ICE shot and killed a motorist in Maine. Advocates say he's a 26-year-old from Colombia

BIDDEFORD, Maine (AP) — A federal immigration officer fatally shot a motorist in Maine on Monday, the second time in a week that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have used deadly force and at least the ninth time since President Donald Trump began his immigration crackdown.

Immigrant rights groups identified the man who was killed as a 26-year-old native of Colombia.

Federal authorities were silent about what led up to the shooting, but U.S. Sen. Angus King said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told him the officer opened fire after the man tried to use his vehicle as a weapon against ICE agents in Biddeford, a coastal city roughly 15 miles (24 kilometers) southwest of Portland.

“He was in a vehicle — pulled out in the vehicle, and the term the secretary used was ‘weaponized’ the vehicle and was shot by an ICE agent,” King said.

King, a Maine independent, said Mullin also told him the officers were in Biddeford to serve an arrest warrant but that it was for not for the person who was shot.

King said Mullin told him that earlier information that the man was the target of an enforcement action was incorrect. He said Mullin “got new information, and when he got it he called me to tell me."

Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, said Mullin told her the Homeland Security Department’s Office of Inspector General is investigating in cooperation with the FBI.

Messages seeking comment were left for ICE, the inspector general’s office and the Maine Department of Public Safety.

The Maine attorney general’s office, which is also investigating, said initial statements suggest the motorist was trying to flee in the direction of the agent. The office said the agent who killed him has been placed on leave.

Daniel Boucher said he looked out his third-floor window after hearing a “pop, pop, pop” sound and saw a small car “turned 90 degrees to the curb” with an SUV behind it. The driver was wounded and the car started moving down the street until the SUV hit it again, Boucher said.

“His face was bloody. His head was bloody,” Boucher said, getting choked up. “I clearly heard the victim say, ‘I tried to stop’ — clearly heard him say that.”

Boucher said he saw an ICE officer bring a medical bag to where the man was lying before an ambulance and fire truck arrived. At one point, Boucher said, the agent who shot the man walked close to him.

“I was emotional and I just let him have it, and he looked at me and said, ‘He tried to run me over,’ or something to that effect," Boucher said. "I don’t remember his exact words.”

Two advocacy groups — the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and Presente! — said the man who was killed was authorized to work in the U.S.

After the shooting, his family contacted the Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, but they aren't ready to speak publicly about the shooting, said the group's executive director, Mufalo Chitam.

Mary Hayes, who lives close to where the shooting happened, said the man lived nearby with his wife and daughter.

“I watched a wife fall to her knees looking at her husband’s dead body on the ground,” Hayes told the AP as she held a piece of cardboard with “No ICE Stop ICE” written on it. “I watched a little girl crying with a little pink backpack on because she’s never going to see her father again.”

The Colombian Embassy said it is in contact with U.S. authorities and “working to formally confirm the individual’s identity and nationality.”

Cory Poulin, whose family runs a laundromat near the scene, told the AP that security cameras at the business captured footage of the man’s car rolling into the intersection after shots were fired. Other images from the scene showed the car going in circles and bullet holes in its windshield.

He said Maine State Police asked that he not release the footage publicly.

The agents involved in the shooting didn’t have body-worn cameras, King said.

“The question is: What did he do with his vehicle?" King said. “Were officers threatened? Were the threats rising to the level that justified deadly force?"

Dozens of demonstrators critical of ICE and Trump’s ongoing immigration crackdown gathered in Biddeford within hours of the shooting.

Amy Goodman, who is from nearby Wells, arrived with a sign that said “Stop Killing Us” and directed it toward police working at the scene.

“Sadly, it’s something we’re seeing a whole lot more often lately, and I’m mad about it,” said Goodman, who was wearing a shirt that said “ICE is best when crushed.”

Police blocked access to the shooting scene, which is in a neighborhood of mostly multifamily homes, churches and businesses. Several protesters stood nearby, with some holding signs condemning ICE's presence in the community and state.

“We are grieving, we are furious, and we will not allow his death to be treated as routine or inevitable,” Chitam said. “How much more harm must our communities endure before those with the power to act acknowledge that this has gone too far?”

On July 7, an ICE officer fatally shot 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, of Houston, after federal agents driving unmarked vehicles pursued him while he was taking his construction crew to a job site.

The shootings come amid a Trump administration push to carry out its mass deportations agenda. During the five-day period at the end of June, ICE arrested more than 10,000 people.

The figures indicate that while the administration is no longer cracking down on individual cities, the arrests are surging. The administration’s enforcement efforts were widely condemned last winter after the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota.

“More than anything else, I want to know, ‘Why are you in Maine?’" Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, said in a video on social media.

ICE had a significant presence in Maine earlier this year, which prompted several protests. Immigration officials later said in late January that they had ceased “enhanced operations” in Maine after hundreds of arrests.

A Homeland Security spokesperson said at the time that some Maine arrests were of people “convicted of horrific crimes" including aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child.”

Court records show that while some had felony convictions, others had unresolved immigration proceedings or had been arrested but never convicted of a crime.

ICE arrested 546 people in Maine between the start of Trump’s second term and March 11, 2026, the most recent data available, according to ICE arrest data provided to the University of California, Berkeley Deportation Data Project and analyzed by the AP.

