President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for Immigration and Customs Enforcement traffic stops to resume after Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin ordered a pause on the enforcement tactic.
On Tuesday, Mullin ordered a pause to traffic stops conducted by ICE agents after two fatal shootings at traffic stops in Texas and Maine. The order caused some members of the MAGA movement to fear the Trump administration was de-emphasizing deportations, as traffic stops lead to illegal immigrant arrests.
ICE officers fatally shot a 25-year-old Colombian man, Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, Monday while trying to stop his vehicle in Biddeford, Maine. Last Tuesday, an ICE officer fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, during a vehicle stop in Houston, Texas.
However, on Wednesday morning, the president said that traffic stops must resume, saying, “We CANNOT give up one of ICE’s most important and effective tools.”
