Maine Senate Democrats Embrace Abolishing ICE After 25-Year-Old Is Fatally Shot
Updated
Updated · The Washington Post · Jul 17
Maine Senate Democrats Embrace Abolishing ICE After 25-Year-Old Is Fatally Shot
3 articles · Updated · The Washington Post · Jul 17
Summary
Several leading Maine Democratic Senate hopefuls backed abolishing ICE after an officer fatally shot 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford during an operation in which he was not the intended target.
The shift accelerated a week before Democrats’ July 25 nominating convention, where 601 delegates will choose a replacement nominee after Graham Platner dropped out, pushing rivals to echo his combative anti-ICE politics.
Nirav Shah, Troy Jackson, Shenna Bellows and Dan Kleban used rallies, vigils and a debate to argue ICE is beyond reform, though Kleban had previously favored reform and Bellows often avoids the exact slogan.
The candidates are also turning the shooting into an attack on Sen. Susan Collins, citing her support for $70 billion in new ICE and border funding, while Collins says abolishing the agency would endanger public safety.
The flare-up revives a slogan many Democrats once treated as politically toxic, even as Trump’s second-term immigration tactics and other fatal enforcement incidents have made abolitionist arguments more acceptable on the left.