About 45% of those arrested had criminal backgrounds. During the equivalent 416-day period before Trump took office, roughly 69% of those arrested had criminal backgrounds, the data show.

This story was updated to correct the spelling of Cory Poulin’s first name.

Willingham reported from Boston and Brook reported from New Orleans. Associated Press reporters Michael R. Sisak in New York, Aaron Kessler in Washington and Kate Brumback in Atlanta contributed to this report.

Blood is seen on the pavement near the scene of a shooting involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Monday, July 13, 2026 in Biddeford, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Blood is seen on the pavement near the scene of a shooting involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Monday, July 13, 2026 in Biddeford, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Frances Mercanti-Anthony, from Bristol, Maine, stands near the scene where blood is seen on the pavement after a shooting involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Monday, July 13, 2026 in Biddeford, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Protesters gather at a park near the scene of a shooting involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Monday, July 13, 2026 in Biddeford, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Eisha Khan speaks at a rally of protesters near the scene of a shooting involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Monday, July 13, 2026 in Biddeford, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

A vehicle with a damaged window is transported away from the scene of a shooting involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Monday, July 13, 2026 in Biddeford, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Protesters gather near the scene of a shooting involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Monday, July 13, 2026 in Biddeford, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

A vehicle is transported on a flatbed near the scene of a shooting involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Monday, July 13, 2026 in Biddeford, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Biddeford City Councilor Abigail Woods hugs an unidentified constituent during an impromptu protest near the scene of a shooting involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Monday, July 13, 2026 in Biddeford, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

An FBI official places an evidence card where a man was reportedly killed in a shooting involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, Monday, July 13, 2026 in Biddeford, Maine. (Gregory Rec/Portland Press Herald via AP)

The scene on Pool Street where a man was reportedly killed in a shooting involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, Monday, July 13, 2026 in Biddeford, Maine. (Gregory Rec/Portland Press Herald via AP)

People stand near the scene as police block a road after a shooting involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in Biddeford, Maine, Monday, July 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Patrick Whittle)

Police block a road after a shooting in Biddeford, Maine, Monday, July 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Patrick Whittle)

This image taken from video provided by WMTW shows police on the scene after a shooting involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Monday, July 13, 2026 in Biddeford, Maine. (WMTW via AP)

This image taken from video provided by WMTW shows police and FBI agents on the scene after a shooting involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Monday, July 13, 2026 in Biddeford, Maine. (WMTW via AP)

FILE - A federal agent wears an Immigration and Customs Enforcement badge in New York, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)

MADRID (AP) — A former Spanish prime minister is facing criticism for saying that France's World Cup team “does not have any French players," which French and Spanish leaders have called racist.

Mariano Rajoy, a member of Spain’s conservative Popular Party, made the comment in a column for Spanish outlet El Debate ahead of Tuesday’s World Cup semifinal match between the European neighbors.

“They’ve won every match they’ve played at this World Cup and are currently top of the FIFA rankings. They also have an exceptionally strong squad. That said, one thing they don’t have is any French players," Rajoy wrote on July 10.

On Monday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told French broadcaster BFM TV that “France has no skin color. Any contrary claim stems from stupidity, racism or a combination of the two."

A day earlier, French Football Federation President Philippe Diallo wrote on X that “Mariano Rajoy’s remarks about the French team carry intolerable whiffs of racism,” adding that “they also raise questions about the deplorable climate that gives rise to such sentiments. Our players do not need a certificate of nationality from a former Spanish prime minister.”

A spokesperson from Rajoy's Popular Party on Monday said the remarks were sarcastic and made without malice.

“These columns are written without ill intent,” spokesperson Borja Sémper said. “This expression is used without ill intent.”

Spain's ruling Socialist government swiftly condemned the remarks by Rajoy, who was prime minister from 2011 to 2018.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez referenced the comments without naming his predecessor, writing on X: “There are those who still measure belonging by surname, place of birth, or skin color. Others measure it by our roots in a country and our will to contribute to it. Playing soccer. Caring for our elders. Or opening businesses. France, we’ll see you in the semifinals. May the best one win and may racism lose."

France will face Spain on Tuesday at the home of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys in Arlington, Texas. France midfielder Warren Zaire-Emery was asked about the comments the day before the game in a news conference at the venue and said he hadn't seen them.

“This French team has players from different backgrounds and origins,” Zaire-Emery said through a translator. “So does the country. We are a united group, a united team, and that’s all that matters.”

Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares also spoke out Monday, saying the Popular Party's leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, needed to disavow the remarks.

It's not the first time France's team has faced racism during this year's World Cup.

Earlier this month, France captain and star player Kylian Mbappécondemned a Paraguayan senator over remarks she made following Paraguay’s loss to France in the round of 16.

Celeste Amarilla, a senator from Paraguay’s Liberal Radical Party, posted a series of comments on X mocking the French player’s origins, upbringing, education and appearance after France won on July 4 with a penalty by Mbappé.

FILE - Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy attends a press conference at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, Friday, June 16, 2017. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, File)