ICE pauses vehicle pursuits after fatal shootings in Maine and Texas

ICE ordered officers nationwide to stop pursuing people in vehicles after fatal shootings in Maine and Texas. The pause is temporary, and a senior DHS official said the department is evaluating the incidents to decide whether additional training is needed to reduce negative outcomes, with no set end date.

The Maine shooting unfolded in downtown Biddeford near Hill and Pool streets, where the Maine Attorney General’s office said ICE agents were trying to detain a man who fled in a vehicle toward an officer. ICE did not confirm the shooting until nearly 12 hours later, and DHS had still not commented when the case began moving through state and federal channels.

Advocates and a neighbor identified the dead man as Joan Sebastian Guerrero, a 26-year-old father from Colombia, and said he was authorized to work in the United States and had a Social Security number. Sen. Angus King said DHS told him Guerrero was not the intended target of the warrant and that no body camera video appeared to have been used, leaving no video evidence of the encounter.

Sen. Susan Collins called for a full and impartial investigation and said she had pressed Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin in three conversations on Sunday, July 13, 2026, urging DHS to halt non-urgent traffic stops until the facts were known. In Biddeford, protesters entered Collins’ district office on Monday, July 14, 2026, chanting “ICE out now” and “vote her out!” after the shooting.

It came less than a week after another fatal ICE shooting in Houston.

An Associated Press count put the Biddeford killing as at least the ninth time since President Donald Trump began his immigration crackdown that ICE agents have used deadly force.

Democrats are weighing whether to use the Jan. 30, 2026, DHS funding deadline to seek limits on immigration enforcement after a separate ICE shooting in Minneapolis, including requirements that agents wear identification, limits on CBP deployment, and judicial warrants for arrests. In Maine, the issue has landed in a Senate race already rattled by Graham Platner’s exit and by attacks from Troy Jackson and Jordan Wood, who want ICE abolished. Demonstrators later held a vigil in Portland.