Jhonathan Ramirez was at home in Biddeford on July 13 when an ICE agent shot and killed his friend and housemate, Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, on the street outside. The shooting, he said, has turned his life upside down, and thrust his name into an unwanted spotlight. Now, he's trying to rebuild his life while dealing with the lingering trauma of losing his friend.
Ramirez said he and Durán Guerrero had a lot in common. Both were from the same region of Colombia, had young kids, and had come to the U.S. seeking a better life, eventually settling in Maine with their partners because they'd heard it was quiet and safe.
Ramirez said the two families had been splitting an apartment for the last couple years and were planning to make the most of summer.
"We had a lot of plans," he said, in Spanish, "to go to the beach, to go to a lake, to do a cookout."
All of those plans were abruptly snuffed out on the morning on July 13. Ramirez remembers hearing gunshots coming from the street outside.
He ran to the window and saw agents taking Durán Guerrero out of the car.
"When the ambulance came, they took out the stretcher, and they didn't put anyone on it," he said. "That's when we realized he was no longer alive."
Almost immediately, he said, journalists started knocking on his door nonstop. The car Durán Guerrero was driving was registered to Ramirez, and Ramirez's name soon popped up in news articles.
Ramirez said he saw speculation online that he'd been the one ICE was actually looking for. But he said he's done nothing to draw the attention of immigration enforcement.
"My family, we came here to get ahead, we're good people," he said. "I hope my name is cleared."
The attorney handling his asylum case, Kerry Doyle, contests the idea that ICE even had a specific target when they stopped Durán Guerrero that day.
"From my experience with other people I'm representing here in Maine who were picked up off the street," Doyle said, "it seemed pretty clear to me that they were just out looking for people who looked Hispanic."
Doyle is also representing Ramirez in a process to secure a visa for victims of violent crime.
She said like Durán Guerrero, Ramirez has a work permit and no criminal record.
In addition to the unwanted attention, the shooting has drawn Ramirez into a growing circle of people across the country who've lost friends, family, and loved ones to ICE shootings.
Earlier this month, Congressional Democrats heard testimony from some of those family members, including Ronaldo Salgado, whose father, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, was shot and killed in Houston while driving his construction crew to work, just days before the Biddeford shooting.
"Our father's last day started like so many days during his 35 years in this country, a country that he loved," Salgado told lawmakers, imploring them to rein in the agency before someone else is killed.
"It is my motivation to continue fighting not just for my dad, but for everyone else's dad and families like mine. I hope I'm doing the right thing every day, and I know my dad here is guiding me in the right direction," he said.
Here in Maine, Jhonathan Ramirez is also searching for a way forward.
He and his family have since moved to a new home in Biddeford. They still meet up with Durán Guerrero's partner at the park or at the mall from time to time so their daughters can play together, and, he said, hopefully distract themselves a bit from all they've been through.
But for Ramirez, there's no avoiding his friend's death.
"Everything has changed," he said, "because there is an empty space in our lives."
