Trump overrules own DHS, orders ICE to keep using traffic stops after two fatal shootings in a week

The reversal

President Donald Trump overruled his own Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday, ordering Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to continue using vehicle stops just one day after the agency suspended the practice. The directive came in a Truth Social post in which Trump called traffic stops "one of I.C.E.'s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools" and warned that abandoning them would be "playing right into the criminal's hands." The president also urged officers to be "judicious, fair and smart" as they returned to the tactic.

We CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.'s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP! Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal's hands.

The reversal followed what White House officials described to The Atlantic as a furious backlash from Trump's MAGA base, including cable-news segments and criticism from figures such as Tomi Lahren, former Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino, and Steve Bannon. One official told The Atlantic that Trump concluded abandoning traffic stops would "make them all look weak."

The DHS pause

The suspension was ordered late Monday by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, according to an internal memo obtained by Fox News and confirmed to Axios by a White House official. The memo stated: "Effective immediately, all ERO-initiated enforcement vehicle stops are suspended until further notice." The pause was expected to remain in place while ICE provided additional training on vehicle stop tactics. White House border czar Tom Homan characterized the decision on Tuesday as a "necessary short-term pause" and told Fox News it was not a policy change but a review to "make sure ICE agents are safe and doing the right thing."

It's not a policy change. It's a temporary pause. This is going to be a short-term review to make sure ICE agents are safe and doing the right thing.

The two fatal shootings

The review was prompted by two deadly incidents in less than a week. On Monday, an ICE officer shot and killed Joan Sebastian Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian delivery driver, during an enforcement operation in Biddeford, Maine. The officer, described by The Atlantic as a new recruit who had joined ICE earlier this year after working as a police officer at the Department of Veterans Affairs, shot Guerrero in the head. Six days earlier, an ICE agent in Houston fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican construction contractor who had lived in the United States for 35 years. Neither man had a criminal record, according to The Atlantic, and DHS acknowledged neither was the intended target of the deportation operations.

Senior officials at ICE have told us that officers aren't getting enough training in how to conduct vehicle stops and safely de-escalate confrontations when drivers don't obey commands.

DHS initially told Senator Angus King's office that the Maine officer fired after Guerrero tried to use his vehicle as a weapon, but later said publicly only that Guerrero tried to flee and the officer, "fearing for public safety," opened fire. The officers involved were not wearing body cameras, and the FBI and Maine authorities are investigating. In Florida on Tuesday, a third man died during an encounter with immigration officers after being hit by a tractor trailer while running from federal officers, France 24 reported.

The numbers

At least 22 people have been shot at by ICE agents since Trump returned to office, according to the New York Times, cited by Axios. Six people, including three U.S. citizens, have been killed, with nearly all the shootings involving officers firing at people in vehicles. The two most recent deaths brought the total to 10 or 11 people shot dead since the administration began its large-scale round-up of suspected undocumented migrants, The Independent reported.

Political pressure

The DHS pause came after Secretary Mullin spoke with Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a Republican running for reelection. Collins said DHS had agreed to halt nonurgent stops and urged the department to expedite body-worn cameras for ICE officers. The reversal, however, followed intense pressure from immigration hard-liners and right-wing media. A DHS official, asked by Axios whether the agency had reversed the directive, did not answer directly, but the DHS X account posted a screenshot of Trump's Truth Social message and urged people to self-deport, adding: "If you don't, we will find you, arrest you, and deport you."