President Donald Trump has indicated that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) should persist with traffic stops following recent fatal shootings, seemingly opposing a new policy intended to halt such actions. Early Wednesday, Trump expressed via social media that ICE is performing “a GREAT job, one that has to be done.”
The president emphasized the need for strength, toughness, and intelligence to remove offenders he asserts entered the country during the previous Democratic administration. He stressed, “we must be strong, tough and smart and we CANNOT give up one of ICE’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!” Trump warned, “Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal’s hands.”
Notably, this policy change was enacted after an ICE officer shot and killed a Colombian driver on Monday in Maine, and a week following another fatal shooting involving a motorist in Houston. These incidents have renewed widespread condemnation of the agency’s enforcement tactics, which previously faced intense criticism last winter in response to the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota.
A Kia sedan reportedly driven by the victim of Monday’s fatal shooting in Biddeford, Maine, can be observed with four bullet holes in the windshield, as captured by Gregory Rec / Portland Press Herald via Getty Images.
In Florida on Tuesday, another fatal encounter occurred, marking the third in roughly a week. Authorities reported a 28-year-old man died after being struck by a tractor trailer while fleeing from immigration and other federal officers.
This narrative has continually emerged since the Trump administration launched its immigration crackdown, where federal officers have confronted drivers and claimed lethal force was used when vehicles posed a threat. Despite longstanding advisories from policing experts that shooting into moving vehicles is hazardous and should generally be avoided, at least 10 individuals have died in immigration operations since the mass deportation initiative began.
A minimum of four of these deaths involved individuals in vehicles, including a recent tragedy in Houston. U.S. Senator Susan Collins stated Tuesday that she urged DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin “to cease all non-urgent vehicle stops.”
John Sandweg, who served as acting director at ICE during the Obama administration, estimated that approximately 18 traffic-stop shootings have transpired amid the Trump immigration measures.