President Donald Trump pushed Immigration and Customs Enforcement to keep using traffic stops early Wednesday, July 15, after administration officials told officers to suspend most vehicle stops following two deadly shootings in a week, according to people familiar with the decision.
The suspension included exceptions for criminal warrants and operations with partner agencies, according to a person familiar with sensitive law enforcement operations. Matthew Felling, a spokesperson for Sen. Angus King of Maine, said the senator’s office was also told by the Department of Homeland Security that ICE was suspending stops.
Trump appeared to challenge that move in a post on his social media platform. He wrote that ICE was “doing a GREAT job, one that has to be done.”
The president said officers should not give up what he called “one of ICE’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFICE STOP!” He added: “Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal’s hands.”
The policy change followed the fatal shooting Monday of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian national, during an immigration enforcement operation in Biddeford, Maine. It came less than a week after a federal immigration officer fatally shot a Houston man after an altercation with agents while he was driving to work.
In Florida on Tuesday, authorities said a 28-year-old man fleeing immigration and other federal officers was struck and killed by a tractor trailer.
Hundreds of protesters gathered Tuesday outside an ICE facility in Scarborough, Maine, after Durán Guerrero’s death. Maine’s congressional delegation demanded a “comprehensive, transparent, and expedited investigation.”
ICE said it would not discuss law enforcement tactics. “We are always evaluating our procedures to keep our officers safe and criminals off our streets,” a spokesperson said.
Border czar Tom Homan said the investigation should proceed. “If officers acted inappropriately or illegally, they’ll be held accountable,” he said.
