Some of the leading Democratic candidates in the race to replace former nominee Graham Platner in Maine's U.S. Senate contest are amplifying calls to abolish U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after a fatal shooting by federal agents in the state. The incident, which occurred Monday in Biddeford, about 15 miles southwest of Portland, has galvanized protesters and thrust immigration policy to the forefront of a campaign that could help determine control of the Senate.
Hours after an ICE agent shot and killed a man during an enforcement operation, four of the candidates joined hundreds of demonstrators who marched near the scene. Nirav Shah, the former director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told Fox News Digital, «I think we are at the point where ICE needs to be abolished. ICE in its current form has shown itself incapable of doing its job.» Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows told reporters, «This is not acceptable in America. A young man, a dad, has been killed by ICE... This must stop. We need to get ICE out of the streets.»
Troy Jackson, a former state Senate president, took to social media immediately after the shooting to write, «Abolish ICE.» Jackson held a sign at the protest calling for the agency's dismantling and reiterated that he has been urging that step for months. Paige Loud, a social worker and former congressional candidate who has also launched a Senate bid, attended the protest and said in a social media post, «We must abolish ICE and prosecute the leaders of these operations that are destroying communities.»
The Biddeford shooting is the second in a week in which ICE agents have used deadly force, following a fatal shooting during a traffic stop in Houston, Texas. The incidents have reignited scrutiny of federal enforcement tactics, months after the shooting deaths in Minneapolis, Minnesota, of Renee Good and Alex Pretti earlier this year. Those deaths drew weeks of national coverage and sharp debate over President Donald Trump's ramped-up deportation efforts amid his administration's crackdown on illegal immigration.
According to initial statements from the Maine attorney general's office, which is investigating the shooting along with the FBI, the motorist who was the target of the enforcement operation was attempting to flee in the direction of an ICE agent. Two immigration advocacy groups said the man who was killed was authorized to work in the United States and had a Social Security number. Senator Angus King's office later clarified that the victim was not the intended target of the arrest warrant, correcting earlier information from Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
The shooting comes just days after Platner ended his campaign amid mounting controversies and allegations of sexual misconduct, which he repeatedly denied, and a chorus of calls from top Democrats in Maine and across the country to drop out. Platner, a populist Democrat backed by Senator Bernie Sanders, was challenging longtime Republican Senator Susan Collins in a high-profile, expensive race that is one of several that will determine whether the GOP holds its slim Senate majority in November's midterm elections.
Seven Democrats have filed to run for the nomination, which will be decided by roughly 600 voting delegates at a July 25 convention held by the Maine Democratic Party. Collins issued a statement following the shooting calling for «a full and impartial investigation of what happened.» Hours later, she said Mullin informed her that the Boston office of the DHS Inspector General had taken over the investigation in cooperation with the FBI. Protesters marched to Collins's office in Biddeford, chanting, «Vote her out.»
