Fatal ICE Shooting in Maine: Second Incident in Six Days Following Texas Case

A man in his 20s has died after being shot by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Maine.

Coming just six days after an immigrant was killed by an ICE agent in Texas, this latest incident is expected to intensify the controversy surrounding immigration enforcement in the United States.

According to foreign media outlets including The New York Times (NYT) and The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 13th (local time), a man inside a vehicle was fatally shot by an ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) agent in the coastal city of Biddeford, Maine, that morning.

The Maine Attorney General's Office stated that initial investigations indicate the ICE agents were conducting an operation related to executing a deportation order when the man attempted to drive his vehicle toward the agents, prompting an agent to open fire.

The Attorney General's Office added that the agent involved in the shooting will be placed on administrative leave.

Maine Governor Janet Mills announced that she has been briefed on the incident and that the state government and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have launched a joint investigation.

Specific details regarding the incident have not been disclosed.

However, Senator Angus King (Independent-Maine) stated that he spoke with Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin regarding the incident, noting that the deceased had an active arrest warrant due to immigration status issues.

Conversely, local immigrant advocacy groups claimed that the deceased was a 26-year-old Colombian national who held a valid work permit.

It was reported that the ICE agents at the scene were not wearing body cameras at the time of the incident.


According to the NYT, residents near the scene reported hearing gunshots and screams at a residential intersection in Biddeford at 7:15 a.m.

One resident said that after hearing four to five gunshots, they looked outside and saw an agent in plain clothes and a green vest grabbing the door handle of a car, shouting, "He tried to hit me."

The resident added that another agent was seen calming down the agitated colleague.

Another resident stated that a woman was kneeling and wailing in front of a white vehicle with bullet holes in the windshield, with young children nearby.

This incident occurred amidst ongoing controversy over ICE's aggressive immigration enforcement tactics.

On the 7th, a Mexican national who had lived in the U.S. for 35 years was shot and killed by an ICE agent during a traffic stop in Houston, Texas.

At the time, ICE stated that the victim was an undocumented immigrant who ignored a stop order and drove toward the agent, leading to a response in self-defense.

In response, the bereaved family argued that the victim had no criminal record and was in the process of obtaining a legal work permit, labeling the action as excessive force.

Biddeford, where the incident took place, is one of Maine's prominent immigrant communities, having seen a large influx of immigrants from Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America, including Somali refugees, since the early 2000s.

On this day, residents gathered around the scene of the incident, chanting slogans such as "Abolish ICE" and "ICE Out."

Earlier this year, ICE faced strong backlash from the local community and immigrant groups after conducting large-scale illegal immigration enforcement operations in Maine.

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.