A person was killed in an ICE-involved shooting in Maine, local officials said Monday.
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Details of the shooting were sparse, but it would mark the second slaying in a week by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, following the death of a man in Houston.
Maine State House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, who represents Biddeford, where the shooting took place, announced the latest death on social media.
“A person was killed. ICE was involved,” the lawmaker said. Police also confirmed the death to local media.
Project Relief, an immigration rights group, said the victim was a “community member.”
“This was a young person whose life was cut short, and our community must come together to stand with their loved ones and ensure they are not alone. They must get justice,” the organization said.
The apparent victim had yet to be publicly identified.
The Washington Times has sought comment from Homeland Security, which oversees ICE.
In Texas, the man shot by ICE was Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, whom Homeland Security identified as an illegal immigrant.
DHS said ICE had tried to stop the van Salgado Araujo was driving when he tried to evade, ramming an ICE vehicle, refusing commands to halt and “weaponizing his vehicle” by trying to run over an ICE officer.
The officer fired his gun “in self-defense,” the department said.
The man’s family is disputing that account, and Democrats on Capitol Hill have also questioned ICE’s version of events.
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Houston Public Media reported that none of the officers involved were wearing body cameras. DHS blamed the partial government shutdown earlier this spring for a lack of funding for the cameras.
The shootings come roughly six months after DHS personnel shot and killed two U.S. citizens during President Trump’s deportation enforcement surge in Minneapolis around the start of this year.
Those slayings remain under investigation with no word on when federal authorities will complete them.
But the versions of events initially given by Trump administration officials and the version that emerged from the video didn’t square up exactly.
House Democrats, in a letter demanding answers after last week’s shooting, said those “false and misleading statements” left them incredulous over claims about the Houston incident.
They also said ICE seems to be pushing others who were in the van with Salgado Araujo to quickly self-deport, potentially removing witnesses.
“Passengers in the vehicle assert that Mr. Salgado Araujo never attempted to ram officers with his vehicle,” wrote the Democrats, led by Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, the ranking lawmaker on the House Homeland Security Committee
After the January slayings in Minneapolis, Kristi Noem was booted as DHS secretary and then-Sen. Markwayne Mullin replaced her, vowing to get ICE and DHS out of the headlines.
For several months, he appeared to be successful.
The Houston shooting sparked calls for his ouster, as well as a new round of demands to abolish ICE altogether.
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