GOP Sen. Susan Collins said she spoke Monday to embattled Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after the administration launched an immigration enforcement campaign in her home state.

Collins declined to divulge details of her conversation with Noem to reporters — though her office indicated earlier this month that the senator had reached out to DHS about ICE’s activities in Maine.

Regarding the ICE presence there, Collins said in a statement last week that “people who are in this country legally should not be targets of ICE investigations,” while those who have “entered this country illegally and who have engaged in criminal activity …. could be subject to arrest and deportation.”

She added, “People who are exercising the right to peacefully gather and protest their government should be careful not to interfere with law enforcement efforts while doing so.

But the conversation comes at a critical moment. Federal agents shot and killed a U.S. citizen in Minneapolis over the weekend, prompting public outrage and sparking criticism from a growing number of Senate Republicans about the Trump administration’s handling of the situation. It’s the second such shooting to occur in the city since January began.

Collins is also the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee who helped negotiate legislation to fund several agencies — including DHS — through the end of September. That bipartisan package is now imperiled as Democrats now say they won’t vote to support any bill that funds DHS without significant guardrails in place to rein in immigration enforcement activities.

DHS is among several agencies that would shut down after Jan. 30 unless lawmakers can reach some sort of compromise.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem will testify March 3 before the Senate Judiciary Committee, according to an aide for Chair Chuck Grassley.

Grassley has been haggling for weeks to schedule Noem’s testimony as part of his panel’s regular oversight of DHS. But her high-profile appearance will likely be dominated by senators’ questions regarding the agency’s immigration enforcement tactics following two fatal shootings by federal agents in Minneapolis in the past month.

Some GOP senators — including Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who is a member on the committee — have called for an independent investigation into the latest shooting over the weekend, while others have criticized initial comments from top administration officials that suggested the victim bore responsibility and not the officers involved.

Sen. Rand Paul, chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, called on three top immigration enforcement officials to testify before his panel in the wake of Saturday’s killing of a Minneapolis man by federal agents.

The Kentucky Republican sent letters Monday to Rodney Scott, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection; Joseph Edlow, the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services; and Todd Lyons, who is serving as acting director of ICE, requesting that the three men testify at a Feb. 12 hearing.

“As you know, the Department of Homeland Security has been provided an exceptional amount of funding to secure our borders and enforce our immigration laws,” Paul said in the letters to the administration officials. “Congress has an obligation to conduct oversight of those tax dollars and ensure the funding is used to accomplish the mission, provide proper support for our law enforcement, and, most importantly, protect the American people.”

Paul’s letters don’t mention this weekend’s killing of 37-year-old Alex Pretti, which has sparked a wave of new scrutiny of the immigration enforcement actions in Minnesota ordered by President Donald Trump.

But the hearing would be the first chance senators will have to question Trump administration officials’ over the shooting and the president’s broader immigration and Homeland Security agenda.

Separately, Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) joined the growing ranks of Republicans raising questions about the shooting, saying he supports a “full and transparent investigation into the tragic event in Minneapolis.”

“Congress has requested testimony from ICE, CBP, and USCIS leaders in an open hearing, and they should testify soon,” said Young, who is not a member of Paul’s committee, in a statement to Blue Light News. “Providing the American people with the full facts is an important part of maintaining public trust. We also need state and local officials to better cooperate with federal enforcement efforts.”