NEW YORK — Maine Democrats are seizing on a new fatal shooting by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in their state, fighting to tie Republican Sen. Susan Collins to the beleaguered federal agency and steer the conversation away from the unrelated scandal that threatens to undermine their strength in a high-stakes U.S. Senate race.

A federal immigration agent shot and killed a motorist just south of Maine’s largest city on Monday, the second time in a week that ICE has used deadly force on U.S. soil and at least the ninth death since President Donald Trump began his immigration crackdown. It was the first in Maine, a Democratic-led state with a relatively large immigrant population that Trump attacked earlier this year, on the heels of two high-profile ICE shootings in Minnesota.

The officers involved in the Maine incident were not wearing body cameras and the victim, a 26-year-old Colombian national, was not the target of their investigation, authorities said.

The shooting prompted a swift and aggressive reaction from Democrats, who are still reeling from the sexual assault allegation that forced their party’s Senate candidate, Graham Platner, to drop out of the race late last week. Platner denied the allegation, which many former allies described as credible.

Democratic officials are scheduled to select a replacement for Platner at a convention on July 25, leaving the party’s nominee just months to try to unseat a longtime incumbent in a race seen as critical if Democrats want to regain control of the Senate.

Immediately after the shooting, several potential rivals of Collins arrived at the scene (and his office) to talk.

Senate hopeful Nirav Shah, a former director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, drew a direct link from the shooting to the Republican senator’s oversight of the ICE budget as chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee.

“She has power, but she didn’t use it to control a rogue agency, she gave them a blank check to kill,” Shah said at a news conference outside Collins’ office on Tuesday. “It’s time to abolish this failed agency. It’s time to fire the leaders who have let it run rampant. And it’s time to retire politicians like Susan Collins who have made this lawlessness possible.”

Collins is in Washington this week on Senate business. His campaign did not respond to criticism from Democrats when asked.

“While the Biddeford shooting investigation is not yet complete, it raises enough critical questions that I spoke with DHS Secretary Mullin last night and urged him to cease all non-urgent vehicle stops,” Collins said in a brief statement Tuesday.

The ICE shooting and the immediate reaction in a state that Trump lost by 7 points suggests that Collins may have only just begun to answer difficult questions about the situation and her role in funding the agency.

Democrats, who acknowledged that the Platner scandal is likely to make their fight to defeat Collins more difficult, were nevertheless hopeful that the shooting will turn the conversation back to Collins’ record. The Republican has represented the state in the Senate since 1997 and regularly touts her power as chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee as a reason to keep her in the Senate for another six years.

“This tragedy refocuses the conversation from the Platner fallout to the real-world impact of Susan Collins’ vote to give ICE tens of billions of dollars without reform,” said Democratic strategist Josh Schwerin. “The impact will be real.”

Earlier this month, an ICE agent shot and killed a man in Houston after he tried to evade arrest in his vehicle during an operation. In January, two people were shot and killed by federal agents within days of each other in Minnesota.

About 6 in 10 American adults said earlier this year that Trump had “gone too far” by sending federal immigration agents to American cities, according to an AP-NORC poll. The poll suggested that independent politicians were increasingly uncomfortable with Trump’s tactics.

On Tuesday, the shooting dominated the political conversation in Maine.

The day after a vigil involving hundreds of people in Portland, a group of several dozen protesters gathered near an ICE facility in Scarborough and condemned Collins for supporting legislation to expand funding for ICE. Protesters waved signs reading “Stop the murder” and “End this terror.”

“Does anyone here feel safer because this man was shot in cold blood?” said Kelli Brennan, co-president of the Maine State Nurses Association. “Does this man’s senseless murder in any way improve our lives?”

Troy Jackson, former Maine Senate leader and logger by trade, now a candidate to replace Platner, declared “out with ICE” at the Portland vigil and held a sign reading “Abolish ICE” at a protest outside Collins’ office on Monday.

“Immigrant communities live under constant threat from an agency that operates with cruelty and impunity,” Jackson said during an online progressive organizing meeting Monday night. “We need accountability and leaders who believe that every person deserves dignity, safety and due process.”

Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey, who was also at the organizing meeting, called the shooting a “murder” and said “we must abolish ICE now.”

“This is the second person ICE has killed in less than a week, the latest attack by Trump’s masked and irresponsible thugs,” Markey said, noting that he voted against the creation of ICE in 2003.

However, less than a week after Platner’s departure, he is still part of the conversation, even if he is no longer the center of attention.

“You invested your heart, your time and your energy into building this movement alongside another candidate besides me. And I know there is real pain and anger and disappointment. And I’m not going to try to minimize that,” Jackson said. “But look, this movement has always been bigger than one person.”

He continued: “We can defeat Susan Collins and elect a senator who will never forget which side he is on.”

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AP writers Matt Brown in Washington and Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed.