The fatal ICE operation in Maine is becoming even more heartbreaking as new details emerge.
The man who was shot and killed during an immigration enforcement operation Monday in Biddeford has been identified as a 26-year-old father from Colombia. According to the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition group, he was legally authorized to work in the United States, had been issued a Social Security number, and was on his way to work when the encounter turned deadly.
Perhaps the most devastating detail came from eyewitnesses. They say his 3-year-old daughter, still wearing her Bluey pajamas, watched her father die.
Federal authorities have not yet publicly confirmed the man’s identity or released a detailed account of what led to the shooting. An FBI investigation is expected as state authorities continue examining the incident.
Videos recorded by witnesses appear to show multiple federal agents wearing vests labeled “Police” and “Immigration and Customs Enforcement” surrounding a white Kia sedan. One video appears to show a white Ford Explorer that collided with the Kia, while another shows a person lying in the roadway beside the vehicle. Images from the scene also appear to show bullet holes in the car.
Witness Cecelia Humiston told the Portland Press Herald she woke to the commotion and walked outside to find a chaotic scene.
She said she heard a woman screaming, “You took her dad, you took her dad!”
“They were with a little girl, she couldn’t have been older than three,” Humiston told the newspaper. “She was still in her Bluey pajamas.”
Humiston also said officers prevented the family from leaving the area and described their interactions with bystanders as confrontational.
Another witness, Lucas Scott, told the newspaper he saw an ICE agent draw his weapon while shouting commands at the driver.
“The ICE agent was yelling and drew his weapon,” Scott said. “He kept yelling and warning the person driving, which is when the car was put into drive and was trying to hit the ICE officer, and he fired.”
A third witness, Daniel Boucher, said he heard gunshots while getting ready for work. Looking outside, he said he saw agents pull the wounded driver from the vehicle.
“He was bleeding profusely from the head,” Boucher told the newspaper. “He was talking. He said, ‘I tried to stop.'”
Federal officials have not publicly released body-camera footage or provided a comprehensive timeline of the events.
The shooting has already drawn sharp questions from elected officials.
Rep. Chellie Pingree said she was “disturbed and angry” after learning about the incident and called for a full accounting of what happened.
“Were they pursuing someone with a criminal record? Was this a random traffic stop? How did this possibly happen and why was this person shot?” Pingree asked. “Were the officers wearing body cameras, and will there be investigations?”
Those questions are likely to become even louder given the broader context.
The Maine shooting comes less than a week after another fatal encounter involving federal immigration agents in Houston. Civil rights advocates have raised growing concerns about the number of deadly confrontations during ICE operations and have called for greater transparency whenever force is used.
Earlier this year, Maine experienced a significant increase in ICE activity as part of a broader federal immigration crackdown. Administration officials have defended the operations as necessary to enforce immigration law and remove people who are in the country illegally. Critics, however, argue that the aggressive tactics have swept up individuals with no violent criminal history and increased the risk of tragic encounters like the one now under investigation in Biddeford.
As investigators work to determine exactly what happened, one image from Monday has already become impossible to ignore: a 3-year-old girl in Bluey pajamas standing near the scene where witnesses say her father was fatally shot.
