WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency should continue vehicle stops after , President Donald Trump said on Wednesday, seeming to oppose a new suspension of the practice used as part of .
ICE is 鈥渄oing a GREAT job, one that has to be done,鈥� Trump wrote on his social media site.
The Republican president said that to remove criminals he claims were let into the country under the previous Democratic administration 鈥渨e must be strong, tough, and smart, and we CANNOT give up one of ICE鈥檚 most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!鈥� Trump said, 鈥淥nce we do, we are playing right into the criminal鈥檚 hands.鈥�
Trump administration officials have told officers to suspend most vehicle stops after within a week, people familiar with the decision said Tuesday.
The suspension was ordered after an ICE officer shot and killed a Colombian driver Monday in Maine and a week after another officer shot and , renewing criticism of that were widely condemned last winter after of Alex Pretti and in Minnesota.
In Florida on Tuesday, a third man in roughly a week died during an encounter with immigration officers. This time, after he was hit by a tractor trailer while running from immigration and other federal officers, authorities said.
It鈥檚 a narrative that has been repeated again and again since the Trump administration鈥檚 immigration crackdown began, with federal officers confronting drivers and then saying they opened fire when the drivers’ vehicles became a danger. That鈥檚 despite from policing experts that shooting into moving cars presents a danger of its own and should almost always be avoided.
There have been involving encounters with immigration agents since Trump launched his deportation campaign. At least four of those deaths involved people in vehicles, including the one last week in Houston, a trend so troubling that U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Tuesday that she had urged Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin 鈥渢o cease all non-urgent vehicle stops.鈥�
John Sandweg, who was acting director at ICE, which is part of DHS, during President Barack Obama’s Democratic administration, estimated recently that there have been roughly 18 traffic stop shootings during the Trump immigration crackdown.
The office of Maine Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, was told by DHS that ICE was suspending traffic stops, office spokesperson Matthew Felling said.
ICE, which has been under pressure to beef up arrest and deportation numbers, often says people it’s trying to arrest are increasingly resistant to leaving their homes. ICE officers blame immigration advocates who advise immigrants to stay in their homes unless ICE produces a warrant signed by an independent judge instead of the administrative warrants the agency generally uses that are signed by another ICE officer. So, ICE officers say, they鈥檙e forced to find other areas in which to make arrests.
Shooting angers Maine
Hundreds of people in Maine protested Tuesday over of Johan Sebasti谩n Dur谩n Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian national. Advocacy groups said Guerrero, who had a wife and a young daughter, was authorized to work in the United States.
DHS said Monday that an officer, 鈥渇earing for public safety,鈥� Dur谩n Guerrero while officers were watching the home of someone they believed was in the U.S. illegally and facing a final order of removal from the country. It said in a post on X that when ICE tried to stop a car driven by someone who came from the home, the in the vehicle and the officer fired.
That was a shift from how King earlier described the encounter, when he said Mullin told him the officer opened fire after the man tried to use his vehicle as a weapon. King said Mullin told him the officers were trying to serve an arrest warrant but not for the man who was shot.
In a scathing post on X, outgoing Colombian President Gustavo Petro called the shooting a targeted killing 鈥渁t the hands of the U.S. government.鈥�
Petro, who has openly quarreled with Trump, urged Trump to provide an explanation and accused ICE officers of treating Dur谩n Guerrero as 鈥渁n inferior being without rights.鈥�
In Wednesday’s social media post, Trump told ICE to be 鈥渏udicious, fair and smart, and go back and do your very important job.鈥�
Maine鈥檚 congressional delegation on Tuesday demanded a 鈥渃omprehensive, transparent, and expedited investigation.鈥�
Questions surround the shooting
Photos showed bullet holes in Dur谩n Guerrero鈥檚 car windshield, but the officers involved in the shooting , leaving many questions. Among them are how close the officer was to the vehicle when shooting, whether officers told Dur谩n Guerrero to stop and why ICE believes he had put the public in danger.
Border czar Tom Homan told reporters Tuesday that the investigation needs to play out and that officers will be held accountable if they are found to have acted inappropriately or illegally.
Maine鈥檚 attorney general鈥檚 office, which said it is working with federal agencies to investigate, said initial statements suggest the driver was trying to flee in the direction of the officer, whose name hasn鈥檛 been released and who was placed on leave.
Collins said Mullin told her the DHS inspector general is investigating in cooperation with the FBI.
Democrats seeking to unseat Collins in November have sought to , which have drawn public scrutiny and derision. Collins later said in a statement that although ICE needs to improve, eliminating the agency would make the nation less safe.
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat who is vying for Collins鈥� seat, called the ICE officers at the shooting 鈥渢hugs鈥� during a vigil Tuesday in Lewiston.
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Whittle contributed from Biddeford, Maine; Brook from New Orleans; and Sisak from New York.
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