U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been directed to largely suspend vehicle stops until further notice, a source familiar with the guidance told CNN after two fatal ICE-involved shootings during vehicle stops over the past week.
The guidance applies to agents within Enforcement and Removal Operations, the ICE division responsible for arresting and deporting undocumented immigrants. Agents have been directed to pause initiating vehicle stops, the source said, though they may work with partner agencies to conduct a stop when executing a criminal warrant involving someone in a vehicle.
The move marks a notable shift for the agency, which has increasingly relied on vehicle stops as part of its expanded immigration enforcement operations.
One of the recent incidents occurred in Houston, where an immigrant in the country illegally was fatally shot during an ICE operation after authorities said he tried to ram an officer’s vehicle.
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Rep. Sylvia Garcia said acting ICE Director David Venturella told her Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and his brother were not the intended targets of the operation. Garcia has called for an independent investigation, saying the lack of body camera footage and unanswered questions have left Salgado Araujo’s family searching for answers. DHS has maintained the shooting was justified.
The second shooting happened on Monday in Biddeford, Maine, where 26-year-old Colombian national Joan Sebastian Guerrero was fatally shot by an ICE agent.
According to DHS, ICE agents were conducting surveillance on the home of an undocumented immigrant with a final order of removal when Guerrero drove away from the residence. The agency said officers attempted a vehicle stop before Guerrero allegedly tried to flee and “weaponized” his vehicle, prompting an agent to open fire.
Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said he was told by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin that Guerrero was not the target of the immigration operation. The Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition also said Guerrero was authorized to work in the United States and had been issued a Social Security number.
“What I said to the secretary was, we want a full, transparent and open investigation of this matter,” King said.
DHS said the officers involved in both fatal shootings were not wearing body cameras because they had not yet been issued body-worn cameras, which the agency blamed on “back-to-back Democrat shutdowns.”