President Donald Trump on Wednesday ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to resume vehicle stops, reversing a one-day pause that followed a string of fatal shootings by federal officers. This directive ensures the continued use of deadly enforcement tactics against migrant workers, despite three deaths involving federal agents within a single week.
State Sanctions Violence
Trump declared that ending these stops would be “playing right into the criminal’s hands.” He wrote on his social media site, “We CANNOT give up one of ICE’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!” The former president also stated, “The Radical Left Dumocrats would like to see this done, but it won’t happen on my watch,” instructing ICE to “be judicious, fair and smart, and go back and do your very important job.” The White House confirmed Trump had overturned the pause. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin later affirmed he and Trump “are on the same page,” desiring ICE officers “to have all options available to keep them safe while executing our mission.”
ICE agents nationwide had been instructed just one day earlier, on Tuesday, to cease most vehicle stops. This temporary halt was meant to apply to all stops except for targets deemed "most egregious" with serious or violent criminal histories. The pause was described as indefinite, pending approval of new vehicle stop training by Secretary Mullin. One senior ICE source called the change “horrible but needs to happen,” according to Fox News.
Migrant Lives Sacrificed
The reversal came after three people died during encounters with federal officers within a week. Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian national, was shot and killed by an ICE officer in Maine three days ago, on Monday. His partner and the mother of their young daughter, Karolina Rojas, 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.” DHS claims Durán Guerrero illegally entered the U.S. on September 1, 2023, while advocacy groups maintain he was authorized to work when killed. Senator Angus King, I-Maine, reported that the Homeland Security secretary told him ICE officers were serving an arrest warrant for someone else when Durán Guerrero was shot. DHS stated that when ICE tried to stop a vehicle driven by someone from a surveillance target home, the “vehicle attempted to flee the scene and, fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon.” Photos showed bullet holes in Durán Guerrero’s car windshield, but officers involved had no body cameras, leaving many questions unanswered.
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a homebuilder from Mexico, was killed in Houston nine days ago, on July 7, 2026. Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced the state’s top law enforcement unit would investigate his fatal shooting. DHS’s account of the incident is disputed by three other men who were riding in the van with Salgado Araujo. New court records show the FBI is investigating whether drugs were found in the van, based on a search warrant application. However, DHS has not stated that suspected drugs were the reason ICE officers initiated the traffic stop. In Florida, a 28-year-old man was killed Tuesday after being hit by a tractor trailer while running from immigration and other federal officers.
Managing the Contradictions
Outgoing Colombian President Gustavo Petro called the shooting of Durán Guerrero a targeted killing “at the hands of the U.S. government.” The ACLU of Texas, representing Salgado Araujo’s family, stated the Trump administration “lacks credibility” to investigate itself. Republican U.S. Senator Susan Collins of Maine urged Department of Homeland Security leaders “to cease all non-urgent vehicle stops,” a reformist plea that leaves the core function of ICE untouched. Maine’s Democratic governor, Janet Mills, suggested ICE should be scrapped as a federal agency if it can’t be fixed, demanding changes “before more families are robbed of a loved one.” These calls for reform, however, fail to address the fundamental role of state enforcement in maintaining a vulnerable migrant labor force and protecting existing power structures. The current system, as designed, continues to concentrate wealth upward, often at the cost of working-class lives.