President Donald Trump has voiced support for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to continue conducting traffic stops, despite recent shootings that have resulted in fatalities. This stance appears to contradict a new policy aimed at halting such stops. On Wednesday, Trump expressed that ICE is doing a ‘GREAT job, one that has to be done’ through a post on his social media site.
Trump emphasized the necessity of being ‘strong, tough, and smart’ to remove criminals he claims entered the country during the previous Democratic administration. He insisted that abandoning traffic stops as part of ICE’s crime-fighting strategy would be tantamount to conceding victory to criminals. ‘Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal’s hands,’ stated Trump.
The new policy was prompted by incidents involving ICE officers shooting and killing motorists, including a Colombian driver in Maine on Monday and another individual in Houston a week prior. These events have reignited criticism of the agency’s enforcement methods, which garnered widespread condemnation following the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota last winter.
In Biddeford, Maine, the scene of Monday’s shooting, a Kia sedan driven by the victim had four bullet holes in its windshield. Photographer Gregory Rec captured the aftermath, reported by Portland Press Herald via Getty Images.
In another incident on Tuesday in Florida, a 28-year-old man died after being struck by a tractor-trailer while fleeing from immigration and federal officers.
Such narratives have repeatedly surfaced since the onset of the Trump administration’s intensified immigration enforcement. Federal officers often confront drivers and claim they were forced to open fire, citing threats posed by the moving vehicles. However, policing experts have long warned that shooting into moving cars creates additional risks and should be avoided.
Since the mass deportation campaign began under Trump, at least 10 people have lost their lives during immigration operations, with four deaths associated with vehicle encounters. This troubling pattern caught the attention of U.S. Senator Susan Collins, who on Tuesday urged Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to ‘cease all non-urgent vehicle stops.’
John Sandweg, who served as acting director at ICE during the Obama administration, recently estimated that there have been about 18 traffic-stop shootings amid the Trump administration’s immigration efforts.
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