Some of the leading contenders in the race to replace ex-candidate Graham Platner as the Democratic Senate nominee in Maine are amplifying calls to abolish U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after a fatal shooting by federal immigration officers in the northern New England state.
Protest and Reaction
Hours after ICE agents shot and killed a man in Biddeford, which is located about 15 miles southwest of Portland, four of the candidates joined hundreds of protesters who marched by the shooting site. Nirav Shah, the former director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told Fox News Digital, ‘I think we are at the point where ICE needs to be abolished. ICE in its current form has shown itself incapable of doing its job.’
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said, ‘This is not acceptable in America. A young man, a dad, has been killed by ICE…This must stop. We need to get ICE out of the streets.’ Troy Jackson, a former state Senate president, took to social media immediately after the shooting to write, ‘Abolish ICE.’ Jackson held a sign at the protest that called for abolishing ICE, and reiterated that he’s been calling for the dismantling of the agency for months.
Paige Loud, a social worker and former congressional candidate who has also launched a Senate bid, also attended the protest. ‘We must abolish ICE and prosecute the leaders of these operations that are destroying communities,’ she said in a social media post.
Investigation and Context
The Maine attorney general’s office, which is investigating Monday’s shooting along with the FBI, said initial statements suggest the motorist who was the target of the enforcement operation was attempting to flee in the direction of an ICE agent. Two immigration advocacy groups said the man who was killed was authorized to work in the U.S. and had a Social Security number.
The shooting in Maine came three days after Platner ended his campaign amid mounting controversies and allegations of sexual misconduct that he had repeatedly denied, and a chorus of calls from top Democrats in Maine, the nation’s capital, and across the country to drop out of the race immediately.
Original reporting: Fox News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
