BIDDEFORD, Maine (AP) — Immigrant rights groups are demanding answers and planning more protests Tuesday over an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer’s fatal shooting of a Maine driver.The shooting Monday during an immigration enforcement operation in the city of Biddeford marked the second time in a week that ICE used deadly force and at least the ninth death since President Donald Trump began his immigration crackdown. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said an ICE officer “fearing for public safety” shot and killed the driver while agents were watching the home of someone they believed was in the country illegally and had a final order of removal from the country.The department said in a post on X that when ICE tried to stop the vehicle driven by someone coming from the home, the vehicle attempted to flee and the officer fired his weapon.That statement came hours after Maine Sen. Angus King said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told him that the officer opened fire after the man tried to use his vehicle as a weapon against ICE agents.
King said Mullin also told him the officers were trying to serve an arrest warrant, but not for the person who was shot.The officers involved didn’t have body cameras, leaving many questions surrounding the circumstances of the shooting in the coastal community south of Portland, Maine’s biggest city.
