A person was killed Monday in an ICE-involved shooting in Maine, marking the second slaying this month tied to the deportation agency.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills confirmed the fatal shooting, calling the situation “alarming and frightening,” and vowing to have state authorities be part of the investigation into what happened.
State House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, who represents Biddeford, where the shooting took place, reported that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was involved in the morning slaying.
“A person was killed. ICE was involved,” the lawmaker said.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, hadn’t commented on the shooting as of noon.
It follows one last week in Houston, where DHS said ICE tried to conduct a stop on a van, the driver tried to evade and eventually “weaponized” his vehicle to try to run over an officer. The officer opened fire, killing Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, an illegal immigrant from Mexico.
Details of the Maine shooting were sparse, but Project Relief, an immigration rights group, said the victim was a “community member.”
“This was a young person whose life was cut short, and our community must come together to stand with their loved ones and ensure they are not alone. They must get justice,” the organization said.
The pair of deaths in such a short time is reminiscent of Minneapolis in January, when DHS personnel carrying out President Trump’s deportation surge killed two U.S. citizens in a span of days.
Those slayings remain under investigation with no word on when federal authorities will complete them.
The man shot by an ICE officer in Texas on July 7 was Salgado Araujo, 53, whom Homeland Security said was in the country illegally.
ICE had tried to stop the van Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was driving when he tried to evade, ramming an ICE vehicle, refusing commands to halt and “weaponizing his vehicle” by trying to run over an ICE officer, DHS said.
The officer fired his gun “in self-defense,” the department said.
The man’s family is disputing that account.
Congressional Democrats said DHS’s initial sketchy claims about the two Minneapolis shootings, which were challenged by the release of video, raise skepticism about the department’s claims in the Houston shooting.
“Passengers in the vehicle assert that Mr. Salgado Araujo never attempted to ram officers with his vehicle,” wrote the Democrats, led by Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, the ranking lawmaker on the House Homeland Security Committee
They also said ICE seems to be pushing others who were in the van with Salgado Araujo to quickly self-deport, potentially removing witnesses.
Houston Public Media reported that none of the officers involved were wearing body cameras. DHS blamed the partial government shutdown earlier this spring for a lack of funding for the cameras.
Kristi Noem was booted as DHS secretary weeks after the shootings in Minneapolis.
Then-Sen. Markwayne Mullin replaced her, vowing to get ICE and DHS out of the headlines.
For several months, he appeared to be successful.
The new shootings have put him back under scrutiny and sparked a new round of demands to constrain ICE.
“Pull ICE off of all streets in all communities, NOW,” said Lynn Tramonte, executive director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance. “They enforce civil laws. There is no reason they should be allowed to invade our communities with guns.”
