Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were involved in two separate fatal shootings on Monday, one in Biddeford, Maine, and one in Houston, Texas, bringing fresh scrutiny to federal immigration enforcement operations across the country.
In Maine, one person was killed in an ICE-involved shooting in Biddeford. State officials said the man killed was not the intended target of the ICE agents who fired the shot. Witnesses near the scene recounted what they saw, with at least one reporting seeing a gunshot victim bleeding from the head, according to reporting by the Portland Press Herald. The Maine incident marked at least the ninth fatality connected to US immigration sweeps, according to the Associated Press.
In Houston, witnesses told The New York Times that ICE agents fired a fatal shot into an open passenger window of a vehicle. The victim was identified as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. Harris County leaders moved quickly after the shooting, seeking funding for an independent investigation into the circumstances of his death. Mexico announced it would file criminal complaints over migrants killed by ICE agents in the United States, according to The Guardian.
The Times also reported on Salgado Araujo's personal history, noting he had lived undocumented in the United States for 35 years.
Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine spoke out about the Biddeford shooting in an appearance on CBS News, joining The Daily Report to discuss the incident. The source material from CBS News did not include the text of her remarks.
Both incidents drew immediate attention from local officials and elected representatives. No detailed federal response to either shooting was included in the available reporting as of Monday.
