The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency should continue vehicle stops after recent fatal shootings, including the one in Maine, President Donald Trump said on Wednesday, seeming to oppose a new suspension of the practice used as part of his immigration crackdown.
Senior leaders at ICE were caught by surprise when Trump posted on Truth Social that he wanted to bring back “traffic stops” as a tool to arrest immigrants, saying that ICE is “doing a GREAT job, one that has to be done.”
The Republican president said that to remove criminals he claims were let into the country under the previous Democratic administration “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 said, “Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal’s hands.”
Just yesterday, a day after an ICE officer shot and killed a Colombian driver Monday in Biddeford, Maine, and a week after one shot and killed a motorist in Houston, Texas, the agency had temporarily paused nonemergency vehicle stops as it reviewed the incidents and assessed whether agents were being properly trained.
In Florida on Tuesday, a third man in roughly a week died during an encounter with immigration officers. This time, a 28-year-old man was killed after he was hit by a tractor trailer while running from immigration and other federal officers, authorities said.
A senior DHS official with knowledge of the vehicle stop pause said ICE leadership was first made aware of Trump’s position on the policy by the Truth Social post. There had been no discussions at DHS, ICE or with the White House prior to Trump’s post, the senior DHS official said.
Now, in a recent post on X replying to Trump’s post, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin says “Illegal aliens will be arrested and deported wherever they are.”
This all has renewed criticism of the agency’s enforcement tactics that were widely condemned last winter after the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota.
There have been at least 10 deaths involving encounters with immigration agents since Trump launched his deportation campaign. At least four of those deaths involved people in vehicles, including the one last week in Houston, a trend so troubling that U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Tuesday that she had urged Mullin “to cease all non-urgent vehicle stops.”
John Sandweg, who was acting director at ICE, which is part of DHS, during President Barack Obama’s Democratic administration, estimated recently that there have been roughly 18 traffic stop shootings during the Trump immigration crackdown.
It’s a narrative that has been repeated again and again since the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown began, with federal officers confronting drivers and then saying they opened fire when the drivers’ vehicles became a danger. That’s despite decades of warnings from policing experts that shooting into moving cars presents a danger of its own and should almost always be avoided.
The office of Maine Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, was told by DHS that ICE was suspending traffic stops, office spokesperson Matthew Felling said.
ICE, which has been under pressure to beef up arrest and deportation numbers, often says people it’s trying to arrest are increasingly resistant to leaving their homes. ICE officers blame immigration advocates who advise immigrants to stay in their homes unless ICE produces a warrant signed by an independent judge instead of the administrative warrants the agency generally uses that are signed by another ICE officer. So, ICE officers say, they’re forced to find other areas in which to make arrests.
Deadly ICE shooting in Biddeford, Maine
Hundreds of people in Maine protested Tuesday over the fatal shooting of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian national. Advocacy groups said Guerrero, who had a wife and a young daughter, was authorized to work in the United States.
DHS said Monday that an officer, “fearing for public safety,” shot and killed Durán Guerrero while officers were watching the home of someone they believed was in the U.S. illegally and facing a final order of removal from the country. It said in a post on X that when ICE tried to stop a car driven by someone who came from the home, the person attempted to flee in the vehicle and the officer fired.
That was a shift from how Maine U.S. Sen. Angus King earlier described the encounter, when he said Mullin told him the officer opened fire after the man tried to use his vehicle as a weapon against ICE agents in Biddeford, a coastal city roughly 15 miles southwest of Portland. The agents involved didn’t have body cameras, he said.
King, an independent, said Mullin also told him the officers were in Biddeford to serve an arrest warrant but that it was not for the person who was shot. King said Mullin told him that earlier information that the man was the target of an enforcement action was incorrect.
DHS did not immediately respond to an email seeking clarity on what led to the shooting.
In a scathing post on X, outgoing Colombian President Gustavo Petro called the shooting a targeted killing “at the hands of the U.S. government.”
Petro, who has openly quarreled with Trump, urged Trump to provide an explanation and accused ICE officers of treating Durán Guerrero as “an inferior being without rights.”
The Colombian Embassy said it was in contact with U.S. authorities about the Colombian national’s death and “is providing the necessary consular assistance to his family.”
In Wednesday’s social media post, Trump told ICE to be “judicious, fair and smart, and go back and do your very important job.”
Maine’s congressional delegation on Tuesday demanded a “comprehensive, transparent, and expedited investigation.”
Collins said Mullin told her the Homeland Security Department’s Office of Inspector General is investigating in cooperation with the FBI.
Messages seeking comment were left for the inspector general’s office and the Maine Department of Public Safety.
The Maine attorney general’s office, which is also investigating, said initial statements suggest the motorist was trying to flee in the direction of the agent. The office said the agent who killed him has been placed on leave.
Janet Mills says it’s time to fundamentally reform ICE — or abolish it
In the wake of the shooting, Maine Gov. Janet Mills sent a letter to the state’s congressional delegation Wednesday morning calling on them to immediately take action to reform and rein in ICE.
