ICE shooting in Maine sparks uproar and puts a spotlight on GOP Sen. Susan Collins

ElectionsICE shooting in Maine sparks uproar and puts a spotlight on GOP Sen. Susan CollinsDemocratic candidates for the expedited Senate primary are pointing to Collins’ vote to fund the deportation agency without policy changes, with some calling to “abolish” ICE.Listen to this article with a free profile00:0000:00Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said ICE needs improvements but defended the agency overall.Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images fileShareAdd NBC News to GoogleJuly 14, 2026, 2:58 PM EDTBy Sahil Kapur and Frank Thorp VWASHINGTON — The fatal shooting by an ICE officer in Biddeford, Maine, has inflamed the expedited Democratic primary for Senate, with some candidates partly blaming Republican incumbent Susan Collins for voting last month to fund the agency without policy changes.Subscribe to read this story ad-freeGet unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.As Democratic candidates rushed to condemn the shooting, Collins called for an investigation and said Tuesday on Capitol Hill that she has been in frequent touch with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.“I had three conversations with Secretary Mullin yesterday. In the third conversation, we discussed the fact that it would be wise for DHS to have a halt in non-urgent traffic stops until we get this straightened out,” Collins told reporters. “We still are awaiting the facts of this investigation. We don’t know exactly what happened, but there are sufficient critical questions to justify bringing non-emergency traffic stops to a halt.”The department did just that on Tuesday, NBC News reported, issuing a nationwide, temporary order to ICE officers to stop pursuing people in vehicles after the shooting in Maine and another fatal shooting in Texas.Some Democratic candidates running to replace Graham Platner as Collins’ general election opponent this fall said they hold Collins partly responsible for the killing.“His name was Joan Sebastian Guerrero. He was a young fathe...