ICE Agent Kills Man in Maine After Vehicle Pursuit, Investigation Launched

A man who had been ordered to depart the United States was shot and killed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in his car on Monday in Biddeford, Maine. The deceased, identified by the Maine Immigrants' Rights Coalition as a 26-year-old Colombian who held a work authorization and Social Security number, was attempting to flee when an ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officer opened fire, according to the state attorney general’s office. The officer has been placed on administrative leave.

Senator Angus King said he was briefed on the shooting by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and emphasized the need for a “full, transparent and open investigation.” King noted that the victim was not the individual targeted by an immigration-related arrest warrant, a detail later confirmed by the secretary. He also expressed concern that the agents involved were not wearing body cameras.

Democratic Representative Chellie Pingree and Republican Senator Susan Collins both indicated that the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General, with assistance from the FBI, will lead the federal inquiry. The Maine attorney general’s office is conducting a parallel state investigation.

Witnesses described the scene as a white vehicle surrounded by ICE personnel in vests; one video showed two agents pulling the driver from the car before he fell to the street. The Maine State Police, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, and local authorities were on site, and the Biddeford Police Department coordinated security while directing inquiries to ICE.

The incident follows a separate ICE shooting in Houston, Texas, that also resulted in a fatality and is under FBI investigation. Both cases have raised questions about ICE agents’ use of force and the lack of body-camera footage.