US President Donald Trump has urged immigration enforcement agents not to abandon the practice of traffic stops, a day after his administration announced a temporary pause following two fatal shootings. In a social media post on Wednesday, Trump praised Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers for doing a “GREAT job” and argued that traffic stops remain one of the agency’s most effective tools as it carries out his mass deportation campaign.
“We must be strong, tough, and smart, and we CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.'s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!” Trump wrote. He also urged officers to be “judicious, fair and smart” as they “go back and do your very important job”. The comments came a day after border czar Tom Homan said ICE was temporarily suspending most traffic stops while it reviewed the practice after two deadly shootings within a week.
Homan told Fox News that the pause was “not a policy change” but a short-term review to ensure agent safety. However, critics have raised concerns about the use of force and lack of transparency. The review was prompted by the fatal shooting of 25-year-old Colombian national Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine, and the killing of 52-year-old Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Texas. In both cases, ICE claimed the victims used their vehicles as weapons, but witnesses and family members have disputed that account.
The Department of Homeland Security has acknowledged that neither man was the intended target of deportation operations. Federal authorities have not publicly released evidence supporting claims that either man posed a threat. The back-to-back shootings have fueled protests in Maine, Houston, and Boston, raising questions about ICE's use of force and reliance on traffic stops. According to AP, at least 10 people have been killed during federal immigration enforcement operations since Trump launched his deportation campaign in January 2025, with at least four involving vehicles.
Former acting ICE director John Sandweg told AP there have been roughly 18 traffic-stop shootings during Trump's immigration crackdown. The trend has prompted Senator Susan Collins to urge Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to suspend “all nonurgent vehicle stops”. ICE has increasingly relied on vehicle stops as more immigrants avoid arrest by refusing to leave their homes, blaming immigration advocates for advising immigrants not to open doors without a judicial warrant.
Source: www.aljazeera.com