U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers fatally shot a driver in a coastal town of Maine on Monday, less than a week after an ICE agent in Houston, Texas, shot and killed a man in a traffic stop during a deportation crackdown there.
Commenting on Monday's shooting nearly 12 hours after the fact, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said an ICE officer, "fearing for public safety," opened fire on the man when he attempted to flee agents trying to stop his vehicle.
The DHS statement made no mention of how the driver might have posed a threat. The encounter occurred around 7 a.m. EDT (1100 GMT) in Biddeford, Maine, about 15 miles (24 km) south of the state's largest city, Portland.
DHS, the parent agency of ICE, gave few other details, except to say that the agents involved were "conducting targeted surveillance on the last known address of an illegal alien with a final order of removal."
The agency said officers had been carrying out targeted surveillance at the last known address of an undocumented migrant with a final removal order. DHS did not say whether the person who left the residence was the same individual under surveillance.
The fatal encounter in Biddeford has intensified scrutiny of ICE traffic-stop tactics as advocates question how immigration raids are being carried out across the United States.
Immigration advocates said the person killed was a 26-year-old Colombian man who was authorised to work in the United States and had a Social Security number. The Maine Immigrants' Rights Coalition and Presente called the shooting “devastating, enraging, and unacceptable”.
Witness Daniel Boucher said he heard what sounded like firecrackers before seeing a white SUV ram a smaller white car. He said an officer pulled the wounded driver from the vehicle, and recalled hearing the man say, “But I tried to stop.”
Boucher recounted one of the officers on the scene as appearing "very distraught, almost in shock."
The Maine case, together with last Tuesday's fatal ICE shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, brings the total number of people shot dead during U.S. immigration enforcement operations to at least seven since January 2025, when President Donald Trump returned to office and began a mass-deportation campaign.
Later in the day, scores of demonstrators carried signs and chanted as they marched about a quarter-mile from a Biddeford park to the office of Republican U.S. Senator Susan Collins, who is running for reelection this year.
Ten protesters entered the building's foyer, chanting "ICE out!" and "Vote her out!" and screaming obscenities. There were no arrests or violence.
About 200 protesters marched through town Monday evening carrying banners and chanting "ICE out of Maine."
The rally culminated at Mechanics Park, where members of the crowd lit candles and displayed written messages expressing support for migrants.
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