ICE to Pause Most Traffic-Stop Arrests After Two Fatal Shootings
The Trump administration has suspended most vehicle stops by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents following two officer-involved fatal shootings in the past week, according to the Associated Press.
A new order from DHS limits civil arrests through the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, but still allows for Homeland Security Investigations arrests to continue. HSI primarily conducts arrests born out of criminal investigations.
Enforcement and Removal agents are currently prevented from making vehicle stops while they receive updated training on tactics, CBS reported.
Senator Susan Collins (R., Maine) shared in a post on X that she spoke with DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin following an ICE-related death in Biddeford, Maine, on Monday and “urged him to cease all non-urgent vehicle stops in the wake of yesterday’s deadly Biddeford shooting.”
“I am encouraged that the Department has agreed to do so,” the senator wrote.
It is unclear if DHS stopped non-urgent vehicle stops because of the conversation between Collins and Mullin, or for other reasons.
A spokesperson for ICE told National Review, “We are always evaluating our procedures to keep our officers safe and criminals off our streets. We will not disclose or discuss law enforcement tactics.”
Federal agents killed a Colombian national during an enforcement operation in Biddeford on Monday. Maine Senator Angus King shared that the man, Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, was not the target of the operation.
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The Department of Homeland Security confirmed that the victim who was shot during the vehicle stop in Maine was not the target of the operation in a post on X. Officers stopped Durán’s vehicle while searching for their target, who left the scene in a vehicle.
“The vehicle attempted to flee the scene and, fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon,” the post reads.
Senator Angus King asked that Secretary Mullin launch an investigation into ICE tactics on Monday.
“I called on DHS Secretary Mullin to launch a full, fair, and transparent investigation—and I’m going to hold him to his word there will be one,” King said on X.
Following the shooting in Maine, hundreds gathered in Biddeford to protest.
The shooting came less than one week after an ICE agent shot a Mexican national during a traffic stop in Houston, Texas. ICE agents stopped 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo last week while he was driving to work because they saw “a white van with an individual who resembled the target” of an operation. ICE says its officer shot at Araujo in self defense when Araujo allegedly rammed an ICE vehicle. However, Araujo was not the man ICE was looking for.
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