AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Two days after an ICE officer shot and killed a Colombian man in Maine, a picture is emerging of the victim, 25-year-old Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero. Friends, family, community members say that he was a hardworking father who was dedicated to his wife and young child. Maine Public reporter Ari Snider has been following this story and joins us now. Hi, Ari.
ARI SNIDER, BYLINE: Hi, Ailsa.
CHANG: So tell us more about Durán Guerrero. Like, what have you been learning about him?
SNIDER: Yeah, so we're still learning about him, right? There's a lot we don't know. But we do know that he was not the person ICE was looking for to begin with. He had a wife and a 3-year-old daughter, lived in the city of Biddeford, which is a small city south of Portland. Friends tell me he worked primarily as a delivery driver for apps like Uber Eats. Isabel Paredes, who lives in Biddeford as well, says she got to know Durán Guerrero over the last year through some mutual friends. And she says that he was known as a hard worker and a family man.
ISABEL PAREDES: The most important thing to him was his family, his daughter and his wife. That is what, like, pushed him to keep going every single day.
SNIDER: And one local restaurant owner wrote on social media today that Durán Guerrero would frequently pick up orders at her business, and that he was, quote, a "kind, friendly, nice gentleman." We don't know his precise immigration status yet. But the Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition said in a written statement that he had legal work authorization and a Social Security number.
CHANG: And what about his family right now? What are we hearing from them?
SNIDER: Yeah, so I haven't spoken directly with his family. But the Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo posted the audio of an interview with his father, Omar Durán, who says his son was a really loving person who left Colombia to try to give his family a future.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
OMAR DURAN: (Speaking Spanish).
SNIDER: He's saying, "my son was a wonderful son. And I don't know why they did this to him." Durán Guerrero's wife has not spoken publicly, but she did make a post on social media yesterday. It was a photo of the two of them with their young daughter. The caption in Spanish, she wrote in part, quote, "I love you. I have no words for this pain."
CHANG: God. What about city officials in Biddeford? What are they saying about all this so far?
SNIDER: Yeah. So Mayor Liam LaFountain talked to me about the city's deep immigrant roots. It was a mill town that attracted a lot of French, Canadian and Irish immigrants in the early 1900s. And the more newer arrivals from Central Africa and Central America and elsewhere are just the latest in a long history of immigration.
LIAM LAFOUNTAIN: And we're proud of that history. These are contributing neighbors. They're employees in our schools, at our hospital, working for the city, entrepreneurs on Main Street.
CHANG: I mean, it is interesting, Ari, because when people think about Maine, demographically speaking, it is one of the whitest states in the country, right? But it sounds like Biddeford has a history of being a bit of a melting pot.
SNIDER: Yeah, absolutely. You know, interestingly enough, the Maine Historical Society says Biddeford was home to one of the earliest known mosques in the U.S., started in 1915 by Albanian textile workers who also came to work there in the mills. There's been an increase in ICE enforcement there, you know, recently for months, right? This isn't coming out of nowhere. One Angolan market owner downtown said his business has really struggled since the major ICE surge in January. Now he tells me today this shooting is only adding to the chilling effect. He said himself and many others in the city are scared that what happened to Durán Guerrero could happen to them, too.
CHANG: That is Maine Public reporter Ari Snider. Thank you, Ari.
SNIDER: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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