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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been instructed to immediately suspend most vehicle stops during enforcement operations nationwide, except in cases involving serious criminal targets, following fatal shootings in Texas and Maine over the last week, multiple law enforcement sources told CBS News.
The directive applies to ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, the division responsible for civil immigration arrests and removals, but not Homeland Security Investigations, which primarily handles criminal investigations, according to sources. It is a temporary pause while Enforcement and Removal Operations officers receive additional training on vehicle-stop tactics, the sources said.
In the interim, ERO officers can still participate in operations involving vehicle stops when working with partner law enforcement agencies targeting criminal suspects who are the subject of judicial warrants, sources said.
The policy shift could have significant operational impacts. Vehicle stops have been a common tactic in ICE enforcement operations under the Trump administration, allowing officers to identify, follow and arrest targeted individuals away from homes or workplaces.
In the most recent incident, Joan Sebastian Guerrero, 26, a Colombian national who was in the country illegally, had “attempted to flee the scene” Monday when ICE tried to stop him at around 7 a.m. ET in Biddeford, Maine, according to the Department of Homeland Security. “Fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon,” DHS said in a statement.
While Guerrero was not the target of an operation, ICE agents attempted to pull over the man’s car while “conducting targeted surveillance on the last known address of an illegal alien with a final order of removal,” DHS said.
Guerrero’s father, Omar Duran, told CBS News partner Noticias Caracol, his son leaves behind a wife and 3-year-old daughter, adding, he “left the country to build a future for his family.”
“I only ask God … that this be resolved in the best way, and that there be justice,” Duran said, translated from Spanish.
Guerrero had previously been given an order to leave the country, independent Maine Sen. Angus King said Monday.
Speaking to CBS News on Tuesday, King called for an independent investigation.
“I want a full, fair, open, transparent investigation of this, not strictly run by the feds,” said King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats. “Unfortunately, the feds don’t have the credibility today. The people of Maine are not going to accept an investigation that’s run by ICE or at the FBI.”
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Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins said she had urged DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to halt the stops.
“While the investigation of the Biddeford shooting is not yet complete, it raises sufficient critical questions that I spoke with DHS Secretary Mullin last night and urged him to cease all non-urgent vehicle stops,” Collins said in a statement.
Just six days earlier, a similar situation unfolded in Houston.
Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was fatally shot by ICE officers who had pulled over his vehicle while looking for a different person, DHS confirmed last week.
“After receiving a credible tip from our law enforcement partners, our officers conducted surveillance on a target’s address. Weeks prior to the incident, they noted two white vans at the property,” DHS said. “On July 7, officers were almost at the target’s address when they observed a white van with an individual who resembled the target. Officers then initiated the vehicle stop.”
DHS initially said ICE officers were targeting Salgado Araujo because he was living in the country illegally. The department alleged he was shot after he ignored “multiple verbal commands” and attempted to ram an officer who fired his weapon in self-defense.
Salgado Araujo had no criminal record and was close to obtaining a work permit after living in the U.S. for more than three decades without legal status, his family has said.
In his remarks to CBS News, King criticized the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics.
“It’s a tragedy for our country that we’re going through this process that’s based on a phony premise,” he said. “The whole premise of this has been [arresting] ‘the worst of the worst.’ How frequently have we heard that term? ‘We’re going after the worst of the worst. We’re going to take criminals off our streets.’ Well, in Maine last winter, they arrested over 200 people. Nineteen of them had criminal records. That means 90% of the people arrested had no criminal records.”
