The president called vehicle stops one of ICE’s most effective enforcement tools and urged officers to use them judiciously after two men who were not the agency’s intended targets were killed in Maine and Texas.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
President Donald Trump on Wednesday directed Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to resume traffic stops, rejecting a Department of Homeland Security decision to temporarily suspend most vehicle stops nationwide following two fatal shootings.
Trump described traffic stops as an essential immigration and criminal enforcement tool and warned that abandoning them would benefit people attempting to evade authorities.
“We CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal’s hands.”
His statement came one day after DHS reportedly instructed ICE officers across the country to stop conducting routine vehicle stops.
Under the department’s order, traffic stops were to be suspended except in limited circumstances, including operations involving criminal warrants or coordinated actions with other law enforcement agencies.
The pause followed fatal shootings during ICE vehicle stops in Biddeford, Maine, and Houston, Texas. Officials later acknowledged that neither of the men killed was the person agents initially intended to arrest.
In Maine, ICE officers attempted to stop a vehicle Monday and fatally shot Joan Sebastian Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian national.
Guerrero was married and had a 3-year-old daughter.
An ICE spokesperson said an officer opened fire while “fearing for public safety.”
The FBI and local law enforcement authorities are investigating the shooting, and the DHS Office of Inspector General has been notified.
Independent Maine Sen. Angus King said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin informed him that Guerrero was not the person ICE officers had originally been seeking.
The Maine shooting occurred days after another fatal ICE encounter during a vehicle stop in Houston.
Acting ICE Director David Venturella said Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national who had lived in the United States for decades, was also not the intended target of the operation.
DHS said agents believed Salgado Araujo resembled the person they were seeking.
The department said an officer fired in self-defense after Salgado Araujo allegedly used his vehicle to ram an ICE vehicle.
The Associated Press reported that the ICE agents involved in the Houston encounter were not wearing body cameras.
DHS has said those officers are expected to receive body-worn cameras within 60 days.
The shootings have intensified scrutiny of ICE’s use of vehicle stops during the Trump administration’s expanded immigration enforcement campaign.
Anti-ICE demonstrations followed in both Maine and Texas as protesters questioned the tactics used during the encounters and the deaths of two men who were not the subjects agents had set out to arrest.
DHS responded by halting most routine traffic stops while the incidents were being examined.
Trump’s Wednesday statement made clear that he opposed allowing the suspension to become permanent.
The president urged officers to continue enforcement while exercising judgment and fairness.
“I.C.E., be judicious, fair and smart, and go back and do your very important job,” Trump wrote. “Keep those Crime Stat Records coming! Remember, you are loved and respected in America.”
Trump also praised ICE personnel and credited immigration enforcement with helping reduce crime.
“The men and women of ICE are doing a GREAT job, one that has to be done,” he said. “CRIME IS WAY DOWN IN AMERICA, in many cases with numbers that haven’t been seen in decades.”
The president tied the need for continued vehicle stops to his administration’s broader effort to locate and remove illegal immigrants, particularly those accused or convicted of crimes.
He again blamed former President Joe Biden’s border policies for allowing millions of people to enter the country without adequate screening.
“The Open Border Policy of Sleepy Joe Biden allowed 25,000,000 people to pour into our Country, unchecked and unvetted,” Trump wrote. “Many were Criminals, and we have to get them out. In order to do this, we must be strong, tough, and smart.”
Trump’s instructions place renewed emphasis on ICE’s use of traffic stops even as federal and local authorities continue investigating the shootings.
The information provided did not specify whether DHS had formally rescinded its nationwide pause following the president’s statement or whether new operational guidance had been distributed to ICE field offices.
It also did not indicate whether additional safeguards would be imposed when agents use vehicle stops, including expanded body-camera requirements, supervisory approval or stricter procedures for confirming a person’s identity before an attempted arrest.
The two shootings raised questions about the reliability of visual identification during mobile enforcement operations.
In both cases, agency officials said the person killed was not the original target, although DHS maintained that officers fired because they believed they faced an immediate threat.
Trump’s directive seeks to preserve the tactic while directing officers to use discretion.
His comments underscore the administration’s position that traffic stops remain necessary to apprehend people who might otherwise avoid arrest, despite the operational and public-safety concerns highlighted by the recent deaths.
Investigations into the Maine and Texas shootings remain ongoing as ICE prepares to resume or continue vehicle-stop operations under the president’s direction.
Original article
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