The race to replace Graham Platner as Maine’s Democratic Senate nominee turned into a fight over ICE after federal agents fatally shot a 26-year-old Colombian man in Biddeford.
Nirav Shah, Shenna Bellows and Troy Jackson all used the shooting to call for ICE to be abolished or driven off the streets, turning the fatal encounter into an immediate campaign flashpoint.
“I think we are at the point where ICE needs to be abolished,” Nirav Shah, the former director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, commented to Fox News. “ICE in its current form has shown itself incapable of doing its job.”
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows also condemned the killing. “This is not acceptable in America,” she stated. “A young man, a dad, has been killed by ICE…This must stop. We need to get ICE out of the streets.”
Former state Senate President Troy Jackson was even more direct after the shooting. “Abolish ICE,” he tweeted.
Now, the candidates will have to make that case in front of roughly 600 Democratic delegates at the July 25 state party convention.
The shooting gave that race an immediate test on immigration enforcement, federal power and deadly force.
ICE agents were waiting outside a Biddeford home before dawn for a migrant facing removal, according to DHS. The encounter turned deadly after someone left the residence in a vehicle and officers tried to stop it around 7 a.m.
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“The vehicle attempted to flee the scene and, fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon,” DHS wrote on X.
“The driver of the vehicle was struck, and emergency services were immediately contacted. He passed away from his injuries.”
The Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and Presente! Maine said the man who died was a 26-year-old Colombian citizen who had work authorization in the U.S. and a Social Security number.
“A 26-year-old man came to Maine to live and work, and now his family is mourning his death following an incident involving ICE. This is devastating, enraging, and unacceptable. His loved ones deserve answers, and the public deserves a full and transparent account of what happened,” the groups wrote.
The Maine Attorney General’s Office later said the fatal encounter happened during an immigration operation connected to a final order of removal.
“Initial statements indicate an Enforcement Removal Operations Officer was conducting an enforcement operation related to a final order of removal when the subject attempted to flee in a vehicle in the direction of the officer and was fatally shot,” the office commented.
The office said its investigation remained active and that authorities would stay at the scene as the review continued.
Gov. Janet Mills, D-Maine, said Maine State Police were working with the attorney general’s office, the Office of Chief Medical Examiner and federal officials.
“I know that situations like these are alarming and frightening,” Mills wrote on X.
Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins and independent Sen. Angus King both demanded an impartial investigation.
“The shooting in Biddeford requires a full and impartial investigation of what happened,” Collins tweeted. “It is my understanding that the Biddeford police have secured the site and that the FBI is investigating.”
The shooting in Biddeford requires a full and impartial investigation of what happened. It is my understanding that the Biddeford police have secured the site and that the FBI is investigating.
— Sen. Susan Collins (@SenatorCollins) July 13, 2026
The backlash reached Collins’ office later that day, when protesters entered the building, chanted “vote her out,” and placed anti-ICE signs in the windows.
After speaking with Mullin, Collins said the review was now being led by DHS’s inspector general office in Boston, with the FBI still involved.
King said Mullin told him ICE officers were serving an arrest warrant in Biddeford, but not for the man who was shot. King also said the agents were not wearing body cameras.
That absence of footage immediately became one of the central issues.
“What I said to the Secretary was, we want a full, transparent and open investigation of this matter,” King said.
“And one of the problems is apparently – and again, everything I’m saying is what I know now, certain facts may come out – but apparently there are no cameras. Body cameras were not on the agents. So we have no video evidence of what occurred in this case.”
King told The Associated Press that Mullin had used the term “weaponized” to describe the vehicle, but the senator said the investigation still had to determine whether deadly force was justified.
“The question is, what did he do with his vehicle?” King remarked. “Were officers threatened? Were the threats rising to the level that justified deadly force?”
“That’s what this investigation is all about, and I certainly intend to stay after it to do everything I can to be sure the investigation is as transparent and thorough as possible,” King noted.
Later on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” King came back to the vehicle question.
“What were the facts? Did this… young man actually try to run over an ICE agent or was he in danger of running over other people in the street, and was there a reasonable expectation of bodily harm or deadly force to justify this shooting?” he questioned.
Today’s fatal ICE shooting in Maine has raised more questions than answers.
I called on DHS Secretary Mullin to launch a full, fair, and transparent investigation—and I’m going to hold him to his word there will be one. pic.twitter.com/mvKeN0Ozmq— Senator Angus King (@SenAngusKing) July 14, 2026
King said Mullin committed to a fair review, but the senator warned he would keep pressure on the process.
“I know him from working with him in the Senate before he became secretary. I have no reason to think that he’s not telling me the truth. But my motto, as with Ronald Reagan, is trust but verify,” he noted.
Witness accounts placed Guerrero behind the wheel of the white Kia when the encounter turned fatal. An ICE agent fired through the windshield, striking him in the head, according to those accounts.
Video from the scene added another unresolved detail, showing the Kia slowly circling through the intersection while agents ran alongside it.
ICE’s later statement left key questions open. The agency said the driver fled, but did not say the vehicle had been used as a weapon or clarify whether Guerrero was the person agents had gone to Biddeford to find. DHS said its inspector general would review the shooting.
Guerrero’s death came less than a week after ICE agents were involved in another fatal shooting during a traffic stop in Houston.
It also revived scrutiny of federal immigration enforcement months after the Minneapolis deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti became part of the national fight over President Donald Trump’s ramped-up deportation push.
