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An ICE agent reportedly shot and killed a person in Biddeford, Maine, on Monday, marking the second person killed at the hands of federal immigration agents in a week.
The office of the Maine Attorney General said that agents were “conducting an enforcement operation related to a final order of removal” when an agent fatally shot a man on Monday morning. The attorney general and Sen. Angus King (I-Vermont) have both said that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot the man.
Two immigrant rights groups, Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and Presente! Maine, said that the victim was a 26-year-old Colombian man who was authorized to work in the United States, and held a Social Security number. King, citing a conversation with Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullen, identified him as “a male in his 20s” who had reportedly been ordered to leave the country. Authorities have not otherwise identified the man.
Witnesses said that, around 7:15 am, they heard multiple shots ring out, and saw agents pulling a man who was bleeding from the head out of the car, per the Portland Press Herald.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claimed that the man “weaponized” his vehicle prior to the shooting, King said. DHS has made similar claims following numerous killings by federal immigration agents, including after the killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo last Tuesday. Then, DHS claimed that the agent shot Salgado Araujo in “self-defense,” and that he “weaponized his vehicle” and tried to hit an ICE officer.
However, three witnesses to the case who were in the car when Salgado Araujo was shot have separately said that this narrative is a lie. In testimonies, all three said that the officers were on the sides of the car, and that there were no officers in front of it, according to their lawyer.
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Video footage from the Press Herald apparently showing the moments before the shooting shows a white sedan slowly taking a u-turn around an intersection that has been blocked on one side by a white SUV with flashing law enforcement lights. Figures appearing to be immigration agents run by the side of the car, never appearing to be in front of the car, and two figures wearing dark clothing run around both sides of the car as it drives back in the direction it came.
The state attorney general has said that the state is conducting an investigation into the shooting.
One witness who lives in the area, Cecelia Humiston, told the Press Herald that there was a child present at the shooting, potentially the victim’s child.
“They were with a little girl, she couldn’t have been older than three,” the woman said. “She was still in her Bluey pajamas.” Humison said that an older woman nearby was yelling, “you took her dad.”
Protests against ICE quickly erupted in Biddeford after the shooting, with demonstrators calling for ICE to leave the community and criticizing Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) for her support of immigration enforcement actions.
Politicians once again called for the abolition of ICE following the killing. This included former Maine state senator Troy Jackson and Democratic candidate for Senate, who said: “This rogue agency must be abolished.”
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