President Trump has officially reversed a directive issued by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that aimed to temporarily scale back traffic stops. The reversal, confirmed by a White House official, comes shortly after agency leadership ordered a pause in the practice following two separate incidents where federal officers shot and killed motorists within a six-day window.
In a social media statement, Trump emphasized his stance on the matter, declaring that the administration cannot abandon what he described as one of the agency's most effective crime-fighting tools. The initial pause had been implemented by the heads of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE following the fatal shootings of two individuals who were not the targets of active immigration enforcement operations. On July 7, an ICE officer killed a Mexican national in Houston, Texas, and on July 13, an agent shot and killed a Colombian man in a residential area of Biddeford, Maine. Neither the DHS nor ICE provided a response to requests for comment regarding the policy reversal.
The shootings have sparked significant public protests and intensified scrutiny regarding the tactics employed during the administration’s deportation efforts. Reports indicate that none of the agents involved in the two recent fatal encounters were wearing body cameras. White House border czar Tom Homan had previously characterized the pause as a short-term review intended to ensure agent safety and proper conduct, though he maintained it was not a fundamental policy change.
Traffic stops have become a central enforcement mechanism during Trump’s second term, a period that has also seen an increase in incidents involving agents opening fire on drivers. Since the start of last year, immigration agents have shot more than 20 people, the majority of whom were inside vehicles. Policing experts have criticized these tactics as overly aggressive and inconsistent with standard law enforcement practices, suggesting a potential lack of specialized training for ICE agents regarding traffic stops.
Republican Senator Susan Collins had publicly urged Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to suspend non-urgent traffic stops following the Biddeford shooting, noting that the incident raised critical questions. While Homan defended the agency’s training curriculum, asserting that agents receive extensive instruction on vehicle stops and face a record number of vehicle-ramming attacks, he expressed confidence that ICE would continue to achieve record arrest and removal numbers despite the recent controversy.
The move reversed a memo issued on July 14 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which ordered agents to scale back traffic stops and instead prioritize other tactics in the field, according to a White House official not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
