A person was killed in a shooting by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Biddeford, Maine, on Monday, the second fatal shooting involving the agency in less than a week.
The Department of Homeland Security said Monday that ICE agents were conducting surveillance of the last-known address of an “illegal alien with a final order of removal” when another “illegal alien departed the residence in a vehicle.”
“ICE law enforcement attempted to conduct a vehicle stop,” the department said in a statement hours after the incident. “The vehicle attempted to flee the scene and, fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon.”
DHS did not release the name of the person killed.
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The Maine attorney general’s office identified the victim as a male and announced plans to investigate the “fatal use of deadly force.”
“The male subject is not being named until positive identification is made and family members are notified,” the office said in a news release.
Jordan Wood, a Democrat who recently launched a bid for one of Maine’s U.S. Senate seats after Graham Platner’s exit from the race, said he was also awaiting details on the shooting but called for strong action against ICE.
“ICE is dangerously out of control and an embarrassment to our country. Abolish it and replace it with an agency that answers to the people,” Wood wrote Monday on X.
Troy Jackson and Nirav Shah, two Democrats who are also running for U.S. Senate in Maine, spoke at an “emergency community rally” hours after the shooting. Jackson has called for ICE to be abolished and Shah has said the agency shouldn’t exist as it is currently operating.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) called for “a full and impartial investigation of what happened.”
Protesters, chanting “vote her out,” entered Collins’ office in Biddeford, Maine, on Monday.
Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) said he spoke with DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin about the shooting and initially told reporters that the unidentified male who was killed “was the target of the end of the arrest warrant based upon his immigration status.”
King’s office changed his earlier statement after he had an additional phone call with Mullin, with his office telling CNN that the man shot by federal immigration agents was “NOT the target of the warrant.” King’s office acknowledged a request for comment on the matter but did not immediately clarify the senator’s statements.
Collins, who spoke with Mullin after the shooting, said she did not know whether the person killed was the target of the warrant.
“I talked to Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who told me that the Boston office of the inspector general has taken over responsibility for the investigation and will be doing so in conjunction with the FBI,” Collins told reporters.
Last week, ICE shot and killed Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who had lived in the U.S. for decades. Salgado Araujo was on the way to his construction job site in Houston.
DHS, which oversees ICE, said officers stopped Salgado Araujo as part of a “targeted operation.” Salgado Araujo “weaponized his vehicle” while attempting to flee the scene, according to the statement DHS released about the incident.
Salgado Araujo’s family disputed DHS’s account of his death. Mexican Foreign Minister Roberto Velasco Álvarez said Thursday the country wants to initiate “forceful legal actions” in response to the incident.
The Mexican government is now seeking criminal charges in the deaths of 17 Mexicans who died in U.S. custody or during immigration enforcement operations under the Trump administration.
At least 21 people have been shot at by federal immigration agents since last year, according to a report released Wednesday by The New York Times. Five people have been killed in the shootings, including three U.S. citizens. The report does not include the individual killed in the ICE-involved shooting in Maine.
This story has been updated with statements from DHS and Sen. Angus King.
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