ICE confirms officers conducting ‘targeted surveillance’ at the time of deadly shooting in Maine

Executive Producer

BIDDEFORD, Maine —

A federal immigration officer fatally shot a motorist in Maine on Monday, the second time in a week that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have used deadly force and at least the ninth time since President Donald Trump began his immigration crackdown.

Immigrant rights groups identified the man who was killed as a 26-year-old native of Colombia.

Related video above: Mayor of Biddeford, Maine, speaks about deadly ICE shooting

Just before noon, Gov. Janet Mills confirmed a person was dead as a result of the shooting.

“I know that situations like these are alarming and frightening,” she said. “The Maine State Police are at the scene supporting and working cooperatively with the Attorney General’s Office, Maine’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner, and Federal officials to determine the facts of what occurred this morning.”

At noon, Sen. Angus King said he was told by Homeland Security that the person who was killed was a man in his 20’s who had been given an order to leave the country. He also said DHS told him that the person “weaponized the vehicle” and that they were shot by an ICE agent.

At about 4:45 p.m., King’s office told Hearst Television sister station WMTW that the senator had spoken with DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin again and was told that the victim of the shooting was not the target of their warrant on Monday. It was not clear if the man shot was connected to a broader investigation. ICE did not clarify if the man who died Monday morning was the target of their operation.

Hearst Television sister station WMTW reports that 12 hours after the shooting, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security confirmed in a statement Monday night that around 7 a.m., ICE was “conducting targeted surveillance on the last known address of an illegal alien” for what is described as a final order of removal.

The DHS spokesperson said “an illegal alien” left the home in a vehicle and ICE officers tried to stop the vehicle as the driver kept going. They said the officer feared for public safety when he shot at the vehicle, hitting and killing the driver. The man died from his injuries. The statement did not say how many people were in the vehicle at the time.

The statement went on to say the DHS Inspector General is now investigating.

The Maine Attorney General’s Office confirmed Monday afternoon that they were investigating the deadly use of force.

“Initial statements indicate an Enforcement Removal Operations Officer was conducting an enforcement operation related to a final order of removal when the subject attempted to flee in a vehicle in the direction of the officer and was fatally shot,” the office said in a statement.

The Associated Press reports that the state AG’s office said the agent who killed him has been placed on leave.

Sen. Susan Collins office told WMTW on Monday evening that Mullin had told her that the Boston office of the DHS Inspector General had taken over the investigation, in cooperation with the FBI.

Video shows the shooting

Surveillance video shows the moments leading up to and including the deadly ICE shooting in Biddeford, Maine. The video shows the white car that was shot at entering the intersection and beginning to turn right in a circle.

The video then zooms in on where the car comes to a stop, and officers can be seen removing the person from the car.

It was not clear from the video at what points shots were fired.

The man was authorized to work in the US, advocates say

Two advocacy groups — the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and Presente! — said the man who was killed was authorized to work in the U.S.

After the shooting, his family contacted the Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, but they aren’t ready to speak publicly about the shooting, said the group’s executive director, Mufalo Chitam.

Chitam told CNN that the man was on his way to work. The group said the man was authorized to work in the US and was issued a Social Security number.

Federal officials have not confirmed any of those details about the victim, nor has the victim’s name been released by officials.

Mary Hayes, who lives close to where the shooting happened, said the man lived nearby with his wife and daughter.

“I watched a wife fall to her knees looking at her husband’s dead body on the ground,” Hayes told the AP as she held a piece of cardboard with “No ICE Stop ICE” written on it. “I watched a little girl crying with a little pink backpack on because she’s never going to see her father again.”

The Colombian Embassy shared a statement on Monday afternoon.

“The Embassy of Colombia in the United States, through its Consular Section, is in contact with the relevant U.S. authorities and with representatives of community organisations [sic] assisting in the case. Consular officials are working to formally confirm the individual’s identity and nationality and to determine the appropriate procedures in accordance with applicable legal and consular protocols.”

Sadie Dilboy said the man killed in the shooting regularly came to her laundromat and would bring his daughter, who he’d give quarters to buy candy from the vending machine.

“He was such a good person,” she said. “He was always cleaning up.”

Video below: Neighbor describes what she saw as ICE shot and killed a person in Biddeford, Maine

Anti-ICE protesters gather near the scene

Several hundred demonstrators gathered in Biddeford on Monday night to wave anti-ICE signs and call for the agency to be abolished.

“We will always be a city of immigrants,” said Maine Speaker of the House Ryan Fecteau, a Democrat from Biddeford.

A handful of pro-ICE and pro-Trump protesters demonstrated across the street.

Some demonstrators had gathered in the city within hours of the shooting.

Amy Goodman arrived with a sign that said “Stop Killing Us” and directed it toward police working at the scene.

“Sadly, it’s something we’re seeing a whole lot more often lately, and I’m mad about it,” she said.

Maine shooting comes days after shooting in Texas

The killing is at least the ninth death since the start of the Trump administration’s mass deportations campaign.

The incident Monday comes just days after a federal immigration officer fatally shot a Mexican immigrant during a traffic stop in Houston, sparking mass protests and demands for transparency and accountability.

ICE said in a statement that the man, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, attempted to evade arrest when agents tried to conduct a traffic stop.

Men who were in Salgado Araujo’s work van, however, told attorney Hugo Balderas-Ibarra and Rep. Sylvia Garcia the version of events ICE presented is false. Two of the men told Garcia the agents’ vehicles bumped into them and then swayed into the van, forcing them to stop. The agents never identified themselves to the men, they told Garcia.

In at least five previous shootings, initial descriptions by the immigration officials were later contradicted by video evidence, according to The Associated Press. Those included the fatal Minneapolis shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, where bystander video quickly raised questions about how they were initially described.

Hundreds of Maine ICE arrests since Trump’s return

ICE had a significant presence in Maine earlier this year, which prompted several protests. Immigration officials later said in late January that they had ceased “enhanced operations” in Maine after hundreds of arrests.

A Homeland Security spokesperson said at the time that some Maine arrests were of people “convicted of horrific crimes” including aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child.

Court records show that while some had felony convictions, others had unresolved immigration proceedings or had been arrested but never convicted of a crime.

ICE arrested 546 people in Maine between the start of Trump’s second term and March 11, 2026, the most recent data available, according to ICE arrest data provided to the University of California, Berkeley Deportation Data Project and analyzed by the AP.

About 45% of arrested people had criminal backgrounds. During the equivalent 416-day period before Trump took office, roughly 69% of those arrested had criminal backgrounds, the data shows.

The Associated Press, CNN, and Hearst Television National Desk staff contributed to this report.