“Before more families are robbed of a loved one, this violence has to end. Before one more community is robbed of its peace and security, this has to end,” Mills wrote in her letter. “Before more gunshots shatter another windshield, steal another person’s life and fracture the freedom of all who seek peace, this has to end. Before the fragile American dream memorialized on hopeful parchment two and a half centuries ago is altogether abandoned, this has to end.”
“ICE needs to be fundamentally reformed, and if not, then it is time to abolish it,” she added.
Witness says he heard driver say, ‘I tried to stop’
Daniel Boucher said he looked out his third-floor window after hearing a “pop, pop, pop” sound and saw a small car “turned 90 degrees to the curb” with an SUV behind it. The driver was wounded and the car started moving down the street until the SUV hit it, Boucher said.
“His face was bloody. His head was bloody,” Boucher said, getting choked up. “I clearly heard the victim say, ‘I tried to stop.’”
Boucher said he saw an ICE officer bring a medical bag to where the man was lying before an ambulance and fire truck arrived. At one point, Boucher said, the agent who shot the man walked close to him.
“I was emotional and I just let him have it, and he looked at me and said, ‘He tried to run me over,’ or something to that effect,” Boucher said. “I don’t remember his exact words.”
Video from a security camera at a nearby business, obtained by the AP, shows a white vehicle approaching an intersection at a modest speed before making several slow circles. A law enforcement SUV blocked its path and two officers opened the driver’s door and dragged out a limp body.
It was not clear from the video at what point shots were fired.
The man was authorized to work in the U.S., advocates say
Two advocacy groups — the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and Presente! — said the man who was killed was authorized to work in the U.S.
After the shooting, his family contacted the Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, but they weren’t ready to speak publicly about the shooting, said the group’s executive director, Mufalo Chitam.
Mary Hayes, who lives close to where the shooting happened, said the man lived nearby with his wife and daughter.
“I watched a wife fall to her knees looking at her husband’s dead body on the ground,” Hayes told the AP as she held a piece of cardboard with “No ICE Stop ICE” written on it. “I watched a little girl crying with a little pink backpack on because she’s never going to see her father again.”
Sadie Dilboy said the man killed in the shooting regularly came to her laundromat and would bring his daughter, who he’d give quarters to buy candy from the vending machine.
“He was such a good person,” she said. “He was always cleaning up.”
Anti-ICE protesters gather near the scene in Biddeford
Several hundred demonstrators gathered in Biddeford on Monday night to wave anti-ICE signs and call for the agency to be abolished.
“We will always be a city of immigrants,” said Maine Speaker of the House Ryan Fecteau, a Democrat from Biddeford.
A handful of pro-ICE and pro-Trump protesters demonstrated across the street.
Some demonstrators had gathered in the city within hours of the shooting. Amy Goodman arrived with a sign that said “Stop Killing Us” and directed it toward police working at the scene.
“Sadly, it’s something we’re seeing a whole lot more often lately, and I’m mad about it,” she said.
Hundreds of protesters also gathered Tuesday outside an ICE detention center in Scarborough, just up the coast between Biddeford and Portland.
“These people are killers and they must leave our state now,” organizer Todd Chretien told the crowd.
Protest in Boston after Maine shooting
Dozens gathered Tuesday night on the steps of the Boston Public Library, similarly rallying against ICE following the deadly shooting in Maine.
“We are here to say that we absolutely will not stand for this, and that all of Boston and all of Massachusetts stands against ICE terror.”
The protesters condemned ICE’s actions and called for change.
Earlier in the day, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said she was “sick to her stomach” about the shooting, and called for an investigation.
“I spoke to Governor Mills yesterday and last evening,” Healey said. “This has got to end.”
Healey’s comments on Tuesday echoed those she made after ICE agents shot and killed Good and Pretti in Minnesota earlier this year.
“I’ve said this for a long time, ICE and Trump — they need to call ICE back,” the governor said Tuesday. “What is happening is so, it’s so predictable. You’ve got people out there not trained, not wearing body cameras. They’re going after individuals, we’ve seen time and time again, they shouldn’t be going after.”
She reiterated that as the state’s former attorney general, she used to work with federal agencies including ICE, but drew a distinction between “put[ting] away bad guys” and “what is happening right now.”
“How is it that you have an individual shot dead in that manner, in front of his wife, his child, and all ICE can say is, ‘Sorry, we got the wrong guy.’ That’s not good law enforcement, folks. It’s shameful, and it needs to stop,” she said.
A recent uptick in Trump’s immigration crackdown
On July 7, an ICE officer fatally shot 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, of Houston, after federal agents driving unmarked vehicles pursued him while he was taking his construction crew to a job site.
The shootings come amid a Trump administration push to carry out its mass deportations agenda. During the five-day period at the end of June, ICE arrested more than 10,000 people.
