BIDDEFORD, Maine — Immigrant rights organizations are calling for answers and organizing additional protests following the fatal shooting of a Maine driver by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer during an enforcement operation in the city of Biddeford on Monday.
The incident marks the second time within a single week that ICE has used deadly force, and at least the ninth fatality since President Donald Trump launched his immigration enforcement crackdown.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security stated that an ICE officer, “fearing for public safety,” shot and killed the driver while agents were conducting surveillance on a home belonging to someone they believed was in the country illegally and had received a final order of removal from the United States.
In a post on X, the department explained that when ICE attempted to stop a vehicle leaving the home, the driver tried to flee and the officer discharged his weapon.
That explanation came several hours after Maine Sen. Angus King revealed that Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told him the officer fired after the man attempted to use his vehicle as a weapon against ICE agents. King also said Mullin indicated the officers were attempting to serve an arrest warrant — but not for the person who ended up being shot.
Because none of the officers involved were equipped with body cameras, numerous questions remain unanswered about what exactly happened in this coastal community located south of Portland, Maine’s largest city.
Key details are still unknown, including how close the officer was to the vehicle when shots were fired, whether the driver was ordered to stop, and in what way the public was believed to be in danger.
DHS did not respond to a request for clarification about the events leading up to the shooting.
The Maine attorney general’s office, which has opened its own investigation, said early statements suggest the motorist was moving toward the agent when attempting to flee. The office also confirmed that the officer responsible for the shooting has been placed on administrative leave.
Immigrant rights groups identified the man killed as a 26-year-old originally from Colombia. The Colombian Embassy said it is in communication with U.S. authorities regarding the man’s death and is offering support to his family.
Maine’s other senator, Republican Susan Collins, said Mullin informed her that DHS’s Office of Inspector General is conducting an investigation in cooperation with the FBI.
Security camera footage from a nearby business, obtained by the Associated Press, shows a white vehicle approaching an intersection at a slow pace before making several gradual circles. A law enforcement SUV then blocked the vehicle’s path, and two officers opened the driver’s door and pulled out a limp body. The footage does not make clear when the shots were actually fired.
A witness named Daniel Boucher said he looked out his third-floor window after hearing what he described as a “pop, pop, pop” sound. He observed the white vehicle moving down the street until the law enforcement SUV struck it.
“His face was bloody. His head was bloody,” Boucher said, his voice breaking. “I clearly heard the victim say, ‘I tried to stop.’”
Boucher also recounted a moment when the agent who fired approached the scene. “I was emotional and I just let him have it, and he looked at me and said, ‘He tried to run me over,’ or something to that effect,” Boucher said. “I don’t remember his exact words.”
Two advocacy organizations — the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and Presente! — said the man who was killed had authorization to work in the United States.
A nearby resident named Mary Hayes said the man had lived close to the scene with his wife and daughter. “I watched a wife fall to her knees looking at her husband’s dead body on the ground,” Hayes told the AP while holding a sign reading “No ICE Stop ICE.”
Just last week in Texas, an ICE officer fatally shot 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo of Houston after federal agents in unmarked vehicles followed him while he was transporting his construction crew to a job site.
Both shootings are occurring as the Trump administration pushes forward with its mass deportation agenda. In just five days at the end of June, ICE arrested more than 10,000 people. The data suggests that while the administration has moved away from targeting specific cities, arrests are climbing sharply. The administration’s enforcement efforts drew widespread criticism last winter following the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota.
