Wife of Colombian father killed by ICE in Maine says they had planned to grow old together

He always dreamed of being a father, and when he found out he was going to have a daughter, Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero said she’d never lack for anything, doting on his now-3-year-old daily, his anguished widow said Thursday.

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“He wanted to be a dad who was always present,” Karolina Rojas said tearfully in her first public statements since the 25-year-old Colombian father was fatally shot by ICE in Biddeford, Maine, the small city that was home to the couple and their young child.

“My soul is broken; he was everything to me,” Rojas said, adding that from the moment they met, “we never separated.”

“He did everything to see me happy, and always said I was his life,” she said. “I will never have words to express what a marvelous and loving man God gave me.”

“He always said we’d be together until we were old,” Rojas said, holding back her tears.

Rojas spoke alongside Benjamin Gideon, the lawyer representing Durán’s family.

Gideon said Rojas wanted to make sure that Durán, who was killed by an ICE officer on Monday, was remembered the right way as the nation grapples with two ICE shootings in less than a week. On July 7, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was fatally shot by ICE in Houston. The Department of Homeland Security has said that neither Duran or Salgado were the “intended targets” of ICE on the days they were killed.

“Do we accept the idea that innocent, loving partners and loving and devoted fathers of 3-year-olds can be collateral damage to this government’s policies? Do we agree that this is just an acceptable cost of doing business?” Gideon said. “We truly believe that people need to understand what the real costs are.”

“I want to be clear about something. Johan Sebastián, before he was shot to death, had been accused of committing no crime. He was in this country lawfully, and he was following a lawful process that’s prescribed by our federal government,” the attorney said, adding that Durán had been issued a work permit and a Social Security number under the Trump administration.

ICE has said it was conducting “targeted surveillance on the last known address of an illegal alien with a final order of removal” around 7 a.m. Monday, an agency spokesperson said.

“The vehicle attempted to flee the scene and fearing for public safety an officer discharged his weapon,” the ICE spokesperson said.

Durán, who was born and raised in Bucaramanga, Colombia, had come to the U.S. in 2023 to seek better opportunities for him and his family, relatives said.

A spokesperson with the Department of Homeland Security told NBC News in an email that Durán “illegally entered the United States” through the southern border nearly three years ago “and was released into the country under the Biden Administration.”

Entering the U.S. without proper authorization is a misdemeanor, but living in the country without legal permission is a civil violation and not a criminal offense.

At work, and everywhere he went, Durán carried an infectious joy, Rojas said.

As a father, he was devoted. Aside from working cleaning and delivery jobs to provide for his family, he took their daughter, Dulce — or “gordita” (chubby) as he lovingly called her — to the park every afternoon, Rojas said.

Durán always indulged his little girl whenever she had a craving for nuggets and fries, Rojas said, adding he would often marvel in tears every time he realized his daughter “was getting bigger.”

Rojas recalled a conversation she had with Durán a few months ago, wondering who their little girl would grow up to be. Durán said he would have a hard time sending off his daughter to school for the first time, she said.

Dulce now asks for her father every night, Rojas said, breaking down in tears. “And I don’t have the strength to tell her that dad isn’t coming, that she can’t give him a hug and tell him ‘I love you.’”

Gideon said that “there will come a time when those responsible for Johan Sebastián’s needless death will have to answer for what they did. But today is not that day. ... Today is about Johan Sebastián and who he was as a person.”