Protesters Swarm Sen. Collins’ Maine Office After ICE-Involved Shooting

Protestors swarmed Sen. Susan Collins’ district office in Maine on Monday, chanting “vote her out!” and “ICE out now!” hours after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents killed a man they said was using his vehicle as a weapon against them.

A group of demonstrators could be seen banging on the glass front doors and inside the entrance of the Republican senator’s office before local police officers arrived on the scene. Collins’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the incident at her Biddeford office.

Collins, who is up for reelection this year, called for “a full and impartial investigation of what happened” with the shooting in a short statement posted to X.

Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) said he was told by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin that the agents opened fire after the unidentified man used his vehicle in a threatening manner while they were attempting to detain him, according to The Associated Press.

Collins voted to adopt a budget plan that allocated nearly $70 billion for ICE, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Department of Homeland Security. DHS was shut down for 76 days as Democrats attempted to force changes in immigration enforcement policies following other ICE-involved shootings, a closure that ended with a Republican-backed bill to fund immigration enforcement without conditions Democrats had sought.

“It’s not fair to the Department of Homeland Security’s employees to have this cloud of uncertainty over whether or not they are going to be able to be paid,” Collins told reporters in April. “They are keeping us safe.”

Collins is seeking a sixth term in the Senate. A crowded field of Democrats formed to face Collins after their nominee, Graham Platner, dropped out of the race amid allegations of sexual assault.

Maine Democrats will choose a new nominee from the contenders, who include Nirav Shah, the former director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention; Troy Jackson, a former state Senate president; Shenna Bellows, Maine’s secretary of state; Dan Kleban, cofounder of the Maine Beer Company; and Jordan Wood, a pro-democracy advocate. Some, including Jackson and Wood, have called for ICE to be abolished after the shooting on Monday, and Shah said the agency shouldn’t exist as it is currently operating.

Shah told Collins to “sit this one out” in response to the senator’s statement on the incident.

“Senator Collins voted for the Republican bill to give ICE another $70 billion to terrorize our communities with no accountability,” Shah wrote on X. “Maybe sit this one out.”