In Maine, Officer Ice shoots and kills a 26-year-old Colombian man. Witness accounts

Another witness – as reported by Reuters – said that the officers rammed a white car before one of them pulled the injured driver out.  Daniel Boucher, 71, a carer and part-time artist living in the centre of Biddeford, said in an interview that he was on the second floor of his flat when he heard what sounded like firecrackers at around 7.30. He rushed to the window and saw, on more than one occasion, a white SUV ram a smaller white car, causing it to change direction. At that point, Boucher said, he saw an ICE officer get out of the SUV and try to open the door of the other car before pulling a man out.

The man, whom Boucher describes as a younger man, had blood on his face and head, and the officer pinned him to the ground. “I remember hearing the victim say, ‘But I tried to stop’,” said Boucher.

According to Boucher, a police officer who appeared to have shot the man seemed “very distraught, almost in shock”, and stated that the victim had tried to ram or strike him. Eventually, Boucher says, the injured man stopped breathing.

The shooting took place months after the intensification of ICE enforcement operations in Maine had sparked protests.

Project Relief, an immigrant rights group, wrote in a social media post that one of its community members had been killed “during an encounter with ICE in Biddeford” and that it was in contact with the person’s family. The group described the person as “young”, but did not provide an age or any other identifying details. “This was a young person whose life was cut short,” the group said, calling for justice and support for the family and the community.

Biddeford Saco for Racial Justice has organised a protest against ICE at Mechanics Park in Biddeford at midday US time. According to local news reports, protesters have already begun to gather.

Today’s death is at least the ninth to involve federal immigration officials since the start of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration,

The reported shooting comes against the backdrop of a recently intensified drive by the Trump administration to press ahead with its programme of mass deportations.

During the last five days of June, ICE arrested more than 10,000 people. The figures indicate that, although the administration is no longer cracking down on individual cities, arrests are continuing and on the rise.

In a video posted on social media, Democratic MP Chellie Pingree from Maine asks ICE why it is still in Maine. Earlier this year, ICE had a significant presence in Maine, which led to numerous large demonstrations against the agency.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, has named the operation “Catch of the Day” – an apparent play on words referring to Maine’s fishing industry – just as it has done for other waves of raids, such as “Patriot” in Massachusetts, ‘Metro Surge’ in Minnesota and ‘Midway Blitz’ in Chicago.

Immigration officials had stated at the end of January that they had ceased “stepped-up operations” in Maine after carrying out hundreds of arrests.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said at the time that some of the arrests in Maine involved people “convicted of horrific crimes, including aggravated assault, false imprisonment and endangering the welfare of a child”. But court records painted a slightly different picture, according to the Associated Press: whilst some had convictions for serious offences, others were being held pending unresolved immigration proceedings or had been arrested but never convicted of a crime.

The Trump administration’s repressive immigration measures were widely condemned last winter, following the murders of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota.