Maine Senate candidates call to abolish ICE after Biddeford shooting

PORTLAND, Maine — Some of the leading candidates in the race to replace former candidate Graham Platner as the Democratic Senate candidate in Maine are amplifying calls to abolish ICE following a deadly shooting by federal immigration agents in the northern New England state.

On Monday, hours after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents shot and killed a man in Biddeford, about 15 miles southwest of Portland, four of the candidates joined hundreds of protesters marching near the shooting site.

The shooting comes as the fight to replace Platner heats up and will heighten the immigration issue in a key Senate race that will likely determine the Senate majority.

“I think we’re at the point where ICE needs to be abolished,” Nirav Shah, former director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told Fox News Digital. “ICE in its current form has demonstrated that it is incapable of doing its job.”

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Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows told reporters: “This is unacceptable in America. A young man, a father, was killed by ICE… This needs to stop. We need to take ICE off the streets.”

“Abolish ICE,” former state Senate president Troy Jackson wrote on social media immediately after the attack.

Jackson held a banner at the protest calling for the closure of ICE and reiterated that he has been calling for months to dismantle the agency.

Paige Loud, a social worker and former congressional candidate who is also running for Senate, also attended the protest.

“We must dismantle ICE and prosecute the leaders of these operations that destroy communities,” he said in a social media post.

The incident in Maine was the second in a week in which ICE agents used deadly force, following a fatal shooting during a traffic stop in Houston, Texas.

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A woman holds a sign that reads “ICE IS COMING OUT OF HOUSTON” during a memorial service for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national who was fatally shot by a federal immigration agent in Houston on Wednesday, July 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Felix)

Months after Renee Good and Alex Pretti were shot to death in Minneapolis, Minnesota, earlier this year, recent events have reignited protests and scrutiny from federal agents. Those shootings made national news for weeks and sparked bitter debate about President Donald Trump’s escalating deportation efforts amid his administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

The Maine attorney general’s office, which is investigating Monday’s shooting with the FBI, said initial reports indicate the driver, who was the target of the enforcement operation, tried to flee toward an ICE agent.

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Protesters lay flowers at a makeshift memorial following a deadly attack by ICE agents in Biddeford, Maine, on July 13, 2026 (Kailey Schuyler/Fox News)

Two immigration advocacy groups said the slain man had a permit to work in the United States and had a Social Security number.

The shooting in Maine came three days after Platner ended his campaign amid mounting controversy over allegations of sexual harassment, which he has repeatedly denied, and a chorus of calls from top Democrats in the nation’s capital, Maine, and across the country, to immediately withdraw from the race.

Last September, progressive champion Sen. Platner, a populist Democrat backed by Bernie Sanders, was challenging longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins in a high-profile, combustible and expensive race in Maine; This is one of several races that will determine whether the GOP can maintain its slim majority in the Senate in November’s midterm elections.

Seven Democrats have applied for candidacy for the nomination, which will be determined by the votes of approximately 600 delegates at the Maine Democratic Party’s convention on July 25.

Graham Platner speaks at the Primary Election event on June 9, 2026 in Blue Hill, Maine. (CJ Gunther/Getty Images)

In his statement after the attack, Collins said there should be a “full and impartial investigation into what happened”.

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Hours later, Collins said in another statement that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin “informed me that the Boston office of the DHS Inspector General, in cooperation with the FBI, has taken over the investigation into the Biddeford shooting.”

One of Collins’ Senate offices is in Biddeford, and protesters marched into the office to chant “Vote for her.”