The Trump administration has pulled Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from its surge in Maine, according to Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME).
The Republican senator said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told her the administration was backing off its enforcement operation amid bipartisan backlash against ICE tactics following the fatal shootings of two citizen observers in Minnesota and the arrests of legal immigrants in Maine, reported Axios.
"While the Department of Homeland Security does not confirm law enforcement operations, I can report that Secretary Noem has informed me that ICE has ended its enhanced activities in the State of Maine," Collins posted on X
Collins asked Noem on Monday to pause the enforcement surge in her own state and Minnesota ahead of a Friday deadline for DHS funding, and the senator – who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee – criticized the operations as "too sweeping and indiscriminate."
More than three-quarters of House Democrats have signed on to a resolution to impeach Noem over the killings of 37-year-old Alex Pretti and 37-year-old Renee Good in Minneapolis, but Collins stopped short of joining two other GOP senators, Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) to call for her ouster.