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US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has ordered its agents to immediately suspend most vehicle stops nationwide after officers shot and killed two men in six days during stops in Texas and Maine.

Getting into it: First reported by CBS News, the pause applies to ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, the division that handles civil immigration arrests and deportations, while officers receive additional training on vehicle-stop tactics. It doesn’t cover Homeland Security Investigations, the 287(g) program that deputizes local law enforcement, or operations targeting serious criminal suspects with judicial warrants.

Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins personally urged DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to halt non-urgent stops, and it could have real operational impact since vehicle stops have been a go-to ICE tactic for arresting people away from homes and workplaces.

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During an interview on Fox News, Trump’s border czar Tom Homan was asked about this. He said, “It’s not a policy change. It’s a temporary pause,” adding that ICE leadership and DHS “want to look at these last couple of incidents. And look, is there something that could have been done better?”

This comes after ICE officers in Houston shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo on July 7, a 52-year-old Mexican national who was in the US illegally and driving his construction crew to work. Salgado Araujo had no criminal record, had lived in the US for 35 years, and was close to obtaining a work permit, but officers pulled him over because he resembled the target of an operation, which he was not. DHS says he ignored commands and tried to ram an officer, who fired in self-defense, an account his family and passengers in the van dispute.

FOTOS

Six days later in Biddeford, Maine, an ICE agent shot and killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian national, after officers tried to stop his car while surveilling someone else’s address. DHS says he attempted to flee and an officer fired “fearing for public safety,” though the department didn’t specify what threat he posed. He wasn’t the target either, and neither shooting was captured on body cameras, which agents still weren’t wearing months after DHS promised to equip every officer with one.

Lawmakers and advocates are demanding independent investigations, with Maine Sen. Angus King saying “the feds don’t have the credibility today” and that Mainers won’t accept a probe run by ICE or the FBI. King also ripped the broader enforcement campaign, noting that of more than 200 people arrested in Maine last winter, 90% had no criminal record despite the administration’s “worst of the worst” framing.

The backlash has gone international too, with outgoing Colombian President Gustavo Petro calling Durán Guerrero’s death a targeted killing and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum saying her government intends to pursue criminal complaints in US courts over Mexican citizens killed in immigration operations.

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