The shooting that occurred as part of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation in Biddeford, Maine is one of a growing number of deaths that have occurred during federal immigration enforcement operations in the U.S., state officials said.
The Maine State Police will likely investigate the shooting and federal officials are also expected to probe the operation. “A shooting has occurred as a result of an operation conducted by U.S.
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Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),” Ryan Fecteau, the Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives said Tuesday. “As of right now, a person has lost their life.” Officials declined to name the victim and provide details regarding how he or she came to be shot.
The area was shut down by local police after the incident while investigators started interviewing witnesses and gathering evidence. It was not clear if the person who was shot was the target of the operation, nor have authorities provided details of whether ICE agents were injured.
This is not the first recent fatality involving an ICE operation; just days ago, in Houston, Texas, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national died as part of an ICE enforcement action – a man the government later acknowledged was not the intended subject. The two events are drawing scrutiny over how U.S. Immigration raids are carried out.
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Federal officials have been reluctant to discuss ICE operations in general due to the pending nature of investigation, however, both have become fodder for debates over the effectiveness of enforcement tactics by both Republican and Democrat politicians and civil rights groups.
“I think it’s really important we look very carefully at recent events including what happened in Biddeford and also what happened just recently in Texas to make sure that we fully understand what transpired and that there are thorough and transparent investigations into each of these cases,” Senator Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) said at a news conference with immigrant rights groups on Wednesday.
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State and federal officials declined to give more details as they asked people to be patient for investigators to do their jobs. As of publication, neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security has published a report about Tuesday’s shooting.
