ICE suspends most vehicle stops after fatal shootings in Maine and Texas: Report

The United States Immigration and Customs Enforecement (ICE) has been direct by President Donald Trump's administration to halt most traffic stops, after one ICE agent fatally shot a man at Biddeford, Maine, on Monday (13 July), CNN reported citing officials familiar with the development. The incident follows yet another incident wherein an ICE agent fatally shot a Mexican immigrant during a traffic stop in Houston.

What prompted the ICE policy reversal

The directive, issued to officers within Enforcement and Removal Operations, ICE's branch responsible for locating, arresting and deporting undocumented immigrants, halts the initiation of vehicle stops until further notice. Officers have been instructed to rely on alternative methods for routine immigration enforcement and to work alongside partner law enforcement agencies whenever a criminal warrant requires stopping a vehicle.

CNN report stated the pause is intended to be temporary, allowing Enforcement and Removal Operations officers to undergo further training on vehicle-stop procedures. In the meantime, officers may still take part in stops involving partner agencies pursuing criminal suspects who are subject to judicial warrants.

Vehicle stops have become one of the Trump administration's most relied-upon enforcement tools, allowing agents to identify, trail and detain individuals away from their homes or places of work.

The Biddeford shooting that triggered the review

The immediate catalyst was Monday's shooting in Biddeford, Maine, where an Enforcement and Removal Operations officer fatally shot a man during what the Department of Homeland Security described as an attempt to detain someone connected to an immigration case.

According to the department, agents encountered the man while "conducting targeted surveillance on the last known address of an illegal alien with a final order of removal." The department said that as the man "attempted to flee the scene" in his vehicle, an officer opened fire, "fearing for public safety."

The man was later identified by a neighbour and by the Maine Immigrants' Rights Coalition as 26-year-old Joan Sebastian Guerrero, a Colombian national. The coalition said Guerrero was authorised to work in the US and held a Social Security number, though federal officials have not confirmed those details. Federal officials have said the man was in the country illegally.

Bystanders described the immediate aftermath in harrowing terms. Mary Hayes, who lives near the intersection where the shooting occurred, told the Associated Press she watched the man's wife react to the scene. "I watched a wife fall to her knees looking at her husband's dead body on the ground," Hayes said, later adding: "I watched a little girl crying with a little pink backpack on because she's never going to see her father again."

The Colombian embassy said in a statement that it "regrets the death of a Colombian national in Biddeford, Maine and is providing the necessary consular assistance to his family," adding that it had “requested information and clarification from the Department of Homeland Security regarding the circumstances surrounding this lamentable death and will continue to follow the case closely as the investigation progresses.”

An echo of last week's Houston shooting

Monday's killing closely mirrors an incident six days earlier in Houston, Texas, where an ICE officer fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national, during a separate vehicle stop. The Department of Homeland Security initially said officers had targeted Salgado Araujo because he was living in the country illegally, alleging he ignored "multiple verbal commands" and attempted to ram an officer, who then fired in what the department described as self-defence.

Salgado Araujo's family have said he had no criminal record and was close to obtaining a work permit after living in the US for more than three decades without legal status. His brother, Victor, has said it took twenty to thirty minutes for an ambulance to arrive at the scene, according to his attorney.

According to Maine lawmakers, Monday's shooting is at least the eleventh fatal shooting involving an ICE or Border Patrol officer since President Trump returned to office last year.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, alongside Maine State Police and the state attorney general's office, is continuing to investigate the Biddeford shooting.