The fatal shooting of a 26-year-old Colombian man by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Maine has become the latest flashpoint in President Donald Trump's aggressive crackdown on foreign nationals.
Human rights groups identified the man killed in Biddeford on Monday as a Colombian national authorized to work in the US. Colombia's embassy said it was in contact with American authorities and was providing consular assistance to his family.
The shooting comes amid a sharp increase in immigration arrests, renewed protests and mounting concern over the growing number of people killed during ICE raids and other enforcement operations. Scrutiny is also growing over the rising death toll inside immigration detention facilities.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, said agents were conducting surveillance at an address linked to someone who had received a final order of removal. The incident unfolded in Biddeford, a coastal city about 24km southwest of Portland.
According to DHS, agents attempted to stop a vehicle leaving the address. The department said the driver tried to flee and that "fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon". Earlier, Maine Senator Angus King said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin had told him the officer fired after the driver allegedly attempted to use the vehicle as a weapon against ICE agents.
King also said the agents involved were not wearing body cameras and that they had been in Biddeford to arrest someone other than the man who was shot. The brief DHS statement did not mention a weapon or whether the person killed was the individual agents had originally sought to arrest.
The Maine Immigrants' Rights Coalition and advocacy group Presente! said the man who was killed had authorization to work in the US. Meanwhile, Maine's attorney general said preliminary evidence suggests the driver was attempting to flee in the direction of the agent when the shooting occurred. The officer involved has been placed on administrative leave.
Since Trump returned to office, ICE has taken on a far more visible and aggressive role, using masked agents, unmarked vehicles, large workplace raids and arrests outside immigration courts. Critics say the tactics spread fear throughout immigrant communities.
Tensions escalated earlier this year in Minneapolis, where residents described the city as being "under siege" as federal immigration agents intensified operations. The crackdown led to nationwide attention after two US citizens, Alex Pretti and Renee Good, were killed in January during separate immigration operations, triggering large demonstrations and widespread international condemnation.
ICE arrests rose to about 2,000 per day in late June, with detention numbers climbing to roughly 39,000. The Maine shooting is at least the ninth death linked to federal immigration enforcement since Trump intensified his crackdown. Last month, Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights reported that 52 people had died in ICE custody during the first 500 days of Trump's second term, a mortality rate nearly four times higher than under the Biden administration.
Source: www.aljazeera.com