds of extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.
Republicans still have a majority in the current lame duck session, allowing the House to send the impeachment articles to the current GOP-controlled House Judiciary Committee. Once referred to committee, the impeachment articles are expected to gather dust with no action.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told CNN she said members with real health issues could perhaps have an excuse for their absence, but stressed that her colleagues have been elected to do a job. Ocasio-Cortez, a former bartender, said showing up to vote in Congress is no different than clocking in at a restaurant.
Democratic Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove of California was more colorful, telling MeidasTouch’s Pablo Manriquez that Democrats knew the vote was coming up, so her colleagues “should have gotten their raggedy selves up these steps to vote.”
So where were they? According to Axios reporter Andrew Solender, several of the missing members were stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic on Independence Avenue, on their way back from an Elect Democratic Women reception roughly a mile and a half from the Capitol building. One Democrat reportedly got out of the car and walked the rest of the way.
Michigan Democratic senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed (who Raw America interviewed this Spring) told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins the absent Democrats should simply show up and do their job. He then urged Hegseth to resign. Trump bragged about the failed vote in a Truth Social post. But notably, Senate Majority Leader John Thune offered a noncommittal response when asked about his confidence in Hegseth, saying whether the defense secretary should continue serving in his role is up to the president.
Trump’s Former FDA Chief Accuses Him of Corruption
Trump’s former FDA commissioner is now saying out loud what plenty of people suspected. Marty Makary told Politico that White House and HHS aides pushed him far harder on getting vapes approved and keeping lobbyists happy than on medical cures or healthy food.
He said that “Americans don’t want their kids smoking strawberry banana vapes,” and that voters want a government willing to stand up to corruption. Makary resigned in May after clashing with the White House over his opposition to fruit-flavored vape pods, and he tied the timing of his comments directly to last week’s election results.
He’s got company. Calley Means, a former senior adviser to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., recently blamed several top Trump officials, including former chief of staff Susie Wiles, for stalling food and pesticide policies backed by the Make America Healthy Again movement. The White House disputes his account.
Makary’s own tenure was rocky, too. Anti-abortion Republicans were angry he didn’t restrict online mifepristone prescriptions, drug companies griped about inconsistent reviews and career staff headed for the exits.
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I’m John Byrne. Thanks for reading, and thanks for supporting independent media. If you haven’t yet, please take a second to click the ❤️ and tap restack so these stories can break through and reach the most people.
And make sure to catch our interview today with Michigan Democratic Party chairman Curtis Hertel at 12 PM ET! Watch live on our homepage at RawAmerica.com.
I would think that part of the problem with Hegseth’s impeachment was that Massie didn’t check to make sure he had a majority before he filed them. If they were in bumper to bumper traffic, waiting an hour would have done the trick
We call 11/11 wapenstilstand. (Cease fire) The date after world war 1. We’re more than a century later now; it didn’t make us more civilized. Let’s work on that.