A 26-year-old Colombian worker authorized to be in the United States was killed Monday morning by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Biddeford, Maine, according to the Maine Immigrants' Rights Coalition. The man was on his way to work when the shooting occurred, marking at least the 11th fatal shooting involving ICE or Border Patrol under the Trump administration.
Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau confirmed the death in a Facebook post, saying ICE was involved and that state police, the Department of Public Safety and the FBI were investigating. The shooting happened in a residential area of Biddeford, a city about 15 miles south of Portland. "These are the details that I have at this time," Fecteau wrote. "I will provide further updates, as they are relayed to me."
Worker Had Authorization
Mufalo Chitam, executive director of the Maine Immigrants' Rights Coalition, told CNN the victim had been issued a social security number and was authorized to work in the U.S. Authorities hadn't publicly confirmed the man's identity by Monday evening. Maine Sen. Angus King said the person shot was the target of an immigration enforcement operation and described him as a "male in his 20s" who'd been ordered removed from the United States. "He was in a vehicle, pulled out in the vehicle, and the term the secretary used was 'weaponize the vehicle,'" King said. "He was shot by an ICE agent."
King also raised concerns about the lack of body cameras on the officers involved. "We've been told that body cameras would be widely distributed," he said. "The secretary told me that they're on order, that they have been distributed widely across the country, but not everywhere." King called for an investigation. The Biddeford Police Department said it wasn't leading the investigation and that there was no ongoing threat to the public.
Second Fatal Shooting in a Week
The Maine shooting came just days after a federal agent fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican national, during a traffic stop in Houston last week. Salgado Araujo was a father of three who ran his own construction business and had lived in the U.S. for about 35 years. He was on his way to work when he was killed. ICE officials said an agent opened fire after Salgado Araujo rammed a law enforcement vehicle and refused to follow verbal commands during what they called a "targeted operation." But three other men in the van, including Salgado Araujo's brother, told attorney Hugo Balderas-Ibarra and Rep. Sylvia Garcia that ICE's account was false.
The men said the agents' vehicles bumped into them and then swayed into the van, forcing them to stop, and that the agents never identified themselves. The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences ruled Salgado Araujo's death a homicide, caused by a gunshot wound to the torso. He wasn't the target of the operation, according to a source familiar with the matter. The shooting prompted protests and a vigil in Houston.
Pattern of Deadly Force
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows condemned the Trump administration's immigration enforcement efforts. "Someone is dead. I don't have details, and won't speculate," she said. "But this is at least the 11th fatal shooting involving ICE or Border Patrol under Trump. It's time to get ICE off our streets."
The recent shootings may represent the most serious challenge for Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin since he assumed control of the Department of Homeland Security in March. Mullin was propelled to the role partly because of how his predecessor, Kristi Noem, handled two fatal shootings in Minneapolis earlier this year. Officials inside the Department of Homeland Security had privately shared concerns that repeat ICE-involved shootings could derail public sentiment about the agency.
Minneapolis Deaths and Policy Shift
The Trump administration launched "Operation Metro Surge" in December 2025 in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. The surge led to weeks of protests and tense confrontations. An immigration agent fatally shot 37-year-old mother Renee Good on January 7 in her SUV, and a little more than two weeks later agents fatally shot 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti. The administration attempted to paint both as terrorists who wanted to harm law enforcement. About 3,000 immigration officers were deployed at the operation's peak, and DHS said federal agents arrested more than 4,000 immigrants in Minnesota between Dec. 1 and Feb. 4.
President Donald Trump deployed White House border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis after the deaths, and Homan announced the end of the operation on February 12. Mullin had publicly favored a low-key style of immigration enforcement that relies more on targeted operations than large-scale sweeps. But know-your-rights trainings in immigrant communities had made home detentions more difficult, leading officers to rely more frequently on vehicle stops.
Maine's Own Surge
ICE launched a large-scale enforcement effort in Maine in January dubbed "Operation Catch of the Day." The agency surged federal agents into the state and accused its leaders of having "sanctuary" policies. Mills and other officials announced less than two weeks later that ICE had ended the operation. The effort mirrored deployments to Minnesota, North Carolina, Tennessee and Illinois. After backlash over the Minneapolis deaths and a leadership shakeup at the Department of Homeland Security, the highly visible operations largely came to an end, though immigration-related arrests continued nationwide.
Gov. Janet Mills said she'd been briefed on the fatal shooting and that Maine State Police were working with state and federal officials on the investigation. "I know that situations like these are alarming and frightening," Mills said in a statement on X. The FBI said it had "responded to assist on-scene immediately following this morning's shooting incident in Biddeford, Maine" but had "no additional comment at this time."
Why This Matters:
The death of an authorized worker on his way to his job raises urgent questions about accountability and oversight in immigration enforcement. This is the second fatal ICE shooting in a week and at least the 11th under the current administration, a pattern that suggests systemic problems with use-of-force protocols and transparency. The lack of body cameras on officers involved in Monday's shooting undermines public trust at a moment when communities need clear answers about what happened. When federal agents kill people during traffic stops—people who weren't targets of operations, people authorized to work, people simply heading to their jobs—the absence of independent video evidence makes accountability nearly impossible. The shift from home-based enforcement to vehicle stops, driven by community know-your-rights organizing, has concentrated dangerous confrontations on public streets. Without transparent investigations and enforceable standards for when deadly force is justified, immigrant communities and the broader public have no way to know whether these deaths were unavoidable or preventable.