A federal immigration officer shot and killed a 26-year-old Colombian man in Biddeford, Maine, on Monday during a deportation enforcement operation, marking at least the ninth death connected to the Trump administration's immigration crackdown and the second fatal ICE shooting in a week. The killing comes days after the death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national shot by ICE agents in Houston on 7 July.
The Maine shooting occurred in a residential neighbourhood of Biddeford, a coastal city of about 23,000 people roughly 24 kilometres southwest of Portland. According to Senator Angus King, an independent representing Maine, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told him the man had "weaponised" his vehicle against ICE agents who were attempting to arrest him under a final order of removal. Maine's Attorney General Aaron Frey said initial statements suggest the motorist tried to flee in the direction of an officer before being fatally shot. However, witness accounts have complicated the official narrative: one laundromat owner whose security cameras captured footage said the car appeared to be rolling slowly in circles after the shots were fired. In a significant development, Senator King later said Mullin called him to clarify that the man killed was in fact not the intended target of an arrest warrant — a detail that echoes controversy surrounding the Houston killing the week before. The agent involved has been placed on administrative leave, standard procedure in officer-involved shootings.
Advocacy groups identified the victim as a Colombian national authorised to work in the United States, who held a Social Security number and lived nearby with his wife and young daughter. A neighbour described watching the man's wife collapse to her knees and his daughter — wearing a small pink backpack — crying at the scene. None of the ICE agents involved were wearing body cameras, Senator King confirmed, raising concerns about accountability and transparency that have surfaced repeatedly in previous fatal enforcement incidents. The FBI, Maine State Police, and the DHS Inspector General's office are all involved in the investigation.
The shooting has intensified political pressure from multiple directions. Dozens of protesters gathered in Biddeford within hours, and Maine elected officials publicly questioned why federal immigration agents were operating in force in the state. Meanwhile, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced on Monday that her government would file criminal complaints in US federal and local courts over the deaths of more than a dozen Mexican nationals during immigration enforcement operations, including Salgado Araujo's killing in Houston. Sheinbaum said diplomatic letters had "yielded no results" and that 17 Mexican citizens have died since Trump's crackdown began — 14 in detention and three during enforcement operations. The Colombian Embassy said it is in contact with US authorities and working to formally confirm the Maine victim's identity.
The pattern of disputed official accounts is a recurring element across the at least nine deaths now linked to immigration enforcement operations since January 2025. In several previous cases — including the deaths of US citizens Alex Pretti and Renee Good during protests against immigration raids in Minneapolis — video evidence and witness testimony have contradicted federal authorities' characterisations. No immigration officers have been charged in any of those cases. Critics and immigrant rights organisations say the cumulative toll reflects an enforcement apparatus operating with insufficient oversight, while federal officials maintain their agents have acted lawfully in the face of genuine threats.