Trump says ICE won't halt traffic stops after recent fatal shootings

WASHINGTON, July 15 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said federal immigration agents won’t end vehicle stops, one day after officials announced a temporary pause in such stops after agents fatally shot two men in Texas and Maine.

“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 in a social media post. 

On Tuesday, Trump administration officials said the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency had ordered its officers to suspend most vehicle stops around the country after two men were shot and killed by ICE agents during such stops six days apart. 

An ICE agent on Monday killed a driver from Colombia in the coastal Maine town of Biddeford, about 15 miles (24 km) south of Portland. An ICE officer in Houston on July 7 fatally shot a Mexican national while trying to stop his vehicle.   

“It’s not a policy change, it’s a temporary pause,” Trump’s border czar Tom Homan told Fox News Channel in an interview on Tuesday referring to the vehicle stop suspension. 

“This is going to be a short-term review to make sure ICE agents are safe and doing the right thing,” Homan told the television network, adding that officers will use other options to make arrests.

The back-to-back shootings sparked protests in Maine, Houston and Boston and raised questions over ICE agents’ lack of body cameras.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, has characterized both men as “illegal aliens” but acknowledged neither was the intended target of deportation operations that led to their deaths.

Federal authorities have offered no evidence to support contentions that either man posed a threat to ICE agents or the public at large justifying the use of lethal force to stop them.

At least seven people have been shot dead during federal immigration enforcement operations since January 2025, when Trump launched mass deportations after returning to office following campaign promises of an immigration crackdown.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )

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