Dear Editor:

Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a Colombian national in this country with a work permit, was shot and killed by an ICE agent on Monday, July 13, in Biddeford, Maine, while attempting to flee. He fled because he knew ICE agents were not there for law or justice, but for fear and terror. That he was shot dead proves the point.

ICE agents have fired on more than a dozen people since last year, resulting in several deaths, including three U.S. citizens and dozens more have died in ICE custody.

This is what state terror looks like: the systematic use of violence, intimidation, and fear by state authorities against civilians to maintain control and suppress dissent.

We can assign Senator Susan Collins her share of the blame for this abuse of power. She voted to approve a $70 billion funding package for ICE and Border Patrol, and she voted to confirm both Kristi Noem and, later, Markwayne Mullin as President Trump's choices to lead the Department of Homeland Security.

Senator Collins has not held a single hearing investigating these deaths. It is left to us to seek accountability through the legal and political means still available to us.

But voting Collins out of office is not enough to counter what has become a tyrannical cancer on the soul of our nation. We must meet fear and terror with courage. We must proactively assert our civil rights by supporting labor, opposing immigration bans, and defending diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. We must stand together in defense of community organizations, whether political, charitable, or otherwise.

We must be active patriots who stand by the principles that made our country great, and oppose this nationalist agenda of terror, racism, lies, and division. We must remind each other that America is the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Fred W. Nehring

Boothbay