President Donald Trump has reversed an internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement directive suspending most vehicle stops nationwide, ordering agents to continue using one of the most controversial tools of his mass-deportation campaign despite three Latino men dying during federal immigration operations in roughly one week.
The reversal came less than 24 hours after ICE leadership instructed Enforcement and Removal Operations officers to immediately halt agency-initiated traffic stops until further notice. The internal memo, circulated to field office directors, ordered personnel to prioritize other enforcement methods and permitted vehicle stops only in limited circumstances, such as when officers were executing a criminal warrant in coordination with another agency.
The White House later characterized the directive as an internal memo that was quickly overturned rather than a formal policy change.
Trump made his position public Wednesday on Truth Social.
"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!" he wrote. "Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal's hands."
Trump instructed officers to be "judicious, fair and smart" before telling them to return to their work.
Susan Collins assured the people of Maine yesterday that she persuaded Markwayne Mullin to stop ICE traffic stops. Trump overruled her. pic.twitter.com/21gGhcoLcj
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) July 15, 2026
The intervention exposed confusion inside the administration over how to respond to mounting criticism of ICE tactics. Border czar Tom Homan had confirmed the suspension Tuesday, describing it as a "temporary pause" intended to allow a short-term review of officer safety and enforcement practices.
"This is going to be a short-term review to make sure ICE agents are safe and doing the right thing," Homan told Fox News, adding that officers could use other methods to make arrests.
Three deaths in about a week
The pause followed two fatal shootings by ICE officers during vehicle stops, one in Houston and another in Biddeford, Maine. Neither man killed was the intended target of the immigration operation that led to the encounter, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
On July 7, an ICE officer fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican national, in Houston's predominantly Latino East End. DHS said Salgado rammed a law enforcement vehicle and tried to strike an officer with his van, prompting the officer to fire in self-defense.
The agency has not publicly released evidence substantiating that account. Three men who were traveling in Salgado's van have disputed the government's version through an attorney representing two of them.
Six days later, an ICE officer killed Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian man, in Biddeford, Maine. Agents had been watching the home of another person who had a final removal order and followed Durán Guerrero's car after it left the property.
DHS said the officer fired while "fearing for public safety" after the driver tried to flee. The agency acknowledged that Durán Guerrero was not the target of the operation.
The officers involved were not wearing body cameras, leaving critical questions about the encounter unanswered. Photographs showed bullet holes in the car's windshield, while a witness told Reuters that Durán Guerrero said, "But I tried to stop," before apparently losing consciousness.
On Tuesday, a third Latino man died during an immigration operation in Florida. Authorities said a 28-year-old Mexican national ran from federal agents at a gas station in St. Augustine and was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer while crossing a highway.
That death did not involve an ICE shooting, but it intensified scrutiny of the fear and danger surrounding increasingly aggressive enforcement operations.