The figures indicate that while the administration is no longer cracking down on individual cities, the arrests are surging. The administration’s enforcement efforts were widely condemned last winter after the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota.
Hundreds of Maine ICE arrests since Trump’s return
ICE had a significant presence in Maine earlier this year, which prompted several protests. Immigration officials later said in late January that they had ceased “enhanced operations” in Maine after hundreds of arrests.
A Homeland Security spokesperson said at the time that some Maine arrests were of people “convicted of horrific crimes” including aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child.
Court records show that while some had felony convictions, others had unresolved immigration proceedings or had been arrested but never convicted of a crime.
ICE arrested 546 people in Maine between the start of Trump’s second term and March 11, 2026, the most recent data available, according to ICE arrest data provided to the University of California, Berkeley Deportation Data Project and analyzed by the AP.
About 45% of arrested people had criminal backgrounds. During the equivalent 416-day period before Trump took office, roughly 69% of those arrested had criminal backgrounds, the data shows.
Trump administration orders ICE to suspend most vehicle stops after deadly shootings
On Tuesday, people familiar with the decision said Trump administration officials told ICE to suspend most vehicle stops after two deadly shootings within a week.
The policy change came after the ICE shootings in Maine and Houston.
The suspension of vehicle stops allows room for exceptions when executing a criminal warrant or working with partner agencies, according to a person who spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive law enforcement operations. Matthew Felling, a spokesperson for Maine Sen. Angus King, said the senator’s office was also told by the Department of Homeland Security that ICE was suspending stops.
Questions surround the shooting in Maine
Durán Guerrero’s shooting marked at least the ninth time ICE has used deadly force since Trump began his immigration crackdown.
Photos showed bullet holes in Durán Guerrero’s car windshield, but the officers involved in the shooting didn’t have body cameras, leaving many questions. Among them are how close the officer was to the vehicle when they fired, whether officers told Durán Guerrero to stop, and why ICE believes he had put the public in danger.
“We are always evaluating our procedures to keep our officers safe and criminals off our streets. We will not disclose or discuss law enforcement tactics,” an ICE spokesperson said in a statement.
In a scathing post on X, outgoing Colombian President Gustavo Petro called the shooting a targeted killing “at the hands of the U.S. government.”
Petro, who has openly quarreled with Trump, urged Trump to provide an explanation and accused ICE officers of treating Durán Guerrero as “an inferior being without rights.”
Maine’s congressional delegation on Tuesday demanded a “comprehensive, transparent and expedited investigation.”
Border Czar Tom Homan told reporters Tuesday that the investigation needs to play out.
“If officers acted inappropriately or illegally, they’ll be held accountable,” he said.
Maine’s attorney general’s office, which noted that it’s working with federal agencies to investigate, said initial statements suggest the driver was trying to flee in the direction of the officer, whose name hasn’t been released and who was placed on leave.
The state’s other senator, Republican Susan Collins, said Mullin told her that DHS’ Office of Inspector General is investigating in cooperation with the FBI.
Democrats seeking to unseat Collins in November sought Tuesday to connect her with ICE’s methods, which have drawn public scrutiny and derision. Collins later said in a statement that although ICE needs to improve, eliminating the agency would make the nation less safe.
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who is vying for Collins’ seat, called the ICE officers at the shooting “thugs” during a vigil Tuesday evening in Lewiston.
“That agency is broken and we need to go back to a time where the rule of law united all of us regardless of the politics,” she told the crowd.
Video shows the Maine shooting’s aftermath
According to neighbors and public records, Guerrero lived in an apartment about 150 feet (46 meters) from where his car came to a rest outside an apartment building across the street from a pawnshop and laundromat.
Video from a nearby business’ security camera obtained by the AP shows a white car slowly approaching an intersection before making several circles. A law enforcement SUV blocks its path and two officers open the driver’s door and drag out a limp body.
It isn’t clear from the video when the shots were fired.
Daniel Boucher said he heard a “pop, pop, pop” and ran to the intersection.
“His face was bloody. His head was bloody,” Boucher said. “I clearly heard the victim say, ‘I tried to stop.’”
Boucher said the officer who shot Durán Guerrero walked close to him.
“He looked at me and said, ‘He tried to run me over,’ or something to that effect,” Boucher said. “I don’t remember his exact words.”
Durán Guerrero is survived by his wife and young daughter
Neighbors say Durán Guerrero was a friendly and familiar face even though they rarely chatted because he didn’t appear to speak English.
Claudia Morton, who often waved to Durán Guerrero, was distraught.
“The whole world should be crying,” she said.
Dozens of Durán Guerrero’s relatives and neighbors gathered in Bucaramanga, his hometown in northeastern Colombia, to remember him on Tuesday. They stood outside his parents’ home, holding candles around a table where a photograph of him rested beside a statue of the Virgin Mary.
NBC10 Boston and the State House News Service contributed to this report
More on the deadly ICE shooting in Maine
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