President Donald Trump on Wednesday told Immigration and Customs Enforcement to keep pulling over vehicles, overturning a pause on most vehicle stops that Homeland Security had announced just a day earlier after a string of fatal shootings. The order puts the machinery of deportation back on the road, with ordinary drivers left to absorb the risk while the people at the top argue over tactics and optics.
Trump said ending the stops would be “playing right into the criminal’s hands” and wrote on his social media site, “We CANNOT give up one of ICE’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!” He also wrote, “The Radical Left Dumocrats would like to see this done, but it won’t happen on my watch,” and told ICE, “be judicious, fair and smart, and go back and do your very important job.” The White House confirmed to Fox News that Trump had overturned the pause.
Who Pays for the Crackdown
Fox News reported that multiple ICE sources said agents nationwide had been instructed on Tuesday to cease most vehicle stops, a major shift in the agency’s immigration enforcement operations. Under that pause, agents were told to end all vehicle stops except for targets considered the most egregious with serious or violent criminal histories. The pause was described as indefinite and was to remain in effect until DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin approved new vehicle stop training. One senior ICE source told Fox News the change was “horrible but needs to happen.” Fox News said the pause followed two people being fatally shot by ICE agents during vehicle stops in Maine and Texas within a week.
AP reported that Trump’s public comments appeared to oppose the new suspension of the practice, saying ICE should continue vehicle stops after recent fatal shootings. AP said the administration’s move came after another string of fatal shootings and that it was not clear whether ICE would quickly reverse course and resume most stops. AP also reported that Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said people illegally in the country would be “arrested and deported wherever they are,” and later said he and Trump “are on the same page,” adding that they wanted ICE officers “to have all options available to keep them safe while executing our mission.”
Bodies on the Road, Questions Left Behind
AP said ICE’s enforcement tactics were under renewed criticism after three people died during encounters with federal officers within a week. In Florida, a 28-year-old man was killed Tuesday after he was hit by a tractor trailer while running from immigration and other federal officers, authorities said. Before that, two motorists were shot and killed by ICE officers, one in Texas last week and another in Maine on Monday. AP said that after the Maine killing, Trump administration officials told ICE officers to suspend most vehicle stops, and that people familiar with the decision said Tuesday the pause had been ordered nationwide. AP also said there had been at least 10 deaths involving encounters with immigration agents since Trump launched his deportation campaign, and at least four of them involved people in vehicles. Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine urged Department of Homeland Security leaders “to cease all non-urgent vehicle stops.”
AP identified the man killed in Maine as Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian national. AP said hundreds gathered Tuesday to remember him, and that more protests were planned. Karolina Rojas, his partner and the mother of their young daughter, wrote on Instagram: “I love you, my darling, my life. I love you. I have no words for this pain. You were my everything. Please watch over me. Help me find the strength to carry on. Stay with me always. Don’t leave me alone. I’m begging you, my love.” AP said Durán Guerrero illegally entered the U.S. on Sept. 1, 2023, through the southern border, according to DHS, while advocacy groups said he was authorized to work in the U.S. when he was killed. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said the Homeland Security secretary told him on Monday that ICE officers were in Biddeford to serve an arrest warrant but that it wasn’t for the person who was shot. AP said when ICE tried to stop a vehicle driven by someone who came from a home under surveillance, the “vehicle attempted to flee the scene and, fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon,” according to the department. AP also said DHS said Guerrero was released into the U.S. after crossing the border, and that the department didn’t answer questions about the agent who shot him. Photos showed bullet holes in Durán Guerrero’s car windshield, but the officers involved didn’t have body cameras, leaving many questions.
The State Investigates Itself
AP said Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday that the state’s top law enforcement unit would investigate the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston. AP said DHS’s account of the July 7 shooting is disputed by three other men who were riding in a van with Salgado Araujo at the time. A public viewing for Salgado Araujo, a homebuilder from Mexico, was set for Thursday in Houston. AP said new court records showed the FBI is investigating whether drugs were found in the van, according to a search warrant application signed by a federal judge Tuesday. FBI special agent David McNeilly said in an affidavit that he observed four plastic bags of a white substance appearing to be meth inside the van. AP said DHS has not stated that suspected drugs were the reason ICE officers engaged in the traffic stop, and the FBI referred questions about the search warrant to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The ACLU of Texas, which is providing legal representation for Salgado Araujo’s family, said the Trump administration “lacks credibility” to investigate itself.
AP said outgoing Colombian President Gustavo Petro called the shooting of Durán Guerrero in Maine a targeted killing “at the hands of the U.S. government.” In Wednesday’s social media post, Trump told ICE to be “judicious, fair and smart, and go back and do your very important job.” Border czar Tom Homan told reporters that the investigation needs to play out and that officers will be held accountable if they are found to have acted inappropriately or illegally. Maine’s Democratic governor, Janet Mills, said ICE should be scrapped as a federal agency if it can’t be fixed, and said Wednesday that the agency needs changes “before more families are robbed of a loved one.”