A fatal shooting in Biddeford, Maine, on Monday morning involving US immigration agents has intensified scrutiny on ICE operations following a similar death in Texas less than a week prior.
Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau announced the incident via Facebook, stating that a person was killed in the shooting and that state police and the Department of Public Safety had arrived at the scene. The FBI is expected to investigate, Fecteau said.
The shooting took place around 7:20 a.m. at an intersection in Biddeford, a city of roughly 21,000 residents located about 15 miles south of Portland. An eyewitness, Lucas Scott, told the Biddeford Gazette he saw at least two officers wearing green ICE vests standing near a white sedan. He reported hearing loud shouting and at least four gunshots.
Local authorities closed roads in the area as FBI personnel joined state and local law enforcement at the scene. Protesters gathered shortly after the shooting, according to the Portland Press Herald.
Neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security offered immediate responses to inquiries. Biddeford police declined to comment and directed questions to ICE. The mayor did not immediately respond to requests for information.
Former Maine state senator Troy Jackson, who is running for the Democratic nomination for US Senate, said on social media that his team was monitoring the situation closely. Jackson called the shooting a sign that immigrant communities are under attack and renewed his call for the agency to be abolished.
Biddeford Mayor Liam Fountain, who in January described immigration enforcement in his city as deeply unsettling, has previously emphasized that the community was shaped by immigrants seeking safety and opportunity.
The Biddeford incident comes six days after an ICE agent in Houston fatally shot a local builder identified as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during a vehicle stop. Witnesses have contested ICE claims that the agent fired in self-defense, saying Salgado never threatened officers with his vehicle. A DHS spokesperson later clarified that Salgado was not the intended target of an arrest operation, but agents stopped his van because someone inside resembled their actual target.
The Texas shooting marks the 10th fatal shooting by federal immigration officials since early 2025, according to a Guardian analysis of public reports. Other deaths this year include US citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both shot by immigration officials in Minneapolis in separate January incidents. These cases have sparked widespread protests across the country.
Author James Rodriguez: "Two fatal ICE shootings in six days signals a dangerous operational problem that goes beyond individual incidents."
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