Homan Says He 'Can't Understand' Why Illegal Immigrant Shot by ICE in Maine Had a Work Permit

Border czar Tom Homan says he still doesn't have an explanation for how a man fatally shot by ICE agents in Maine received a federal work permit last year, despite entering the country illegally in 2023.

Speaking on Fox News' The Ingraham Angle Wednesday night, Homan was asked by host Laura Ingraham how Joan Sebastian Guerrero, the man killed in the ICE shooting, ended up with legal work authorization in May 2025 after crossing the border illegally two years earlier. Homan didn't have a clean answer.

"I just found that out this afternoon," Homan told Ingraham, according to Breitbart's transcript of the exchange. "I'm asking that question. I will get an answer. I don't understand it either."

Homan called the timeline "strange" and said he intends to "get to the bottom of it." He did not name which agency issued the permit or under what program, and no agency, including U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, has yet released a public account of how Guerrero qualified.

Work permits, formally called Employment Authorization Documents, can be issued to certain immigrants who are in various stages of asylum claims, pending removal proceedings, or other temporary legal statuses, even if their initial entry was unlawful. Immigration law allows people who file asylum applications, for instance, to apply for work authorization while their cases are pending, regardless of how they entered. Homan did not address whether that's what happened here, and as of now no official confirmation has been given either way.

Guerrero's work permit could have been issued through a routine, lawful process tied to a pending asylum or removal case. Such bureaucratic pathways exist for hundreds of thousands of migrants regardless of how they arrived. If that occurred, it would reflect the system working as Congress designed it, whether or not that design is sound. Homan hasn't ruled that explanation out. He's simply said he doesn't yet know.

Homan used the moment to pivot to a broader complaint: that Guerrero didn't comply with ICE agents during the encounter that led to the shooting, and that Homan blames rhetoric from members of Congress for encouraging migrants to distrust or ignore federal law enforcement.

"This young man is dead because he has been conditioned that ICE isn't a real agency, ignore them, don't comply," Homan said. "I just can't believe any member of the Hill is instructing people, don't comply with law enforcement."

Homan didn't name which members of Congress he was referring to, and no lawmaker has been cited in available reporting as having told migrants not to comply with ICE agents specifically in this case. That's an allegation from Homan, not an established fact, and it deserves to be treated as such until he or someone else names names and provides evidence.

The underlying shooting itself remains a separate and more consequential open question than the work-permit timeline. No independent investigation findings, use-of-force review, or agency statement detailing the sequence of events has been made public in the sources available. Homan's comments Wednesday focused entirely on Guerrero's immigration history and the political blame game, not on what ICE agents did or why deadly force was used.

A man is dead. The public record so far, based on Homan's own remarks, tells us more about his paperwork than about the decision to shoot him. Any legitimate accounting of this incident needs both halves: how Guerrero ended up in the country with legal work status, and exactly what happened in the moments ICE agents decided to use lethal force.

Homan has committed publicly to getting an answer on the work permit question. He gave no timeline. Until that answer comes, and until ICE or the Department of Homeland Security releases details of the shooting itself, this remains an incident defined by what officials don't yet know rather than what they've confirmed.