1 Killed In Shooting Involving ICE Officers In Maine

A person was killed on Monday in a shooting involving officials of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Biddeford, Maine, with authorities launching an investigation into the incident.

Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives, Ryan Fecteau, confirmed the development in a post on Facebook.

“This morning a shooting occurred in Biddeford. A person was killed. ICE was involved,” Fecteau wrote. “State Police and the Department of Public Safety are now on scene to gather details and would expect the FBI to investigate as well.”

According to Reuters, officials of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were not immediately available for comment.

The Biddeford Police Department also declined to comment on the incident, referring enquiries to ICE, while the city’s mayor had yet to respond to requests for comment.

Biddeford, a city with a population of more than 21,000, is located about 15 miles south of Portland and approximately 90 miles north of Boston.

The latest incident comes less than a week after another fatal shooting involving ICE agents in Houston, Texas.

Last Tuesday, an ICE agent fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during a traffic stop, an incident that triggered protests in Houston’s predominantly Hispanic East End community.

Following the shooting, ICE said Salgado, described as a Mexican national who had lived illegally in the United States for more than three decades, rammed a law enforcement vehicle with his van and attempted to run over an officer before he was shot in what the agency described as self-defence.

However, the agency has not publicly released evidence to support its account.

Reuters reported that three eyewitnesses have disputed ICE’s version of events. A lawyer representing two of the witnesses told reporters on Friday that their accounts differ from the agency’s narrative.

Relatives of the deceased, a father of three and construction worker, said he had been in the process of obtaining a work permit before the fatal encounter.

The two shootings come amid President Donald Trump’s intensified immigration enforcement campaign across the United States, a policy that has sparked criticism from Democratic leaders and fuelled protests in several cities.