On January 22, 2026, ICE agents fired paintball-like projectiles at vehicles driven by citizen observers monitoring immigration enforcement in a Home Depot parking lot in South Portland, Maine, part of a broader surge in ICE operations in the state that week. Robert Peck, one of the observers, filed a notice of claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act on February 1, 2026 seeking $7.5 million after deportation officers Nicholas Lapointe and Christopher Semler threatened to arrest him for following and filming them on Route 1. In June 2026 Peck filed a civil complaint under Maine's civil rights act, and he has since formally sued the two agents for violating his First and Fourth Amendment rights, with Lapointe and Semler required to respond by October 16. His attorney, David Webbert, says it is the first time a Maine legal observer has sued ICE officers under the state's civil rights law.