Mainers descended on the city of Biddeford Monday after a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot a 26-year-old Colombian man, with protesters demanding an end to a federal agency that has killed citizens and immigrants alike.
“Is this the America we want?” asked a sign carried by a woman through the streets of the city, which is about 18 miles southwest of Portland. Other messages included “Abolish ICE,” “ICE Out Now,” “ICE Kills,” and “Murderers.”
The agency’s deadly invasions of US cities—including in Maine earlier this year—as part of President Donald Trump’s mass detention and deportation campaign have fueled growing calls for abolishing ICE.
“It is horrific. ICE needs to be disbanded. People who work for ICE are untrained. And we want them out of Biddeford,” Maine resident Marcia Hanes told WGME. “Killing people in cold blood. They need to be out of Maine. They need to be out of the United States.”
While authorities have not named the man killed on Monday, the Portland Press Herald identified him as Joan Sebastian Guerrero, citing one of his neighbors and an immigrant advocacy organization that said it had been in touch with the family.
The Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition (MIRC) and Presente! Maine said in a statement that “the young man was authorized to work in the United States and had been issued a Social Security number,” and that they “are devastated and outraged” by his death.
“Our communities are hurting,” said MIRC executive director Mufalo Chitam. “Today, a 26-year-old member of our community is dead following an incident involving ICE. We are grieving, we are furious, and we will not allow his death to be treated as routine or inevitable. How much more harm must our communities endure before those with the power to act acknowledge that this has gone too far?”
As with previous shootings involving ICE and other Department of Homeland Security agents, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin claimed that the deceased man had “weaponized” a vehicle he was driving, according to US Sen. Angus King (I-Maine).
Videos from earlier shootings have cast doubt on or debunked some of the Trump administration’s claims, including in Texas last week. While some clips of Monday’s encounter have circulated online, King noted that there is apparently no body camera footage.
“Body cameras were not on the agents. So we have no video evidence of what occurred in this case,” the senator said. “We don’t know the circumstances at this point, but my statement to Secretary Mullin, I said, ‘I’m going to say that you have committed to me that this investigation will be full, fair, and transparent. Can I say that? He said, ‘Yes, absolutely.’”
King added that Mullin told him the driver was not the target of the warrant the officers were executing in Biddeford.
The office of Maine Attorney General Aaron M. Frey said that it “is investigating a fatal use of deadly force that occurred this morning,” and “Biddeford, Saco, and the Maine State Police are assisting with the investigation as well as federal authorities.”
Initial statements indicate ICE “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 attorney general’s office said. “We encourage any member of the public to come forward if they have information they feel would be helpful to the investigation. Please contact your local law enforcement agency.”
Some of the protesters headed to the local office of Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who is up for reelection in November.
According to the Press Herald:
As the crowd marched down Main Street and gathered outside Sen. Collins’ Biddeford office, about a dozen people made it inside the entryway, chanting “Vote her out!” and banging their fists on the office’s locked doors.
Staffers inside could be seen on the phone as the crowd grew. Minutes later, five Biddeford police officers pushed through the entryway and placed themselves between protestors and the door.
“This is your fault Susan!” one man shouted.
“You’re a fascist!” another person yelled at the officers.
Collins responded to the shooting by calling for “a full and impartial investigation,” and faced fierce responses from some Democrats running to replace primary winner Graham Platner as her challenger in the November election.
“Sen. Collins voted for the Republican bill to give ICE another $70 billion to terrorize our communities with no accountability. Maybe sit this one out,” said Nirav Shah, who previously led the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention and then served in leadership at the federal CDC. “I’m running for Senate to end this blank check, stop ICE’s lawlessness, and protect Mainers.”
Jordan Wood, another Senate hopeful who was previously a congressional chief of staff, told Collins, “What it requires is for you to have the courage to stop funding this lawless agency that’s been terrorizing our streets for over a year.”
“ICE needs to get out of Maine,” Wood said. He called for ICE to be “abolished and replaced with a new agency that protects and serves the people,” and will “not murder them.”
The national progressive group Our Revolution—which is backing former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson as Platner’s replacement—declared: “Collins voted to hand ICE $70 billion. No reforms. No accountability. She funded this. She owns this. Vote her out!”
As with previous ICE shootings, Monday’s deadly encounter drew alarmed responses from across the United States. “When is shit like this going to end?” asked US Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.).
In Minnesota—where federal agents fatally shot US citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and injured Venezuelan national Julio Sosa-Celis, in January—Democratic Gov. Tim Walz said: “Americans are once again watching in horror as Trump’s lawless federal agents took another life—this time in Maine. We must seek accountability and justice and an end to this madness.”
The elected attorney in Minnesota’s Hennepin County, Mary Moriarty, announced Monday that after “six months of relentless collective effort,” prosecutors had finally “obtained hard drives of previously withheld evidence” about the shootings from the federal government.
